The Fading Signal
| Fact |
Value |
| Display |
The Fading Signal |
A single scout, a beacon that should be dead, and a long quiet run to whatever is still transmitting from the edge of the chart.
Scenario
Narrative
A Voice in the Static
Deep-range sensors keep catching the same clipped distress loop, folded into the background hiss on a channel nobody has used in years. The bearing points coreward, out past the last charted buoy at (1, -1). Command wants eyes on it. Engage the jump drive on Navigation and follow the signal in.
The Trail Goes Cold
| Fact |
Value |
| At start |
secret |
| Done when |
reach 3, -2 |
| Then |
reveal The Long Quiet |
| Scope |
shared |
| Reward |
120 credits |
The buoy is dead - just a relay, still dutifully bouncing a loop it can no longer read. But the registry tag finally resolves against the archive: TSN Meridian, a survey ship logged overdue eleven years ago and quietly struck from the rolls. Her last position was two jumps on, at (3, -2). Someone is still transmitting from a ship that is not supposed to exist.
The Long Quiet
| Fact |
Value |
| At start |
secret |
| Done when |
scan 1 derelict |
| Scope |
shared |
| Reward |
300 credits |
There she is - a cold hulk adrift off the lane, no power, no life, running lights gone dark a decade ago. And a beacon that should have died with its batteries, still whispering the same eleven-year-old words into an empty sky. Bring the science array to bear and find out what the Meridian has been calling for all this time.
Goals
Answer the Signal
| Fact |
Value |
| At start |
active |
| Done when |
scan 1 derelict |
| Scope |
shared |
| Win |
true |
| Citation |
The Meridian's beacon finally has a listener. Whatever she was calling into the dark for eleven years, this scout answered it - and flew home with the story her crew never could. |
Follow the signal to the TSN Meridian at (3, -2) and scan the derelict to read what her beacon has been repeating into the static since before you had a commission.
Landmarks
TSN Meridian
| Fact |
Value |
| Kind |
derelict |
| At |
3, -2 |
A Terran survey ship eleven years adrift, running lights long cold and hull scarred by whatever ended her survey - and one stubborn beacon still whispering into the static, patient as the dark it hangs in.