Heavy Metal Thunder Page 25

  “Wait!” you scream, then the rifle barks. There is a terrific explosion all around you, a wall or floor or ceiling slams into you and you slide along it, ears ringing, flesh smashed, lungs crushed. You crash into another wall and stop. Agonizing minutes pass before you can rise. You kick off back down the smoky hall, resting as you float slowly.

  Miraculously, most of the oxygen tanks are still intact, though scattered; only one or two of them exploded from the stalker’s bullet. You slowly kick about, gathering the others back into some consolidated area, casting your eyes about like a scared animal.

  Overall, you lose 4 Blood in the blast.

  You make a vow to kill that prick manager before you turn to section 100.

  341

  You gain 2 XP for ridding the world of two cretins. Be sure to mark Buford and Cletus off your list of companions.

  You may take Buford’s Lady Luck (Rifle, bulk 3) or Cletus’s Hark From the Grave (Rifle, bulk 3) and their meager collection of 5 Rifle bullets (bulk 1) if you wish.

  You treat your wounds as best you can. If you are skilled in First Aid, you heal 1 Blood. If Philip the Medic is with you, you heal an additional 1 Blood.

  If your Will is 4 or more, turn to section 186.

  If it is not that high, turn to section 289.

  342

  The laborer relaxes. The girl quickly pulls away and darts to the far end of the room.

  You gain 1 XP for masterminding the release of the girl.

  “Fine,” says the laborer, staring back at you. “But I reject your world.”

  Suddenly he puts the gun to his own head. “Wait!” you shout. “Don’t do it! I can use that bullet!” But it’s too late - the man fires, blowing his brains out like a rainbow that comes in only one color. His body falls in a twitching heap. You may take his Bloody Chrome-Plated 9mm (Handgun, bulk 2) and 4 Handgun Bullets (bulk 1) if you wish.

  Turn to section 450.

  343

  As the tentacle mercilessly drags you closer to its writhing brethren down below, you steel-up your reserve and ready your jetpack for the ride of its life.

  You must now compute a number that will determine the outcome of your maneuver. This number is your Dexterity stat plus your Will stat. If you have the Jetpack Skill, add 4 to this number.

  If your number is 7 or more, turn to section 134.

  If your number is 6 or less, turn to section 514.

  344

  “Guns don’t solve problems,” you say. “People solve problems. So, let’s see...”

  “The hell are you doing?!” Marcus screams.

  You cast your penetrating gaze about the room. Your razor-sharp mind takes in every detail, looking for advantages. Most of the details include guns shooting everywhere.

  “You’re worthless!” Marcus hollers. Sick of that guy, you turn your com-link off.

  “There!” you say, leaning out for a better view. “If I grab that chain and swing over to that place over there -”

  Your helm suddenly spins around on your head and you smell smoke and burnt hair. You remove your helm and see that a tight group of bullets have torn through it. Then a pile of brains spills into the ground in front of you.

  Who’s brains is that? you wonder. That guy really thinks outside the box. Suddenly all goes dark.

  THE END.

  You may Regenerate by turning back to section 477, or, if you wish to go further back, turn back to section 161.

  345

  The Captain moves with surprising quickness. You instinctively whip sideways as you fire, but his bullet still grazes along your torso painfully. You lose 3 Blood and 1 SD as you crash to the ground in agony (though you may subtract your Defense rating from the Blood loss, if you happen to be wearing any armor).

  If you die, you may Regenerate by turning back to section 312, or, if you want go further back, turn to section 179.

  The Captain prepares to blast you in the head, but another shot cracks the air. You cringe instinctively. When you open your eyes, you see the Captain stumble, then fall in a heap. One of the guards stares down the barrel of his rifle, then smiles and winks at you. “If you ain’t dead,” says the other, “hop in.”

  The laborers seem shocked by the bloodshed.

  “Don’t worry,” says the killer guard. “If he bleeds to death, we can eat him later.”

  “Thanks, fellas,” you say. You may take the dead man’s Old School Revolver (Handgun, bulk 2) and 2 Handgun bullets (bulk 1) if you wish.

  Satisfied with having commandeered a ship, you can turn to section 379.

  346

  “Hey,” you say.

  “Sup,” she says, scooting over to give you room next to her. You swivel onto the box, hauling up your jetpack noisily.

  “So what is that thing?” she says suddenly.

  “Jetpack, of course,” you say. “Standard issue for Black Lance Legion Jetpack Infantry.”

  “What the hell is that…” she says dully, nearly trailing off at the end.

  “Well it helps a soldier fly around in spa -”

  “No - what’s that organization? Some kind of revolutionary cult?”

  “Oh, no, not at all. It’s an army. The Black Lance Legion. It’s led by the Shadow Government, whose members broadcast our orders from their hidden base over secret channels. We use technology that’s mostly reverse-engineered Invader gear, as studied by the organization called Black Science. And we, the Black Lance Legion, are waging a guerilla war against the Invader that’s taken over our solar system.”

  The words tumble out of you as if someone else was saying them. But it feels as if it is right, or at least, as if that’s what you’ve been told.

  Then Reika laughs, a sort of smoker’s high-pitched wheeze that is not unpleasant at all, and then you laugh as well.

  “Guess it does sound pretty ridiculous,” you say.

  “If you want my opinion,” she says, still laughing, “I think you’re crazy.”

  “Everyone’s crazy. That’s just life.” Then you remember that when you met her, someone who had a gun to her head was professing his love for her. “But I reckon some are crazier than others.”

  “So where’d you come from, soldier boy?”

  “As far as I know, I was born in the void.”

  “Come on...”

  “I shit you not, lady. I got this amnesia, you see. Someone... uh, whacked me in the head in a battle outside another Stellar space station. I was left for dead. I woke up while the station was being dismantled by some Invader deconstructors and made my way to your station. I don’t even know my real name, or who I was outside of the Legion. I reckon my memory only goes back... a few weeks? Little over a month?”

  Reika seems skeptical. “So you had a ship? How’d you get to my station?”

  “No ship.” You point to your jetpack.

  “No-o-o. No way. You couldn’t make it that far with just a suit and a little jetpack.”

  “It’s not little, this thing weighs a ton, girl.”

  “You couldn’t have made it all that way without a ship. But - but nobody’s ever done anything like that! Never! Even if you could physically make it... you’d go insane!”

  “Either that, or you’d have to be insane in the first place!” You laugh, but she seems torn between being impressed and being creeped out.

  After a long silence, she says, “Are the others like you?”

  “In terms of temperament, I have no idea. But in terms of training, sure, there’s other like me. Infantrymen, ship personnel, ship captains. You haven’t heard of us cause we’ve only just now gotten to the point where we’re ready to fight the Invader.”

  She seems to want to believe, but says, “You can’t fight the Invader. I’ve heard about how they wipe out anyone who stands against them. I’ve heard rumors about stations lots better defended than ours, they just... go black, in no time at all. People don’t like to talk about it. And I saw with my own eyes how the guns of our station... they just... they ha
d no effect at all on that ship. It was untouchable. That shield was -”

  “Believe me,” you say, “they can be fought. And we’ve got the means to do it.”

  Turn to section 316.

  347

  The red emergency lights glare with portents of doom as you pass through the hall, wary of the manager. The hallway ends at a curving branch. Many doors are labeled for entrances to the docks; strange, to think that a vacuum lies just beyond those walls. You follow signs along one wall until you come to a door marked, “DOCK COMM STATION - AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY BEYOND THIS POINT.”

  The dock command station is dark, but still has gravity and air. You notch your helm into place and click the light on. Unlike the gentle tan of the hallway, the command station is steel-grey. The room is huge, full of control panels, chairs, papers, equipment everywhere. A window covers the entire front section. You look out, see the vast expanse of a ruined dock. Blasted hulls float, charred and weightless. You even see a clump of red ice which may have once been a man. A large steel net rotates slowly just outside the window; you can use that, later, to haul your supplies through space.

  Far down the station you see two service vehicles and protruding fuel lines. You jog to the area, see steel canisters. You haul them to the fuel lines, then jam a line into one. The pump is labeled, “LIQUID HYDROGEN - CAUTION!” While you cannot remember if the Black Lance Legion used anything different for their machines, nothing really tells you otherwise. You turn the pump on and the canister jerks a little while the pump hums with life. You breathe a sigh of relief, then jam more steel canisters onto separate pumps.

  You take a quick glance at the equipment littering the room. Nothing seems useful - then you notice a bulky hand-held computer with a wide screen labeled, “STELLAR NAVIGATION UNIT”. Upon closer examination, it seems the device is full of star charts, maps of the Asteroid Belt, and even notes the locations of other STELLAR stations. The nearest station, another asteroid mining complex, while still incredibly far away, seems that it might even be along the same route your Legion ship - and the hunting Invader ship - took. Of course, the estimate is approximate; minor deviations in flight paths in space can end up at vastly different points. Still, the machine provides some hope, for the next station is a place that you could journey to and at least get some kind of ship. Perhaps your memory will return by then and you will know where your own ship is headed.

  If you are skilled in the use of Computers, you can download the navigation data directly into your helm computer. Otherwise, you must take the Navigation Computer (bulk 3) with you. If you do not have enough room in your inventory, you must discard enough items to leave room for the necessary computer.

  The transport vehicles seem to be empty of fuel. In another corner you find a huge array of steel O2 tanks and an electronic handcart. While the fuel pumps hum, you haul oxygen tanks onto the hand cart, then push them into the hall near an entrance to the docks. You lift one off and carefully set it down - then, realizing your need for speed, kick the whole cart over and dump them all noisily into the hallway. You continue the process over and over.

  After you have filled the hallway with oxygen tanks, you push the cart all the way back to the lounge. Over and over you stack up heavy jars full of water and boxes of food, then carry the lot all the way to the dock hallway and leave them there. So taxing is the work that you lose 2 Blood, and you are also temporarily drained of 1 Strength point. If your Strength has already been drained to zero even before now, then you must lose another point of Blood instead of having a Strength score of less than zero.

  Perhaps an hour passes before you think you might have enough supplies. Then, without warning, the lights flicker and go black. Even the red alarms continue on for only a few seconds, before they, too, are cut off. The whir of the air conditioning system clicks off, and you rise off the floor slowly. You can hear rumbling, grinding, far away.

  The backup generators have been destroyed and more deconstructors are tearing their way through the station. The end is near. You kick off a wall and check the fuel canisters. You disconnect one, glad to see that it is full, then attach a line from your jetpack and refuel yourself. You seal the canisters, then kick them into the hallway and gather them near the rest of your supplies.

  Near exhaustion, your heart races with the hope of escaping this ghost station. You kick off and stop at the door to the ruined dock, so that you can follow through with the last part of your plan to escape from the ghost station.

  Turn to section 47.

  348

  You float down the hall toward the lounge, kicking off from ceiling to floor. Suddenly a light flashes on in front of you, blinding you momentarily. You make out the form of the manager floating ahead, flashlight wavering in one hand, and in the other - a long rifle. You can barely react at all before the rifle cracks and you feel a burning impact tear across your shoulder. You bounce wildly, skidding along the floor. You grab an open doorway to stop yourself as the manager bounces away, yelping in fear.

  You lose 4 Blood from the bullet, but you may subtract your Dexterity score from this amount. Note, also, that your space suit has been damaged; if you have anything to fix such damage, you must use it now. If you do not have any items that can do the job, you will have to find some before you can leave the station.

  You make a vow to repay the manager back in kind before you turn to section 516.

  349

  You slam your fist into the door and, for some reason, it doesn’t explode into pieces. You float backwards. When you reach the far wall you kick off from it, hard, and when you come near to the panel you swing both fists into it. The panel comes loose and you mouth the word “Genius...” as a thousand painful volts of electricity run the length of your arms. The good news is that the door grinds open. The bad news is that air rushes into the chamber and throws you into the far wall. Altogether, you lose 3 Blood.

  You reenter the hallway, which is still brightly lit. Its gravity pulls you down. You throw off your helm and breathe.

  You wonder why the door suddenly stopped working. Is the station slowly losing power on its own? Or is there someone - or something shutting down its systems?

  Because you have survived this experience, you have gained a greater understanding of the world. 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, Skills, and Blood.

  You start out this game of survival at Level 1. For surviving the situation just now, you gain 1 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.

  When you are ready to continue down the hallway, turn to section 148.

  350

  “Oof! You know what, fellas?” you say, leaning back as you pat your stomach. “I’m full!”

  “Whatever, pussy!” says Cletus, concentrating on cramming an entire loaf of bread into his cheeks.

  “Ouch! But I know you don’t mean it, Mister Cletus.” You laugh good-naturedly, then lie down and moan as the pain sets in.

  Eventually, Cletus falls into a stack of bananas he has already peeled, crushing them all into mush. “Gawd,” he bellows, “the pain!”

  “Hah!” cries Buford, chunks spilling from his mouth.

  “M’stomerk! Gonna explode!”

  “Hah ha-a-ah!”

  With that, Buford proves himself the better eater and, by extension, the better man. You nod to him submissively, an acknowledgment of his superiority over you. While Buford struts around, proud and in agony, you roll Cletus into a corner and take stock of what’s left of the food.

  Erase 6 Foods from the Narrenschiff’s inventory.

  “We kin have a rematch tomorrow,” says Buford, hovering over his beaten foes.

  “Sir, yes sir,”
you mumble.

  Turn to section 143.

  351

  With your supplies in tow, you fly out to the Narrenschiff’s last known position. Your helm picks it up in the distance, doggedly flying on its original course. Glad that the engine still works, you blast toward it.

  You reach the blasted ship. The dead sniper stayed busy while you flew out to Scylla, for the ship is full of holes and broken windows. You climb in through the shattered fore window. The ship is still lit; its power source has not been ruined, and so you run a check of its various systems. Everything works, it seems, except for the fat mass coils in the floor and the air and waste recycling systems. You smile grimly. No luxuries on this flight.

  All of the supplies seem to be gone, sacrificed to the hungry void. You stow the Invaders’ booty in a corner and secure it to a peg on the wall. Strangely enough, you do find one floating can of Sticky Fix (bulk 2, contains 3 doses) which you had no idea was on the ship at all. A gift from the gods, perhaps. How thrifty they are.

  It will be impossible to fix all the windows and bullet holes. The ship is now little more than an engine with a navigational system attached to it. You will have to keep your suit sealed at all times for the rest of your journey.

  If you had any companions with you, they are all dead. You will never see them again. Not in this lifetime, not ever.

  You set a course that you hope will intercept your Black Lance Legion ship. You tie yourself to the pilot’s chair, then immediately fall asleep.

  Turn to section 59.