Heavy Metal Thunder (12 page)

During the course of your life you will gain
experience and advance in character levels. When this happens, you will earn
more points that you may distribute among your statistics. In some rare
instances your statistics may be temporarily lowered. For instance, great
injury can lower your Strength or Dexterity, confusion can lower your
Intelligence or Charisma, and a great ordeal can lower your Will. (Hint: While
a 2 in any score is better than a 1, having a 3 in one score may give you an
edge in some situations. Still, it is a risky gamble, as you do not have many
skill points that you can distribute at your current level.)

The constant hissing in your ears dwindles,
then
chokes off. You force in one small gulp of air,
then
there is nothing. You are out of air. You see a door
that leads deeper into the station. You wonder if the entire station has been
gutted and given over to the vacuum. You push yourself towards the door and
enter.

Turn to section
335
.

Most of the lockers contain nothing of any value.
However, one locker is kept shut by a padlock. You are in great need of air,
but are also frustrated that your search has provided so little.

If you have a
Wrench
you can try to break the
padlock by turning to section
485
.

If you left this item all the way at the other side
of the room, you can still give the lock a swift kick before leaving the room
by turning to section
403
.

If you would rather leave to get air, turn to
section
86
.

Having gathered up the O2 tanks, you kick off and
float down the hallway leading back to the lounge so that you can gather the
food supplies you suspect are there. You shine your helm light down every side
hall, ready to blast the manager if you see him.

You enter the lounge. The boxes drift near the
floor; you tear open one and, to your delight, find tons of rations, snacks,
even complete meals. You check a side room - it is full of jugs of water. You
make a mental note to find some way to keep the stuff from freezing so that you
can drink it in space. You spend half an hour stacking the items in the
hallway,
then
carefully push the entire mass before
you. The trip down the long hallway is a small nightmare of organizing and
reorganizing, but you are thankful that the entire length of the hall is a
straight stretch with no narrow or closed doorways.

You stop near an entrance to the docks and let the
goods float near the O2 tanks. Then you reenter the dock command station,
casting your light about for fear of the stalking manager. You gather up the
steel fuel canisters, then attach a line from your jetpack to one of the things
and refuel yourself. Your heart races with the hope of escaping this ghost
station. You push the fuel canisters through the air and slowly kick them
against a wall near the rest of your supplies. Perhaps another half hour passes
as you come near to exhaustion collecting your supplies together.

Then, you hear a radio sputtering in the darkness.

Turn to section
180
.

The tentacle drags you closer and closer to its
writhing brethren. As your foot goes numb in its ice-cold grip, you unsheathe a
weapon and swing.

You must now compute a number that will determine the
outcome of the battle. This number is your
Zero G Combat
added to your
Strength
stat. If you are skilled in
Weapon Proficiency: Hand-to-Hand
with the
weapon you are using, add 3 to this number.

Your weapon cannot seem to put a dent in the
tentacle, nor can you get any leverage against its writhing mass in order to
pry yourself free. The tentacle clamps down on your leg harder still, sucking
the fight out of you and nearly shattering your leg. You lose
12 Blood
during the struggle, but you may subtract the number you computed from this
amount of Blood loss.

The tentacle flings you down into a nest of shorter
tentacles. They slither about 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 want to try using your weapon against these
shorter tentacles, turn to section
251
.

Both sides blast away at one another. Chunks of the
wall shatter and fly into your face, your eyes,
your
neck. Several Invaders fall to your combined gunfire, but more seem to fill the
area, firing round after round at your position.

During the fight you lose
2 Blood
. Be sure to
erase the amount of ammunition that you used. Though you cannot seem to make
any headway, you gain
1 XP
for surviving.

If you die, then you may
Regenerate
by turning back to section
161
.

“They’re getting reinforcements!” shouts Marcus.
“And we’re boxed in here!”

If your
Intelligence
is 3 or more, turn to
section
463
.

If your stat is not this high, turn to section
66
.

The light from your helmet shines on the terrible
scene of murder. Money printed in all garish colors twinkles, floating like
beautiful cherubim. You can take the heavy
Wrench (Mace, bulk 3)
, or pry
the
Knife (Blade, bulk 1)
from the dead man’s chest, or take them both.
If you do take them, be sure to record these weapons in your item inventory.
You may also take a handful of
Stellar Money (bulk 1)
or even a
Bag
of Stellar Money (bulk 3)
if you wish.

You notice a row of lockers on the far wall. You are
getting hungry for air.

If you would like to make a quick search of the dead
workers’ pockets, turn to section
121
.

If you would like to examine the lockers, turn to
section
99
.

If you would like to leave this room now, turn to
section
86
.

As the other infantrymen fly around the corner, you
hear shouting in your com-link, and you and Sybel make an awkward turnabout and
drag Marcus back the way you came. Your legs burn,
then
go numb. Suddenly you stumble and crash to your knees, unable to go on. You
roll onto your back and see a dozen masked, horned Invaders turn into the
hallway, eyes gleaming in the dull red light.

Can’t die
,
you think, pulling yourself back up on your elbows.
Can’t
die, not yet
.

There is a terrific rush and it seems the whole
world in front of you turns into a whirlwind. There is a flash of intense
light, then complete darkness. Suddenly you are whipped off your back and
pulled through cold nothingness. You see the flashes of helm lights darting
past you, around you, then your own helm light clicks on and you see twisted
metal, layers of steel bent and shattered in an instant. Then you are jerked
sideways in a rush of air, like a dead soul whipped free from the bounds of its
earthly body.

An eternity squeezed into a moment passes,
then
you are thrown into open space. The mangled bodies of
dead aliens spin all around you, freezing, twitching feebly. You see the lights
of jetpacks as your
comrades
fly away from the blasted
hull. All at once your senses return, and you hear Commander Uther shouting,
“Fly! Get out of there!”

I’m alive!
you
think.
Alive!
You blast your jetpack to
life and follow your comrades through space, away from the Invader ship.

If your space suit has been destroyed during the
attack on the Invader ship, turn to section
393
.

If it is whole or only a little damaged, turn to
section
585
.

“You
wanna
come with me?”
you say.

“What for?
What’s the point?” she says, flaring in anger. “We’re all going to die anyway.”

“Not me,” you say. “I’m getting a ship and flying
out of here.”

“If you’ve got a ship, then what’re you wasting your
time here for?”

“I don’t have a ship yet, dumbass, I’m gonna take
one.”

She brightens slightly.
“Oka-a-ay.
Okay!”

“What’s your name?”

“
Reika
,” she says, smiling
crookedly.
“You?”

You panic, and can feel your ears burning. “Uh,
u-u-uh,” you stutter. “It’s... Commander...
Destructinator
...
uh...”

“Bullshit,”
Reika
says.
Then you feel utter horror, for she grabs your
dogtag
before you can smack her hand away.
“Mister Wiggles, huh?”

“Listen! That’s probably not my real name. You know,
that’s something someone put on me after he stole my memory... and sold it to
the aliens...”

“Huh?”

“Okay bitch, fine, you can call me that until my
memory
comes
back and I know my real name. Okay?
That alright with you?”

Smiling, she turns to the door to leave but you
distinctly hear her mutter something that lets you know that she does not have
complete faith in your abilities. You realize that while
Reika
might be a helpful ally, you also might have to kill her. Such back-talk could
be dangerous in the long term. For now, make a note that
Reika
is with you.

To continue down the hall toward the ship docking
bay, turn to section
381
.

You and the others creep forward. Your jetpacks
clang back and forth on your backs, and it seems a wonder that no one can hear
you, but the entire hallway hums with the sound of machinery, covering you. You
peer ahead, sure that at any moment enemy soldiers will burst forth.

Ahead of you, the Commander swings into the narrow
doorway, then motions for the rest of you to follow. Just as you are about to
enter, a black-masked face crowned by two large horns peers through the far
doorway. He sees you and Marcus,
then
barks out some
order. Immediately gunmen swing around both sides of the far doorway, blasting
wildly. You dive into the narrow doorway while Uther covers you as best he can.

“Return fire!” Uther shouts.
“Fire!”

Still on the ground, you lean over the edge and
blast at the enemy, who duck for cover. Uther fires standing above you while
Marcus, on his knees, returns fire with his rifle. You glance at Sybel; it
seems you are in some sort of large storage closet full of radiation suits,
which Sybel studies intently.

You gain
1 XP
for using your skill as best
you can.

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 9 or less, turn to section
102
.

If your number is 10 or more, turn to section
31
.

You can use a...

Mace - section
498
, Spear
- section
160
, Blade - section
252
.

One Invader crashes into the ground, dead from
Sybel’s
gunshot. Two more of them, desperate for cover,
roll directly into your line of sight. Marcus sprays one with a hail of bullets
that tosses blood onto the far wall. While the other Invader whirls in
confusion, you blast the side of his head, shattering his mask and spraying
blood onto one of his bone-white horns.

The last alien guard, realizing that he is
outnumbered, runs away through your line of sight in a desperate bid to
survive. As Marcus and Sybel nail him from two directions, he fires wildly. One
of his bullets whizzes by your knee, tearing off a strip of precious meat with
it.

You lose
2 Blood
and
1 SD.

If you die, then you may
Regenerate
by turning back to section
161
.

If you survive, then you gain
2 XP
for
killing an alien guard. Be sure to erase the amount of ammunition that you
used.