Darth Null

Ciphertext:

^
¥Ð§µ
¶®Æä
æ©×ä
÷ijŒĐ
ƆķėIJ
ŦůŶū
ƂƐƔƆ
ŦƉƶǴ
ƆƅƦƬ
džƹɇʃ

Hints (provided every few hours via Twitter):

1. line breaks for clarity, not part of puzzle. neither is ^.
2. the word “Fidelis” is part of the message
3. get to know xxd
4. “yen” and “mu” are the same [used actual chars]
5. There are 20 characters in the message.
6. ‘C2A5′ =~ /.{3}(.)/
7. Take a nybble out of each sybble. All you need is $1
8. 50 75 6E 64
9. [a perl script to decode the ciphertext]