Location from Iron Prince by Bryce O\
The most elite military academy in the Astra System — where humanity's next generation of CAD-bonded fighters train, compete, and are ranked against each other in combat that's simultaneously military preparation and public entertainment.
Galens Institute is the Astra System's premier CAD-training academy, and it operates under a fundamental tension: it exists to prepare fighters for an existential alien war, but it functions as a spectator sport. Rankings are public. Fights are broadcast. Cadets are celebrities and soldiers simultaneously, training for combat they might never see because the tournament circuit is where the attention lives. The ranking system — F through S, publicly displayed — determines everything: dorm assignments, social status, career prospects, and the attention of scouts and military recruiters. It's meritocratic in theory and brutal in practice. A cadet's entire identity is reduced to a letter grade, and that grade follows them everywhere. For Rei, Galens is both opportunity and gauntlet. It's the only place in the system with the training infrastructure to develop his S-rank Growth potential. It's also a social hierarchy that puts him at the absolute bottom and dares him to climb. The institution that could make him also has every incentive to break him — because his existence challenges the system's validity. The Sectionals tournament — inter-school competition in the second book — adds another layer: Galens' reputation rides on its cadets' performance, and a team anchored by a former F-rank is either an embarrassment or a revolution.
A sprawling military campus built to accommodate hundreds of cadets and their increasingly destructive training. Modern, functional architecture designed for durability — reinforced arenas, shielded training facilities, dormitory blocks, academic halls, and the ever-present ranking displays that broadcast every cadet's stats for all to see. The aesthetic is military-industrial meets sports arena: barracks next to scoreboards, classrooms next to combat pits.
Also known as: Galens, The Institute, The Academy