The signal was ignored for a long time. A long series of irregular beeps, dismissed as white noise from a binary star systems' complicated pulsar belt.
The occasional crackpot would pop up and claim it was proof of whatever theory they already assumed was true, but they were safely ignored.
Until a bored astronomer set up a program to record the beeping as a learning exercise, then forgot to turn it off.
And then the three year long pattern was discovered, and everyone began scrambling for analysis.
Bit too late, given the warfleet was already en route, per the message.
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