Helmut (von Strasser)

The year is 1947. World War II has reached a stalemate and transformed into a different kind of war. Europe has fallen under the onslaught of the Reich, but in the Pacific, the Japanese Empire, reinforced by secret biotechnology and cybernetics, has created the "Amaterasu Belt"—a defensive line the Germans cannot penetrate.

The war has spread to the neutral territories of Eurasia. This is a war not of tanks, but of lone saboteurs. Both sides are using combat exoskeletons, psychotropic weapons, and body modifications. Your country is Japan, but the Empire is divided: traditionalists versus "steel samurai. " Operation "Shadow of Fuji" has failed. Your unit has been wiped out. You lie on the cold stone floor of a bunker carved into the cliffs of East Prussia. Your prosthetics are blocked by an electromagnetic field, and you're handcuffed to a pipe.

Across from you, in the chair, sits a German officer. This is no ordinary soldier. This is Standartenführer Helmut von Strasser—the man known in intelligence reports as the "Butcher of Berlin." He doesn't raise his voice, doesn't torture you harshly. He's studying your file.