Heavy Metal Thunder (55 page)

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

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
.

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
.

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
.

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
.

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
.

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
.

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.

You 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
.

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
.

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
.

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
.

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
.

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
.

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
.

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.