Heavy Metal Thunder (15 page)

“The Human is the greatest being!” you hear yourself
shouting. “Strongest, noblest, in
all the
universe!
All who oppose the human species - must die!”

The old man twitches feebly, tongue lolling from his
mouth,
and you feel the others pulling you back,
holding your limbs behind you. The old laborer drops to the floor, moaning. You
pull the men about, snarling fiercely. They struggle with you for many minutes
until you finally wear out. Later, you begin to make out words, and realize
that the men have been talking about you for a long time.

“This Black Lance Legion, he calls it,” says the
manager. “Whatever they are, they’ve programmed this young man to be a
monster!”

“Do they train them to attack the elderly?” says the
doctor, huffing and wheezing.

The guard shakes his head at you, swearing fiercely.
They gather about the old laborer, tending to him. You glare at the old man.

If you refuse to apologize, turn to section
19
.

Some muscle-memory of stomping toads back home comes
into play and you bring your foot down in such a manner that the lock is
smeared all over the place. You find the following items which may be of use to
you.

Clopadropin
(bulk 2)
(This bottle of prescription painkiller heals
1
Blood
when taken. There is enough for
2 doses.
)

Worker’s Coveralls (bulk 2)

“Mike, Leon, Don,
Ralph: Getting In Touch With Your Personality Type and Your Mutant Spirit
Animal” (bulk 1)
(This book promises to help the reader
gain a personality if he or she does not already have one.)

Wakem
Pills (bulk 1)
(This
guarana
-derivative
is common among laborers. When wounded, you may use this item to restore
1 Blood.
There is enough for
1 dose.
)

“Guide to STELLAR CORP
Infotech
” (bulk 1)
(This manual contains
information about the computer systems used by the
Stellar
mining corporation.)

Your body cries out for oxygen.

If you have a
Dexterity
score of 2 or more,
turn to section
86
.

If not, turn to section
64
.

You try to catch the rhythm of the demon door as you
run toward it. You reach the door and it opens right in front of your face. You
are nearly through when it slams into you. While it does not crush your skull,
it does throw you against the wall and toss you to the floor in a painful heap:
Lose
2 Blood.

You nurse your bruised ribs and ego, then 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
.

You swing your weapon towards the deconstructor’s
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 you have the
Weapon
Proficiency: Hand-to-Hand
skill with a
Mace
, add 2 to this number.

If this number is 3 or less, turn to section
234
.

If this number is 4 or more, turn to section
95
.

You enter a small chamber. There is another door at
the end with an electronic panel beside it. Gagging on nothingness, you push
yourself towards it. You slam your fist into the buttons along the panel. A
light flickers, you hear the rush of air, and some force draws you down towards
the floor. The door slides open and hard white light fills the chamber. You
stumble inside, fall to your knees, and pull off your helmet. Sweet air rushes
into you and you breathe deep the air of the living.

You are in a well-lit, tan-colored, carpeted
hallway. You consider that this deeper part of the station is still powered,
powered enough even to fuel the “fat mass” coils in the floor that, when
charged, attract other bodies.
Synthetic gravity.
There may still be some life in this ghost station yet.

You know that you can’t stay here forever. The
dismantling machines will eventually punch enough holes in the station that the
vacuum will get in. You have to search this place over and find a ship that can
get you out of here. To where, you don’t know. But in the short-term, you’ll
need some gear if you’re to survive. You begin to search your utility belt,
then
realize that your right hand has been gripped into a
fist this entire time. You are clutching a soldier’s dog tag. The chain is
broken, and the name on the tag reads

PVT.
CHRISTIAN, JOHN

BLACK
LANCE LEGION INFANTRY

SER#
3902247236

Black Lance Legion
Infantry?
you
wonder.
Is
this person me?

You feel about your neck and find another dog tag.
It reads

MR.
WIGGLES

BLACK
LANCE LEGION INFANTRY

SER#
13

Mister Wiggles... serial
number thirteen?
This has to be some kind of joke
.

You check out your utility belt. It is completely
empty. However, when you do come into contact with items, the bulk of that item
will be given. You can only carry a limited bulk of items; the heavier or more
oddly-shaped the item, the greater its bulk. For example, a coffee mug would
have a bulk of 1, a book would have a bulk of 1 to 4, a cinder block would have
a bulk of 15, and the dog tag that you are carrying has a bulk of 0.
You may
carry a
maximum of 12
bulk
of items.
Any
more than that would hamper your movement. You need not worry about your space
suit or jetpack, for they are already figured into the equation.

You also have no fuel in your jetpack and your only
oxygen tank is damaged. You will need to find food, a new oxygen tank, weapons,
medical supplies, rations, water, and a ship if you are to make it out of this
station before it is completely dismantled.

If you would like to put your mask back on, hold
your breath, and explore the room you just came from, turn to section
294
.

If you would rather explore this hallway, turn to
section
429
.

You slam your jets one notch past MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE
and fly in a tight loop downwards, upwards,
even
sideways. The tentacle hangs on for all it’s worth, but you jerk it about so
violently that it gives up the fight just before you have the chance to throw
up into your helmet.

The long arm of the beast slithers back down into
its nest. You gain
1 XP
for escaping possible death.

The need to do some serious damage to this pet of
the Invaders, and perhaps turn the situation to your advantage, grows hot in
your gut. Once your nerves are properly chilled, you take a look at the nearest
landmarks that you could investigate.

There is a grey mound that you could check out by
turning to section
300
.

Some of the blue channels sparkle
nearby.
You could follow one of them by turning to section
373
.

“Don’t do it!” says the priest. “You might hit the
girl!”

“Don’t do it!” says the laborer. “You might hit me!”

“Do it!” screams the girl. “Come on, you pussy!
Shoot!”

One shot, one kill
,
you think to yourself.
Let’s just hope the kill isn’t the girl
.

You must now compute a number that determines the
outcome of your shot. This number is your
Dexterity
. If you are skilled
in
Weapon Proficiency: Ranged
with the gun you are using, add 3 to this
number. You cannot increase your chance of a successful shot by using more than
one bullet; this is a skilled shot, and it only takes one bullet to blow
someone’s dome wide open.

If your number is 5 or less, turn to section
546
.

If your number is 6 or more, turn to section
401
.

If you have any SD damage, and have no Sticky Fix to
repair your suit, then
the void bleeds you for that much Blood.
For
instance, if you have lost 1 SD, then you must now lose 1 Blood; if you have
lost 2 SD, then you must now lose 2 Blood; if you have lost 3 SD, then your
tattered suit comes apart and your body is immediately frozen and you die in
the cold of space.

You
crawl
hand over hand
across the brittle, icy landscape. Clouds of sparkling, ashy dust rise up
around you and drift into space. You clamber across the frozen
deadland
for nearly an hour, drawing nearer and nearer the
sniper’s position.

Finally, you reach a cliff overlooking the position
you noted earlier. You watch. Finally, you see a flickering light, movement.
Your prey is unwary, careless. You note a stirring shape that is vaguely
humanoid, with a space suit as dark as your own. It sits hunched over a long
rifle; your helm computer tries to identify it,
then
marks its caliber as unknown. Then, strangest of all, you clearly see two long,
slender, curving horns on either side of the Invader’s head. Whether they are a
part of the suit or the enemy itself, you do not know.

You catch movement nearby and your heart blasts raw
fire. You turn suddenly and see another Invader in black armor, his jetpack
glowing in the darkness. Two thick horns crown either side of his head - and he
turns directly toward you. You freeze, staring into the shadow that is the
enemy from another world, wondering what he thinks, wondering if his thoughts
are even comprehensible. Then a weapon flashes at his side, a thick short sword
like a gladiator would use - a
gladius
, which your
helm identifies as a field-generating weapon - and the engine of his jetpack
flares to life.

The Invader warrior flies toward you, hungry to draw
your blood so that it will freeze in the darkness of space.

If you want to try to draw a gun and fire, turn to
section
421
.

If you want to draw a hand-to-hand weapon to fight
this thing, or take it on with your bare hands, turn to section
159
.

The guard whirls on you just as you are upon him.
His eyes widen in terror - then he raises his lead pipe, parrying your blow.
You both float away from one another - then he kicks off from the far wall,
flying toward you with a guttural cry. He is intent on killing you.

If you are using a...

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

Otherwise, you must fight him with your bare hands
by turning to section
23
.

You grab up a tube of icing, toss the thing into the
air and, as it falls, slam your fists onto either side of it, sending a wild
spray of sickeningly sweet frosting into your mouth. You feel as if you are
going to throw up, so violently does your body react against the abuse; you
swallow the churning vomit along with a pound of baloney, putting you slightly
ahead of the competition.

Eventually, Cletus falls into a stack of bananas he
has already peeled, crushing them into mush. “
Gawd
,”
he bellows, “the pain!”

“Hah!” cries Buford, chunks spilling from his mouth.

“
M’stomerk
! Gonna
explode!”

“Hah ha-a-ah!”

“Ah
thah
theah
wuh
do,” you say, darkly.

“What?” says
Buford.

“I said,
And
then there
were two,” you repeat, darkly.

“Whatever,
boah
,” says
Buford, popping an apple into his mouth and swallowing the thing whole.

If your
Strength
is 4 or more, turn to
section
326
.

If your stat is not this high, or you just want to
give up before you hurt yourself, turn to section
458
.

You form up beside two other fanatics, lances
extended, while the others fly in a tight formation behind you, their smaller
weapons held outward. You have some dim notion that you have been told how to
do this many times, but you are positive that this is the first time.