For those who came in late, the world of Terra Nova suddenly slipped to the brink of world war (again) when Second Follower Thor Hutchinson took a bullet in the head at point-blank range live on global trideo by a disgruntled army officer. (Yes, I know that doesn't do the event justice, but I'm trying to preserve some of the spoilers here.)
In the autumn of TN 1935, Terra Nova slips past the brink again and falls into a third world war. It lasts until the spring of 1939, when unknown agents obliterate the neutral city-state of Peace River just as preliminary peace talks are about to begin. At that time, the shock of that event gives even the most hardcore hawks pause; one of the people involved is freelance spy Nicosa Renault, and she is the narrator of this book.
The story begins at the end--Peace River's destruction--and then backs up to 1 Autumn 1935, where Nicosa begins her investigation. She looks over the document trail that weaves through both Northern and Southern ends of the war, and then through the Badlands, before the big plot twist comes at the end of the story.
As with Crisis of Faith, the three sections of this book are a mixture of DP9's acclaimed original artwork (albeit in black and white) and various document-style texts that pretend to be official papers, logs of phone calls, and so on. As with the previous book, each entry has a time-date stamp on it, which is handy when used in conjunction with the timeline in the back of the book, so the GM has no doubt as to when or where this or that event occured. This makes using the timeline within an individual campaign very easy, either to incorporate or to avoid.
The other thing to keep in mind is that the timeline's events are spread out across the planet, and across the four cycles of time, so it's easy for a GM to take a single event (or a handful of them) and build an entire campaign around them. (Shades of The Paxton Gambit, anyone?) Those of a tactical bent may want to start with some of the published scenario packs, such as the one that covers the Battle of Two Towers, while those who bend more to role-playing should look to the espionage surround Nicosa's inquiries--she didn't do it all alone, y'know--and to the efforts of Khayr ad-Din Army, and to the schemes that will reach fruition in the following storyline book (and get covered in Activision's Heavy Gear II game.).
This is 80 pages of pure storyline material. It's great for use as reference material, either to use for your own gameplay needs or just to read as entertainment. If you liked the first book, you'll dig this one too. It'll be easier to find, as it's now an 8.5"x11" flip book, and if you're into Heavy Gear at all you'll want to check out this (and other) storyline book.
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