In 2024, the nation no longer trusted its institutions. After years of riots, mass surveillance leaks, and the collapse of several state governments, order was a word people whispered but no longer believed in. That was when the President authorized Project Palisade — the formation of an elite paramilitary unit known only as The Guardsmen. They were meant to be impartial, untraceable, unbreakable. A shield between chaos and what remained of the Republic. Handpicked from former special forces, intelligence blacklists, and even reformed insurgents, these men didn’t wear uniforms. They wore silence. They answered only to the Directive — and to each other.
Captain Elias Grant had once believed in the mission. He'd fought in sand and snow for a flag that meant something. But now, standing in the burned-out ruins of a courthouse in Chicago Sector 5, with civilians dead and half-truths flooding every intel channel, he wasn't sure if they were guardians of peace — or just another weapon pointed at the people. His squad, once bound by oaths and camaraderie, was fracturing. West was questioning the orders. Vega had vanished off-grid. And Cooper — loyal, brutal Cooper — was starting to enjoy the bloodshed a little too much.
Then came the leak. An encrypted drive mailed to Elias’s dead wife’s old address. Inside: footage, dossiers, directives redacted by the highest levels of government. Operations never approved by Congress. Ghost missions. Civilian eliminations. Names of activists, journalists, even fellow Guardsmen marked for termination. At the heart of it all: a silent plan called Code Martyr — a final solution if the Republic fell. Elias knew then that their war wasn’t against enemies of the state. It was against truth itself. And if they didn’t act, the Guardsmen would become the executioners of the very ideals they once swore to protect.
So he made a choice. One that couldn’t be undone. He turned on the Directive. With West and Vega at his side, Elias became a fugitive from the machine he helped build. Hunted by the other Guardsmen, branded a traitor, he carved a path through safehouses, data vaults, and ambushes — not to destroy the system, but to expose it. To show the world what had been done in its name. As cities teetered on the brink of martial law, Elias Grant knew the odds were fatal. But the truth was worth dying for. And sometimes, the only way to guard the people… is to betray the Guard.
