The Triangle realized its mistake the moment people stopped pretending neutrality was safe.
For decades, the academy had operated under a simple, reliable principle:
pressure revealed loyalty.
Apply enough stress, and people sorted themselves—into factions, into obedience, into usefulness. Those who resisted broke. Those who adapted aligned. Those who hesitated were removed.
It wasn't cruel.
It was efficient.
But efficiency relied on motion.
This time, pressure wasn't sorting anything.
It was clustering.
And clusters were dangerous.
The first sign came from Class B.
Not rebellion.
Not alliance.
A quiet reshuffling.
Students who had never trained together before began arriving at the same times. Same halls. Same simulation rooms tucked away near the edges of campus where oversight paths overlapped just a little less often.
No announcements.
No group chats.
No agreements.
They simply showed up.
