The Defenders is a 1953 science fiction novel by American master of the genre Philip K. Dick, and the basis for Dick's 1964 novel The Penultimate Truth. (It is one of several of his stories to be expanded into a novel)... Eight years ago a nuclear war began between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. American survivors evacuated to gigantic bunkers miles under ground. Sophisticated, radioactivity-immune robots called 'leadys' continue fighting the war on the devastated surface that is far too dangerous for humans. The Soviets have similarly evacuated underground, and each side builds powerful weapons and vehicles for the remote-controlled war they only see from film that the robots deliver...