An Unregistered Comms Beacon can be found in the Takurua, orbiting body 3.

The transmission times of this beacon are believed to be on the hour, every 4 hours, with transmissions reported at: 00:00 / 04:00 / 08:00 / 12:00 / 16:00 / 20:00.

The transmitted message is the following:

7 5 20 21 13 2 15 25 19
(repeated four times)

Decodes by letter positions to:

GETUMBOYS

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 April 3303 is available – THE TAKURUA HERALD)

THE TAKURUA HERALD
25 Oct 3302

***Compromised Carrier Signal***

Charlie Juliet Quebec Delta Victor Delta Juliet – Tango
Romeo Juliet Sierra Bravo Charlie 1 – Lima Juliet
Victor Oscar Sierra Alpha – Bravo India Kilo Juliet
Tango Bravo Lima Tango Victor Oscar India Golf Sierra
Bravo Victor India

The message consists of a series of words that can be interpreted as the NATO phonetic alphabet, yielding the message:

CJQDVDJ-TRJSBC1-LJVOSA-BIKJTBLTVOIGSBVI

Applying a Keyed Caesar cipher with the key of GETUMBOYS taken from the beacon yielded the message:

TAKURUA-PLANET1-DARING-ESCAPEDPRISONERS

This leads to an “Anomalous Signal Detected” signal source in Takurua system, in orbit of body 1. The signal source is extremely close to the planet, but is still in orbit and not on the surface.

Sometimes contains two ships carrying escaped prisoners, often empty.