Month one

Night fell upon Gantun, everyone laid in their bunks, some sleeping, some restless. Sidko laid on his backside, staring up at the ceiling, the hall monitor walked around, making sure people were asleep. Suddenly, he felt a pressure being pushed from under him. His head slowly crept over to peek at the person under him, it was Oreon, the Citizen whispered,
"Yo yo Sidko, I knew you couldn't sleep"
Sidko looked at him with a displeased face,
"Probably because you keep pushing your feet up into my bunk" he whispered back,
"Me and the gang set up a secret gaming room, we're supposed to meet tonight, it's down the hall, in the bathroom. You in?"
"You're barely telling me now? I thought I was your best friend"
"Dipshit, you are my best friend, that's why I didn't tell you until it was ready"
Suddenly a light shined towards them, they pretended to be asleep. Ropo walked by, being suspicious. After a moment or two, they both started talking again,
"How in the stars are we supposed to get passed Ropo, he's too tight"
"We made fake bodies out of our pillows and our clothes, we'll be going in our underwear, nothing more" Oreon said. Sidko smirked,
"Ok let's go"

For the next month, trainees would be sneaking in and out, with Officer Brak being the one checking in at the end. Aradi was in a meeting with Officer Brak and one other Protectorate, they sat at a round table, enjoying their morning breakfast and what not,
"So Aradi, you called a meeting, what's going on?" the officer asked,
"It's one of the recruits, Ropo, I'm noticing weird upticks in the details of his report logs"
"What do you mean?" Officer Brak, Aradi
"They seem.....increasingly condescending, week one, it was fine, but week two, I noticed a very intent and hostile description on ... .well...everyone. I looked at recordings of his performance, he was at the bottom of the list, just underneath Recruit Sidko"
"So a recruit is venting his frustrations, not like any of us haven't done it before"
Aradi swiped on Ropo's profile,
"....Week 2, I am already tired of the incompetence of my fellow trainees, they don't just act incompetent, but sleep incompetent, I am a weapon, the Council's weapon, I am sharpened daily..."
"That seems pretty normal" Officer Brak said, Aradi continued,
"The others are not sharp, they are blunt tools, they should be discarded, I hope the Council decides to discard them soon as possible"
Officer Brak shrugged,
"I've had similar thoughts before"
Aradi sighed,
"But you didn't write them down in the logs, everyone has thought themselves to be better than their others, their betters. But Ropo is displaying a behavior common with people who are at a breaking point"
The other officer took a sip of coffee,
"If a fight breaks out, it'll bring their score down, and they'll be diversified into different groups who are in phase 3, it's not a big deal"
Aradi placed the tablet on the desk,
"I get it, it's rare, but I think we have a serious problem, I'm not talking about a simple fight here, I'm talking about something that could be worse. But I'll follow protocol, if we can't agree to pull this recruit out, then something bad is going to happen" she said. Officer Brak nodded,
"I think you might be over examining things, dedication to the Council doesn't always come with nice things to say, given your track record, I bet you've thought some of the sa-"
Aradi snapped, cutting him off,
"I never once thought about hurting another person because I knew they were weak, and I especially wouldn't if I was at the very bottom of the performance list" she said as she got up and walked out.
Officer Brak took a snip of coffee,
"Dammit, now we have to post near the barracks nightly"
The other officer groaned,
"Huhhhh"
Officer Brak nodded,
"It's protocol, if trainers can't agree to plug someone out, we gotta take turns outside of the door of the barracks on night shifts until this part of the phrase ends" he said as he got up.

A few weeks later

Sidko and the other trainees quietly played on their phones in the bathroom, they had snacks from the cafeteria and what not, it was a whole set up, Sidko giggled and whispered to Oreon,
"Ohhh! You thought you me, I even saw you screen hopping on my phone, tsk tsk Oreon you always sucked at Star Shooters"
Oreon bit into his snack as he waited to respawn,
"I'm just distracted by the good shit the higher officers get"
Zzzarr and 3 others were watching a film being projected from a phone, they sat against makeshift chairs,
"Oreon you could never beat Sidko, just face it"

Suddenly the door opened, and an individual named Ropo appeared, he looked at everyone with wide eyes, everyone stared back in kind,
"W-what is this" Ropo said, Sidko gulped, Oreon quickly got up and tried to explain through stuttering, Zzarr intervened,
"It's nothing, Ropo, just a bit of down time for people who can't sleep"
Ropo slowly shook his head,
"N-no this isn't that...you're violating protocol. All of you"
Oreon gulped,
"It's not violating protocol Ropo, it's a practice, we're uh, enthusiastic about the Council, so we're taking a celebration in the provisions they have"
Ropo stepped back, his eyes wide, stern, unforgiving, his voice low, almost whispering like,
"I should report you, now"
Zzarr looked up at him,
"Ropo think about it, you barely passed, if you report this, we'll all be split, the reason we're all here together is to balance each other out"
Sidko nodded,
"If they split us up, we'll all fail"
Ropo looked at them all, the tension was high, nerve racking on all fronts,
"You all deserve to fail, you're violating the Council's pure nature, it's - it's not right, you deserve to fail"
Oreon shook his head,

"Wait a minute, don't act like you're so innocent Ropo, you scored at the bottom of the list, and the only reason this set up was possible is because you've been secretly taking trips across the hall to use the officer's bathroom, don't think we haven't noticed, you enabled all of this, it's your fault as much as it is ours....so if you do this, you're probably going to get kicked out, and given a mop to clean floors for the rest of your life"

Ropo stared at Oreon in silence,
"You're right....it is..my fault, my fault..." his voice trailed off.
He looked down, he then quietly walked out of the bathroom....