An Unregistered Comms Beacon can be found in the Silurion system, orbiting body 2 a.
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 November 3303 is available – THE SILURION 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 the Silurionsystem, orbiting body 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.
