Heavy Metal Thunder Read online

  198

  “All of your skills seem so worthless,” you say, “that I would do the species a favor by ejecting you from the gene pool. Now, go!”

  The man looks dejected.

  “Go on, I said! Git!”

  Once the man leaves, one of the guards says, “You know, man, you don’t have to be so mean when you get rid o’ someone. Can’t you just, like, tell’m to leave?”

  “Perhaps I shall be kinder,” you say, darkly, “when I ask you to leave.”

  The guard snorts, then turns away from you.

  Turn to section 537.

  199

  You try to shake the feeling. Try to tough it out. “Hey,” you say to no one in particular. “Why’d the chicken... cross the... road.” The joke seems disingenuous, false. No one wants to be bothered.

  “The chicken is dead,” says a voice. The voice is honest. All is pointlessness.

  “Wait, who -”

  The unthinkable happens. Without warning, one window of the ship shatters, blows outward, you feel the breath sucked out of you and see boxes and gear fly free, you are suddenly cold, cold all over. You crash into a steel-wall and your eyeballs roll around loosely. A large box slams into the opening, sealing the vacuum off, but before you come to a rest on the ground you see the metal just in front of your face explode inward as something from the outside pierces it, then the vacuum sucks against the ship again. Chaos before you, someone’s limbs flailing, objects crashing against one another.

  As you crash about the freezing maelstrom in the ship, you lose 2 Blood, though you may subtract your Defense rating from this amount if you happen to be wearing any Armor.

  You manage to force your helm on just as ice crystals form in your tear ducts and greasy hair. You are overcome with a black, dark feeling that drowns out all humane concerns. Without thinking you haul yourself towards an exit. Two more holes are blasted into the side of the ship and you know that a sniper is attacking from a hideout on one of the asteroids. As the vacuum churns within the Narrenschiff you clamber into a small depressurization chamber, lock the door behind you, then kick open the exit door. Darkness lies before you and you blast your jets on full throttle. All is silent, but the kick of the jet behind you is a roar of freedom in your blood, a freedom from all ties as you leave behind the fantasy world of soft things and enter into the dance of death with which you have become familiar.

  A sniper in the service of the Invaders waits for you on one of the asteroids. Now, finally, you will face the true enemy. And one of you will die.

  (If you have died, then you may Regenerate by turning to section 312, or, if you want to go further back, section 179.)

  Turn to section 247.

  200

  You think at first that you are frozen in fear, but you feel your legs moving you toward them and hear the words coming out of your mouth as something deep and powerful takes control of you. “Sir,” you say, to their red-badge Commander, “I want to fight with you.”

  The Commander stops, and his infantry stop behind him. The Commander looks down at you with hard eyes, breathing heavily through his thick mutton-chop facial hair. “Dogs carry papers to prove their pedigree,” he says, his voice distant and strange. “Are you a dog with all his papers in order?”

  The men all seem to look through you as if you were a gnat, and you know they consider whether crushing you would be worth the effort.

  If you wish to lie and say you left your papers somewhere else, turn to section 37.

  If you wish to tell him you don’t need any papers, turn to section 483.

  201

  You draw your blade and rush towards one of the deconstructor’s eyes.

  You must now compute an abstract number that will determine the outcome of the battle. This number is your Ground Combat (or 1 G Combat) added to your Strength stat. If you have the Weapon Proficiency: Hand-to-Hand skill with a Blade, add 2 to this number.

  If this number is 6 or less, turn to section 561.

  If this number is 7 or more, turn to section 522.

  202

  “Might as well head toward that heat output,” you say. “That alright with you, Marcus?”

  “Boy...” says Marcus, turning toward you. “I’ll give you a heat output.”

  “Quit actin’ like bitches,” says Uther. “Come on.”

  Everyone floats down the dark hallway, sheathing hand-to-hand weapons and drawing guns. Eventually you come to a locked door. Marcus blasts the heavy bolts and you help Uther force the door open while air bursts through rapidly. With quick-bursts from your jetpacks you make it inside. You force your way through another doorway, where there is light, gravity, and air. Everyone flips their visors up part-way; while you can breathe a little easier, you can still see whatever information your helm computer feeds you.

  “Music off,” says Commander Uther. “Ears open. Walk softly.”

  The hallway is old, rusted in parts, covered in dust and strange graffiti. You cannot help but associate it with a dungeon. You see Marcus’s face as he glances at you quickly. His skin is very dark, almost black, and his eyes are narrow and slitted, snake-like.

  You stalk down the hall in single file, Uther in front on point with Sybel coming second reading his scanning machine. Marcus brings up the rear with his large automatic rifle.

  “Wonder where everyone is?” whispers Marcus.

  “Probably drew inward during the hull breach,” says Sybel. “Clustering around key points they want to defend.” As you pass various intersections Sybel points one way or the other, drawing you closer to the nearest heat-generating source.

  “Can that thing pick up an Invader’s heat signature?” you whisper.

  “No,” says Sybel. “Not hot enough. This thing just picks up the kind of heat given off by the nuclear reactor in the engine room, and the shield generator itself.”

  You stalk the long, dimly lit, macabre hallways. An intercom turns on and some alien voice gives vent to guttural commands. A wide, open doorway waits up ahead.

  “There,” says Sybel, stopping. “Whatever’s producing that heat is up ahead.”

  “Don’t see anyone,” whispers Marcus, “but you know those bastards is there.”

  “No cover in this hallway,” says Uther, “but there’s a door to the right. If we can get it open then we’ll have some cover. Come on.”

  If you are trained in Stealth, turn to section 106.

  If you do not have this skill, turn to section 97.

  203

  You plot a course as best you can through the Asteroid Belt, but no matter how fast the Narrenschiff goes, to you the technology seems ancient, completely outdated. Since you have plenty of fuel, you run the engine full-tilt all the time.

  You decide to fly by two large asteroids called Scylla and Charybdis. You note that while the two asteroids are named after mythological monsters that gave some hero of legend a hard time, for you they will be good omens, for they roughly mark the point at which you will be two-thirds of the way through your journey, which will end at your reunion with your brothers in the Legion.

  Days pass. You must subtract 2 Foods for every person on the Narrenschiff, including yourself. You may use your own supply of Food in your inventory, if you have any. If you do not have enough to cover everyone, you must use up all possible Foods and then lose 1 Blood due to the harsh effects of slow starvation.

  If Simeon the Mechanic is with you, turn to section 531.

  If he is not, turn to section 262.

  204

  You swing your weapon about as the man swings his rifle. He catches you full in the head, jarring your skull, while you hit his chin in a glancing blow. You stagger backward and he tackles your midsection, slamming you into a wall. You swing your weapon into the air and bring it crashing down on his back. He howls, punching you in the side. You slam him in the back again and again, until he falls back, gripping his back and sputtering curses. You fall on him and bash his head until his face collapses into
his skull. He spews blood from his ruined mouth and twitches, already dead.

  You have lost 2 Blood in the battle. If your Blood score has dropped to zero or less, then multiple vessels burst in your brain from the earlier blow, and you out-twitch the dead man who killed you.

  If you have survived, turn to section 530.

  205

  “Fine,” you say, “but try not to break your hip on the way in.”

  “You’re just a little punk,” says the old fart, “and before this trip’s done, I’m going to humble your ass.”

  “Whatever. Just try not to pass away during one of your naps. I’ve heard that’s common among your kind, is it not?”

  The old man snorts, says, “Name’s Jeremiah Brown the Third.”

  “No it’s not,” you immediately say, “not on my ship, it isn’t. From now on, you’re Octegenarius the Elder.”

  Make a note that Octegenarius the Elder the Pilot has joined you.

  Turn to section 371.

  206

  The first thing you do when you are deeper into the void, after all the adrenaline has washed itself out of your body, is take a massive nap. A day or more passes as you sleep, and all of your Blood is restored as well as any temporarily-lowered stats like Strength, Dexterity, et cetera.

  Once you are rested, you think back on your experiences, considering what you did well and what you could have done better. You grow as a human being. If you have scored 15 or more Experience Points in your journey so far, then you become a Level 2 Jetpack Infantryman. As you continue to gain XP in your journey, your Level will continue to increase (for instance, when you have at least 40 XP, you will be at Level 3, 75 XP for Level 4, and so on).

  When you attain a higher Level, you receive several rewards. Every Jetpack Infantryman receives the following bonuses upon Level advancement:

  +3 Blood

  +3 Stat points to distribute

  +1 Combat point to distribute

  +1 Skill

  You may now add this bonus maximum Blood, distribute these Stat and Combat points, and choose an extra Skill now - if you have achieved Level 2. If you advance another Level during this journey, you may consult the Rules Index at the back of this book if you need a reminder of the Level advancement bonuses; the in-game text itself will no longer remind you to level-up.

  Turn to section 352.

  207

  You open the door to the doctor’s office. “My knee hurts,” you announce. “Well, it’s more of a tingling sensation than anything else, but I was wondering -” You stop suddenly, for it seems the screaming people in the office couldn’t care less about your problems. You take the situation in at a glance: At the far end of the room, a man in laborer’s coveralls holds a young female, also in coveralls, in front of him as a human shield. He has an automatic handgun held to her head, and his face is contorted in panic such that his eyes dart about like scared rabbits. Near you, a middle-aged priest glares at the laborer; he tosses a large bowie knife from one hand to the next, and is hunched over like a ravening beast. He eyes you with mistrust. The girl held by the laborer is small, very young-looking with short black hair, and she looks enraged as she struggles against her captor.

  The worst part is that you can clearly see containers of medicine and first aid kits on the far side of the violent scene. Many boxes are torn open, scattered about. In the far corner of the room you see a man in a doctor’s frock lying face down, most likely the doctor of this office. He is either doing brain surgery on himself and is currently in the middle of a snack break, or his head has been bashed in by someone.

  “Stay back, asshole!” shouts the laborer. “I’ll do it! I’ll blow her brains out! That’s just how much I love her!”

  “I just want some medical supplies,” growls the priest. “I swear by all that’s holy that I’m not going to slit your belly open and dance around in your steaming entrails, you degenerate!”

  “Go to hell!” the girl shrieks to her captor. “I’ll never marry you! Let me go or I’ll kill you!”

  “Baby,” mutters the laborer, pressing the gun to her forehead. “Please, please tell me you don’t mean these hurtful things you say.”

  (Note that you don’t necessarily need any bullets if you just want to draw your gun as a bluff.)

  If you have a gun, you can draw it on the laborer by turning to section 308.

  If you have a gun, you can draw it on the priest by turning to section 149.

  If you want to try to convince the laborer to let the girl go, turn to section 447.

  If you want to talk to the girl, turn to section 472.

  If you want to talk to the priest, turn to section 281.

  208

  You pull yourself over the steel box. Death hisses in your ears. Then the horned monster peers over the edge, gun extended. As you pull the trigger, you see the flash of his own gun. Just as your bullet slams into his mouthpiece, shattering teeth and tongue and blowing out the back of his head in a spray that paints the far wall, you feel a terrible fire along the side of your neck as the dead alien’s bullet tears through your neckpiece and slides along flesh before burning through the back of your suit.

  You lose 5 Blood, though you may subtract your Defense rating and your Will stat from this amount. Be sure to erase the amount of ammunition that you used.

  If you die, then you feel your suit filling with hot blood. “Hey Marcus,” you say, though your voice seems dim in your ears. “Man, I totally wasted those alien... guards...” As you fall down more corpse than man, Marcus seems unimpressed. You may Regenerate by turning back to section 161.

  If you survive, then you feel about your neck, heart racing as you curse the dead monster. You are lucky: The bullet has only torn out a chunk of meat, but no vital tubing has been laid open.

  Turn to section 520.

  209

  You must now compute an abstract number that will determine the outcome of the battle. This number is your Ground Combat (or 1 G Combat) added to your Strength stat. If you have the Weapon Proficiency: Hand-to-Hand skill with a Spear, add 2 to this number.

  If this number is 5 or less, turn to section 119.

  If this number is 6 or more, turn to section 570.

  210

  You swing your weapon towards one of the deconstructors, aiming for its face.

  You must now compute an abstract number that will determine the outcome of the battle. This number is your Ground Combat (or 1 G Combat) added to your Strength stat. If you have the Weapon Proficiency: Hand-to-Hand skill with a Mace, add 2 to this number.

  If this number is 5 or less, turn to section 534.

  If this number is 6 or more, turn to section 296.

  211

  You jump down onto the lower ledge. The weight of your jetpack feels like a cinderblock slamming into your back. You crash onto your knees. The edge of the platform rises to your face. You push your hands against it in order to stop your horrible momentum.

  If you have a Strength score of 3 or more, turn to section 278.

  If your Strength is not that high, turn to section 506.

  212

  The guard slams his fist into your torso, driving the air from you. You feel like either you are going to black out or your heart is going to explode. But you do not cry out.

  You must now compute a number to see if you are being beaten to death, or just close to it. Add your Ground Combat (1 G Combat) to your Strength and your Will stat. If you are trained in Weapon Proficiency: Mace, add 3 to the number.

  During your pounding you lose 7 Blood - but you can subtract the number calculated above from this amount. If your Blood has dropped to zero or less, then the guard has pounded your body into a gooey mess sloshing around inside your suit. If you have survived his onslaught, then continue on.

  You manage to reach down to your utility belt and free your weapon. Just as the guard prepares to slam another knuckle sandwich onto your plate, you swing your weapon about and crack him in his head. His eyes dilat
e and his mouth goes slack. You haul back again and smash the thing into his nose. Twin jets of blood spray onto you as he recoils in pain and falls. He staggers up, blinking wildly; you swing the weapon into his mouth; you nearly throw up, so sickening is the sound of teeth and bones crunching in his face. He slams into a wall and slides down, face pouring blood like a syrup fountain. A few good whacks finishes the job - that is, if the job is to find out exactly what this man had inside his skull.

  You gain 2 XP for killing the guard. You search his body and find the following items:

  STELLAR Hand-Held Radio (bulk 1)

  Lounge Card Key (bulk 0)

  Turn to section 565.

  213

  Your flight through the freezing void continues. Continues. Continues.

  Stay the course. Endure. Madness! The sane are all dead, you realize, dead because they chose moderation in a universe full of extremes, rife with monsters. Floating through nothingness. Freezing: this place is a sanitarium for those too insane to be killed. Twinkling stars, points of light... creators of shadows. You stare them down, wondering who will blink out first. Are you teetering on the brink of madness, or have you just revolved around to the point at which you are fully insane and conscious of that fact?

  It is deathly cold and in a moment of pure terror you realize that the vast majority of everything that exists is just this: dark and freezing cold. Life exists only on the fringes. A thin film, ready to pop at any moment. A tiny sliver of bacon that could unzip its space suit at any time and end it all...

  Horrified, you realize that your hands have been working like little squirrels to unzip your suit and end your life. “Get a hold of yourself, soldier!” you scream and slap your helm. “The night is long and you are the watchman! Get your shit together! This epic journey isn’t going to work itself out!”