An astronaut and test pilot, Steve Austin, experiences a near fatal crash during a test flight, leaving him with a ruined body – only one limb working, one working eye, and major injuries. While this is happening, a secret U.S. government department, the Office of Strategic Operations, is working on bionics (the replacement of human body parts with powerful, mechanical prosthetics). A government chief of the secret department orders one of the doctors working in bionics to rebuild Austin, who gets two new legs which he can use to run at high speeds, a new left arm with the strength of a battering ram, a poisin dart gun in one of his fingers, a false, removeable eye with a video camera, a steel skull plate, and a radio in his ribs.