The Story Behind Galactic Cruisers
Somewhere in the outer sectors, a fleet went silent. Only the sensor logs survived. Reconstruct the formation — or the mission is lost.
The Scattered Fleet
Deep in the outer reaches of the Kelorian Expanse, a reconnaissance fleet broke formation during a sensor blackout. When communication was restored, only fragmented data remained: the number of ship-occupied cells in each row and column of the patrol grid, the sizes of the vessels that were deployed, and a handful of confirmed positions where individual sensors had locked on before going dark. The ships themselves were invisible — scattered across the void, running silent to avoid detection.
The Laws of Stellar Spacing
Every captain in the Kelorian fleet trains on the same doctrine: vessels in a patrol grid must never operate in proximity — not side by side, not corner to corner. The gravitational and electromagnetic interference between ships is enough to corrupt targeting systems and blind sensors across an entire sector. Ships travel straight — horizontal or vertical — and maintain a clear buffer of empty space on all sides, even diagonally.
This spacing doctrine, strict as it is, becomes your greatest tool when reconstructing a lost formation. Every confirmed ship cell radiates a zone of forced emptiness. Every empty cell narrows where the remaining fleet segments can hide.
The Sensor Logs
The recovered sensor logs are incomplete but precise. Each log entry tells you how many ship cells lie in a given row or column of the patrol grid. Nothing more — no coordinates, no identifiers. Just counts. Combined with the fleet manifest — the exact sizes of every vessel that launched — these fragments are enough for a sufficiently rigorous analyst.
A few sensor lock-ons survived the blackout intact, giving you fixed positions: cells already confirmed as ship or confirmed as empty space. These anchors are where every reconstruction begins.
Your Role as Fleet Analyst
You are the Fleet Analyst — the intelligence officer tasked with reconstructing each patrol sector from nothing but counts, fleet manifests, and partial lock-ons. No guessing is required. Every puzzle has exactly one valid configuration, derivable by pure logic from the constraints. Work methodically through the clues, enforce the spacing rules, and the fleet will reveal itself — one cell at a time.