An Unregistered Comms Beacon can be found in orbit of Silurion 2 a. Known to transmit the following at 00 minutes past the hour, with a transmission reported at 18:00:
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:
THE SILURION HERALD:
25 Oct 3302***Compromised Carrier Signal***
India November Quebec Hotel Foxtrot November Golf
Charlie – 4 Juliet – Whiskey Echo Bravo Sierra Golf
Charlie India Alpha Echo Bravo Quebec Echo Foxtrot –
Mike November Delta Mike Uniform Mike Foxtrot Echo
Bravo Uniform
The message consists of a series of words that can be interpreted as the NATO phonetic alphabet, yielding the message:
INQHFNGC-4J-WEBSGCIAEBQEF-MNDMUMFEBU
Applying a Keyed Caesar cipher with the key of DANGEROUS taken from the beacon yielded the message:
SILURION-4B-WEAPONSDEALER-HIGHTHREAT
This leads to a “Anomalous Signal Detected” signal source in orbit of Silurion 4 b. This appears to be a permanent convoy of a Type-9 Heavy, accompanied by Type-7s and Sidewinders identical to the weapons convoys seen in other systems during periods of War.
Not of any known scientific interest.
