Ninety-One Seconds
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Mission Info
| Status | Completed Mission | |
| Description | A simple care package from home leaves Grayson McKinney with more than homemade sweets. Tucked inside is an old tactical problem from his father, recently altered and offered without explanation. What begins as a familiar McKinney family ritual soon draws Grayson and Claire into a puzzle about command, responsibility, and the lessons that are hardest to put into words. |
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| Mission Group | Character Arcs | |
| Start Date | 03 Aug 2026 @ 12:22am | |
| End Date | 13 Sep 2026 @ 12:22am | |
Mission Posts
Mission Summary
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An altered tactical exercise from Captain Edson McKinney draws Grayson and Claire into the record of the USS Arsinoe’s 2401 battle. The exercise cannot be won on its stated terms. Its casualty data comes from a real command decision: with the ship lost, Edson sealed an aft compartment containing nine people to preserve the shield generator and give a civilian convoy time to escape.
Grayson and Claire uncover details the exercise had obscured. The nine could still communicate for eleven minutes after the seal, and the bulkhead could have held for ninety-one seconds beyond its rated limit. Evacuating them would have taken four minutes and ten seconds. That additional time could not have saved them.
Grayson completes the exercise, writes the nine names in place of anonymous casualty labels, and reads them aloud. Edson reveals why he built the problem: he wanted Grayson to face what command demands after there is no way to save the ship. Grayson turns that lesson into a standing order preserving named contacts and communications through a bulkhead seal. Claire, meanwhile, confronts the meaning of her own standing medical order, which assigns the Assistant Chief Medical Officer to remain with patients who cannot be moved.