Heavy Metal Thunder Page 7
“That sounds awful. I don’t want to live in a world like that.”
“There might not be a choice. Take it or leave it… dreaming about anything else might just be a distraction. Probably doesn’t sound anything like what those revolutionaries back at the station believed in, huh?”
“Actually, it kind of does. Organize or else, that was their motto. Morality as dictated by the party, and the individual didn’t have to worry about guilt or control of their own fate because the party gave them a vision of tomorrow. And to make that peaceful vision a reality, you have to commit all sorts of violent atrocities.”
You think for a moment, then say, “Maybe all struggles are just clashes between groups of tools being manipulated by power-players who sit back and rake in the benefits. And all those power-players, no matter what they espouse, are inherently pretty similar. Still, I’m not about to let some Invader unzip and shit in my solar system.”
“Even if the individual units, friends and enemies, are similar to yourself?”
“Even if. They’d do the same, if I came to their home armed for war.”
“I wonder if there is any other way to live your life,” she muses. “I used to dream of freedom. A place where I could go and live the way I want to live, with others who want the same. You know, people who don’t need masters hovering over them constantly, keeping them from anything that’s dangerous or weird.”
“What are you talkin’ about? You were free at that station, until the Invader came. I know how cushy you people had it.”
“It’s not freedom,” she says, somewhat condescendingly, “if you can’t buy drugs and own sweet guns.”
“That’s crazy,” you say vehemently.
“Just because your taskmasters tell you what “sanity” is doesn’t necessarily rule out the fact that they may be insane themselves.”
“We’ll see about that,” you say, then smile at her sideways.
You gain 1 XP for having a conversation with someone who isn’t completely shallow.
If you are skilled in Navigation, turn to section 230.
If you do not have this skill, or do not choose to use it, but Arturo the Navigator Poet is with you, turn to section 12.
Otherwise, turn to section 203.
80
If you have a Mystery Device, turn to section 549.
If you do not have this item, turn to section 328.
81
Sybel nods to the Commander, then takes off in a crouch down the narrow hall. The rest of you creep into the hall behind him, then lay low as he disappears around a bend.
Tension builds as you wait. Marcus strokes his massive automatic rifle while Commander Uther peers nervously down the narrow hall. Then, Sybel’s voice comes over the radio, a very faint and cold whisper, “I’m there. There’s four of them, two on each side of the hall. Good call, Commander.”
“Okay,” whispers Uther. “Blast them. We’ll join in.”
“Yessir.”
A moment later, gunfire blasts in your ears, then harsh alien barking and more gunfire. Marcus darts into the hallway, screaming and firing, and you rush out to join him.
You must now compute a number that will determine the outcome of your gun battle. This number is your Dexterity. If you are trained in Weapon Proficiency: Ranged, and it is with the weapon you are using, add 3 to this number. If you are using a Shotgun, add 1. For every 3 Handgun bullets you fire, add 1. For every 2 Rifle bullets you fire, add 1. For every Shotgun shell you fire, add 1.
If your number is 11 or less, turn to section 108.
If your number is 12 or more, turn to section 169.
82
“FOUR MINUTES UNTIL DOORS OPEN,” announces the voice. “WE ARE SKIPPING DEPRESSURIZATION. REPEAT, WE WILL NOT DEPRESSURIZE THE DOCK.”
Normally no ship would have its doors open and allow its crew to mill about so close to takeoff. But the begging, fighting mob ignores the voice completely.
A tall, pale man with blond hair limps toward you. He regards you with cold grey eyes. “Any room?” he says, his voice deep and calm.
“Depends,” you say. “What can you do to earn your room?”
“Navigation,” he says. “Poetry.”
“A man of few words,” you say. “But how can a man of few words be a good poet?”
The man glances to the side, already scanning the other ships.
If you wish to let the man aboard, turn to section 56.
If you wish to tell him to navigate his way onto someone else’s ship, turn to section 244.
83
You wedge the point of the knife in, then drive the thing in up to the hilt. You rock your body back and forth like a madman. Unless you have a Strength of at least 2, you lose 1 Blood from the exertion. Suddenly the seal on the door pops open and air rushes in. You are thrown to the back of the room. Luckily some safety feature of the door turns on and it grinds open awkwardly.
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 178.
84
The dogs pause for a moment. You look into their eyes. Just then you realize that these are not normal dogs - they have either been drugged or received some kind of intense training. Either way, you are not strong enough to stop them. However, you gain 1 XP for facing them down.
You break eye contact and dive under the pillar. You hear the mass of dogs come alive again behind you. You scramble through the rubble. The dogs leap from the beam behind you and land in the room, biting one another and pushing to get under the support beam.
You rise to your knees on the far side of the pillar. You feel ahead in the darkness and find a control panel. You pull a small emergency latch and an unseen door opens, flooding the chamber with light. You enter and shut the door behind you. The barking of the dogs disappears suddenly.
You have survived your encounter with the dogs: Gain 2 XP.
Turn to section 187.
85
The gun silently kicks in your hands, and you note in dismay that the fighter remains unscathed. Thinking to sneak closer, you freeze as the fighter turns toward you. Whether he saw your muzzle flash or his ally alerted him, you do not know. By the light of the Invader’s jetpack you see his black padded suit, his unreadable shadowed face, his great horns curving outwards. The monster streaks toward you at incredible speed and you must draw a hand-to-hand weapon and face him head-on.
Be sure to erase the amount of ammunition that you used.
Turn to section 159.
86
Now you cannot ignore your hunger for air. You push back towards the door and enter the small antechamber. Strangely enough, this room is now as dark as the former. You push the button to seal off the room and open the next door. Nothing happens. You notice that the panel is also unlit. You are trapped.
If there were a panic button on the panel, now would be the time to push it.
If you have the Wrench, you can slam it into the control panel by turning to section 265.
If you have the Knife, you can try to wedge it between the door and wall and pry it open by turning to section 83.<
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If you wish to cry out for help, turn to section 523.
If you did not pick up either of these items, you can go back to the other room by turning to section 493.
87
The chamber itself is circular and filled with a bluish, celestial light. The light flows from a glowing orb too bright to look at directly, and sits within a framework of steel. Several computers on the ground hum loudly at many pulsating frequencies, like a choir of hard plastic cherubim. You have no idea how the technology works. But you know that it is the Invader ship’s shield generator, and it must be destroyed.
Three doors enter into this chamber, including the one you came through, all of which are open. You lay Marcus on the ground while Commander Uther removes some sort of explosive device from his pack. It is a complicated setup, and he works at it intently. Meanwhile Sybel attaches his electronic lockpick into the door by which you entered, pushes some buttons, and the door closes and locks with a heavy clunk. He rushes to another door and hooks up his device, preparing to lock it as well. When he glances into the hallway, he shrieks loudly, then works his machine double-time. “We got company!” he hollers at you.
If you are trained in Demolitions, turn to section 524.
If you do not have this skill, turn to section 153.
88
You leap forward and swing your gloved fist at the deconstructor’s malicious face.
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 3 or less, turn to section 67.
If this number is 4 or more, turn to section 162.
89
You hear bullets ricochet about the halls as someone fires on a deconstructor. You yank the implosion grenade from your belt, gripping it fiercely against the tug of the void. You find a latch, then pull it outwards. The device hums in your hands. You glare at the passing bulk of the long behemoth, then release the grenade. It flies downward, slams into a deconstructor - then there is a flash of light, you feel yourself jerked forward painfully on your line. You see the deconstructor, side gaping and spitting sparks, as it slides backward into the void. It grinds against the ruined hallway, clogging up the entrance.
There is another series of explosions and the other deconstructor lurches backward; the guard’s grenades must have gone off inside of it, destroying its innards. Just then your line snaps and you fly through the air and crash into the sliding hulks, jarring your head and crushing your limbs. You flail wildly, fearful that you will be sucked into the void. Luckily the ruined machines slide to a stop, nearly sealing up the hole. You hear the hiss of air escaping the hall as you pick yourself up painfully and crawl over the machines and into the northern hallway. You see the guard lying on the floor, without his gun; he raises up and shakes his head at you, exhausted. The two of you crawl away from the scene of the battle.
You have lost 2 Blood in the battle, but you gain 3 XP for successfully destroying the deconstructors. Be sure to erase the Implosion Grenade from your inventory.
Turn to section 126.
90
You open the door and enter. You see all manner of strange devices, most of them unfinished with spare parts lying about. You see a dead man lying in the floor. He wears a scientist’s stereotypical white lab coat, but has a few gunshot wounds in his chest that are his alone. A strange contraption is in his hands, and while you don’t know what it is it feels faintly malevolent in nature. You may take the Mystery Device (bulk 3) if you like.
Just then an arhythmic blue light flashes in the room from numerous bulbs. You hear a high-pitched whir. You do not feel well.
If you have a Will score of 2 or more, turn to section 367.
If your Will score is not that high, turn to section 2.
91
You leave the others and plant your grapple near an entrance to a side hallway, where you have a clear view of the intersection. The rumble in the hallway grows. You kneel down and prepare your weapons. You can just faintly make out the sound of the laborer cursing. Soon the entire hallway shakes around you, the rumbling grows deafening, overwhelming - then the wall at the T-intersection buckles, tears apart like dry paper, and two giant machines, heads full of rotating drills and saws, grind their way inside. Air rushes from the area with such force that you skid along the hall, then fly up feet first, dangling in the air such that you are not sure if “down” is somewhere at your side or if it is below your feet, where the deconstructors are passing.
You watch the machines in horror. Suddenly there is a blur, a body flies into a drilling mouth and simply disappears as the hall is splattered with red. The machines lurch ahead, slam into the northern hall, grinding into it and pushing it outward around their massive bulks. As they move you can see the steel-grey side of one passing below.
If you have a High-Power Implosion Grenade, you can use it by turning to section 89.
If you have a gun, you can fire at the machine’s flank by turning to section 117.
If you would rather get closer to the machine’s flank, you can lower yourself along the grappling rope by turning to section 236.
92
You meditate on the nature of emptiness as you fly through the void. For you, the cold and the unending darkness of nothingness are not abstract: It is real, it is every day, it is everything. You realize that nothingness has one attribute - torture, via the instrument of boredom, and so even this drifting through emptiness is not true nothingness.
With soul-rending clarity you realize that there is only one way for your consciousness to experience true nothingness. You will have to open up the helm of your suit, let the void come in, and see what it looks like when your own eyeballs burst in the infinite freezer that is the universe.
But something stops you. Some force, deep inside your guts, forces you to endure, to survive. But not without a price: In your slow trial you temporarily lose 1 from your Will stat. However, if your Will has already dropped to zero, then you lose 2 Blood instead.
The cold war against insanity continues.
If you have any Rest-A-Spell pills, turn to section 445.
If you do not have this drug, turn to section 213.
93
When you wake, you find that all of your wounds have been cleaned and patched up: You heal 9 Blood. Furthermore, if any of your stats have been temporarily lowered, then they are now restored.
You see the ex-lawman Philip moving about in a corner, adjusting his medical gear. Nearby, the mercenary Cletus flexes his patched hand and says to Philip, “Man I thank ye kindly. See, that ol’ boy was sayin’ they was no way I could do that trick where you lay yer hand out and stab a knife down around your fingers without hittin’ em. Now, thing is, sure, okay, I never done that trick before, but that ol’ boy... if you’da seen how he run off at the mouth, you’d a done the same thing, doc.”
“No big deal,” says Philip, smiling. “It’s what I do.”
You shake the sleep from your eyes, then say, “Thanks, Phil.”
“Anytime, friend.”
“But listen, did you, uh... did you open my suit up?”
“Well, I had to.”
You pause for a long moment. The idea of your suit being opened fills you with dread. Did the Black Lance Legion program me, you think, to never remove my suit unless I was on my own ship? Why does the idea fill me with such fear?
“I had to get to your wounds,” says Philip. “But I can see that you seem a little put off. Listen. I played doctor with you, but I didn’t “play doctor” with you, if you catch my meaning.”
“Sure. Whatever. Thanks.”
Turn to section 317.
94
As the smiling revolutionary cocks his shotgun and ejects a spent shell, you grab up a chair and toss it at him as hard as you can. “Take a seat!” you shout as you run at him, though it is difficult with the weight of the jetpack bearing down on you.
If your Strength stat is 4 or more, turn to section 297.
95
You swing your weapon at the beast. It hops away and swings a steel tentacle at you. Following through with your motion, you fall to one knee, duck the tentacle, then spring forward and catch the thing full in the face. It shudders, its visual apparatus knocked out of alignment. You kick the thing into a wall, then beat it savagely with your weapon until its shell cracks and splits, spilling mechanical innards at your feet.
You have survived your first fight. Turn to section 298.
96
The tentacles seem to be in a competition to see which one can beat more life out of you. But your submissive posture protects your manly will to survive: You lose only 2 Blood as the tentacles drag you through their gauntlet.
If you die, you may Regenerate by turning back to section 179.
If you survive, then 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 a gun and at least one bullet, and want to blast the head, turn to section 454.