Lt. Hobbes is sent by the military into their virtual reality world of "Harsh Realm" to assassinate rogue-soldier-turned-game's-dictator Omar Santiago, but Hobbes' rogue predecessor, Mike Pinocchio, warns Hobbes that the game is a trap.
Hobbes and Pinocchio find themselves trapped in a looping World War II battle simulation, where the German and the US units are forever fighting over a small bridge in the Ardennes. They soon meet another real player stuck there.
As his real mother dies of cancer, Hobbes meets and nurses her dying counterpart in one of Santiago's forced labor camps in Harsh Realm. Pinocchio tries to come up with an escape plan.
Pursued by Santiago's Republican Guard, Hobbes and his friends encounter a strange pacifist group of deserters from Santiago's army whose compound is located near a beautiful lake that harbors a horrifying secret.
Hobbes finds himself trapped in a minefield with one of Santiago's soldiers. A holy order of female healers cares for Pinocchio after he loses his leg and becomes suicidal. Florence is captured by a bounty hunter who's after the healers.
