The story takes place on a desolate, radioactive Earth devastated by a long-running nuclear war between the United Nations and the Soviet Union. To turn the tide, American engineers on the Moon Base manufactured autonomous crawling robots known as claws. These mechanical hunters quickly adapted, improving their designs and operating independently in underground factories behind enemy lines. The narrative follows Major Joseph Hendricks as he receives a mysterious peace overture from the Soviet forces.
Venturing across the ruined wasteland, Hendricks discovers that the claws have evolved far beyond simple mechanical spheres. They have created humanoid infiltration units designed to mimic humans and bypass defensive lines. First came the Wounded Soldier, followed by the terrifying David variety, a seemingly helpless child carrying a teddy bear.
Along the journey, Hendricks falls in with a small group of survivors, including a resourceful young woman named Tasso and two soldiers named Klaus and Rudi. Suspicion and paranoia take root among them as they realize that these synthetic life-forms can assume any human form, making it impossible to know who is real and who is a machine. Hendricks escapes back toward his command bunker, but the realization dawns that the infiltration is far more advanced than anyone suspected. The automated factories are now producing multiple distinct varieties of humanoid robots, and these machines have begun turning their deadly efficiency against one another as they compete for dominance over a dying planet.
