Heavy Metal Thunder Read online

  You lose 6 Blood from the assault, but you may subtract your Strength score from this amount. Furthermore, your suit has been damaged by the buckshot, and if you have any Sticky Fix then you must use one dose of it now. If you do not have any Sticky Fix, then make a note that your space suit is damaged. If your Blood score has dropped to zero or less, then you reach around to your back to check if you are bleeding; when you pull your hand back, you find you are holding a slab of your own intestinal tract. That’s funny, you think before dying, I don’t remember getting any sausage from the cafeteria. If you wish to Regenerate, you may turn back to section 312, or, if you wish to restart further back, turn to section 179.

  If you survive, turn to section 254 to continue your trek to a ship docking bay.

  274

  You underestimated the amount of time it would take you to search the room without air. You kick and flop about awkwardly in the room of floating bodies. Eventually your body, lacking its most vital resource, floods your awareness with a sense of incredible pain and want: Lose 1 Blood.

  Turn to section 360.

  275

  “Not so fast, Gramps!” you shout. You blast him in the chest, once, and he stumbles sideways before he crashes to the ground at your feet. He gags as red gushes from his shattered chest. Then he lies still.

  You gain 0 XP for wasting the old man. Damn, you think to yourself, I thought it would feel better than that. Guilt creeps into your system. He was probably a bad person, you decide. Was probably mean to a lot of people in his life. Probably.

  Be sure to erase 1 bullet from your inventory. You may take the dead priest’s Bowie Knife (Blade, bulk 1) if you wish.

  “Damn, dude,” says the laborer. “That was pretty heartless, don’t you think?”

  The girl looks at you in fear. The laborer forces the gun to her temple once more, and she grits her teeth in fury.

  If you want to stare down the laborer, point your gun at his head, and demand that he let the girl go, turn to section 495.

  If you have at least one bullet and, emboldened by your murder, want to take a shot at the laborer, turn to section 517.

  If you want to back out toward the door and leave this crazy scene, turn to section 254.

  276

  Your jet flares to life and you swing around in a loop, blood charging in your veins like a crazed herd of horses. As you come over the top of the sniper’s wall he sees and tries to finish reloading his long rifle in time to blast you out of the sky.

  If you want to attack him with a gun, turn to section 375.

  If you want to slam into him and take him head-on, with or without a hand-to-hand weapon, turn to section 286.

  277

  You blast the giant drill-bits from the deconstructor, one by one. Each topples down into the beast’s hungry maw, grinding as it digests itself. Eventually the thing’s head is bald and ruined; it stops in its tracks, aware that it has been damaged and is in need of repair. The other passes up its comrade; you see the guard drop his empty rifle, which is shattered amid the drills. The guard curses and yanks off his belt of grenades, tears the pins from all of them, and drops them down into the deconstructor’s mouth. They disappear - then the thing’s insides pop and flash, smoke drifts from the thing’s head, and it topples backward, ruined, and smashes into the other. They both 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.

  You gain 3 XP for successfully destroying the deconstructors. Be sure to erase the amount of ammunition that you used.

  Turn to section 126.

  278

  You bow down low under the weight of the device, but you do manage to stop your fall: Gain 1 XP. You can see dogs jumping just a few feet below you, running back and forth, barking madly. The platform you are on connects to a hallway that stretches around the left side of this chamber. In the distance, a heavy concrete structure, support for some wall long gone, has fallen into this hallway and destroyed much of it. You reckon that you could reach this structure, climb to the top of it, and enter a hallway at the top that goes deeper into the station.

  You jog down the hallway. The barking of the dogs renews itself, louder this time. You look below and see two dogs, vicious black Buskaners, are already making their way up the fallen concrete support beam. The beam descends down into darkness, but by the dim light that reflects from the bottom you can make out more dogs running about the base of the thing. You run faster.

  You reach the ruined end of the hall, collapsed under the weight of the support beam. The two Buskaners stalk up the thing, picking their way carefully and growling all the while. They are perhaps twenty feet away from you, and now more dogs are climbing up the structure.

  If you have a Handgun and at least 3 Handgun bullets, you can fire at the two lead dogs by turning to section 118.

  If you want to stay here long enough to confront the two dogs, turn to section 190.

  If you want to climb onto the beam and begin your ascent, turn to section 151.

  279

  The men immediately stop and stare at you. “Damn,” says one. “Looks like we’d better give ourselves up.” You’re not sure why, but he’s smiling. Must be a nervous reflex, you think.

  “Naw,” says another. “He’s just the official bullet inspector. So... how’s this one look, Chief?” With that, the man fires his rifle and blasts you in the gut. Strangely enough, it’s more embarrassing than painful.

  As the men laugh, they fire at you, blowing open meat and veins and separating limbs from joints. You lose several hundred Blood during the assault; once you see your intestines spilling out from your ruptured suit, you lose count.

  You have died a true hero, fighting for law and order in a universe that cares about neither.

  THE END.

  Regeneration: If you want to start again, you may return to sections 377, or 312, or even 179 if you want to go farther back.

  280

  Zelda holds the wrist of your suit lightly and pulls you to a small, private corner of the ship. She looks out a long, narrow window. Many stars lie in the darkness.

  You stand with her a while, mostly looking out the window but occasionally glancing at her shining hair and her rounded ass. Once she looks at you and, not sure if you are caught, you blush. She smiles and laughs but you are not sure at what.

  If your Charisma is 3 or more, turn to section 579.

  If your Charisma is 2 or less, turn to section 16.

  281

  “Hey Padre,” you say, “just how do you figure into all this?”

  “Just want some medical supplies, alright?” says the priest, flicking the knife back and forth as he glares at the laborer. “Definitely don’t want to see what it feels like to stab someone to death before I die, oh-h-h-h no, that’s not what I’m about, friends.”

  “You know what his part is?” shouts the laborer. “He’s a priest, so he’s going to marry me and the woman of my dreams!”

  “Bullshit!” screams the girl. “I hate you! I hate all of you! Even the idiot who just walked in!”

  Who’s she talking about? you wonder. Is there someone else in here?

  “Put down the gun, then,” says the priest, a slow smile spreading, “and I’ll marry you both.”

  Tension coils up in your gut as you try to think of a solution to a problem that seems, at its core, completely unreasonable.

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

  If you wish to say, “All I want is supplies, too,” and try to convince the priest to bum rush the laborer at the same time, turn to section 164.

  If you wish to charge the laborer and tackle him yourself, turn to section 419.

  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.

  282

  If you have any SD damage, and have no Sticky Fix to repair your suit, then the void bleeds you for that much Blood.

  The eight of you fly into the hole. Darkness overwhelms you, then helm lights turn on, showing pools of floating dust and debris and many dark, ruined passages on all sides. Strange bodies float by, horned guards and personnel, long bearded faces, unnatural colorations and skin tones that are either unique to their kind or the result of the vacuum’s terrible work on the flesh.

  “Except for them horns,” says one man, “them devils almost look like people.”

  “Satyrs,” mutters Sybel, his voice a black whisper. “Satyrs come to dance and play a game with the most dangerous species.”

  “They’re devils,” says Uther. “Now shut up everyone.”

  You settle down in a hallway with flickering lights. A tiny bit of gravity tugs at your feet. You follow the Commander until you come to a four-way intersection. As the Commander calls a halt, a voice comes over the common channel, choked with panic, and says, “There’s an Invader team inside the Penelope! Bastards slipped through. Intercept, intercept...”

  Commander Uther turns to the team, says, “We gotta hurry, then. If they take out our shield generator, you can bet this ship won’t wait for their boys to make it out safely. We gotta get theirs, and get out, before they do. I’m gonna split us up into two teams of four. Sybel, Marcus, guy with no name, you three are with me. Heimdall, you’ll lead the others.”

  The man Marcus says, “I’m not babysitting some dog,” as he nods toward you.

  “Stow that,” says Commander Uther. “You’re not responsible for him. If he dies, he dies.”

  Talking about me like I’m not even here, you think, boiling inside. I hope something terrible doesn’t happen to that guy Marcus...

  Three hallways stretch out before you. Sybel points some device at them, then says, “Getting some energy readings, big heat signatures...” then points down two of the hallways. “One is probably the engine room, which we don’t need to find, and the other is probably the shield generator, which we want.”

  “No telling, at this distance,” says Uther, dismissing the readings. “These places are like labyrinths. Hell, it’s probably down the hall that isn’t giving off any energy reading.” He thinks for a moment, then says, “Heimdall, you boys take that hallway there.”

  Commander Uther points down one hallway with a positive-reading. “SIR!” says the second-in-command, then floats away with three other fanatics.

  As Uther looks down the other two halls, Marcus says, “Let’s let the dog sniff out the right way.” Sybel glances at you.

  “Marcus,” says Uther, “why are you being such a dick?”

  You know what the man is doing. If you choose and things go badly, he’ll have someone to blame. But you are less afraid of what Marcus thinks of you than you are of getting killed inside an Invader ship. Might as well play along with this man’s little game.

  If you want to suggest the hallway on the right, which has a positive energy reading, turn to section 202.

  If you want to suggest the hallway on the left, which has a negative energy reading, turn to section 145.

  283

  You hunker up and shake violently, as if monsters were at war inside you. You can barely make out the voices of the others; they sound faraway. You cannot breathe, cannot scream. Your fists clench, over and over, threatening to break the bones of your fingers. The need to kill is turning inward on its source - on you.

  If your Will is 2 or more, turn to section 481.

  Otherwise, turn to section 253.

  284

  You fire your gun into the mouth of the beast. Sparks fly as bullets ricochet off dozens of rows of teeth. The beast lurches backward. You see ice-cold blood shooting from behind the head, sparkling beautifully, then the mouth clamps shut and the head rockets forward. The head slams into you, jarring you nearly senseless, but the gripping tentacles relax suddenly and you float free.

  You lose 3 Blood from the desperate attack. Be sure to erase any ammunition that you used.

  The head of the beast hangs still, mouth agape, blood freezing in long icicles around its shattered skull. The tentacles grow still, then curl in upon themselves, limp. However, you see that scattered around the bulk of the massive beast are more heads, more seas of tentacles. They are alarmed, but cannot reach you.

  You gain 2 XP for killing a segment of the Invader’s pet. But you are not satisfied: You want the whole thing to lie cold and lifeless. Wise to the monster’s tricks, you look for weak points that you can investigate.

  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.

  285

  You crouch and run through the hall. Your jetpack is an incredible hindrance now, and you consider casting it aside. But the thought is squashed immediately, as if some ingrained programming has enslaved you to the device. When you stop to rest, you can almost hear the grinding of the malicious deconstructors.

  You consider the beating of your heart, the strength in your veins. Blood is life. In the game that is your life, Blood is an abstract score that represents vitality and health. (If you have ever played any sort of RPG, then Blood can be thought of as “hit points.”)

  When you are wounded, your Blood score will drop. When you rest or take healing medicines, your Blood score will rise. You begin this game of survival with a Blood score of 10. This is your maximum Blood; your Blood cannot rise above this amount. For example, if your Blood has dropped to 6, and you heal 7 Blood, then your Blood increases to 10. However, as you rise in levels, your maximum Blood score will increase.

  If your Blood ever reaches zero, then you have died, and the game of survival is lost. If this happens, put the book down, walk away, think about your life and the weaknesses that betrayed you, and try the game again when you’re ready.

  Moreover, as you interact with the world and gain a greater understanding of it, you will grow as a person. That is, as you fight your way through this situation you will earn Experience Points, which are abstract representations of your actual experience. When you gain enough Experience Points (or XP), you will gain additional character Levels and receive additional Stat Points, Blood, and Skills.

  You start out this game of survival at Level 1. Due to the loss of your memory, you have 0 XP. Be sure to record this. When you have at least 15 XP and make it out of the ghost station alive, then you will gain one character level and the rewards that come with it.

  You come to a doorway at the end of the hall. You brace yourself, then open it. What you see looks like a circus come out from the depths of Hell.

  Turn to section 110.

  286

  You blast toward the enemy as he raises his long rifle.

  You must now compute a number that will determine the outcome of your battle. This number is your Strength added to your Zero G Combat stat. If you have the Jetpack Skill, add 3 to this number. If you are trained in Weapon Proficiency: Hand-to-Hand, and it is with the weapon you are using, add 3 to this number. If you are using a Mace, add 1. If you are using a Spear, add 1. If you have no hand-to-hand weapon, subtract 3.

  The long rifle fires in a flash of light. You lose 13 Blood, but you may subtract the number you calculated from this amount. You may also subtract your Defense rating, if you happen to be wearing any Armor. If you lose at least 1 Blood then you also lose 1 SD.

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

  If you survive, then you crash into the Invader, sending you both into the rocky wall in a plume of dust. You are blinded for a moment, then see oxygen and red ice spew from your enemy’s demolished sui
t. As the dust and frozen blood clears, you rest in a bed of ash beside your fallen enemy.

  You gain 2 XP for killing the Invader sniper.

  Turn to section 362.

  287

  You secure your foot against a wall and shove the door open. A limp body spins away from the door. You flash your light around the room. There are bodies everywhere, blood floating in islands, and shell casings of spent bullets. Everyone has the same green worker’s uniform. You brace yourself as you enter the room, unsure that the slayer has gone. A cake floats by. Though chunks of it have been cut out, you can just make out frosted words that read, “Happy Birthday Kingsley!” The cake has a great number of candles and a frosted representation of a gravestone.

  You examine the bodies, the wounds. Whoever killed them was precise. While the victims’ bodies are whole, their heads are tattered ruins, all smeared in blood with lank hair drenched and wet. Far too precise for a room full of people. And all the empty casings that hit your light are of human make, small caliber...

  Then you notice an automatic handgun resting in a corner where two walls intersect with the ceiling, hiding like a mischievous child, and you know that it is of the same caliber as the shells. You realize with terrible certainty that all of these people took turns with the gun, each prying it from the dead hand of the one who used it before. They each turned the gun on themselves in order to escape... what?

  Some forgotten information tickles the back of your mind. You wonder just who left the deconstruction machines here, what kind of thing was so terrible that these people would choose to kill themselves rather than face it.