It is admittedly annoying to not be able to tell Cecil what actually happened because you're supposed to be a Silent Protagonist... On the other hand, look at his vault: he locked himself behind a heavy door and talks to you through a speaker - for which there doesn't seem to be a button to talk back. (Notice how muffled he sounds before the window is opened.) So maybe the protagonist is NOT silent, it's just that the Mission Control made it impossible for them to answer? (And had it been people he knew, he'd just open the door?)
Look closely at Farley's Community Center imager message. From the moment she says "just in case" and till she says "I gotta go", her outfit looks visibly different, and the content of her speech directly contrasts what comes before and after. Of course - it used to be a message of "hello, look around my house and meet some people, I'll see you later", but she overwrote the middle part (not the start: fiddling with buttons probably took a few seconds) to reflect the grave situation they were in.
It might take a while to notice, but if you're paying attention to the swapping (and can find enough maps to give you clues), you'll see there is a direct correlation between where a swap machine is in this biodome and where you end up in the target biodome; the XYZ coordinates of the swapper will exactly match the XYZ coordinates of the destination. For instance, if your swapper is located exactly on the east-west centerline, 10 meters from the west wall, you will swap to a spot exactly on the east-west centerline of the target biodome, 10 meters from the west wall. If a player can pick up on this, it makes The Gauntlet a tad easier to navigate, as you can anticipate where you'll end up based on the relative positions of the various swap machines.
