An Unregistered Comms Beacon can be found in orbit of Lie Zhonpon 3. The transmission times of this beacon are not known. Reports indicate that a transmission occurred at 20:00:
19 21 18 22 5 25 9 14 7
(repeated four times)
Decodes by letter positions to:
SURVEYING
This message is the decryption key for an encoded Galnet article in the local Herald:
Lie Zhonpon Herald
25 Oct 3302***Compromised Carrier Signal***
Alpha Oscar Juliet Romeo Juliet Whiskey Bravo Lima
Juliet Alpha – Charlie Echo November Bravo India
Echo Echo Alpha – Quebec Golf Echo Charlie Hotel
Juliet Hotel Lima Tango – Tango Uniform Echo Charlie
Juliet Whiskey Golf Delta Echo – Uniform Tango Alpha
Alpha Golf Kilo Romeo Echo Whiskey Charlie Tango
Bravo Kilo Romeo Echo
The message consists of a series of words that can be interpreted as the NATO phonetic alphabet, yielding the message:
AOJRJWBLJA-CENBIEEA-QGECHJHLT-TUECJWGDE-UTAAGKREWCTBKRE
Applying a Keyed Caesar cipher with the key of SURVEYING taken from the beacon yielded the message:
SHALATUCAS-REFUGEES-KIERNANCO-OPERATIVE-POSSIBLETROUBLE
This leads to a “Civilian Broadcast Detected” signal source in orbit of Shalatucas 2. This appears to be a permanent refugee convoy identical to the temporary ones seen in other systems during periods of Outbreak.
It contains a large convoy of multiple types of haulage vessel carrying refugees away from a nearby viral outbreak.
Not of any known scientific interest.