Listening Post in Merope
22 Dec 2017Robert Phillips
The logs from the Survey Vessel Victoria's Song suggested it would be worth checking out Aries Dark Region DB-X D1-63 A 7 A. I laid in a course and jumped my way there.While I didn't have planetary coordinates for my target, I did have the next best thing: I knew what to look for.
I performed a visual inspection of the planet's surface from just above the drop zone from SuperCruise. I started at Lat/Long 0,0, and moved at 0 degrees. I performed a full circumference of the planet but did not see anything obvious. I move over to Lat/Long 30, 0 and repeated the exercise. As I was thinking this would take a long time, I saw a blemish on the planet's surface at 25.94, 77.96.
I circled down and encountered another surface site very similar to the one I had seen previously. Unfortunately, just like the one I saw previously, this one was also impossible to enter due to blocked entryways.
This was frustrating. Were they all like this??
So, what did that leave me? I reviewed my list again:
Investigate HIP 17746 for info on 'Recon 6' and Pleiades Sector AB-W B2-4 (the location of the original crash site).Locate and investigate survey Vessel Victoria’s SongRe-visit HIP 19026 B 1 C and investigate coordinates -17,9575, -152.6994.- Locate and investigate Survey Vessel Pandora
- Investigate the Listening Post in Merope.
I had not seen or heard anything in reference to Survey Vessel Pandora, other than the fact that it exists somewhere. That wasn't enough to go on, so I moved on to the next item in my list - a Listening Post in Merope.
I jumped to Merope and scanned the system. Orbiting Merope 1 B was the Listening Post:
LISTENING POST SIGNAL DATA
…Transmission Detected Gamma Level Encryption VJS-080-A…
Signal Match Detected in Pleiades Sector AB-W B2-4 and HIP 19072 systems.
…Unable to process signal. Signal Match Detected 111.29 lys Language parameters exceeded…
…Signal Blocked at Source…
The takeaway from this was that there were 2 other Listening Posts. One was in Pleiades Sector AB-W B2-4, orbiting the 3rd body:
LISTENING POST SIGNAL DATA
…Transmission Detected Gamma Level Encryption VJS-080-B…
Signal Match Detected in Merope and HIP 19072 systems.
…Unable to process signal. Signal Match Detected 152.29 lys Language parameters exceeded…
…Signal Blocked at Source…
And the other was in HIP 19072, located in orbit around HIP 19072 4:
LISTENING POST SIGNAL DATA
… Transmission Detected Gamma Level Encryption VJS-080-C…
Signal Match Detected in Merope and Pleiades Sector AB-W B2-4 systems.
…Unable to process signal. Signal Match Detected 145.90 lys Language parameters exceeded…
…Signal Blocked at Source…
Combined, the 3 listening posts form a triangle, with the source of their signals being 111.29 lys from Merope, 152.29 lys from Pleiades Sector AB-W B2-4, and 145.90 lys from HIP 19072.
I drew a sphere around these 3 systems with the radius matching the specified distances. The point where these 3 spheres converged was an uninhabited system HIP 14909, exactly 111.29 Lys from Signal Part A (Merope).
I jumped there and scanned the system. Around HIP 14909 1 was an anomalous signal. I moved to investigate, and dropped out of SuperCruise to see this:
The unmistakable corrosive cloud around the wrecked Corvette indicated that it had been attacked by Thargoids. But at this point in time, no Thargoid incursions had been recorded in this system. Scanning the wreck revealed nothing of value. There was a Black Box floating nearby, but even that revealed nothing helpful.
I checked out the system map for HIP 14909 to see if there was any other clues to this attack. The system has several landable bodies, any of which could be harbouring a Thargoid site similar to the ones I encountered previously.
I laid in a course to perform a detailed surface scan of all landable bodies in the system, starting with the closest (HIP 14909 2 A).
I didn't have to scan for very long - at coords -26.4561, -27.4742 on HIP 14909 2 A I saw a discolouration on the surface:
I circled down to inspect my target at close range...