Cath

The Cradle

“Those which weren’t covered in black bars.” Osman purred. “The Cradle is less predictable now than when you left. We will need to keep our wits about us, and look out for each other. Like you two did for me, back when this all began. Thank you for not leaving me to die, by the way. I won’t forget that.”

”Why did you attach her to these two? They have history.” 595 asked her counterpart.

”I didn’t - she volunteered. Why...are you expecting problems?”

”Maybe. I don’t want them making more friends. Run a background check on the Major; i’ll keep an eye on them in the sim.”

”Before you go in, the DG wants to talk to you about next steps. We need to be prepared to move fast. Do you know where the other assets are?”

”You don’t need to know anything about that.”

”If you’re withholding information, there’ll be very serious questions to answer”

595 didn’t reply.

The truck bounced one more time, before rumbling to a halt. The doors opened, and they exited out into a vehicle park outside a low building that hugged three bottom edges of the cube. Freyr’s neck twinged looking up to the top, and her eyes flickered across the lifts that scaled the faces with people inside. The Vault itself was a shiny chrome colour, with darker shades indicating access plates. “The rest of the team is already inside. Shall we join them?” The Facilitator asked. Freyr nodded.

The Cradle

“Relax, champ! Let the good doctor do her work, eh? The asset is snug like a bug in a rug, as they say.” The Facilitator smacked Vreta’s knee heartily from across the aisle. 595 chuckled. “There's nothing to fear, we’ve made sure of it.” He continued. Freyr stared at the two of them. Were they a couple?...Perish the thought.

Osman inclined her head in a polite gesture. “Thanks. I needed therapy, but I'm in fighting shape now. Someone has to keep the lights on, don’t they?” She gave off a haunted grin. “My sub-unit will protect you while you’re inside the Cradle, and get you out again if things go sideways. Just a warning though - New Antioch is a ghost town right now, so bring whoever you’ll need to pull levers with you. Any questions?”

The Cradle

Like so many things on Outremer, the trucks waiting to take them to the Vault were not designed for Rothians. This was especially true for the Datius, who ended up sitting awkwardly on the floor of the eight-wheeled transport.

The vehicle was meant for twenty four Humans, but only five other people joined Rareth in the back: Vreta, Freyr, the CraSec officer who coyly reintroduced herself as Major Osman from the Cradle bomb investigation, 595 and the bald Vault Facilitator.

As soon as they sat down in the lead truck, it powered away from the Mono terminal and through the bustling command complex. The inside shook violently on the uneven ground, with Osman nearly flying into Rareth with a worried expression flashing across her face. She managed to grab hold of a hoop at the last moment and stashed her weapon so she could grab one more.

Freyr was pleased to see Osman again. She was a sort-of-friendly face in an otherwise uncertain sea of people. “Four, six hours, maybe? This might be our last chance to collect data, so we can’t rush it.” Freyr reiterated. “We will get an indication of the Object’s condition once it begins interacting with our dummy array. It’ll be perfectly safe, while we try to piece together what will happen next.”

”Don’t make any sudden moves in here, Agent.” The Facilitator remained completely motionless while talking to 595, who sat next to him. ”Naval Intelligence, the Skinners, the Rothians, Earther scum - they’re all trying to crawl up your ass to learn our next move. You can keep a secret, can’t you? Just like you’re keeping secrets from us about your latest interface with the Navigator.” 595 turned her head to look at the man, who returned her stare.

”Nice try. My report was comprehensive.” She replied.

The Cradle

“It’s not a true connection, so the working hypothesis is that Object will try to troubleshoot the array’s missing piece. We can then create a bottleneck through which it will test our defences. Makes it easier for our engineers to keep it stationary, so to speak. Should keep power usage to a minimum too.” Freyr explained. Some of her team nodded along with her encouragingly.

“This operation has a green light from the President, so we don’t need to be ‘ok with that risk’. We’re here with a job to do. Get the asset to stabilise the Cradle, then convince it to stay and work with us.” The bald man reminded the group, arms crossed. “Now, if we’re all done with this tea party, the trucks are ready to get you into position.”

The Cradle

595 looked up at the massive lizard, towering over all the apes on the platform. “Great! I’ll sleep better at night now. How many of you are there?” Meanwhile, she quickly crossed over to the smirking bald man and shook his hand. “Facilitator?” She asked, reading the title he’d beamed to her from his eyes. “Hello, Agent.” The man responded.

“What are you doing here? This is my site!” 595 snapped at her counterpart via implant.

”We thought you could use a little help. Your most recent reports have been troubling.” The man replied, a smug smile on his chops.

”You know I work alone.”

”It seems that right now, you’re working with the whole of Outremer, and Rothia, Agent.”

595 let go of his hand.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you. Thanks for getting them here safely - I hear you had some trouble. Don’t worry, you’re in safe hands now.” The man smiled, surreptitiously wiping his own hand on the thigh of his uniform.

“Thank you, Datius.” Freyr replied to Rareth as well. “We’ll use whatever help we can get.” She arrived at the pair of researchers, who exchanged a friendly greeting with everyone before handing out data-pads.

The Vault’s infrastructure operated on a closed circuit, with even the CRD HQ in Babel having significant delays and checks applied to any information flowing out of it. Now that they had access to the network, Freyr could feel the urgency of their situation even more keenly.

The Object had ramped up its efforts to break through from the staging box into the Cradle’s enclosure. Technicians were keeping it locked down for now, but the fact that it had made inroads at all was worrying. The Vault was supposed to be impregnable, from the inside and out.

Still looking down at her pad, Freyr started dishing out orders. “We need to give it something to use that energy on. Is Marae at the Vault? Send her the dummy receiver we created from the codex. That should buy us some time.”

The Cradle

“Well, when you put it like that, maybe we deserve everything we get. Whatever that might be!” Apalkov chuckled heartily. He carried on chatting about what this reunion of the Cradle and the object they’d found might mean. Freyr just chewed one of her nails nervously, staring into space. Ordinarily, she would have argued the Cradle’s corner out of instinct. Now, she didn’t know what to believe - all she wanted right now was to extract her family from this situation in one piece, and then run a trillion miles.

Their sphere glided over the first couple of concentric circles, before swooping down alongside a platform in the open Mono terminal. Rows of similar orbs waited to leave on multiple different tracks outside the main terminal building. Blue sparks flew in an adjacent yard as spidery droids repaired vessels and other equipment.

Freyr leaned forward to get a better look at the people waiting for them. Rareth stood out like a sore thumb, next to the mess of Humans. She was pleased to see two of her senior researchers next to the Datius, armed with data-pads for them to get caught up from. Freyr vaguely recognised one of the CraSec people, though she couldn’t recall where from. Apart from that, there was one well-built, bald man in a black uniform and about a dozen CraSec soldiers and suited spooks, all armed to the teeth.

"Here we are! Make sure you've got everything, and follow me." 595 ordered, eyeing up one person on the platform in particular as the doors opened.

The Cradle

Their sphere powered along the rails towards a massive set of blast doors which molded around the rails at a narrow spot. Automated cannons tracked their approach. It looked like they were going to crash, but at the last possible moment the blast doors shot open and they swooshed through. Some nervous laughter washed over the front of the carriage.

“I don’t think so. None that made it into the public record, anyway.” Freyr shook her head, carrying on the conversation. “There have always been rumours though…” Dr Apalkov leaned across her to talk to Vreta, his breath smelling vaguely of boiled cabbage. Freyr leaned back and away from him. “Like why the first colonists chose Outremer, when we’d been allotted a much closer, more viable planet in the first place. They must have noticed something.”

Six months ago, Freyr would’ve scoffed at this kind of conspiracy theory, but now she wasn’t so sure. “Yes, but that could’ve been the biosphere.” She reasoned. Apalkov shook his head strenuously, leaning back. “Not visible over that distance - not three hundred years ago.”

They passed through another set of blast doors, and then arrived at a security checkpoint outside an even more imposing metal door with an older design. Guards on the platforms either side of the rails questioned 595 while floating droids scanned each person in the sphere. They lingered on Vreta for almost a minute, beeping and honking to each other before eventually giving everyone the green light. It sounded like the guards wanted to take Vreta’s weapon, but 595 eventually smoothed things over before returning to the sphere. Freyr suspected the Agent would secretly be delighted if Vreta made himself look threatening, even if it was by accident. She smirked.

The doors in front of them opened much slower than the rest, with loud mechanisms unlocking within before the viewing beyond became clear. They were heading into the Vault chamber, a brightly lit dome-shaped cave, about a mile high and a few miles in diameter. In the centre of the chamber sat a solid metal cube of Outreman design, a few hundred metres across. The sides were crisscrossed with gantries and viewing rooms, and on top was a baffling array of communications equipment.

Surrounding the cube and taking up most of the floor area was the mythical Vault command complex. Modern now, but with a few elements stretching back to the first few years of Outremer’s colonisation, a geometric town of research buildings and barracks rippled out from the Vault in concentric circles. Freyr spotted ant-like figures moving around below them as they glided into the cave, along with tanks and mounted gun emplacements. “Wow.” Freyr murmured. She’d been here once before, years ago, but the air of wonderment hadn’t worn off.

If Morticia Hates Pastels, am I Wednesday's Perfect Bad Boy?

Welcome to the Guild! I love your train of thought Hope you find what you're looking for.

Song Reference time

I'm not the only one
Who thinks that I'm in over my head
But you keep on stuttering
I guess it's best if you leave
That shit unsaid
Over and over
It's getting harder and harder to ignore

It's a brand new low
And I don't think
I've sunk this far before
Just a brand new low
And I don't think
We can save this anymore

The Cradle

Freyr stared out of the transparent side of the sphere as they plumbed the depths of the tower. Nearer to the spire’s base, the buildings became bigger and more communal, with more elaborate carvings. Freyr remembered reading that these structures were far older - the stratification of the tower had only emerged in the final thousand years this species was around.

Going significantly faster than normal, their sphere reached the bottom of the tower before slowly leveling out. They were no longer headed straight down, but rather through a large horizontal tunnel, with more alien structures all around them. Floor, walls and ceiling. The dual-rail system carefully tiptoed through the middle.

Freyr gazed longingly at the sheer metal bulwarks that closed off causeways to unused parts of the ancient city. For a fleeting moment, escaping into the dark seemed like quite an attractive prospect. She coughed delicately. “They created the proto-harnesses which form the basis of today’s tech. The first colonists found three of them in the Cradle’s chamber, hundreds of years ago. Where they went is a subject of eternal debate.”

“Mama used to tell me they were still alive, hiding in the dead parts of their city.” Dr Apalkov growled. “And that they’d come and take me in my sleep if I didn't eat the food she cooked.”