An Unregistered Comms Beacon can be found in the Eafots RA-G b11-0 system, orbiting body 3.
The transmission times of this beacon are on the hour, every hour.
The transmitted message is the following:
DYJEPQY UWLUDCQCKJ XUEOKJ
DJPQY P6 UNL003
NEHHY LKCJQ 3
SKNICDCJUNCSQ
UESKQP NEA X11 0
IKDUPQEJDXY
(repeated two times)
Applying a Keyed Caesar cipher with the key of EXODUS yields the message:
DYNASTY EXPEDITION BEACON
DNSTY S6 ERP003
RALLY POINT 3
FORMIDINERIFT
EAFOTS RAG B11 0
MODESTANDBY
An abandoned settlement can be found within the same system on body 3, at 46.2784, 35.8390 (in Live/4.0) or at -17.8739, -76.0522 (in Legacy/3.8).
There are Engineer Materials scattered around the ground.
Around the settlement there are six Settlement Comms Log Uplink points, scanning them gives background to the reason for its abandonment:
Logs
FORMIDINE RIFT GAMMA MISSION 1/6
Expedition Log: 30/08/3270“Looks like I drew a short straw somewhere along the line. These long range missions pay well, but it’s a year out in the void. A year! We’re out far beyond the Frontier. The boys call this place the ‘Formidine Rift’. Apparently that means ‘terror’ in some old Earth language. Nice. Just looks like more space to me.”
FORMIDINE RIFT GAMMA MISSION 2/6
Expedition Log: 12/09/3270“Finally arrived in place after five months of hyperspace travel. Now we have two months of laying a bunch of beacons before another five months travel back home. At least I’ll have enough credits to retire by then.”
FORMIDINE RIFT GAMMA MISSION 3/6
Expedition Log: 18/09/3270“Supposedly there are a bunch of other ships out here doing the same job as us, but no comms allowed. All a bit strange. It’s vast and lonely out here, pretty much the whole galaxy is behind us. It’s getting to some of the crew.”
FORMIDINE RIFT GAMMA MISSION 4/6
Expedition Log: 01/10/3270“We picked up some kind of bizarre signal yesterday. Whatever it was it wasn’t human. At least, that’s the scuttlebutt going around the decks. Everyone is looking out of the canopies now. We’re seeing some strange lights during hyperspace transits. Terror? Yeah, we got some of that…”
FORMIDINE RIFT GAMMA MISSION 5/6
Expedition Log: 11/11/3270“More strange lights. We’ve got equipment malfunctions, scanners dropping in and out, systems resetting. Ship is limping on. Everyone wants to turn about, but if we don’t complete the mission we don’t get paid. No one wants to give up those credits either. You expect to turn around and see…”
FORMIDINE RIFT GAMMA MISSION 6/6
Expedition Log: 29/11/3270“We’re done and we’re heading home. We picked up some heat signatures in the last system. Definitely something there and it wasn’t any profile I had seen before. Something was watching us. There’s something evil out here, and it doesn’t like company!”
