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DĒKŌD A Manual for the Icarus Cipher
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Copyright Š 2614 Vector Publishing All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopy, recording, or any other information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. icarusprogram.com
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Contents Introduction 5 Plaintext 7 Midtext 8 Ciphertext 9 Cipher Key 11 Assemblage 30 Conclusion 32
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Introduction This manual serves as a guide on how to encode and decode communications with the Icarus Cipher. It is designed to be used by members of the Icarus Program authorized to use encoded internal communications to protect confidentiality. The Icarus Cipher was designed by linguist and cryptologist Megara Burgess in 2611 under the direction of the Communications Branch of the Icarus Program, during the initial development stages of the program. Designed to create imagery that would be inconspicuous due to its abstract nature and geometric forms, the cipher allows for internal communications between members of the Icarus Program to be protected from adversarial forces. This manual will teach you the method for encryption and decryption of communications, using direct translation keys and assembling and disassembling methodology, as well as provide some example texts and codes.
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Plaintext When translating a code, the information that is being communicated from one party to another is called “text.” When that information is not encrypted, it is called “plaintext.” The Icarus Cipher is specifically crafted to be used to encrypt text written in contemporary English. For example, if Party A wants to give Party B information about a meeting, they may want to encrypt the sentence “Meet us at the administrative building.” This is written in plaintext. When encrypting information, a party always starts with plaintext before using the code, and when decrypting information, a party always ends with plaintext after using the code. To use the Icarus Cipher to encrypt information, plaintext must be translated to another type of text, called “midtext,” before being translated again into ciphertext.
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Midtext Midtext is not a standard part of of cipher encryption, but the Icarus Cipher is unique in that it translates plaintext into another type of text before it is fully encrypted into cipher text. To perform this translation, the plaintext is translated into phonetic symbols. The midtext alphabet is actually a set of modified phonetic symbols that stand in for the common sounds in the English language. To translate plaintext into midtext, you must refer to the standard English pronunciation of the word, and using the phonetic symbol that matches each sound in the word, translate the plaintext from English to the midtext alphabet. For example, for the plaintext “Meet us at the administrative building,” the midtext would be translated to “MĒT US AT ðĒ ADMINISTRĀTIV BILDIŋ.”
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Ciphertext Ciphertext is the encrypted form of the information that is communicated from on party to another. The Icarus Cipher has a very specific method for assembling the ciphertext after is has been translated from the midtext. Each phonetic letter in the midtext alphabet has a cipher symbol that corresponds to it. By assembling the symbols into an abstract design, the ciphertext can be transmitted by party A as an image, or an encoded form of an image, to be decrypted back into midtext and then into the plaintext once it has reached party B in the communication.
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Cipher Key
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P As in “papa,” “punch,” “pool.”
B As in “bravo,” “bunch,” “bin.”
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M As in “Mike,” “must,” “malt.”
F As in “foxtrot,” “fence,” “furniture.”
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V As in “victor,” “vouch,” “vampire.”
T As in “tango,” “talk,” “twin.”
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θ As in “think,” “thrice,” “thunder.”
ð As in “then,” “thine,” “that.”
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S As in “sierra,” “sour,” “swim.”
D As in “delta,” “door,” “dim.”
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N As in “November,” “none,” “next.”
R As in “Romeo,” “red,” “river.”
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Z As in “Zulu,” “zero,” “zip.”
ʃ As in “shush,” “ship,” “shimmer.”
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ʒ As in “genre,” “mirage,” “usual.”
ʧ As in “Charlie,” “chime,” “botch.”
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J As in “Juliet,” “jump,” “germ.”
L As in “Lima,” “lark,” “loud.”
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Y As in “Yankee,” “yellow,” “your.”
K As in “Kilo,” “clam,” “corsair.”
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G As in “golf,” “gross,” “game.”
ŋ As in “young,” “swing,” “fang.”
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H As in “hotel,” “harpy,” “hiss.”
W As in “whiskey,” “wish,” “word.”
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A As in “alpha,” “happy,” “sample.”
Ā As in “age,” “irate,” “fade.”
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E As in “echo,” “mend,” “said.”
Ē As in “each,” “feed,” “ski.”
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ɜ As in “were,” “fur,” “girl.”
I As in “India,” “sickle,” “crystal.”
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Ī As in “idle,” “sight,” “buy.”
O As in “Oscar,” “offer,” “on.”
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Ō As in “ode,” “loam,” “host.”
ʊ As in “hook,” “should,” “pull.”
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U As in “under,” “fun,” “hum.”
Ū As in “oops,” “rule,” “you.”
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Assemblage To assemble individual letters into a word, simply overlay the cipher symbols onto each other, to make composite symbols. These composites contain all the individual sounds in each syllable of a word. If a word has repeated sounds in a single syllable, the primary sound is included in the composite of that syllable, but all repetitions are removed from the composite into its own symbol, or is included in the following composite of syllables that follow after the syllable with a repeated sound. In order to prevent illegibility, this separation can also be done if two symbols that appear very similar are apart of the same syllable, such as R and S, or if more than three symbols make up a single syllable. This way, not too many symbols appear in one composite. Composite symbols are attached to each other. This is done by aligning symbols so that the perimeter of each composite symbol’s primary circle (the circle that contains all lines and circles that make each symbol unique) touches the perimiter of at least one other composite symbol, at points where the lines within the circles meet each other. For eaxmple, two composites that both have a horizontal line across them can be aligned side-by-side, so that the horizontal line appears to run through both symbols. Additional writing features, such as spaces between words or punctuation, are not accounted for in any way. 30
For example, the phrase “aim higher” can be translated as so:
ĀM HĪYɜR
With the syllables divisible as such:
ĀM-HĪ-YɜR
So that the indivudual cipher symbols, in order, are:
And when assembled into composite symbols, appears so:
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Conclusion In order to master the encrypting and decrytping of the Icarus Cipher, practice is necessary. After committing to memory the two texts used to translate information, enciphering and deciphering communications becomes secondhand. By mastering the Icarus Cipher, members of the Icarus Program can secure their communications to promote safety and success in all missions and assignments. We hope that you have benefitted from this manual, and wish all members of the program success in their efforts to venture toward a safer and better future for humanity.
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Sophia Lambert - 2020
