Possible ET Encounter, RE: INC1684-Iota

The Frontier Reaction Force

Classified Internal Memorandum

Castra Limen, Macigno Vella, Tratirne

Gamma-63t Trigger

Top Secret, Codephrase Upsilon

Subject: Possible ET Encounter, RE: Incident Report #1684-Iota

Date Compiled: 18.11.31145

To: Magistrate of the Reaction Force Opiter Genicius

Magistrate Genicius,

We've completed our initial analysis of the evidence recovered from the team responding to INC1684-Iota and have prepared a summary of the information recovered from the scene as well as evidence which points to a potential encounter with a spacefaring alien race.

To recap, on 23.09.31145, a distress beacon was received from the Seven Gamma A system, on the edges of the Frontier. On arriving, the RF response team discovered an Opaeti-class light freighter chartered by the Umbrian Academy of Science which had been configured for deep space exploration. The vessel belonged to a pair of novice explorers, A. Flaminus and V. Flaminus, whose bodies were found within the derelict hulk.

It took the response team approximately forty minutes to locate the vessel, as the distress beacon had been jettisoned on a cargo container. The vessel itself was found adrift several thousand kilometers away. The aft end of the ship had received extensive damage. However, the fusion core remained stable and had been shut down manually instead of rendered inoperable as part of some type of mechanical failure.

The deceased suffered from explosive decompression, and the crew compartment of the vessel was found depressurized and vented to space. Oddly enough, the cadavers were found inside of the vessel. The incident team could only theorize about why this may have been the case. The bodies were both devoid of clothing, though pressurized space suits were found nearby. The state of the corpses rendered determining the cause of death impossible.

The team on the scene made the initial determination that a mechanical failure in the vessel's drive core or SLE array had caused an explosion, destroying the vessel's propulsion and emptying the ship's internal atmosphere out into space. No effort was spent to try and recover the vessel, which was written off as a total lose.

This episode could have easily slipped under the radar. However, the incident description matches at least three other events recorded over the last six months, which flagged it for further review.

A more detailed study of the imagery from the recovery effort appears to show signs of metal wear around the primary airlock, in a pattern consistent with most docking tubes. Deep gouges had also been furrowed into the metal at four points around the circumference, where the metal was pulled back towards the airlock.

Further analysis of the blast damage observed near the rear of the vessel suggests that it was caused by an impact, rather than from an internal explosion. Finally, assuming the vessel was in motion when the disaster occurred, the energy required to buckle the hull in such a way is difficult to attribute to a collision with a natural object.

There are more oddities involving the ship's log. A complete set of daily records were recovered, with the exception of the day before and the day of the distress beacon's activation.  No attempts to communicate prior to the accident were discovered, though the vessel's owners did report anomalous sensor activity in the days leading up to the accident.

While this does not conclusively overturn the initial response team's findings, the state of the ship's crew, damage sustained from external sources, and signs of forced entry could correlate to a hostile encounter. They further go on to suggest the attack occurred the day before the distress beacon's activation, and that we were only able to locate the wreck due to the ingenuity of the vessel's deceased owners.

Based on these findings, I sent another team to analyze the vessel's remains. However, upon arrival, they were unable to locate the ship. Given the system's close proximity to Battipaglia, and the RF's recent deployment to the planet, I wanted to raise this issue to you personally Magistrate.

- Prefect T. Calpurnius