Commander Adrella//SJCS Artemis//3308-02-05 - <Spoilers> Saffron system unidentified beacon
05 Feb 2022Adrella
I decided to spend last night completing some missions for powers in the Kanitisa system. I was mainly looking for some reasons to get out and stretch my legs while earning some rewards I could put towards upgrading my suit and small arms. Unfortunately, after completing the majority of the missions on a variety of the planets in the Kanitisa system, my vessel had a malfunction. It took hours to repairs, and after those repairs were complete, I received a message from the supplier - mission terminated.
I was fuming. I'd spent hours picking up all that data, with very little to show for it. But, luckily, a distraction came through.
Captain Saskia Landau of ACT messaged, clearly a blanket message, to those who'd supplied info on the HIP 290 beacon. It turned out my deciphering was correct, and that a previously unknown (to me, anyway) senator, Ursula Torquatus, was now the key suspect for the covert messages. I was told of a second beacon, it's location gleaned from the encryption and metadata embedded in the first message.
I moved to the Saffron system, found the unknown beacon sitting 20km out of the Coriolis station Cresswell, and scanned it. A new message appeared.
"5GF5M1 2DF 1MW2GD4 1R13K Y45 Q1C2 D4 Q2MJ L2 3C2
M2SD V1J3D4M B3DQ LY S1L3MY D4 1C43T 33FF
H52FD34K3KR BQ1D 3S DQ1D M1KT15 B4L1K G21MMY
V1K VG1VN 45G 4L2R1 RG3T N1GM JG4L3F2T L2 DQ1D B1F
3LJ4FF3WM2 Y45 NK4B 3C2 1MB1YF W22K M4Y1M D4 Y45
1KT DQ2 4DQ2G M4GTF W5D 3 K2C2G TG21LD 45G B4GN
V45MT 2ZJ4F2 L2 J2GF4K1MMY T4 F4L2DQ3KR
Applying the new cipher, this becomes:
urFuM1 2DF 1MW2rDo 1r1iK you Q1v2 Do Q2Mp L2 iv2
M2fD V1piDoM wiDQ Ly f1LiMy Do 1voiT iiFF
qu2FDioKiKr wQ1D if DQ1D M1KT1u woL1K r21MMy
V1K Vr1Vk our oL2r1 griT k1rM proLiF2T L2 DQ1D w1F
iLpoFFiWM2 you kKow iv2 1Mw1yF W22K Moy1M Do you
1KT DQ2 oDQ2r MorTF WuD i K2v2r Tr21LD our work
VouMT 2xpoF2 L2 p2rFoK1MMy To FoL2DQiKg
Using some deduction, I ended up at:
ursula ets alberto arain you have to help me ive
lest capitol with my samily to avoid iiss
questioninr what is that landau woman really
can cracn our omera grid karl promised me that was
impossible you know ive always been loyal to you
and the other lords but i never dreamt our work
could expose me personally do something
There were still some pieces jumbled, so I used some educated guesswork to clean it up. The guesses are the capitals:
ursula Its alberto aGain you have to help me ive
leFt capitol with my Family to avoid iiss
questioninG what iF that landau woman really
can cracK our omeGa grid karl promised me that was
impossible you know ive always been loyal to you
and the other lords but i never dreamt our work
could expose me personally do something
My final attempt at piecing the message together is as follows:
Ursula, it's Alberto again. You have to help me.
I've left the Capitol with my family to avoid Imperial Internal Security Service questioning.
What if that Landau woman really can crack our Omega Grid?
Karl promised me that was impossible...
You know I've always been loyal to you and the other Lords, but I never dreamt our work could expose me personally.
Do something.
This raises a lot of questions. I've forwarded my findings on, we'll see what happens from there.