Summary

Harsh Realm is a military simulation programmed by the US Army that went online on October 13, 1995. For several hours, there was no distinction between our world and Harsh Realm. At noon, a nuclear bomb the size of a briefcase was detonated in the simulated New York City of Harsh Realm. Four million people were killed instantly. From that point onwards, Harsh Realm became a training simulation for a post-apocalyptic disaster scenario. Lieutenant Tom Hobbes is unknowingly thrust into this world by his superiors with one mission: to kill "General" Omar Santiago. Along the way, he meets fellow soldiers sent into the game and alternate versions of people he knows in the real world. Tom Hobbes quickly finds companions such as Mike Pinocchio (a cynical long-time resident of Harsh Realm), Florence (a mute with mysterious powers) and Dexter (an alternate version of his real world dog). Lieutenant Tom Hobbes' target is Omar Santiago, the highest scorer in Harsh Realm. Santiago, a US Army Sergeant-Major in the "real world", now a self-proclaimed "General" in the world of Harsh Realm, controls five eastern seaboard states in a police-state dictatorship and is actively conquering more to form a base of power, Santiago City. Its exact real world location is unknown but is located fairly close to New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ohio. From his new companions, Tom Hobbes learns that General Santiago has in fact hijacked Harsh Realm. Hobbes is merely the latest soldier in a long line of soldiers sent to kill General Santiago. Hobbes also learns from a mysterious "ally", Inga Fossa, that General Santiago is planning the ultimate act of terrorism in the real world so that Harsh Realm is all that remains. It is in this world that Tom Hobbes must survive, defeat General Santiago, save the real world, and somehow return to his real life and his fiancée, Sophie Green.