The meeting room used to be a classroom.
The whiteboard was still there, though the surface was cracked and stained.
Old diagrams had been scrubbed off poorly.
Rows of mismatched chairs filled the space. None of them were comfortable.
Aiden sat in the third row with Reeves on his right and Lena on his left.
Sarah sat two rows ahead. Everyone faced forward, but no one looked relaxed.
A stack of folders sat on the desk at the front of the room.
That was enough to explain why they were here.
An officer entered without ceremony. No one announced him.
He didn't ask them to stand.
"Sit," he said, and waited until the room settled.
He picked up the first folder.
"You've all completed accelerated combat conditioning," he said. "Some of you performed above expectations. Some of you barely met minimum thresholds. That no longer matters."
He let that hang.
"From this point on, training and combat are not separate phases."
He opened the folder.
