Façades

[Proto Man]

A lifetime ago, she had been a sergeant in a paramilitary organization.

In some sort of ultimate irony, Abigail Reckner once again found herself donning the insignia of a noncommissioned officer. Her little barracks had gone through a handful of ups and downs over the last few weeks. After successfully dealing with a clandestine assault on the city’s walls, she’d seen most of the other soldiers stripped from the room and reassigned to ‘other details.’ She knew the truth, but like many things going on in town, she kept it to herself.

After Blues and Mireya left Darkshire, they barracks had been repopulated by a fresh batch of green recruits. Once the new kids were settled into their beds, Abigail had been summoned to an audience with Dmitri and a few other officers she didn’t recognize. In any other situation, she would have loved the new responsibilities and challenges, but this was Darkshire, not South City. Being a sergeant in the Darkshire militia meant she would now be responsible for dealing with very little resources, support, or fresh bodies to help her keep the men and women underneath her safe from harm.

Abigail wasn’t dumb—she’d spent enough nights in pubs and taverns to know that the stalemate in Town Hall appeared to be a manufactured controversy. The people of Darkshire were rough and tough—many of them were some of the strongest individuals she’d met in the Omniverse—but there was only so much a population could bend before it snapped in half. A few more months of dwindling resources and quality recruits would render the Darkshire militia incapable of functioning any longer.

Most citizens of the town knew very little of what went on in the walls. They knew that people in there died to keep them safe, and they thought that the skeletons up on the walls had their back. What would they think if they understood the truth?