An Unregistered Comms Beacon can be found in the Sanuma system, orbiting body 1 d.
The transmission times of this beacon are believed to be on the hour, every 4 hours, with transmissions reported at: 00:00 / 04:00 / 08:00 / 12:00 / 16:00 / 20:00.
The transmitted message is the following:
14 15 23 9 3 18 25
(repeated four times)
Decodes by letter positions to:
NOWICRY
This message is the decryption key for an encoded Galnet article in the local Herald:
(Note: this Herald is no longer available – March 3310 / However, an archived image from March 3303 is available – THE SANUMA HERALD)
THE SANUMA HERALD
25 Oct 3302
***Compromised Carrier Signal***
Uniform Hotel Alpha Whiskey Romeo Hotel – Victor
November Foxtrot Kilo Hotel Victor Victor November
Foxtrot Kilo Kilo – Uniform November Delta Sierra
Mike Foxtrot Hotel X-ray Kilo Golf Hotel Foxtrot Juliet –
Hotel India Kilo Quebec Victor Echo Quebec Whiskey
Uniform Victor Kilo Foxtrot 3
The message consists of a series of words that can be interpreted as the NATO phonetic alphabet, yielding the message:
UHAWRH-VNFKHVVNFKK-UNDSMFHXKGHFJ-HIKQVEQWUVKF3
Applying a Keyed Caesar cipher with the key of NOWICRY taken from the beacon yielded the message:
SANUMA-THREATTHREE-SHIPGRAVEYARD-ABELTCLUSTER3
This leads to a “Debris Field” signal source in the Sanuma system, in A Belt – Cluster 3. The signal source contains a large amount of ship wreckage and a small number of Engineer Materials.