Aurora Over a Dead World

Chapter 32: The Other Side of a Truth

Back at her place, Eirwen prints out all the papers and copies every piece of data onto an observable disc so she can actually see and read everything, since Nexus told her the data would be wiped soon to prevent any information leaks.

Papers spread across the bed, discs holding recorded data of her father — she starts by flipping through the most basic files.

’Dad...’ She reads through document after document, seeing that Zenith was right. Most of them are criticism of how long each mission took, notes about it, even signs of punishment if it kept happening.

And the pattern repeats, over and over, each one running over by five to ten minutes — a dangerously high amount of time. Since this was data available to commanders, there’s also information on the one commander, Eirwen hates.

’Edric... Commander Edric... so that’s his name...’ She reads his records, which are filed alongside the rest. They lay out all the hardships he endured, and the countless high-risk situations that extra time created.

There are even punishments issued directly to him rather than to Eirwen’s father, since the commander was the one allowing it to happen.

’So many punishments...’ She swallows hard. The man she hated so much was being punished so her father could keep saving lives. The data makes it clear — her father was always the hero he claimed to be when she was a child.

But it also makes the other side clear. His irresponsible side. The very same one Eirwen inherited, the one that caused so many problems she ended up grouped with the five most problematic girls in the academy.

"This one is..." She spots a red-marked record. It shows their current status, obviously listing her father as deceased — but to her shock, it shows Edric himself is also dead.

"H-He died?!" She stares, stunned. She barely knew anything about him, didn’t even know his name since her father never said it. The records show he died five years ago, devoured by a monster on a mission.

"..." It immediately makes Eirwen feel sick. Even though she still feels that same old hatred for him, now that she knows his story and the brutal way he died, her hatred just feels... irrational. Even though she still feels it.

"Th-This has nothing to do with me..." Lying to herself, she moves on to another paper — the one that describes in greater detail how her father died, since the government always records cause of death for logistical purposes, security reasons, and data collection to improve equipment.

"...Same cause..." The document details something Eirwen already knew — her father, far from the rescue vehicles, was shot twice by Commander Edric. But there are extras she didn’t know about.

’The reason...’ She never asked herself why. Her father just wanted to save lives. But a government document doesn’t care about emotion and makes the reason very clear.

The justification for shooting Eirwen’s father instead of just abandoning him was entirely about saving civilians. Fear monsters are drawn to despair and fear, and there were already far too many monsters near the rescue vehicles.

A mandatory retreat and a decoy were required. To keep the monsters from following the rescue vehicles and killing everyone, it was necessary to use Eirwen’s father as that decoy.

Shooting him but leaving him alive, so his fear would become a lure for the monsters — a horrific death for a good man. It fills Eirwen with rage and makes her cry.

But it proved to be a necessity, because at that point the civilians themselves could already see and hear the monsters nearby, and their fear only drew more in. Their chances of escape were down to just 19%.

And it was a miracle they survived that situation at all, since no Kaira’s squad was sent — they were all busy with more important missions.

"Y-You coward..." She crumples the paper, biting her lips until they bleed. Her father — such a brutal death — even if there were reasons, it’s not something she can just forgive.

Even now that she has a reason, a motive, he was still killed by his commander.

"..." She breathes deep, trying to calm herself down, as the room starts growing very cold. She stops reading the papers. There are too many details — details she isn’t ready to process.

So she moves on to the recordings. At least with those, she doesn’t have to try to read and process what she’s taking in.

’First recording... this one’s really old...’ She steadies her breathing and picks up a recording from before she was even born.

"[Whoa, is this thing recording? Seriously, Edric? I’ve never seen a camera before, they’re like super expensive!!]"

"[Yes, Alexandre, it’s a camera. My wife bought it, but... she died, so I’m trying to get rid of it. We never used it and honestly, I can’t bring myself to, so I thought you might like it — you’ve got a wife too and you’re planning for a daughter someday. You can record your life to show her.]"

"[Hahaha man, thanks so much! This is amazing—]"

"[Hey, don’t press the red button—]" The recording cuts off, ending the moment the power button is pressed. It catches Eirwen off guard, because in the recording, the commander she hates so much sounded so... friendly.

So different from what she expected. Her father didn’t talk much about Edric, due to policies and internal rules, so the little she knew was whatever her tired, irritated father complained about.

"The camera... he... he gave it to my father?" She grabs a few more recordings. Most of the old ones show her father’s routine, and Edric appears in the majority of them, helping him out.

Then the recordings reach the battlefield. There are photos and mission logs, along with scenes of devastated landscapes, ruins, even monsters.

She reaches a relatively tenser recording — a mission three years before his death.

"[M-My bad, man... I didn’t think it’d cause problems.]" Her father is apologizing, having modified the camera to attach to his body so it records without him needing to hold it. It’s much smaller now, fitting into his gear so it’s barely noticeable.

"[Alexandre, you idiot!! You thought it wouldn’t be a problem?!! My best friend died because you took longer than the stipulated time again!! He was devoured right in front of me!!!]" Edric shoves Alexandre, who stands still.

"[...But how could I know that staying to save a few more civilians would cause that? How was I supposed to know monsters would just appear out of nowhere?]" When Alexandre says that, Edric’s face twists with pain, and then he walks away.

"...Zenith said monsters were often already in the area... Dad... Dad really didn’t know that, and..." Eirwen clenches her fists, realizing what Zenith meant about orders.

If Alexandre had followed orders, so many people in the commander’s division wouldn’t have had to spend so much time fighting monsters, reducing their chances of dying. And obviously, she can see that Edric can’t just say what’s happening, so he buries his pain in silence.

"..." What shakes Eirwen the most is that Edric clearly kept helping her father after that incident. She keeps watching the recordings, and notices that in most of them, Edric is arguing with her father.

It coincides with the period of her childhood when her father would only complain about how harsh, rigid, and completely apathetic Edric was toward all the lives he was saving.

"..." Now that she knows Edric’s side, all the fighting he had to do to give her father those extra minutes, she feels sick — because even if it’s not his intention, Alexandre, not knowing everything, ends up coming across as completely insensitive to his friend’s struggles.

Eirwen keeps watching, seeing how the fights escalate more and more, but Edric always kept helping her father save more lives — until she reaches the last mission recording Nexus gave her.

"...?" The footage starts from the ground, probably because the camera fell off Alexandre’s gear.

"[You idiot!! You can’t go!! We’ve been here 29 minutes already!!]" Edric shouts at Alexandre. From the camera’s position, there’s a wider view of the area, allowing her to see things neither of them could — as well as both of them from a more revealing angle.

"[I need to save more people!! Why are you being so heartless?! There are dozens of people in that wreckage! We can’t leave yet — the vehicles can hold more people, so I’m going to keep bringing them!!!]" Alexandre speaks with raw anger, running out of the vehicle.

"[YOU IDIOT!! GET BACK HERE!! You don’t—]" Edric, about to run after Alexandre, stops and looks to the side. In the distance — faint, but still perceptible — he sees bones like spikes pointing toward the sky.

From its elevated angle atop the wreckage, the camera captures an immense monster resembling a spiny lizard, clearly an enormous threat to the civilians in the vehicles.

"[!!!]" Edric stares at that thing, his sharp instincts from years of combat picking it up almost instantly, showing his experience. Edric looks at the car, then at Alexandre — already too far to be pulled back without wasting too much time.

"[Alert. Alert. 30 minutes have elapsed. Retreat is mandatory.]" A warning system in the vehicle sounds once and goes silent. Edric stares at the vehicle, torn.

"[...]" He draws a weapon from his holster and aims at the monster in the distance — but knowing it won’t help, his trembling hands begin to turn toward Alexandre’s direction, making a decision in a split second.

The camera still manages to capture a few tears as, with perfect aim, Edric fires two shots — one into Alexandre’s shoulder blade, the other into his ankle, to incapacitate him.

"[EVERYONE PULL BACK NOW!! A CLASSIFICATION 7 THREAT HAS APPEARED!]" He shouts to everyone as he climbs into the vehicle, which takes off immediately. The jolt nearly knocks him off, but he manages to close the door, the camera recording until the very last second.

"...D-Dad..." The camera’s angle still manages to capture the scene of her father dragging himself across the ground as monsters can be heard hunting in the area. The recording shows the monsters approaching, staring him down as he desperately tries to fight — and it also records him being violently dismembered.

The scene makes Eirwen let out a terribly sad, agonized scream as the room freezes to the point where the structural molecules of everything practically come to a complete standstill, the entire room turning into a cocoon of ice.

The tears running down her face turn to ice almost instantly, hitting the floor with the sound of clinking crystals as she weeps with a horrible desperation, having to bear this pain all alone.