Standoff Secrets Waiting to be Discovered

Thanks to everyone who voted for us in the Fan Project of the Year contest! ... By the way, 2009 was the last year that we were eligible - for sure, we'll be releasing a patch or two during 2010, but hopefully the CIC will not allow us to be nominated again - or if they do, hopefully you guys will have the good sense to vote for a project that's actually active. ... But, here's an interesting bit of info for all those of you that sit on the sidelines and cheer us fan project folks on - by far the most motivating award we ever got was the one we received in the 2006 competition... where we won nothing at all, and indeed, weren't even nominated for anything. Ouch - that really pushes you to make better progress the next year.

Now, moving on to the actual subject of this thread. Sometimes, as we approach a release, we actually have time to add one or two easter eggs into the game. Usually, these are just silly things - click on something, and get a weird sound or voiceover. Episode 5, however, featured an easter egg that, I believe, might actually be more interesting to some people than the rest of the game. Amazingly enough, while Iceblade hinted at finding this easter egg just two days after the initial release... nobody else ever found it (or, at least, nobody ever posted about it). ... I was reminded about it recently by that Kilrathi language thread - but decided not to post about it while the voting was still going on (...and nearly forgot about it again, in the process).

So, here's the challenge - there's a few easter eggs in the final Standoff release, can you find the one I'm talking about, near the end of the game? It's not, let me assure you, gibberish - so the second challege is, can you decrypt it? Plus, a bonus question - can you identify the song clip in the background and who's playing it?

Just one detail - when you find the easter egg, please post about how to find it (and show a screenshot) in this thread before you get to work on decrypting it. Looking for easter eggs is enjoyable, but in this particular case, it's the decryption that's gonna be the real fun, so don't forget to share! (besides, there's no reward for being the first - and you may need help decrypting :) )

Space Shuttles for Sale

The United States' Space Shuttle fleet has received a price cut. The orbiters were recently offered for $42 million to museums and other institutions for display after the fleet is retired around the end of this year. The Shuttle Discovery will be going to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, but the Atlantis and Endeavour still need a home. With relatively few prospective buyers showing interest, the price has been discounted to $28.8 million. Engines were running $400k to $800k each, but are now available for the cost of shipping and handling.

The lower price is based on NASA’s estimate of the cost for transporting a shuttle from Kennedy Space Center to a major airport, and for displaying it indoors in a climate-controlled building. The travel cost may vary based on location. NASA has moved up the delivery date to the latter half of 2011, instead of 2012.

Potential customers have until Feb. 19 to put in a request.