CEREMONY TRANSCRIPT – PLANET XLLX
LOCATION: Hall of Transcendent Service, Central Spire, XLLX Prime
EVENT: Awarding of the Medal of Valour
RECIPIENT: Pilot Cadet T’Sari Vox, Unit: The Flying Doctors
PRIME GENERAL PERONO (RETIRED, WITH HONOUR):
"Citizens of XLLX, honored guests, and all who carry the memory of the Battle of Null Flare in their hearts...
There are moments when even I - after sixty years of service, and too many battles to name - must pause. Moments that rewrite the boundary between courage and legend.
Today is one of those moments.
We gather not to remember loss, though we lost much.
We gather not to mourn, though many weep still.
We gather to honor. To remember that when the stars cried out, some rose.
Among those who rose was a pilot.
A single figure, born not of war, but of will.
Eighteen missions.
Over eleven hundred wounded delivered from death’s doorstep to healing hands.
Through crossfire. Through psychic shockwaves. Through the detonation of a Bomber Vessel - which, I must note, this pilot flew through, shields barely holding, frame buckling.
But the patients lived.
Because the pilot would not yield.
Because speed mattered.
Because hope mattered.
And today, that pilot stands before you.
Not 30.
Not 20.
But 13.
[Gasps ripple through the gathered audience.]
Yes.
Thirteen years of life.
More than a thousand lives saved.
In all my decades, I have never seen a spirit burn brighter.
So let it be known:
On behalf of the Sovereign People of XLLX,
On behalf of the Unified Medica Fleet,
And on behalf of every soul given a second breath by your hands
T’Sari Vox,
You are awarded the Medal of Valour.
[He affixes the silver-gold star to the young pilot’s uniform, over the heart.]
Wear it with pride.
You earned it.
Not with age.
But with action.
As the thunderous applause rises, the hall’s dome shifts from matte black to soft aurora - an old XLLXian tradition honoring unmatched courage.
Unseen by Vox is the golden shadow of an elderly woman proudly observing her grandson.
This medal marks the 111th Medal of Valour earned by The Flying Doctors, a unit whose name
now lives in the stars themselves.