The drift storm had torn holes across the relay nexus sector. Unstable rifts flickered in and out of existence, spitting out temporal waste and phantom signals.
One rift in particular held harvested ancient data cores—dense archives packed with variance protocols that could give the empire an edge before Purity's next offensive. Elara gave the order. A specialized team would go in.
Mira took command of the lead vessel, the *Vanguard's Reach*. The ancient elder and the matriarch accompanied her on the bridge. Aiden headed the tech extraction team.
Reyes handled gray-veil navigation through the warped space. Sira led security with a mixed squad of imperial troops and ancient warriors. Veyra monitored biological readings from the med bay.
