Heavy Metal Thunder Page 2

  You leave the man alone so that he can come up with more amazing poetry.

  Until then, you must subtract 1 Food 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.

  13

  In crystal clear detail you see the face of the terrified revolutionary as he fires at you. You can hear, even feel, the bullets fly by your head. Caught in your sights, you see his head jerk to the side, mangled like a stomped cake. As he stumbles backwards you see red splatter down onto his neck, shoulder, chest. Your gun barks again, jumping in your hand, and the smiling revolutionary is caught from two sides, and spins about in a spraying bundle of agony. Both revolutionaries crash into the ground, twitching lamely, blood pouring freely.

  While the lawman catches his breath, you look at the wall behind you. It is completely riddled with bullets, as if you were the poster boy for Swiss cheese. “Damn I’m good,” you say. You gain 1 XP for being such a smooth operator. Be sure to erase the amount of ammunition that you used.

  Suddenly the lawman looks at you. “What?” you say.

  “I, uh,” he says, trying to recover himself. “I gotta get outta here. Fight some crime, or something. Something.” He stares ahead and marches out of the room.

  “Right on!” you say. “Wha-a-atever, bro.” You search the bodies of the dead and find the following gear.

  Krieger-Colt Pump-Action Shotgun (Shotgun, bulk 3)

  3 Shotgun Shells (1 bulk)

  Cold Cock Auto (Handgun, bulk 2) (The serial number is scratched off.)

  4 Handgun Bullets (bulk 1)

  When you are ready to hit the all-you-can-eat buffet (and scoop up some XP), turn to section 260.

  14

  You float towards the cake- and blood-smeared table and tear open the bright packages. This is the worst Christmas ever, you think. You find the following items which may be of some use. You may take or leave what you like; just be sure to adjust your inventory accordingly.

  Bottle of Kleingard Hooch (bulk 1)

  “Economic Independence Through Relaxing Visualization” (bulk 1) (This is the kind of book that only a poor person would own.)

  Framed Photo (bulk 1) (Shows a group of laborers posing and smiling. You wonder if some of them are the same people who are dead in this room.)

  Your body cries out for oxygen.

  If you have a Dexterity score of 2 or more, turn to section 360.

  If not, turn to section 274.

  15

  Just as you draw your gun, the man swings his rifle, connects painfully with your wrist, and knocks it to the side. You grasp the gun with your numb hand as he tackles you. You slam into the wall. You can almost make out your own reflection in his tears as he grasps your throat. You jam the gun into his gut and blast him. He slides down to your feet, gushing a trail of blood onto your uniform.

  You have lost 1 Blood in the battle. If your Blood score has dropped to zero, then the trauma of the fight was enough to send you into shock, then into oblivion.

  Be sure to erase the amount of bullets you have used.

  Turn to section 530.

  16

  “Shucks,” you say, giggling. “I... I really like you, Zelda!” You feel a terrible, bare openness.

  Zelda relaxes suddenly, and it seems to you that she “shifts gears” somehow. “Awww,” she says. “You’re so sweet!”

  Wow! you think, filled with wonder. She thinks I’m sweet! While you don’t know a lot about girls, it doesn’t take much to realize that that’s probably the best thing a woman can say to a man. Probably.

  “Well,” says Zelda, “I guess I’m going to get some sleep.”

  You grin stupidly and wave goodbye to her. “What a lady,” you mutter to yourself, watching the stars shining in the black heavens. “Who knows what could happen between us? Tonight is just the beginning. And the sky’s the limit!”

  Turn to section 571.

  17

  You lift as many of the heavy oxygen tanks onto the cart as you can, then lead the cart out of the dock command station. It hums as you push it to a heavy iron door that leads to the ruined dock. You think about stacking them neatly, then remember the limited time and dump the things into the hall. You make several trips, filling the hallway with the precious tanks.

  Suddenly, the lights flicker, then the hall is cast into darkness. You float free from the ground. The hum of distant machinery is silenced. The deconstructors must have destroyed the back-up generator. You curse and turn your helm light back on. You kick away from the worthless cart and continue gathering oxygen tanks, kicking off from walls and pushing the things in front of you.

  If you have Sixth Sense, turn to section 438.

  If you do not have this Skill, turn to section 340.

  18

  You blast wildly, sending bullets ricocheting about the hall. The terrible eyes - they refuse to stand still! They emerge into the light, you see a whirl of segmented tentacles, insect-like faces without mercy, pincers grinding like mad. You back away, waving your gun and slapping about with your free hand. It seems the monsters are on either side of you in an instant. You have no choice but to fight them to the death.

  Be sure to erase the number of bullets that you spent in the “battle”.

  If you have a hand-to-hand weapon, draw it and turn to section 188.

  If not, face them with your bare hands by turning to section 69.

  19

  The four men lounge about while you rest. The guard and the laborer argue over the matter of a candy bar. The manager and the doctor whisper about something; the doctor shakes his head, laughs, then walks away from the sullen manager. You can hear the grinding of the larger deconstructors in the station. You grow tired of the inactivity and haul yourself up.

  “We need a ship to get out of here,” you say.

  “Well, we know that, but there aren’t any,” says the manager, annoyed. “I’ve already checked at the central comp station.”

  “Is there some way we can rig up a ship?” you say.

  The manager makes a sound with his lips, shakes his head.

  “Take me to the comp station,” you say. “I want to see for myself.”

  “It’s right in here,” the manager says wearily.

  As he leads you to the room, he studies your suit. “That... thing,” he says, motioning to your heavy jetpack. “You can... fly around in that?”

  “Mm hm. Short range.”

  “And that suit... it’s space-worthy?”

  “Mm. Short range,” you say, staring at him for a moment.

  “Interesting...”

  You enter the darkened room that holds the main computer terminal for the station. You sit at the terminal and navigate through the menus. The manager kicks around a few minutes behind you, then says, “What are you doing?”

  “I mean to get out of here,” you say. “I need to get back to my command.”

  “Why?”

  “Cause I’m not going to resign myself to death. And if I can find a ship then you can come with me, if you want, or die with a bunch of people you don’t even like.”

  The manager grunts, then leaves. You feel relieved, and concentrate on the foreign computer system. You find information regarding the STELLAR Corporation. It seems that this was an asteroid mining colony made of several stations that harvested ice and metals before shipping them off to other stations. Their earth operations have been shut down for years due to the Invasion. You are now in the Asteroid Belt between Mars and the giant gas planets.

  If you have the Computers skill, turn to section 487.

  If you do not have this skill, but have the Guide to STELLAR CORP Infotech manual, you can use it to figure out the system b
y turning to section 156.

  If not, turn to section 552.

  20

  Two fanatics fly ahead of you, their lances extended, while the rest of you fly in a tight formation behind. The others extend their smaller weapons outward and to the side, so you do the same. You have some dim notion that you have been told how to do this many times, but you are positive that this is the first time you have actually done so.

  You never see the shield, but suddenly your jetpack bucks and you feel an intense heat building in your suit. Your weapon nearly flies out of your hands. Someone mutters, “Steady, steady, don’t let go...”

  You know that at any moment the ship can blast all of you with its massive laser cannons; worse than that, if you fly too close to your comrades, you could collide and knock everyone out of formation and the shield would most likely incinerate you.

  You glance to the side as the bombers streak by silently, unloading their payloads of missiles at the Invader ship. Far from you, the shield lights up as missiles slam into its surface, some exploding on impact, some bouncing away harmlessly, others grinding through like buzz-saws - these last are, apparently, fitted with the same sort of field-generating charges as your own weapon.

  You see dozens of red flashes as the Invader ship fires at the missiles. The sight is disorienting; your teeth rattle in your skull; it feels as if your suit is cooking you alive.

  Unless you have the Jetpack Skill, you cannot seem to stay close enough to your comrades and so, due to the intense heat and pressure of the shield, you lose 3 Blood. However, you may subtract your Defense rating from this amount if you happen to be wearing any Armor.

  Finally you burst free from the energy shield, rocketing toward the ship as your suit quickly cools down. One fanatic whoops loudly, then blasts ahead of you. Someone says, “We’re gonna have to hack in somewh -” just as one missile breaches the shield and slams into the Invader ship. There is a flash, a rush of white mist, then a gaping hole highlighted by molten slag.

  “We go in through there,” says Commander Uther. “That’ll make our job easier.”

  “Maybe it already hit the shield generator,” says someone.

  “Probably won’t be so lucky,” says Sybel, the strange dream interpreter.

  As the bombers streak away in a tight curve, you and your comrades fly toward the hole in the black hull of the Invader ship.

  Turn to section 282.

  21

  You dig your hands into the ground, then push off, floating silently through the darkness near the sniper’s rocky hideout. Moments later you see the dim shadow of the sniper as he peeks around the corner, rifle in hand. He is very close to you, but you are not sure if he sees you or not.

  If you want to attack him with a gun, turn to section 147.

  If you want to blast forward and take him head-on, with or without a hand-to-hand weapon, turn to section 232.

  22

  “Get that crap away from me!” you scream as you knock his hands away from you. The doctor looks at you in shock - then his lips pull back in a sneer, his eyebrows curl with malice, and he lunges at you.

  You grab his wrists and hold him back as he tries to jam the syringe into your torso. Sweat rolls down his face in torrents and his lips contort like a madman’s. The doctor is not well and he is trying to kill you.

  Turn to section 241.

  23

  You kick off and fly towards the guard. Just as he swings his pipe into the side of your helm, you swing your fist and knock the flashlight from his hand. As it spirals on some crazy axis, you and the guard grapple for supremacy as you float in the darkness. His enraged face hovers in your vision, hissing and growling, and you both move with terrible slowness, as in a nightmare.

  You must now compute a number that will determine the result of your battle. Add your Zero-G Combat stat to your Dexterity and Strength Stat.

  As the guard fumbles about with his beefy hands, he manages to crush 8 Blood from your body, but you may subtract the above number from this amount of lost Blood. If your Blood score drops to zero or less, then the guard somehow yanks your helmet off and, stuck in his unmerciful bear hug, he bites into your face and jerks the skin clean off your skull with a twist of his neck.

  If you survive his grappling, then you manage to pull free from his grasp. As he waves his huge arms about, you realize that he is less experienced at zero gravity movement than you are. You kick off from a wall, cartwheel, grab his leg, and flip him about. Your movement is stilled as he spins out of control. Soon he throws up into the air. You maneuver about, taking your time to position your jetpack before him. He grabs onto you - then you fire your rockets.

  As you jet away from him, you hear him holler in agony in the second he has before his throat and chest melt into barbecue soup. You pop open your helm just a bit - smells like Mom is in the kitchen!

  You gain 2 XP for killing the guard. Turn to section 562.

  24

  “Fine,” you say. “Let’s blast those machines.”

  “Good man!” says the manager. “Fine spirit, son!”

  You see the guard and the laborer put on plastic face masks and attach them to heavy air tanks that they strap to one another’s backs. You see another air tank on the ground. You feel around on your back and, without thinking, pull a concealed lever that releases your damaged air tank, which clatters to the ground noisily. The manager yelps. “It was broken,” you say. “Help me get that other one on.” He fools about behind you for a while, complaining that the air tank is too big. Annoyed, you reach back, force the thing into place, then connect the tube that leads to your neckpiece. Now, at least, you have working oxygen - but you will need more.

  “Where’d you get this?” you ask, busying yourself with your gear as if the details were inconsequential.

  “The dock command station,” says the guard. “We’ll need this stuff if there’s vacuum coming in with those machines.”

  Oxygen right where the fuel lines are, you think. Perfect!

  The guard passes you a rope and an automatic grappling line. He and the laborer have identical units fixed to their belts. You must take the AGL Rope (bulk 1) with you. If you do not have enough room in your inventory, you must drop something until you have enough space to carry it.

  The guard and manager check their twin hand-held radio units. Finally the guard wraps a belt of grenades around his chest, then nods to you and the old laborer. The three of you jog through the halls on an interception course between the deconstructors and the backup power system.

  Turn to section 396.

  25

  “I don’t want that crap in me,” you say. “Thanks anyway.”

  “Ah, well,” says the doctor. “But you know... it will make you feel better.”

  “I already feel right as can be,” you say. “So thanks.”

  “Very well,” says the doctor. He turns away - then whirls around and lunges at you. You grab his wrists and hold him back as he tries to jam the syringe into your torso.

  “What the hell are you doing, man?!” you scream.

  Sweat rolls down his face in torrents and his lips contort like a madman’s. The needle is shaking in front of you. Either you and the doctor have a different definition of vitamins - or he is trying to kill you.

  Turn to section 241.

  26

  Your jets flare to life and you coil in a crazy arc within the grip of the beast. The mouth snaps all around, the tentacles grip, lose their hold, then grip again. You grit your teeth, strain against your bonds - then, somehow, break free. The jaws snap, then hang open in frustration as you fly away.

  You gain 1 XP for surviving.

  As you fly away from the head, you see scattered around the bulk of the massive beast even more heads, more seas of tentacles. They are alarmed at your fight against their brother, but cannot reach you. You laugh wickedly, hungry to hurt this pet of the Invader. Wise to the monster’s tricks, you look for weak points that you can investigate.
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  If you want to look at the hole you see in the distance, turn to section 384.

  If you want to follow one of the blue channels that runs throughout the beast’s skin, turn to section 373.

  27

  You slam your weapon onto one of the drills. It knocks your hand away, jolting it and numbing your shoulder. Cursing, you raise yourself before the drills can grind you up. Then you brace yourself again, slam your weapon into a drill over and over again, pain coursing up your arm. You raise yourself again, panting, spinning, then bash the thing some more as it rises to finish you.

  Finally, one drill bit keels over, spinning and shrieking, and tears another drill from its base. The two fall into the beast’s mouth. You lower yourself and rest against the exposed rim, then knock more of the drills off and into the gaping mouth. You lose your balance and teeter over the side of the mouth - then a drill catches you in the helm, throwing you against the wall and jarring your skull. You somehow keep from blacking out, then pound the last of the drills over the side and into the vacuum. So crazed are your strokes that your weapon also falls to pieces - be sure to erase it from your inventory. You collapse, unable to feel your arm.

  The deconstructor stops, realizing it is damaged and needs repair. You turn to the other and see the guard’s gun fall into its drills. You glance up to the guard; gritting his teeth, he yanks the belt of grenades from his chest and drops the whole thing into the other deconstructor. You brace yourself as its innards are rocked by a series of explosions. It falls sideways, crashing into your deconstructor; you yank wildly on the grappling harness and it pulls you away as the two machines slide back toward the vacuum, shrieking as their metal sides bend and crush into one another, then nearly seal up the breached hallway. You and the guard fall to the floor, newly reoriented. Exhausted, you both crawl into another hallway.