[ShadowGorrath]

Here's the original version of that Shivan image, just in case it's of any need:

[Turey]

ShadowGorrath, where'd you find that?

[Solatar]

Looks like an old render from the Array.

[ShadowGorrath]

It's made by Setekh. Found it on the site with his renders.

[Mongoose]

Waiwaiwait...how'd we get from step A to step H here?

[Solatar]

I for one have no idea. Something about something actually being an archive.

Still trying to figure out what as renaming the picture file to various endings has done nothing for me thus far.

[Mongoose]

Yeah, me too.  I know the plot information is the actual important element here, but I'd rather not be left in the dust when it comes to actually finding it.

[Mura]

what da... i sleep for 10 hours and i'm thrown out of the loop, damn it! things seem to be getting interesting.

I don't know if the image will have something extra in it, but i'll research a bit about scripts to compress stuff into images (even if i don't think that's where we should be looking)

[Turey]

For those of you who missed it, the picture in the original post was a zip/7zip file that was also a picture. it contained the two files attached to pecenipicek's post.

[Mura]

I see, okay, that explains from where those came from 

[Mars]

*** CLASSIFIED LEVEL UPSILON ***
*** GTI ACCESS REQUIRED ***

GALACTIC TERRAN INTELLIGENCE
HEADQUARTERS GTI SPECIAL TACTICS AND OPERATIONS COMMAND

ORDERS 076-49               21 DEC 34

Attention GTI Operations science vessel EINSTEIN (GTSC37E8A).

The following organization or unit action is directed.
You are reassigned and deployed as shown below and are to await further orders upon completion of duties in support of this operation.
This action overrides and supersedes GTA RDCOM orders 059-11.

Assigned to: GTI RDSCO ROSS 128
Mission: Intensive scan of star system ROSS 128 to be performed from within stellar formation ROSS 8Y-9914 (76NM). Inspect system for presence of undocumented spatial anomalies and exotic subspace activity. Uncharted subspace nodes are to be prioritized.

Upon detection of a candidate jump point the GTSC EINSTEIN will conduct a detailed investigation of the interstellar medium. Artificial energy emissions are the objective of this investigation. Be advised of possible intelligent contact (see attached). In the event of contact the GTSC EINSTEIN will conduct a full-spectrum non-aggressive scan upon all unidentified craft. No hostile action is authorized.

Routine transmissions of all collected data must be made every six hours. All related findings classified level PHI.

Duration: 30 days
Effective date: 1 JAN 35
Project code: 12HC

Additional instructions:
  (A) Personnel below PHI clearance are not authorized for deployment in this action and must be transferred to a new unit before effective date.
  (B) It is the responsibility of the unit to uphold the data transmission schedule. A grace period of thirty minutes is in effect. In the event that this period is exceeded, Galactic Terran Intelligence will consider the GTSC EINSTEIN and its mission compromised and the crew will be subject to penalties that may include but are not limited to: loss of rank, loss of clearance, court-martial, and black-listing.
  (C) In the event of hostile action against GTI units the GTSC EINSTEIN is to notify Galactic Terran Intelligence and make an emergency subspace jump to outpost GTI RIVIERA pending mission update.

[Solatar]

Ahh, I tried renaming it to .7z and .rar but for some odd reason didn't try .zip... *doh*

[Mars]

I did, .7z, .7zip, .rar, and .zip

None of them worked.

[Solatar]

Hmm. Well suffice to say the two documents that have been posted are the contents of the .zip (the picture and the new orders).

Onwards! I'm just wondering what to do with these two things now.

EDIT: I've run that image through as many brightness/contrast filters as I can think of and no mysterious text or anything has appeared (was just a thought). Maybe we need another message from Aardash?

[Mongoose]

That was a good catch on the picture, but how exactly does one extract the contents?  Like Mars said, just renaming the file didn't seem to do a thing.

[ShadowGorrath]

What about Blackhole's program for turning archives into pictures for good hiding? Maybe you need to have that to be able to open the images?

[Mongoose]

Turns out that Windows' built-in .zip compressor can't read the re-named file, but WinRAR took care of it just fine.  So much for that password working out as a login.

[Mars]

So was that the purpose of the password then? Was it needed to open the zip file?

[Mongoose]

It was needed to decrypt the .txt file with the GTI orders, apparently.  I kind of get the feeling that we're waiting on another post by our good friend Aadarsh, unless there's something funny about that reconnaissance picture as well.

[Mars]

I suppose it's possible that was it