Dead Ground

In 1945, Chinese Colonel Zhang conducts a psychological interrogation of captured Japanese Lieutenant Tanaka, methodically breaking him down. Zhang extracts critical intelligence: Unit 731's biological weapons facility is hidden beneath a lumber mill in Harbin, and they're preparing to deploy their perfected weapon on 300,000 civilians in Xuzhou within 48 hours. British Captain Parker assembles a desperate five-man team: British intelligence officer Wells (a schoolteacher documenting war crimes), American medic Edmund (haunted by mercy killings he performed on wounded soldiers in Burma), Indian sergeant Kapoor (who despises Edmund for those choices), and Chinese resistance fighter Li (seeking redemption for past failures). After infiltrating Japanese territory, the team encounters a sniper in the mountains. Using military tactics, they escape through coordinated movement under fire, with Kapoor wounded but functional. That night, resting in a valley shelter, the team bonds over shared rations and personal stories. Edmund and Kapoor finally reconcile over the Burma incident when Edmund reveals he held each dying man's hand, including Kapoor's friend Akash, who asked Edmund to tell his wife "he kept his promise" to come home alive. The pilot ends with the five men at peace, finally understanding each other, unaware of the approaching danger. What follows is an innovative series structure where each episode focuses on one character's solo mission to stop the Xuzhou attack. The peace is immediately shattered when a massive Japanese army attacks at dawn, separating them across enemy territory with each man forced to find his own path to the target. Li infiltrates the prison system to reach the facility from within, witnessing Unit 731's horrific human experiments while forming an alliance with fellow prisoner Feng. Edmund, haunted by a tragic mistake that costs an innocent life, seeks redemption by helping evacuate Xuzhou civilians while racing to destroy the weapon deployment convoy. Parker and Wells navigate capture, with Wells forced to document unspeakable horrors while Parker makes increasingly desperate choices to ensure the mission succeeds.