Chapter 28: Her Father's Echo

"The Rift takes what you love, but sometimes… it leaves a trace."

— Mira Veil, Private Log (Redacted Entry)

The transport bay was dark, lit only by the pulse of Riftstorm warnings across the ceiling display. Mira stood alone, her gloves off, fingertips resting on the cold steel crate holding her father's last known data logs.

She hadn't opened it.

Not in five years.

Not since he vanished into the Rift.

Not since they handed her the sealed box and told her he had never existed in official archives.

But after what they saw in Delta-V — after the anomaly with her name encoded into the recovery grid — the silence had become unbearable.

"Authorization: Veil, Mira. Level 6. Execute."

The crate hissed open.

Inside, layered neatly in foam: a single phase-dagger. A torn field manual. And a Riftcore shard — still glowing. It pulsed once when her fingers brushed it.

Her vision blurred.

And then—

A flash.

Her father's voice.

"Mira… if you're hearing this, it means I failed to contain it."

"They lied. It's not a war. It's a reset loop."

"Whatever you do — don't trust them. Not even the Council."

[Command Briefing Room – 0900 Hours]

Kairav, Aarav, Reyan, and Saira watched Mira enter, crisp and composed, no trace of what she'd just heard in her quarters.

She walked straight to the center. "We've received a distress call from Outpost Theta-14. Rift incursion classified as Class B, but the origin pulse… doesn't match anything on file."

She looked at Reyan. "I'm leading this op."

Reyan blinked. "Solo?"

"You'll back me up. But I go in first."

Aarav frowned. "Why?"

Mira met his gaze. "Because the Rift there is responding to me."

[Outpost Theta-14 – Perimeter, Later]

Wind howled.

Mira dropped into the duststorm alone, visor sealing tight. The outpost below was partially collapsed — fractured towers of stone and steel buried under molten glass. A single beacon still pulsed.

As she walked toward it, the ground shifted — not physically, but historically. Buildings flickered through versions — intact, destroyed, rebuilt, ruined again.

She stepped into the beacon's glow.

And the world snapped.

Time froze.

Mira stood in a mirrored room.

Not glass — memory.

Across from her: a man in an officer's uniform.

Her father.

But not.

His eyes glowed Rift-blue. His badge was scorched. But his voice…

"I warned them. They refused to listen."

"And now they're all shadows."

Mira tried to move. Her muscles locked.

"You followed me here, didn't you?"

"But not in this loop. This one, you stayed behind."

He stepped forward. "And they made you a weapon."

"You're not my father," Mira whispered.

The figure paused.

Smiled — softly.

"No… but part of me was. Once."

Then it fractured — the illusion shattering into screaming light.

[Realspace – Minutes Later]

Reyan and Saira found Mira unconscious beside the beacon, Riftcore shards humming around her.

She gasped awake, hand shooting to her chest.

Reyan caught her shoulders. "Hey—hey. You're here."

"I saw him," she said, trembling. "Not dead. Not alive. Split."

Kairav's voice buzzed in through the comms. "New readings just came through. We found something under the outpost. Coordinates match an ancient Rift tunnel… one previously marked classified."

Aarav's voice joined. "There's something buried down there."

Mira stood.

Shaken — but steady.

"Then dig it up."

[End of Chapter 28]