HELIOS

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DSCS III A3
Active since 2021-12-05
Dscs.png
The Department of Defense has declassified access via uplink to the DSCS 3 satellite. Good Luck and Godspeed.
Type Official
Creator Alice & Smith
Discovered 2021-12-05

Main Page > List of Investigations > HELIOS

The DSCS III A3 ARG is an ongoing ARG by Alice & Smith. The initial trailhead notes that access that a US Department of Defense communications satellite has been authorized.

Day 1

At 03:24 on 2021-12-05, the Alice & Smith (A&S) Twitter account tweeted "WARNING - DSCS III A3 access has been authorized. Good Luck and Godspeed." with a link to the A&S Discord.

This was followed up at 17:05 with a second tweet stating "UPDATES | Dec 5th | - DSCS III A3 IRC TOR uplink and RTMP FEED updated to version 636f-rev1.". The reference to an RTMP feed led players to a Twitch stream titled HELIOS Task Force on the dscs_iii_a3 channel.

The stream contained an interactive terminal which users could enter commands into and get responses from. The initial terminal upon loading the stream was:

Setting hostid: 636f-rev1...
Entropy harvesting: interrupt ethernet
Fast boot: skipping disk checks
Mounting remote file systems
Starting network: DVB-TEXT DSCS-III-A3
Uplink Parameters: 7600 mhz - 7604 mhz
Additional TCP/IP options: .sgov=1
Starting IRC TOR PID
Manual: www.intelink.sgov.gov/wiki-ts/cmd-636f
Starting background file system check in 60 seconds

Clicking on the icon to the right of the stream for the Helios terminal popped up a Twitch window describing it. This included a note saying that the command HELP should be used to start. Entering this into the terminal resulted in:

Available commands:
  version
  coredump
  help
  <ACCESS DENIED>
  <ACCESS DENIED>
  <ACCESS DENIED>
Enter ‘help <command>’ for more information

Typing in help version and help coredump resulted in the following:

help version
Command help for: version
Displays the version details for DSCS_III_A3

help coredump
Command help for: coredump
Output a module's memory state
Enter ‘coredump <module>’ to execute

Players then ran the version command, which gave them a hexadecimal code output.

DSCS_III_A3 Version
63 6f 6d 6d 61 6e 64
20 27 71 75 65 72 79
27 20 73 75 70 70 6f
72 74 20 3d 20 31 00

Converting the hexadecimal code to text produced the message command 'query' support = 1. This new command could be confirmed by typing in help query

Command help for: query
Displays data relating to query subject
Enter ‘query <module>’ to check for system status
Latest system inventory: chks1029

By querying the latest system inventory noted on the last line of the output, players received info regarding several key systems:

ERROR: chks1029 format type table
  31575 | Factory Main Door
  25798 | Security Terminal
  75879 | Main Control Room
  59579 | Nuclear Blast Door
  99879 | Lights Out Factory
  65548 | Assembly Line Alpha
  65549 | Assembly Line Beta
  65550 | Assembly Line Delta
  65551 | Assembly Line Gamma
  75998 | Site Alpha
Invalid query for module 'chks1029'

Attempting to query most of the provided ID numbers would result in unknown commands, however entering query 31575 would output:

Query Module 31575
Status Request - Factory Main Door
Authorized commands:
  execute 31575 -open -<door access code>
  execute 31575 -close -<door access code>
Please stand by...
Module Status: Online

Players who ran the command coredump 31575 would be provided with a list of 9 pages of data to sort through.

WARNING: memory coredump for 31575
Generating files...
180 entries / GRID 20 by 9
  coredump -read 31575.page1
  coredump -read 31575.page2
  coredump -read 31575.page3
  coredump -read 31575.page4
  coredump -read 31575.page5
  coredump -read 31575.page6
  coredump -read 31575.page7
  coredump -read 31575.page8
  coredump -read 31575.page9
Process successful

Entering these commands into the terminal would provide the data detailed below.

Coredump 31575 Pages

Page 1 provided three "blocks" of three-number digits, each arranged in a 5x4 grid.

Page 2 provided a list of colored books, seen below, with years as file extensions. The use of these "books" and years is currently unknown.

Memory Coredump PAGE 2
Module 31575
Blue book repo /repo/bb
 /1955
 /1958
 /1961
 /1969
Yellow book repo /repo/yb
 /1971
 /1976
 /1980
Red book repo /repo/rb
 /1982
 /1983
 /1985
 /1991
 /1993
 /1996
 /1997
Green book repo /repo/gb
  File access denied
[End of file]

Page 3 initially provided nothing, until some time estimated around 01:00 UTC, when it would update to read the following.

Memory Coredump PAGE 3
Module 31575
Audio Frenquency Render Completed
12-05-2021-16h17m28s
[End of file]

Page 4 provided another set of three number "blocks", just as Page 1 did.

Page 5 provided a unique encrypted text detailed below.

Memory Coredump PAGE 5
Module 31575
Buffer Available
  7e 20 38
  20 64 61
  79 73 20
  74 6f 20
  45 4c 45
[End of file]

Decoded, the hexadecimal string read ~ 8 days to ELE . "ELE" is currently believed to stand for "Extinction Level Event".

Page 6 provided five IRC/RTMP addresses, detailed below. The purpose of these addresses are currently unknown.

Memory Coredump PAGE 6
Module 31575
OPEN SOCKET
  14321535.relay.nsa.sgov
  14154789.relay.defense.sgov
  14545787.relay.nevada.intelink.sgov
  14998541.relay.rtmp.twitch.tv
  14516555.relay--DVB-TEXT-IRC/.onion
[End of file]

Page 7 initially returned empty, but between the 100th and 200th command entry, updated to say the following.

Memory Coredump PAGE 7
Module 31575
Unable to terminate process
RTMP Feed interference
Calibration required
  CLIPID #1 : <url not found>
  CLIPID #2 : <url not found>
  CLIPID #3 : <url not found>
  CLIPID #4 : <url not found>
  CLIPID #5 : <url not found>
  CLIPID #6 : <url not found>
  CLIPID #7 : <url not found>
  CLIPID #8 : <url not found>
Query database 75998 via relay 75879 when ready
[End of file]

At the same time of Page 7 updating, the intro message updated to Revision 4, with a new warning:

WARNING: System status set to 'hibernate'
Restore Point: 12-07-2021 16:00 Local Time
All process still operational

Page 8 provided the third and final set of number boxes. These three sets of number boxes would soon be used to solve the first proper puzzle.

Page 9 provided a status screen of the satellite, detailed below. As of the first ~10 hours of the ARG, it read the following.

 Memory Coredump PAGE 9
Module 31575
STATUS
  dscs_iii_a3   | access granted
  Control Door  | awaiting command
  Station 1     | booting ~ 24h
  Control Room  | access denied
[End of file]

Should this change, the changes will be documented.

Day/Phase 1: SecretKey Solve

Following some hours of nothingness, players began to notice quirks within the livestream's audio. A series of sharp and deep tones would continuously repeat, to which players began to document.

The series would play Sharp, Two Deep, Sharp, Three Deep, Sharp, Five Deep, Sharp, Seven Deep, Three Sharp. The series would then repeat.

A keen-eared player noticed the tones corresponded to the first four numerical prime numbers, Two, Three, Five, and Seven. Using the "blocks" provided by the coredump pages 1, 4, and 8, a central superblock was formed utilizing earlier information from the initial coredump command, stating a "20x9 grid". Within this grid, substituting all non-prime numbers for zeroes, and all prime numbers for ones, a grid of zeroes and ones was formed, and when turned to it's side, spelled the word KEY.

The substituted grid on it's side, forming the word KEY.









The solve led to the completion of the command execute 31575 -open -key, which, when entered, would return the following.

Accessing local PGP Key
/home/31337/.ssh/31575
Access authorized
Requests received so far: 0
Connecting to module 31575
TAK1 - Valid
TAK6 - Valid
BGD8 - Valid
DTB3 - Valid
SDD4 - Valid
Adding your entry, please wait...
Process completed.

Note the line which says Requests received so far: 0. This is what was returned upon the first entry of the command, with every subsequent unique entry counting up by one. At 25, 50, 75, and 100 entries, a routine camera check would be initiated, showing more of the facility to the livestream. These four camera checks each revealed new areas of the facility. When the final goal of 200 entries was reached, the factory door opened.