Heavy Metal Thunder (25 page)

First Aid.
The human body is not a perfect engine of warfare; wear and tear, and even
death,
are
inevitable. To stay one step ahead of the
Widowmaker
is paramount to survival. This skill includes
knowledge of healing medicines, drugs that enhance performance, poisons that
impair bodily functions, and knowledge of the application of first aid in
space.

Xenology
.
Little is known of the Invader, but a few of the enemies’ ships and bodies have
been captured and studied extensively by the Black Lance Legion.
Xenology
can give a soldier the upper hand when dealing
with a strange, alien species. Knowledge at this level includes the basic
information that your leaders think may be of use to an Infantryman, but does
not include classified information.

Sixth Sense.
When death can occur anywhere and anytime, a warrior’s mind does anything it
can in order to stay alive. Some soldiers seem to develop a sixth sense that
warns them of danger when their eyes and ears do not. Some tacticians in the
Black Lance Legion believe that intuition is the ability to scan and sort
information on a subconscious level; when in danger, the subconscious warns the
conscious mind via a peculiar sense of fear. While no good Infantryman wants to
live in fear, separating raw fear from that inner voice of warning can help one
tread the fine line between being smart and alive and being a coward.

Stat Mod Skill: Weight Lifting.
If you pick this skill, then you have spent a little time in the gym and take
care of your body. You may add 1 to your
Strength
statistic. (This skill
and all other Stat Mod Skills may only be chosen once.)

Stat Mod Skill: Intensive Study.
You have a college-level proficiency in one or more subjects. You have trained
your mind a little more than most and can have an intelligent discourse on a
few things. Add 1 to your
Intelligence
statistic.

Stat Mod Skill: Gymnastics.
You have some understanding of how to leap and fall without hurting yourself,
and how to move quickly without wasting energy. Add 1 to your
Dexterity
statistic.

Stat Mod Skill: Public Speaking.
You don’t feel quite as much fear as others when it comes to making your
thoughts understood by a group. Add 1 to your
Charisma
statistic.

Be sure to make a note which 5 skills you choose.
You
must choose all 5 now.
As you rise in levels, you will be able to choose
more skills to add to your repertoire of knowledge.

Somehow, you were separated from your unit. Your
mission to find supplies and a ship with which to escape this station is now
charged with the extra duty of remembering more of your past and what is going
on in the war that rages in your solar system.

You may take the dead man’s
9mm Automatic
(Handgun, bulk 2)
and
6 Handgun bullets (bulk 1)
if you wish. You also
find a
First-Aid Kit (bulk 2)
which heals
2 Blood
with each use.
It can be used
2 times
before it is empty.

To leave the bathroom and make your way toward the
center of the ruined space station, turn to section
541
.

Immediately the laborers leap up and tackle Cletus.
Bawling like a wounded animal, Cletus disappears under a landslide of stomping
feet. The men show him no mercy; all their lives they have been pushed around
by similar mindless brutes whose only authority comes from the end of a gun.

Buford charges and slams into you. You crash into a
stack of boxes and your head slams painfully against the floor, jarring you. He
lashes out with a series of wild punches. You hear a terrific ringing sound and
Buford crashes into the ground. You peel your eyes open and see
Reika
staggering under the weight of a heavy oxygen tank.
She brings the thing down on Buford’s head again, nearly knocking his eyes
loose from their sockets. He swings his fist out and catches the small girl in
the gut, dropping her painfully, but you are on top of him before he can
recover. A red haze dims your vision and you are aware only of the exertion in
your limbs.

You must now compute a number that will determine
the outcome of this fight. This number is your
Strength
stat added to
your
1 G Combat
stat
. If you are skilled in
Weapon
Proficiency: Hand-to-Hand
, and it is with the weapon you are using, add 2
to this number. If you are using a
Blade
, add 1 to this number. If you
are using a
Mace
, add 2.

During the fight you lose
8 Blood
, though you
may subtract the number above from this amount. You may also subtract your
Defense
rating, if you have any.

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

When you recover, you see a pulpy, bloody mess
beneath you. The thing that was once Buford moans, his throat nearly crushed,
then the broken bits of his teeth trickle into the back of his throat and
suffocate him.

You glance over at the laborers. They are panting
and leaning against one another. Cletus is dead on the ground, a bag of
shattered bones and ruined organs. One of the laborers nods to you, and you nod
back. Another smiles slightly, then hides his mouth behind his hand guiltily.

Reika
leans next to you, says, “You okay, soldier boy?”

“Yes ma’am,” you say. “Thanks.”

She smiles her crooked smile.

“But I didn’t have to thank you,” you say, “
cause
you owed me one, anyway.”

Turn to section
341
.

“I wish you luck in your endeavors, gentlemen,” you
say, “but there’s no way in Hell I’m going to throw myself at those machines.”

The laborer weakly turns his head to the guard, who
continues getting his gear together. “B-but!” says the manager. “B-b-b-b-but
y-you have to, man!”

“I don’t have to do squat,” you say to him.
“Besides, I don’t see you suiting up.”

The manager averts his gaze, obviously vexed.

You see the guard and the laborer putting on plastic
face masks and attaching them to heavy air tanks that they strap to one
another’s backs. You see another air tank on the ground. You feel around on
your back and, without thinking, pull a concealed lever that releases your
damaged air tank, which clatters to the ground noisily. The manager yelps. “I’m
not going to help you switch that out,” says the manager. You ignore him as you
unconsciously fit the tank in place behind you,
then
connect the tube that leads to your neckpiece. Now, at least, you have working
oxygen - but you will need more.

“Where’d you get this?” you ask, glaring at the
manager.

“Dock command station,” says the manager, staring at
you.

Oxygen right where the fuel lines are
,
you think.
Perfect!

You glance about, unwilling to move until the two
armed men are gone. You note boxes stacked in the middle of the lounge area.
Empty food wrappers litter the floor, and so you reason the boxes may be full
of food. You will need all of it for your journey; these dead men will not miss
it. There is a lot to carry, though, and you must hurry if you are to gather as
much fuel as possible before the deconstructors kill the power and seal the
lines. You make a mental note to come back for the food after the fuel is
ready.

The guard and manager check their twin hand-held
radio units. Finally the guard wraps a belt of grenades around his chest,
then
nods to the old laborer. They jog down the hall on an
interception course between the deconstructors and the backup power system. You
go in the opposite direction, most likely toward the dock command station.

Turn to section
518
.

You shield yourself from the guard’s powerful blow.
“GIMME THE SUIT!” he growls, spluttering thick saliva onto your face plate.
“GIMME THE GODDAMN SUIT!”
He wrestles with you and it’s all
you can do to keep his powerful arms from crushing the wind out of you. You
maneuver around on the floor, bracing against him with one arm while you grab a
gun with another. You bring the gun to his head. Red-faced and full of fury, he
refuses to relent - so you blast his skull open, spilling brains against the
wall and dropping his body beside you. You push away from him.

You gain
1 XP
for use of your Stat, and
another
2 XP
for slaying the guard. Be sure to erase the bullet you just
fired from your inventory. You search his body and find the following items:

STELLAR Hand-Held Radio (bulk 1)

Lounge Card Key (bulk 0)

Turn to section
565
.

Slowly, steadily, you creep down the hill. The lean
body of the sniper, crouched behind his long rifle, grows in your vision,
feeding your patient bloodlust. As the minutes drag by, you soon hover directly
over your prey. You prepare to strike.

If the weapon you are using is a
Blade
, and
you are trained in
Weapon Proficiency: Blade
, turn to section
68
.

Otherwise, turn to section
339
.

You charge at the robot. It swings its heavy fork
lift about; you try to angle sideways as you run, but it slams you painfully
into a wall. You slide to the floor, then roll underneath the fork lift as the
robot turns around, ready to slam into you head-on.

You must now compute a number that determines the
outcome of the battle against the labor-bot. Add your
Ground Combat (or 1 G
Combat)
to your
Dexterity
Stat. If you are using a hand-to-hand
weapon, and have the
Weapon Proficiency
Skill with that weapon, add 3 to
the total. If you are using a weapon but are untrained in its use, add 1.

As you move about to avoid the fork lift, then climb
up the front of the robot, it gives you the smack-down with a number of
appendages on its torso. You lose
8 Blood
from the assault, but you may
subtract the above number from your Blood loss. If your Blood score drops to
zero or less, then you get light-headed and fall to the floor. You then feel
thick-headed as the giant robot rolls over your body, pushing all of your blood
into your head. You feel agony just before your tongue and eyeballs pop out in
a shower of blood. However, if you survive the robot’s assault, continue on.

You manage to climb up the robot’s front, bracing
against its attacks. You balance your feet on its fork lifts, then smash the
sensor dome into pieces. The robot swings about and you leap to the floor,
crashing under the weight of your jetpack. You roll away and see the robot
rumbling down a side hall, bumping from wall to wall, blind and useless.

You gain
1 XP
for overcoming the robot. You
may continue down the hall to the dock command station by turning to section
214
.

While jogging down the hall you see a closed door to
your left.
The other door pounds ahead of you.
While the
mist is expanding rapidly, it is still some distance behind you.

If you want to duck into the other room, either to
hide or just to take a peek, turn to section
408
.

If you want to keep moving ahead, turn to section
239
.

You study the
Narrenschiff’s
navigational data. You could easily stay within the Asteroid Belt, as this is
most likely what your own Black Lance Legion ship is doing. But you want to
meet it as quickly as possible, and so you set a course that will follow the
“inside lane” - that is, you will swing inwards of the Belt in order to shorten
your course. You decide to meet with two large asteroids called Scylla and
Charybdis so that there will not be any chance of getting lost in the vastness
of space.

You note that while the two asteroids are named
after mythological monsters that gave some hero of legend a hard time, for you
they will be good omens, as they mark the point at which you will be roughly
two-thirds of the way through your journey, which will end at your reunion with
your brothers in the Legion.

But you’re not home yet. You must subtract
1 Food
for every person on the
Narrenschiff
,
including yourself. You may use your own supply of Food in your inventory, if
you have any. If you do not have enough to cover everyone, you must use up all
possible Foods and then lose
1 Blood
due to the harsh effects of slow
starvation.