KZAR I: Jupiters

With World War III looming, a slave super soldier fights to save his species and his sanity.

In the year 2030, the US government is engineering super soldiers in its secret Starforge facility in the Nevada desert. Upon birth, "Jaegers" must prove their prowess in gladiator-style fights to the death called Crypteias. Victorious Jaegers then endure a life of captivity, combat missions, and psychological abuse until new variants supplant them. Unable to harm their expensive assets physically, humans torture reigning Jaegers by exiling them into hellish dream worlds to keep them submissive.

Alaudae is a Jupiter, the strongest type of Jaeger. He leads the six other types on combat missions and is supposed to mentor them when they are stationed in Starforge. But he cannot do those things. His body is barely up to the task, and his mind even less so, especially as Starforge's abuse takes its toll on his sanity. Then he hears rumors of an impending apocalypse, threatening the lives of him and his fellow Jaegers, the only family he has. Can he endure what is coming? Is the inferno that is his life melting him or refining him?