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Ordnance Sorting Protocol
With everyone breathing again, the day moves to the armoury, where Defence Regulation 7.4.2 has been updated overnight by someone who has clearly never been shot at. It now decrees that every munition aboard be sorted into racks by colour before launch. Red with red, blue with blue, and absolutely no mixing, because the targeting computer reads a mixed rack as an invitation to improvise, and an improvising targeting computer is how moons go quietly missing.
Why a ship running a daily errand needs this much ordnance is one of those questions the crew stopped asking around the same time the answers stopped arriving. Wherever the ship gets sent each day, it is reliably somewhere that shoots back.
The mechanics of the job are unforgiving. You may only lift the top item from any rack, so the old hands guard an empty rack the way other people guard their last clean mug: a small patch of breathing room to shuffle colours through. They also finish whichever colour is nearly sorted before meddling with a fresh one, since a completed rack is one you never have to touch again, and half this trade is knowing what not to touch.
The quartermaster has provided two spare racks, a clipboard, and a note reading back after lunch. The note has been there since Tuesday. Sort the racks, sign the clipboard yourself, and try not to dwell on the phrase quietly missing.
How to play
- Sort the munitions so each rack contains only one colour.
- You can only move the top item from a rack.
- Items can only be placed on an empty rack or on top of the same colour.
- Each rack holds a maximum of 4 items. Fewer moves, higher score.