Story Information
Cover Iron Curtain Academy

Iron Curtain Academy

When the Cold War turned into a sport, both superpowers sent their best to one academy. Superhuman or merely brilliant — whose flag will you carry?

#progressionfantasy #academy #alternatehistory #coldwar #supersoldiers #militaryacademy

Story Description

**In 1975, the Cold War stopped being fought with missiles and started being fought with cadets.** Two superpowers learned how to build people who can bend steel, outrun bullets, and heal from what should have killed them — and then worked out that a real war between them would end the world. So they made a deal. Berlin is demilitarized. Neutral ground. And at the centre of it stands the International Cold War Academy, where NATO and Warsaw Pact cadets share meals, share dorms, and settle their nations' grudges in the arena. You arrive with a student ID, a duffel bag, and something to prove. Enrol as a super soldier — choose your abilities, each one carrying a rating, a ceiling, and a price — or as an ordinary prodigy whose training, discipline and nerve simply have to be enough. Fly fighters. Command a tank. Put a gunship in the weeds. Lead infantry who cannot afford a single bad call. Or run the logistics that decide who wins before the first shot is fired. Because the Academy is not really a school. It is a substitute for the Third World War, and the standings are read in Washington and Moscow. Every drill, every duel, every simulated campaign is scored and ranked and remembered — and the cadets who climbed over you to get here would very much like it to stay that way. **WHAT TO EXPECT:** alternate-history academy progression fantasy with light LitRPG-style ratings and standings. Cross-Curtain rivalries and slow-burn romance, tank duels, dogfights and large-scale simulated campaigns. Non-graphic combat; Cold War politics and the Second World War appear as fiction only, and no real atrocities are on the page. The Cold War never fired a shot. It is about to fire a thousand. Which side of the Curtain will you stand on?

Characters

YouFirst-year cadet at the Cold War Academy

A cadet entering the Academy in 1975, arriving either as a super soldier or as an ordinary prodigy. Name, bloc and track are yours to decide.

Lilia ValentiItalian super soldier

A NATO super soldier from Italy: warm, loud, ferociously competitive, and incapable of treating any match as anything less than a performance for her country.

Katie WalkerBritish infantry command

A NATO infantry commander from Britain: cool, restrained, and expert at walking a section out of an encirclement when the battlefield has gone to hell.

Hannah KellerWest German attack helicopter pilot

A NATO attack helicopter pilot from West Germany: bold on the stick, technically superb, and allergic to flying above the treeline — which exasperates her instructors and reassures them in equal measure.

Yuri AntonovSoviet tank commander

A Warsaw Pact tank commander from the Soviet Union: aggressive, willing to gamble, and used to winning by massing more armour than the other man brought.

Katyusha MorozovaSoviet fighter pilot

A Warsaw Pact fighter pilot from the Soviet Union: proud, precise, disciplined almost to the point of stiffness, and secretly in love with the sky itself.

Anastasia PetrenkoWarsaw Pact professor of armored warfare

A Warsaw Pact professor of armoured warfare who is merciless in the lecture hall and quietly protective of genuinely talented students outside it.

Dorothy AndersonNATO professor of air and naval warfare

A NATO professor of air and naval warfare: gracious, superbly connected, and both the guardian of the rules and the hardest observer on campus to read.

Story starts

Starting setup

Opening Preview

Prologue | Superhuman

## Berlin, September 1975. There is nowhere else on Earth quite like this city. It was once sliced in half by armies and ideology. Now it is the neutral ground between two nuclear superpowers. The streets are packed with students from every corner of the world, and the flags of NATO and the Warsaw Pact fly side by side beneath the great banner of the International Cold War Academy. This academy is where the Cold War is fought without a war. The finest young soldiers, scientists and strategists alive compete here for their nations. Some arrive as ordinary people. Others are the product of humanity's greatest scientific achievement and its most controversial weapon at the same time: the super soldiers. They came out of the Second World War, and their stamina, senses and recovery broke every human limit. Some are only a step beyond a world-class athlete. Others can do things that should not be possible. You are one of them. The train has just stopped at Berlin Central Station. Through the window, you see the Academy's towering main building for the first time. At the gate, you glance down at the student ID they handed you on the platform. What does it say? Name: Sex: Age: Appearance: Nationality: Abilities: (e.g. Super Strength C+, Metal Control A-, Pyrokinesis B+, Super Speed SS) (You may take more than one ability.)

This is the super soldier start. First fill in name, sex, age, appearance and nationality, then list your ability types and ratings in the Abilities field. The higher the rating, the sharper the edge — and the steeper the side effects. When you are done, copy the ID into your own notes so the engine never forgets your setup. Sample build — Name: Heinrich Walden; Sex: Male; Age: 21; Appearance: six foot two, short dark-blond hair, dark brown eyes; Nationality: Ireland; Abilities: Super Strength (B), Telekinesis (A), Regeneration (D).