An Unregistered Comms Beacon can be found in the Kitani system, at body A, B Belt – Cluster 1.
The transmission times of this beacon are believed to be on the hour, every 3 hours, with transmissions reported at: 00:00 / 03:00 / 06:00 / 09:00 / 12:00 / 15:00 / 18:00 / 21:00.
The transmitted message is the following:
4 1 14 7 5 18 15 21 19
(repeated four times)
Decodes by letter positions to:
DANGEROUS
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 KITANI HERALD)
THE KITANI HERALD
25 Oct 3302
***Compromised Carrier Signal***
Papa November Uniform Bravo Charlie November –
Lima Hotel Echo Quebec Foxtrot Bravo Uniform India –
Sierra Quebec Bravo Charlie Echo Uniform Juliet 1 –
Uniform Mike Foxtrot Echo Bravo Uniform 2
The message consists of a series of words that can be interpreted as the NATO phonetic alphabet, yielding the message:
PNUBCN-LHEQFBUI-SQBCEUJ1-UMFEBU2
Applying a Keyed Caesar cipher with the key of DANGEROUS taken from the beacon yielded the message:
KITANI-FUELRATS-PLANETB1-THREAT2
This leads to a “Checkpoint” signal source in the Kitani system, orbiting body B 1. The signal source contains the wreckage of a ship and some canisters of Hydrogen Fuel.
Upon entering the signal source, a few Fuel Rat NPCs will also drop out of super cruise, usually 2-3 Fuel Rats and 1 “Momma Rat” and investigate the wreckage – reporting that it is a total loss, before scooping up the canisters.
Some of the comments concerning the wreckage, include:
Control, this is Rescue One. It’s a complete disaster out here, debris all over the place. Whatever hit this transport made one hell of a mess.
Control, this is Rescue Team 33. Getting some strange readings from the debris. I think this thing blew up from the inside out.
Rescue One to Control, it’s not looking good, debris all over the system. Some of the escape pods are missing, lets just hope someone managed to survive this thing.
Dispatch, this is Rescue Team 96. It‘s a total loss I’m afraid… no survivors. 96 out.
