The storm began an hour after they returned.
Not a natural one.
Toren stood on the bluff above the village, his fingers trailing over a newly constructed uplink spike—thin, curved, and bristling with antennae. It was barely holding together, cobbled from freighter scrap, power routed through the solar grid's auxiliary port.
The system had called it a localized atmospheric diffuser.It produced weather—or the appearance of it.
He watched as thick gray clouds began to swirl above the jungle, the first rumbles of thunder rolling through the canopy.
Task Update: Settlement visibility reduced.Thermal masking: 76% effective.Electromagnetic diffusion active.
Below, the villagers huddled under awnings, wondering if this was another seasonal shift. A few pointed. One kid laughed and tried to catch raindrops that hadn't yet fallen.
Mira stood beside him, arms folded tight, face pale with understanding.
"You did this?"
Toren nodded.
"Why?"
"Because someone's coming. Maybe not tomorrow. But soon."
She looked up at the churning sky, then back at him. Her voice was quiet. "Vale… you know something. This isn't just instinct or weird intuition anymore. This is—tactical."
He didn't respond.
She stepped in front of him. "What aren't you telling me?"
Toren hesitated.
Then said, "Everything we've seen—the map, the ruins, that emblem… I know what it is. I've known since the vault."
"What emblem?"
"The one I didn't show you."
"Vale."
He finally looked at her, and his voice was very still.
"We're in the Star Wars galaxy, Mira."
Silence.
No birds. No wind. Just the quiet between thunder and lightning.
She blinked. "You… what?"
"The Republic. The Trade Federation. Jedi. Sith. It's not stories. It's here. And we're ten years away from a war that'll tear it in half."
Mira stared at him. Not laughing. Not skeptical.
Just… absorbing.
"I don't know how I know," he said, "but I do. I remember it. I've seen it. And now it's real."
Lightning flashed above them.
Mira turned slowly to look at the village. Then at the jungle. Then at the darkening clouds.
"…Then we better build fast," she said.