Heavy Metal Thunder Read online

  39

  You draw your gun as quickly as you can but it is impossible to get a lead on the fast-approaching Invader. You manage to fire off one round before you have to scamper away as the horned Invader arcs by your position, his gladius swinging out, boots nearly scraping the ground and sending up a spray of icy dust.

  You curse the inadequacy of the gun in the depths of space, then draw a hand-to-hand weapon and face your foe.

  Be sure to erase 1 bullet from your inventory.

  Turn to section 413.

  40

  You look through the rest of the equipment, finding nothing of worth, while the canisters are filled with the precious fuel. Suddenly you hear an arhythmic hum - then you float free from the ground as the fuel pumps click off. The hum of the air conditioning units falls silent. The deconstructors must have destroyed the back-up generator.

  You kick off toward the canisters to remove them from the pumps.

  If you are trained in Stealth, or have a Sixth Sense, turn to section 307.

  If you do not have either of these Skills, turn to section 48.

  41

  You time your footfalls to the rhythm of the door. You reach the door and it opens right in front of you. You spin around and through the doorway, but the door catches your shoulder heavily and sends you crashing to the floor. You survive, but you learn that survival hurts: Lose 1 Blood and gain 1 XP.

  You run to the end of the hall and turn a corner. A door lies there. You enter it and leave behind the mist of destruction: Gain 1 XP.

  Turn to section 223.

  42

  You slowly bounce from wall, ceiling, floor, and make your way down the hall. The light from your helmet jerks around in the darkness and picks up motes of dust. You are nearly out of air. You labor to suck in air, but the vacuum itself rests in your chest. You know that you have to get deeper into the station where you can breathe or you will die and become a part of the dead station.

  There is a doorway at the end of the hallway. You push it. The door encounters something soft but unyielding on the other side and swings shut again.

  If you want to shove the door open, turn to section 287.

  If you would rather turn around and try the other side of the hallway, turn to section 305.

  43

  “Are you telling me that you guys actually like working for this idiot?” you say, literally turning your nose up at the fierce Captain. “Come on, you’re mercenaries, hired guns, you have to live by your wits. If you wanted to have someone shout orders at you all day long and treat you like crap, you should’ve been lawmen.”

  “Step off,” says the Captain. “My boys work for me cause they know the pay is good and the benefits are beneficial.”

  The Captain’s revolver twitches angrily in his hand. Still, you note that the two guards have not exactly been quick to blast you.

  If your Charisma is 4 or more, turn to section 3.

  If your Charisma is 3 or less, turn to section 267.

  44

  No need to panic, you think. There’s always some kind of safety switch on these things.

  You feel around on the control panel. One section seems slightly different. You fool around with it until it pops off, then you grab a tiny lever and flip it. The door grinds open unnaturally. Air rushes into the room and throws you against the far wall. You are grateful that the other door holds tight, or else you could have been thrown even farther. You reenter the hallway, which is still brightly lit and has gravity. 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 grown and 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.

  45

  The Captain jerks and splatters red as your gun barks, then crashes to the ground in a moaning, dying heap: Gain 1 XP. You may take his Old School Revolver (Handgun, bulk 2) and 3 Handgun bullets (bulk 1) if you wish.

  You turn toward the ship. While the laborers stare at you in terror, the guards laugh. “Ahoy, Cap’n!” one of them shouts, high-fiving the other.

  Guess he wasn’t too popular around here, you think. “Back to work!” you shout.

  Turn to section 379.

  46

  You raise your foot above the shining heart. “The jury has declared you guilty,” you say, “of being dead.” As soon as your boot slams down onto the thin membrane it shatters, then thick shards of freezing water burst out into the void. You stumble backward, blinded by the sparkling mist, then blast your jets and fly away from the area.

  The effect on the massive beast is violent. Everywhere you see clusters of tentacles shrivel and curl upon one another. Large mounds unfold, strange blind heads with gaping mouths snap and bite before they, too, succumb to death. An unhealthy brown hue spreads across the flesh of the beast. Cracks spread, chunks of frozen skin shatter, tubes like wet noodles spring forth, and all manner of liquids and gases spray out.

  Your helm computer leaps to life, beeping as it identifies the elements as they spray and freeze in the vacuum: Oxygen, water, liquid hydrogen.

  “Look at this!” you shriek, laughing violently. The beast was a living farm for the Invaders, a growing supply depot, and you’ve just tapped its veins. You fly out to your net and quickly haul it back to the dying beast, desperate to refill your supplies before they are lost to the vacuum. The spraying tubes dance around wildly, slick in your hands.

  In a few minutes your empty oxygen tanks, fuel containers, and water jugs are full. Then the tubes sputter, cough, run dry. The skin of the beast hardens underfoot and it dies.

  You gain 2 XP for ruining a supply depot of the Invaders. But best of all, you are now better equipped for your desperate mission against the stalking Invader ship set on destroying your comrades.

  Turn to section 420.

  47

  You pop open the dock door control panel and, bracing yourself, manually turn the crank to open it. As soon as the door cracks open, air rushes from the hallway into the void. You turn the crank as fast as you can while holding onto the panel itself. As your supplies, so wonderfully organized, fly toward the door, you release your grip and are whipped out into space. You see heavy fuel canisters and steel water jugs slam into the opening, sealing it. You fly out at tremendous speed, then kick on your jetpack. You feel the reassuring surge at your back, the overwhelming sense of freedom, as you maneuver about the dock. You look around: It is a ghost yard of wasted hulls, bent steel, twisted girders, shredded space suits. Even dead men float about, icy conglomerations of purple and red.

  If you have made a note that your space suit is damaged, then you lose 1 Blood to the terrible sucking cold of the vacuum. (If the text has not specifically said so, then you may assume that your Legion suit has not been damaged during your battles.) A giant supply cabinet floats by. In the floating cabinet you find a large jar of Sticky Fix, which is good for spraying on damaged suits to seal them up against the void. If your suit is damaged, you can spray on some of the stuff and erase the note that your suit is damaged. In either case, you may clip the Sticky Fix (Suit Repair, bulk 2) to your belt. There is enough for 3 doses, not counting the dose you may have just used.

  Also inside the supply cabinet, you find an item called a Wilderness Void Tent. This handy item
is folded up now, but when opened, it forms into a giant hollow ball that you can easily fit into. Its woven steel-fiber frame can keep the vacuum out; you will be able to eat your meals and drink water in this thing. You do not have to worry about keeping it on your person, as you would the Sticky Fix; you toss the item near the dock door so that you can keep it with the rest of your supplies.

  You click your teeth and turn your helm computer on. The heads-up display reads

  OXYGEN: FULL

  JETPACK FUEL: FULL

  HELM BATTERY: NEAR FULL

  That’s the stuff, baby, you think as you fly about the dock. Then, you find the last item that you will need: a giant fireproof net to keep your supplies in. You grab the thing as you fly by, open it up, and hold it near the hallway door. You steady it as best you can in space, then gently fly to the door control panel. You manually crank the thing open all the way and your supplies come flying out, crashing into the net all helter skelter-like. You fly about and gather the loose items, tossing them in the net. You mind is on fire, white-hot, burning with the insane intent of the thing you are about to attempt, the journey you have worked so hard just to begin.

  As the full net pushes out of the ruined dock and into space, you look ahead. You see dozens of small deconstructor robots walking along the ceiling, pincers biting silently. They ignore you. You look back at the station - and at the window of the dock command station, your light shines on the manager, pounding on the glass and screaming his head off. You see tears streaming down his face. He picks up a large rifle. He is glaring at you, furious.

  If your Charisma is 3 or more, turn to section 191.

  If your stat is not that high, but you have the Jetpack Skill, turn to section 189.

  If your stat is not that high, and you do not have that Skill, turn to section 560.

  48

  You remove the canisters from the dead fuel lines. Just as you are finishing up, the door to the hall grinds open loudly. You are blinded by a light and you realize someone has pushed through manually. You whirl about and see light glinting off a long rifle and a dark figure in the hall. Before you can fully react, there is a sharp crack from the rifle, you feel a hammerfall slam against your side and you spin backwards, crashing into a control panel. Disoriented, you are sure the next blast will be a killing blow - but you hear the unmistakable squeal of the manager as he kicks off and floats away from the door and back down the darkened hallway.

  You lose 3 Blood from the assault, but you may subtract your Dexterity score from this amount. Also, because several of your ribs may have been fractured or broken, you temporarily lose 3 Strength points, although you may also subtract your Dexterity score from this amount of damage. If your Strength has dropped below zero, it remains at zero, but you must subtract the remainder from your Blood score. 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 leave the station.

  If you survived the attack, you check your wounds and find that the rifle bullet merely grazed your side, tearing flesh and scraping bone. You consider yourself lucky and vow to pay the prick manager back the next time you see him.

  Turn to section 431.

  49

  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 this number is 4 or less, turn to section 175.

  If this number is 5 or more, turn to section 414.

  50

  Thunder fills the room, deafens you, and you instinctively shut your eyes. When you open them, you see the lawman flat on the ground, his chest peppered with holes, his eyes still. The smiling revolutionary stumbles backward, his face now pale and slack. He clutches a spreading red spot on his chest, leans against the wall for a moment, then falls forward, limp and heavy.

  The scared revolutionary clutches his gun, eyes wide with terror, completely immobilized. Then without so much as a glance at you, he stalks out of the room, leaving you alone. You gain 1 XP for surviving.

  You search the bodies of the dead and find the following gear, which you may take with you.

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

  3 Shotgun Shells (1 bulk)

  Enforcer Automatic (Handgun, bulk 2)

  5 Handgun Bullets (bulk 1)

  Stellar Corp Law Enforcement Uniform (bulk 2) (Damaged and bloody.)

  Steel Baton (Mace, bulk 2)

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

  51

  The drills spin and rise as you lower yourself towards the thing. You bring your weapon up and, with a mighty yelp, bring the thing crashing into one of the drills. It is instantly caught and disappears into the deconstructor’s mouth, sending you spinning around wildly.

  Panicking, you lamely search for the grappling harness mechanism so that you can rise out of the way - then you feel a terrific yank as the drills churn up your body, squishing it into goo. Your ear and part of your brain hang in the air for one moment and you hear the guard scream, “GOD DAMN THAT’S DISGUSTING!” and then the rest of you splatters on the wall.

  You have died in the mouth of a merciless machine… another victim of the ghost station.

  THE END.

  52

  The insistent voice of your training filters through your shattered memory. You know that the Invaders brought with them all manner of strange lifeforms, and it is impossible to tell which of those developed naturally or unnaturally. Many of them were dumped onto Earth, including savage creatures trained to sniff out pockets of resistance. If this creature is here then it is here for a reason that works to the advantage of the Invaders.

  Suddenly, you have the idea that this organism is a sort of supply depot. Most ships, Invader and human alike, are made in space and are bound to space; ships that can land on and leave planets are very expensive to make. Most likely this strange organism has been developed or harnessed for the creation of food by some chemical process. Ships come by and feed it some sort of fertilizer, then hack off bits of the animal to eat.

  Moreover, if the sleeping behemoth was developed unnaturally, you think that there is no reason why it could not be used to create supplies other than food - including water, liquid hydrogen and other fuels, oxygen, et cetera.

  As strange as it is, you decide the thing is an alien farm floating in the vacuum of space. You gain 1 XP for the use of your training.

  If you wish land on the surface of the creature, while being careful to pick a spot away from the long tentacle-growths, turn to section 181.

  If you wish to avoid touching the surface, you can fly around the thing close enough to get a good look by turning to section 356.

  53

  The ship docking bay is a huge, steel-grey room hundreds of feet high, thousands of feet long. It is full of ships of varying sizes; larger ships, either owned or commandeered by Stellar lawmen, are ringed with men in riot gear holding off both hijackers and beggars with equal brutality, while smaller ships are being fought over by armed civilians. But the bay is not a complete warzone, for you see many people buying and begging their way onto ships while others are hauling goods in the hopes that they can work their way onto an escape ship.

  The whole scene is surreal, like images from a normal workday played at double- or triple-speed, except for the fact that dozens of corpses litter the ground. And it is impossible to hear anything over the constant guttural shouting, save for the occasional bark of gunfire.

  You realize the situation could be dangerous, very dangerous. Might have to become a monster, you realize, if I want to save my humanity. You look down at your space suit and a great fear grips you. There is no doubt in your mind that the Black Lance Legion have programmed you to protect it, for the thought of it becoming damaged beyond usefulness seems worse to you th
an death itself.

  You must now make note of your Suit Durability (or SD). Your infantryman space suit has 3 SD points, which is its starting amount as well as its maximum amount. When your suit is damaged, its SD will drop. When you fix it (for example, with the Sticky Fix item) then your SD will rise, though never higher than its maximum amount. When your SD drops to zero or lower then your suit has been destroyed, and if you are in space when this happens then you will die.

  However, if your suit has sustained any SD damage at all, then that means your suit is punctured or torn in some way. If you are in the vacuum of space when this happens, and if the text prompts you to do so, then you will lose 1 Blood per SD damage. (That means that if your suit has sustained 2 SD damage while in space, and you cannot repair the damage, then the sucking cold of the void will drain you for 2 Blood at regular intervals!) This does not include the original section in which you lose SD, so if you apply Sticky Fix to your suit in the same section in which it was damaged, you will not lose any additional Blood.

  Note that every dose of Sticky Fix “heals” your suit 1 SD point. If you have made any notes during your journey about your suit being damaged, then you can now cross those notes out and simply subtract 1 point of SD from your maximum amount of 3 SD. The text will no longer tell you to “make a note that your suit is damaged” - it will, instead, tell you how much to lower your SD if your space suit incurs damage. (If you are familiar with role playing games, then think of SD as the “hit points” of your protective armor. But since you are more often than not in an environment hostile to living things, then your armor must be perfectly sound in order to afford you complete protection.)