The Vanguard Exposé

Hacker Anthology

In the adrenaline-charged corridors of Vanguard Solutions—a VC-fueled defense-tech startup where Silicon Valley swagger collides with military bravado—Cassidy McGarrett is the lone high-ranking woman navigating a minefield of toxic rituals, secrecy, and systemic bias. Lured from a prestigious tech job by the promise of innovation with purpose, Cassidy instead finds herself the target of relentless harassment and public humiliation at the hands of Ty Swayers, the mercurial CEO whose cult-like leadership weaponizes loyalty and masculinity to silence dissent. As she uncovers a reckless rush to deploy AI-powered military software—technology that could destabilize global security—Cassidy’s moral compass and deep sense of justice propel her to blow the whistle, igniting a war not just against her company, but against an entire system engineered to protect its own power. With her career, reputation, and even her family’s safety on the line, Cassidy must outmaneuver a brotherhood of ex-military founders, shadowy investors like the enigmatic Tony DeMartan, and a boardroom culture that closes ranks at the first sign of threat. Allies are few and complicated: Patrick Dixon, the idealistic founder-turned-political aspirant, offers cryptic support while weighing his own ambitions; Martha MacAllan, a trailblazing board member, provides both mentorship and a sobering lesson in survival. As legal and advocacy experts rally to her cause, Cassidy’s fight becomes a high-stakes battle for accountability in an industry where oversight is as elusive as the technology it creates. In this pulse-pounding fusion of fact and fiction, the lines between hero and scapegoat blur, leaving one question: can Cassidy bring the truth to light before she’s silenced forever? Inspired by: She left Salesforce for defense-tech firm, faced a culture of drugs and abuse - https://sfstandard.com/2025/04/08/she-left-salesforce-for-a-hot-defense-tech-company-then-faced-a-culture-of-sex-drugs-and-abuse/

• (00:00) - The Glass Box
• (03:54) - The Loyalty Test
• (06:42) - The Demo Day Reckoning
• (12:25) - Credits