Plot
Sergeant Shane Carpenter is a veteran Mantel soldier in a dystopian future where he was enticed by Mantel propaganda and dropped out of college. He arrives in the Boa region of South America, where Mantel troops have been dispatched to liberate the country from a rebel group known as "the Promise Hand" which is accused of ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity by Mantel's mass media division. Shane meets his squad-mates: Sergeant Morgan Duvall, who is the leader of the squad, Lance Corporal Teare, and Corporals Peshy and "Watchstrap". Teare is quickly berated and dismissed by Duvall for not taking his requisite dose of Mantel's performance-enhancing drug, Nectar.
Shane joins Mantel in fighting the Promise Hand; his Nectar administrator fails to drug him on several occasions, causing him to witness a number of disturbing events: amongst them; he hears screams, implied to be Duvall torturing someone, and has a conversation with a pilot who, despite not having any wounds following a crash, dies. Duvall does not care about the discrepancies; Shane sees the dead bodies of civilian factory workers that Duvall's squad massacred in an earlier mission, as Duvall thinks that they can end up fighting back. Eventually, Shane and his squad are sent to capture Gabriel "Skincoat" Merino, the leader of the Promise Hand who supposedly eats his enemies and wears a long coat made of their skins. Shane captures Merino, only to find that he is an old man who's only wearing a sweater vest made out of cotton. Merino debates with Shane about war, asking him if he is on the right side. Duvall arrives and begins torturing Merino, cutting off one of his fingers. After entering the helicopter to return to base, Duvall brands Shane as a wuss and thinks he'll become an 'ape' like the rest of the rebels. When Duvall starts trying to cut off both of Merino's hands, Shane pulls a gun on the rest of his squad, leading to a shootout which causes the helicopter they are in to crash.
After crashing into a swamp, Shane tries to contact Mantel about the incident and his inability to administer his dose of Nectar, but fails and starts going into severe withdrawal and experiences hallucinations from it. Mantel forces, realizing that Shane is not taking the proper levels of Nectar and thinking he has gone rogue, mark him for death by labeling him a "Code Haze" (Terminate with Extreme Prejudice) and send in their Black Ops (Mantel's professional soldiers, in contrast to Mantel's regular drug-fueled troopers) to kill him. However, Shane escapes death from the Black Ops by a "Promise Hand" scout that leads him underground. However, in the underground, he loses consciousness due to Nectar withdrawal. Shane is rescued by Merino and the Promise Hand, and realizes that everything he's been told about them has been false propaganda by Mantel. Shane is forced to kill Peshy and Watchstrap (who were also rescued from the crash by the Promise Hand) when they start shooting up the village. An insane Duvall, also alive, escapes after telling Shane he is an "animal" just like the rebels. Having witnessed the unwilling atrocities committed by delusional Mantel soldiers, Shane claims himself as a traitor but after Merino says he's on the right side, Shane swears allegiance to the Promise Hand in hope of doing the right thing and to undo the damage done by Mantel.
Answering a distress call from a wrecked Mantel cargo ship off a heavily fortified beach, Shane meets up with Teare. Teare, completely battered and wounded, reveals that when they first met, he sabotaged Shane's Nectar administrator to prevent him from entering the hallucinatory state it would usually give. Teare reveals the cargo ship is filled with the bodies of past Mantel troopers that the corporation was secretly disposing of; prolonged Nectar use has been proven to be eventually fatal, and Mantel has been concealing this fact by hiding all the bodies of Mantel troopers who have died from the drug, hiding the evidence. Teare also reveals that Mantel's stated humanitarian reasons for intervening in Boa are false propaganda and their real goal is the destruction of Nectar plants being grown by the local population, in order for Mantel to maintain its monopoly on Nectar production. After working on a plan to assault the observatory, Shane and his "Promise Hand" allies are ambushed by Mantel troops, having to detour and return to the village, but Teare is then killed by Mantel's Black Ops soldiers. The Mantel assault is repelled and the plan recommenced.
Leading the Promise Hand, Shane succeeds in destroying Mantel's regional supply of Nectar and remote control network at the observatory control room, causing the Mantel troopers to suffer mental and physical breakdowns from the withdrawal's side effects, to the point of suicide after witnessing the atrocities they committed. Merino orders an assault on Mantel's Landcarrier HQ to finish the war, but Shane is reluctant because Mantel's troopers are now largely defenseless and with no ability to administer Nectar, they no longer pose as a threat. Nonetheless, they begin their attack. During the assault on the Landcarrier, Shane confronts Duvall, who has taken over the Landcarrier due to being the only one disciplined enough to remain sane after suffering Nectar withdrawal. After a shootout in the control room, in which the two argue about right and wrong and the nature of war, Shane kills Duvall and escapes from the exploding Landcarrier. The story ends with Merino describing Shane as a "hero" and revealing his plans to use Nectar, in combination with free will, to give his people some "confidence". Merino states that Mantel "mismanaged" Nectar and denounces them as being "just animals", which greatly disturbs Shane, as it appears that Merino has learned nothing about what Mantel has done and plans to use Nectar to his own advantage.
