patterns in the glitched distress signals

 

There are 17 catalogued instances of GDS (Glitched Distress Signals) that I managed to access. Only one was non-human (no. 6) in nature.

1. Vortex Courier, transplanetary vessel, missing;
2. Essund Bandrad, habitats of alien cultists on planet's surface;
3. Destiny's Star, starliner, lost;
4. Tidal Prince, deep space vessel, missing;
5. Zan B, origin unknown;
6. Explorer 1112, retrieved, DATA EXPUNGED;
7. EC-122676, long-period comet in the Emerald system;
8. Ross 248 system, origin unknown, oldest known GDS;
9. Swun, illegal orbital laboratory, fate unknown;
10. KR-87, mining processor, missing;
11. Miranda Hauler, transplanetary gas transport, fate unknown;
12. Unknown source located in the Outer Belt in the Venor system;
13. One-second burst of GDS from unnamed research ship docked to the Rose Habitat 1010;
14. Nemesis 6, derelict frigate warship dating back to Corporate Wars, orbiting the KD-631 star;
15. Unknown source in the gaseous nebula surrounding the KD-311 star;
16. Conflux Liberty, deep space vessel, lost (self-destructed by the crew);
17. Carcharodon, pirate ship, signal transmitted during the chase, missing.

The list of features frequently appearing in GDS data packets:

• Sets of non-existing coordinates, located far beyond the galaxy plane and/or unrelated to the distress signal origin points;
• Heavily distorted short (0,3-4s) videos or images of human or human-like faces;
• Pulsating sounds, layered with modulated signals similar to Morse code;
• Sounds similar to wind howling;
• Strings of numbers or unknown ideograms (readable despite being incompatible with ship's character encoding); 
• Strange errors in gravimetric sensors of the GDS-receiving vessels at the time of transmission interceptions;
• Reports of confusion or extreme stress amongst the crews of GDS-receiving vessels at the time of transmission interceptions;
• Memory lapses of the Artificial Prophets aboard the GDS-receiving vessels at the time of transmission interceptions.

NOTE: GDS were never received by any planetary or moon-based facilities. All GDS signals received by automated stations, nav beacons or droneships were interpreted as distress data packets but became corrupted and unreadable instantly after interception. 

One-off occurrences during the GDS transmission interceptions:

• Lighting, life support or hydraulics systems malfunctions;
• Nav computer restart;
• Waterline burst;
• Food storage freezer failure;
• Ship logs deletion (later restored from backup);
• Empty lifepod ejection (happened twice on two different signal-receiving vessels);
• Hallucinations of 'void ghosts' being present aboard; 
• Crew member missing and never found.

NOTE 2: my contact has received info about the supposed location of the Miranda Hauler. I will try to learn more.

NOTE 3: time to visit the KD Star Cluster.