Heavy Metal Thunder Page 36

  If your Will is 4 or more, turn to section 342.

  If your Will is 3 or less, turn to section 313.

  496

  You grip your spear with both hands and drive it forward, aiming for the mouth of the deconstructor.

  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 109.

  If this number is 6 or more, turn to section 452.

  497

  While the spearmen form a line, you gather near some others clustered at their side. A command is given and you all blast toward the Invaders charging your ship. Your pulse hisses in your skull as you draw nearer, nearer. For an instant you see the horns of the monsters, their black swords and axes. You steady your weapon in your hand, pick out one black Invader from the cluster, then –

  Fighters on both sides collide, you see Invaders impaled on spears, face plates are smashed open, freezing blood gushes on all sides. You slam into one Invader in a deadly embrace, spinning wildly. He raises his short sword and swings it at your helm, but you knock the blow aside, your wrist and elbow ringing with the impact.

  You must now compute a number that will determine the outcome of the battle. This number is your Strength stat added to your Zero G Combat stat. 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 Blade or Mace, add 1. If, for whatever reason, you are fighting unarmed, subtract 5.

  During the battle you lose 10 Blood, though you may subtract the number you calculated from this amount. You may also subtract your Defense rating from this amount. However, if you lose 3 or more Blood, then you also lose 1 SD.

  If you survive, then in a panicky haze of adrenaline you manage to smash open the Invader’s face plate. Oxygen gushes forth, then red freezing goo sprays onto your own faceplate. As you wipe it away the monster twitches his last in your arms.

  You gain 2 XP for killing the Invader. You may take the Invader’s Charged Short Sword (Blade, bulk 2) if you wish.

  All around you, it seems the enemy’s charge and the defense against it have dissolved into an all-out melee. An Invader armed with a mace flies toward you. It seems that he is flying slowly, and so you prepare to charge.

  If you are skilled in Sixth Sense, turn to section 325.

  If you do not have this skill, turn to section 116.

  498

  You and the guard grasp each other and swing away like wild animals, spinning slowly as if hung up in the threads of a nightmare. You are aware only of growling and the sickening crunch of bone beneath metal. You become nauseous and sick with fury and the fear of death.

  You must now compute a number to see if you are being beaten to death, or just close to it. Add your Zero G Combat to your Strength. 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 note that the guard’s onslaught comes slower and slower. Your feet hit against a wall, stopping your spin. His face is a purple landscape full of rivers of blood. You swing your mace about and bash him in the skull, which sends him spinning and retching and, as he comes around once more, you bash the other side of his skull. He stops and hangs limp. His head looks like a tattered bag with spaghetti (and sauce) hanging out.

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

  499

  The hall seems industrial, imposing, as if built in a different time or by a different mind than the former hallway. You stalk to the end of the hall and turn a corner. Two heavy steel doors slide back and forth, open and shut, clanging loudly. A cleaning machine rounds a far corner and rolls toward you quickly. The thing moves from side to side erratically, and you wonder if you will be able to avoid it. But as it moves one of the heavy doors slams into it and pushes it against the wall. The machine keeps moving but the door hits it many times, denting its frame. When the cleaning machine reaches the door nearest you it takes an even more severe beating. Now its wheels flop around awkwardly and it makes an unhealthy grinding sound. It slowly rolls past you. It will be no easy task getting by these doors.

  If you have an Intelligence score of 2 or more, turn to section 28.

  If your Intelligence score is not that high, turn to section 513.

  500

  You enter the lounge. Red lights blink frantically. You check the boxes and find tons of rations, snacks, even complete meals - maybe enough to get you to the next station, but more than you can carry all the way to the ruined dock. You will have to keep your eyes open for some kind of transportation. You check a side room and find it full of jugs of water.

  If you are skilled in Demolitions, turn to section 231.

  If you do not have this skill, turn to section 394.

  501

  You manage to get off one shot before a tentacle quickly wraps around the gun and tears it from your grasp. As the things drag you and toss you about, you see your gun passed down in the opposite direction, then a particularly thick tentacle shatters the weapon in its grasp. Another tentacle slams you in the chest, spraining ribs and driving the air from you.

  You lose 3 Blood. Erase the gun you were using, and one bullet, from your inventory. If you die, you may Regenerate by turning back to section 179. If you survive, read on.

  The tentacles suddenly release your upper body and lift you up by your legs. A silent mound lies before you. It quivers, uncoils, and rises. You jerk back in alarm. The thing is a thick stalk about ten feet long, its base attached to the ground, and its end is topped by a large head, featureless save for a gaping mouth lined with fangs made of the same hard stuff as its body. The thing snaps its heavy jaw open and shut. Several tentacles at its base rise and sway in anticipation.

  The hungry head of the beast opens its fanged mouth to accept you as sacrifice.

  If you have another gun and at least one bullet, and want to blast the head, turn to section 454.

  If you have a hand-to-hand weapon and want to go toe-to-toe with the head of the beast, turn to section 155.

  If you have a High-Power Implosion Grenade, you can use it by turning to section 584.

  If you want to try to wiggle free from the tentacle and fly away from the monster, turn to section 467.

  502

  Rather than shoot, you cry out a scream of defiance. It will either freeze everyone for a few moments... or waste time better spent in action.

  If your Will is 4 or more, turn to section 50.

  If your Will is 3 or less, turn to section 380.

  503

  You leap into the air and flail your arms about dramatically. You feel the door crunch your shins against the wall, and you fall on your face: Lose 1 Blood. You yelp and roll away.

  You take a moment to run through all of the curse words that you know. Now you are trapped between the two doors. There are loose papers scattered about the hallway. You rest to consider your options. Just then you hear a vent click on loudly. You look up. You see pink mist filling the air above you. It is heavy, and begins to fall toward you.

  If you wish to stay where you are and get a nice pink-mist sauna experience, turn to section 457.

  If you want to get away from the stuff and move on towards the next door, turn to section 11.

  504

  The long rifle jerks at your shoulder and a moment later a stream of oxygen and red ice pours from the body of the sniper, who twitches once, then floats limp and calm.

  You gain 2 XP for killing the Invader. Be sure to erase 1 Rifle bullet from your inventory.

  Yo
u rise into a crouch, then feel eyes on your back. The other Invader is staring at you, black face unreadable, horns gleaming in the light of distant stars. His jet arcs to life and he flies toward you at incredible speed.

  If you want to fire at him with a gun, turn to section 39.

  If you want to draw a hand-to-hand weapon and face him (or even take him on unarmed), turn to section 413.

  505

  You raise your gun and stare down the sights at the back of the guard’s head. Poor bastard, you think. You squeeze the trigger. The guard’s head jerks forward. He floats and crashes into your supplies, red stuff oozing into the air. He floats in the air gently, his ruined head encircled in a halo of blood.

  You gain 2 XP for slaying the guard with your slick one-shot one-kill philosophy. Be sure to erase the bullet from your inventory.

  You kick off and float back toward your supplies. Turn to section 562.

  506

  You teeter over the edge... then fall over it completely. You close your eyes and time stretches out, drawing the barking of the dogs into long, low belches. You land in a pile of rubble in the middle of a demolished restroom: Lose 1 Blood.

  Water cascades down all around you. You can see an exposed section of twisting hallway to your left, in the direction that leads deeper into the station. The hallway turns too often to see the end of it. Just then you hear scrambling below you, then a series of barking dog-heads leaping and falling, over and over, where the floor ends nearby and opens onto the bottom of the crater.

  You pull yourself up painfully, then run into the hall to your left.

  Turn to section 65.

  507

  You glide serenely over the dead garden until the blue light of the circle surrounds you. The periphery is a bundled mass of blue veins. The center is a glowing blue organ that pumps slowly, sending liquid nutrients throughout the flesh of the beast.

  “So this is the heart,” you growl. “Looks like the Invaders are going to be short one space-pet pretty soon.” Your own heart races with fiendish delight, for you are about to kill something.

  If you have a gun and want to shoot the heart of the beast, turn to section 369.

  If you have a hand-to-hand weapon and want to use it, turn to section 194.

  If you have no weapons, or choose not to use them, you can stomp the thing by turning to section 46.

  508

  The key fits and the bin pops open. Inside you find the following items.

  (4) Caffeine Munch Pills (Each Pill restores 1 Blood; each hefty Pill has 1 bulk.)

  (2) Super Slim Rations (Food; each tiny Ration has 0 bulk.)

  Men’s Health “Nut” Magazine (Cover to cover full of more muscular, sweaty males than you’ve ever seen. You pretend that you have no interest in the magazine when the guard is looking, but it has 1 bulk if you wish to slip it into your bag on the sly.)

  You can leave the supply room by turning to section 515.

  509

  You slam into the couple. You all stumble about, limbs flying in a blur faster than the eye can see. Suddenly the girl pulls away. You wrap your hands around a wrist, a neck, then the laborer pushes you with surprising strength and you nearly fall to your knees. Then, with his face right next to yours, he presses his gun into the side of his own head - and fires.

  The explosion is deafening. “No!” you shout, as blood sprays all over your face. “Gro-o-o-oss!”

  But it is too late. Bucketfuls of brain matter spill all around you and, just before you drop the man’s limp body to the ground, you see his eyeballs roll around loosely in their sockets.

  You may take his Bloody Chrome-Plated 9mm (Handgun, bulk 2) and 3 Handgun bullets (bulk 1) if you wish.

  Turn to section 479.

  510

  You crouch and make your way up the support beam, hauling your heavy jetpack behind you. Finally you reach the blasted room where the top of the pillar rests. You leap down to the floor. The room is dark, and you see no exit. However, you could crawl under the top of the wide beam and hope that there is an exit on the other side. You look down and see that the dogs are nearly upon you - and you have no guarantee that there is no exit without a fight.

  If you wish to crawl under the beam and ignore the dogs, turn to section 390.

  If you have a Handgun and at least 2 Handgun bullets, you can fire at the lead dogs by turning to section 217.

  You see a heavy-looking chunk of debris nearby. To chuck it at the lead dogs, turn to section 397.

  If you have a Spear you can fend off the dogs to buy more time by turning to section 154.

  If you think you can make the dogs obey you, you can yell at them by turning to section 573.

  511

  You try to shake the feeling. Try to tough it out. You are so lonely that it is impossible to shake the darkness out of your veins. “Is anyone there?” you say to no one. “Anybody?”

  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. The birth of chaos, the utter destruction of 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 second-guessing. 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 lying fallow, the freedom to use your killing arts, for you know that now you enter into the dance of death that is your ultimate destiny.

  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.

  512

  You draw your handgun on the deconstructors. You watch their red eyes bobbing wildly, casting tracers in the dark. You aim in their general direction, then fire.

  You must now compute a number that signifies everything you’re throwing at these attackers. If you are skilled in Weapon Proficiency: Ranged, and it is with the type of gun you are using, add 3 to your total. For every 2 bullets that you choose to fire, add 1 to your total. Add your Dexterity to the total.

  If the number you have created is 4 or less, turn to section 18.

  If the number is between 5 and 9, turn to section 550.

  If the number is greater than 10, turn to section 563.

  513

  You study the door’s rhythm. You crouch low before it. You think of black-sooted workers laboring to upkeep some machine whose intent is inscrutable. The door pounds, pounds, pounds. You suck in a great lungful of air. Your mind kicks into action, sends out fight-or-flight chemicals. The door slows in time as your mind speeds up. Then it opens... and you leap forward.

  If your Dexterity score is 2 or more, turn to section 564.

  If your Dexterity score is not that high, turn to section 503.

  514

  Your jets flare and you arc about like a screaming hurricane, but the tentacle only tightens about your leg: Lose
1 Blood. Soon you are exhausted, and nearly puke inside your helm. The limb of the beast senses your weakness and brings you crashing down into a nest of slithering tentacles. The quivering mass of arms wrap around you, crushing you, rolling you around.

  You can barely breathe, much less scream. The things are very powerful and you know that they could crush the life from you. Instead, it seems that they are moving you somewhere.

  If you want to roll up into a ball to minimize the damage the tentacles can do to you, turn to section 96.

  If you have a gun and at least one bullet, you can try to free your gun and fire at the nest of tentacles by turning to section 501.

  If you want to try to free a hand-to-hand weapon to defend yourself, turn to section 251.

  515

  You walk with the guard and, finally, reach the center of the station. At a wide doorway he removes a data card from his pocket and slides it across a panel. The door opens and you follow him inside.

  The room is cluttered, narrow, and reeks of human sweat. Inside you see the others whom the guard told you about, weary-looking men with bags under their eyes. One man is slender, bald, with thin lips and slitted grey eyes. He wears a white doctor’s frock.

  Another man rests in a heap on the floor. He is old and disheveled, bearded, wiry, and you get the impression that he looked no better before the attack. He wears green laborer’s coveralls.

  The last man wears a fine managerial suit fixed with the green STELLAR emblem. He has black hair and a neatly trimmed, white-flecked beard. He glares at you imperiously.