The old world ended at precisely 11:22pm, on the fourth of December, 2033. In the preceding decade, advances in human cloning had led to the development of the ultimate weapon - the expendable human clone soldier. Mass produced in cloning factories, and armed with the type of organic intelligence that robots could never match, these clones replaced traditional soldiers at the frontline. Unlike previous conflicts, wars over dwindling resources could now be waged cheaply, and without the ethical constraint of the previous wars.