Storyline Book 2: Blood on the Wind
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1 Autumn TN 1935 - 2 Summer TN 1939
"When Hutchison died on live trideo¸ we all knew in our hearts that we were entering hard times. We knew that the last embers of the detente built during and after the War of the Alliance had finally burnt out. Soldiers adjusted their uniforms and arms merchants looked with glee toward a swelling bottom line. Some of us thought of the whole new graveyards this Interpolar War would create.
"We didn't know the half of it. The chaos of those years would strip us¸ once and for all¸ of our provincial innocence. Terra Nova was maturing at long last¸ but at a terrible cost."
- Nicosa Renault
Thor Hutchison¸ the leader of the Revisionist Church¸ has just been assassinated. Fifteen cycles of suspicion and tension finally come to a head as the planet of Terra Nova explodes into the Interpolar War. But no one anticipates just how costly this war will be. Mighty armies clash at the poles and throughout the Badlands¸ reducing peaceful desert communities to smoking ruins. A medical crisis grips the Humanist Alliance while diplomatic betrayal sends the North headlong into conflict. A few heroic individuals try to save what peace they can¸ fighting to keep parts of the Badlands free. But even their effort may not be enough.
Blood on the Wind¸ the second Heavy Gear Storyline Book¸ is the sequel to the critically acclaimed Crisis of Faith. It traces the cataclysmic events on the world of Terra Nova¸ the setting of Heavy Gear¸ through a collection of journals¸ articles and conversations. Master spy Nicosa Renault searches through her mighty records in search of explanations for the world-shaking events¸ and the reader follows her inquiries. Blood on the Wind also features a useful appendix with a full time-line of events¸ advice for Heavy Gear players and profiles of important characters.
DP9's web site said Blood On The Wind was going to 'rock the Heavy Gear universe to its core'¸ and it does indeed do that. The face of Terra Nova is irrevocably changed in the first few pages (a surprise I want to leave to the reader)¸ and once again¸ super-spy Nicosia Renault pores through her accumulated data to find out why and who was responsible. In doing so¸ five cycles of Terranovan history are portrayed; from the commencement of the Interpolar War in 1935 to a return of focus to beyond the Terranovan Tannhauser Gate in 1939.