2101-04-01 22:30 (RE: Energy Anomaly)

The Solar Armada of Earth

2nd Martian Extra Atmospheric Fleet

3rd Defense Wing

IPPBOX 2001

Ares Command, Olympus Mons, 18.7,-132.8

From: O-7 Brigadier General Namita Demian

To: O-11 Supreme Commander of Allied Terran Assets 

Date: 2101-04-01 22:30

Subj: RE: Energy Anomaly

Discovery. According to sensor logs, at 03:15 today an energy signature was detected by our long range suite in a wide orbit around Mars. Until we get a more comprehensive analysis we can’t be sure, but from their description it sounds identical to what you found. The location was in the shadow of Phobos, otherwise I believe we would have, concerningly, detected them at the exact same time.

Response. We deployed the Akon, an Eros class Frigate to investigate, accompanied by a planetside Telemachus ballistic artillery regiment on overwatch. Their orders were an attempt to classify the anomaly and explain the constant discharge of EM radiation.

Crew Roster.
Captain - Commander Gabrielle Furqan,
Gunnery Officer - Lieutenant Runa Catalina,
SESO - Lieutenant Junior Grade Sullivan Valentinius,
Chief Engineer - Ensign Titus Amada,
Pilot - Ensign Sujatha Laila

Log Transcripts. The following are the in-flight communication records of the Akon’s crew.

Laila: aaaand… We are now within optimal sensor range.
Furqan: Decelerate, Midships, thank you Laila. Sully, can we start a full sweep? Let's take some pretty pictures.
Sullivan: Aye, captain. Recording, beginning full spectrum sweep.
Catalina: Captain! We are being locked… on.
Furqan: …Feeling jumpy Lieutenant?
Catalina: Thanks for your concern sir, but no, I got an alert we were being weapon locked, but it stopped.
Furqan: Let me know if the anomaly attacks us.
Sullivan: Commencing higher resolution sweep…
Catalina: There it is again!
Furqan: Sullivan, stop the sweep.
Sullivan: Aye sir.
Catalina: Gone again.
Titus: Sullivan, how does the automatic sweep scan through wavelengths?
Sullivan: I mean, this is a combat vessel, so our suite starts at high frequencies and uses the different modules to read through to low frequencies.
Furqan: What are you thinking?
Titus: It seems that the anomaly is reacting to different kinds of radiation. Permission to write a script for sully to manipulate the sensors manually? Should only take a minute.
Furqan: Granted.
Catalina: I don’t like it sir.
Furqan: Noted, Laila, what do you think? …Laila?
Laila: Sorry sir, I think it’s beautiful. Do you guys see it? It’s like a ball of yarn or something.
Sullivan: We are all sein’ the readouts ensign. We are all space cadets but…
Furqan: Hey, stow it. Being awestruck is understandable. You don’t see this everyday.
Titus: Here, I repurposed a thing I wrote for another thing. Load that up and give it a whirl. Try manually scrubbing through wavelengths.
Sullivan: Nice! Okay… starting with microwave… alright rising through infrared…
Catalina: Lock alert is back.
Furqan: Okay, stop the scan. I am gonna check in with command and ask if we should keep poking this thing. Or… I would… if I could hail anything. Titus what’s going on here, can you take a look at C4I?
Titus: Roger. ‘Avin a butchers.
Laila: Captain, you don’t have a window. You really gotta come down here and look at this thing.
Furqan: Laila are you feeling alright?
Laila: Yeah, cap, I feel great! Fit as a fiddle.
Furqan: Weren’t you on another eight before this?
Laila: Huh… I guess I am just excited.
Titus: Aww hell. So the whole comms buffer was clogged with what our communications system thought was encrypted messages we were intercepting so it was bogged down trying to read messages. There’s two bursts of timestamps recently.
Sullivan: I ran the automated scan twice.
Titus: So when you ran that we were bombarding the anomaly with a bunch of different radiation. I think it’s like a prism, or a retro-reflector, when we send energy in, it’s refracting and sending it back!
Laila: Gravitational lensing, or redshift blueshift.
Titus: Woah, maybe yeah, I hadn’t thought of it like that. But-
Sullivan: Almost like a transformer.
Furqan: Alright Sullivan, when the automatic sweep ran, twice? We got hit with infrared, and radio. It starts at high frequencies and scans to low. So we just got counter-swept through the entire EM spectrum at god-knows what power? Gama and X-ray?
Sullivan?: We have a combat sensor ssuite, radio, IR for targeting-
Titus: Yeah. Probably.
(A long period of silence)
Laila: I hear bees in the skin of the ship…
Furqan: Laila, why don’t you take five, Titus lock her out of her console, Sullivan you went to flight school, get us out of here, I wanna have kids.
Titus: Aye.
Sullivan: Aye.
  

Actions Required. Our initial observation was inconclusive. A specialized unit with more sensitive instruments and signal processing capabilities is required. A direct line of communication between Solar Armada science teams needs to be established.

Remarks. We have no reason to believe these anomalies to be hazardous or even sentient. That said, we should proceed with extreme caution.

Namita Demian
Brigadier General