The Shattered Heavens

The Cradle

 The digital space within the Curator's facility was a harsh and unfriendly place, not designed for ease of use. In the half hour that she had spent solely focusing on the network itself, she had come to the conclusion that it was the worst network she had ever seen in regards to accessibility. Nothing was labeled, there were no network guides or explanations for what things did or how to change them - the network was akin to a tangled mess of cords that didn't belong together and were impossible to separate into single parts without a herculean amount of effort and time.

"I can't make sense of this - it's like whoever made this has no idea how computers work," Vita complained bitterly as she sifted through the incomprehensible binary data, her frustration growing with every passing minute.

"They probably didn't," Octavia replied with a sigh as she backed out of the network, allowing the physical world to bleed back into her perception steadily, "What are our other options here?"

"Well, sifting through it this way is gonna take way too long," Vita remarked in annoyance, "And we have no other way to get through that door."

"How about a full-dive?" Octavia asked curiously, "You think we can interface with it like other networks?"

"Could work," Vita mused before letting out a small sigh, "We won't have long though. Nothing to plug a portable network into and our power levels aren't doing too great right now as it is," she added shortly.

"Hopefully we won't need long," Octavia replied as she reached into one of the hidden compartments in her carapace, revealing a small space with a familiar metallic cylinder tucked away within.

She fished the portable network out of its housing and took a moment to eye it over, looking for anything that might have gotten damaged during her fall to the planet. Satisfied that it seemed to be in working order, she thumbed the button on the top and stood it up on top of the Curator computer. A small green light began to glow at the top of the device, and suddenly her retinal display was flooded with network updates that she had been missing since landing on the planet.

The RTTAN satellite had been destroyed by the Omni forces, leaving the Federation survivors scattered and cut off from one another. As the last reports from the network began to scroll across Octavia's retinal display, she couldn't ease the sense of dread in her heart as she read the last reports from the devastated military. The Longsword interceptors were scattered amongst Occulus's ring, some of which even attempted to land on the planetoids within for safety, but no definite landing vectors had been reported.

The SFS Valiant itself was destroyed, gutted from bow to stern by the plasma lance on the Omni Throne carrier. Hastily recorded reports indicated that anyone who survived the gutting had been captured by Seraph boarding parties shortly after - the last order from Admiral Felix was a general instruction to surrender. Once again her thoughts were brought back to her conversation with the Seraph within the depths of her own mind and she couldn't help but scoff lightly; it appeared that everyone would meet the same fate sooner or later.

Octavia had to force herself to tear her gaze away from the reports trailing across the surface of her eyes, bringing her attention to the room around her. While her heart went out to the survivors of the ill-fated operation, there was little she could do about it at the moment. Maybe there was some way to gather the survivors together again, but there was no way to do it from the Curator facility, and there'd be no way to do it at all if she couldn't figure out how to open the inner sanctum to figure out why Remiel wanted to be there in the first place.

Turning around, Octavia lowered herself into a sitting position with her legs crossed beneath her. She leaned her back against the flat surface of the Curator computer and gave a quiet sigh as she reached up and pulled her helmet off with a pressurized hiss, setting the armored component down on the stone floor beside her. Her muscles ached, her bones were sore, her head throbbed and all she wanted to do was close her eyes and fall asleep. Sitting down for what felt like the first time all day took what little was left of her energy and sapped it straight out of her, leaving her drained and tired.