An Unregistered Comms Beacon can be found in orbit of HIP 79884 4. The transmission times of this beacon are not known. Reports indicate that a transmission occurred with the following:
18 25 14 15 23 9 3
(repeated four times)
Decodes by letter positions to:
NOWICRY
This message is the decryption key for an encoded Galnet article in the local Herald:
HIP 79884 HERALD
25 Oct 3302***Compromised Carrier Signal***
November Delta Sierra 7 9 8 8 4 Echo Hotel Foxtrot
Mike Bravo Juliett Foxtrot Bravo Sierra Alpha Bravo
Foxtrot Delta Uniform Papa Quebec Bravo Echo Hotel
Victor Delta Bravo Alpha 1
The message consists of a series of words that can be interpreted as the NATO phonetic alphabet, yielding the message:
NDS79884EHFMBJFBSABFDUPQBEHVDBA1
Applying a Keyed Caesar cipher with the key of NOWICRY taken from the beacon yielded the message:
HIP79884CARGODROPNORISKLOCATION1
This leads to a “Anomalous Signal Detected” signal source in orbit of HIP 79884 1. This appears to be a permanent equivalent to the Distress Call (Threat 0) signal source sometimes seen in other systems.
Not of any known scientific interest.