Heavy Metal Thunder (2 page)

The Major glares at you, then says, “Mister Wig...
uh, Serial Number Thirteen. Your unit’s been wiped out. All of them died in the
Stellar
station operation, along with that name
which
you earned
.” The man seems to resent your presence.

“Then put me on a new unit, sir!”

“Can’t do it.
Can’t.
Your paperwork is being processed, but
son,
you won’t be placed for weeks yet. Officially you’re
still on sick leave, which if I remember correctly, is all
you
ever want-”

“Sir, I mean to fight, sir!”

“The solar system’s crawling with Invaders. Once
your paperwork goes through, you’ll have all the fighting you can handle, and
then some.”

“But I want -”

“Legion doesn’t give a shit what you want, boy! Now
stand down!”

You curse the man and roughly push past one of the
green infantry boys. You stomp down the hall, desperately thinking of a way to
get out where the fight is. Another infantry unit jogs down the hall. Then you
see a strange sight: One man with a yellow grunt’s patch and short black hair
eyes you strangely.

The man looks exactly like you.

Turn to section
494
.

“Alright,” you say, “and now shall you find out,
once and for all, who is a man and who is a subhuman beast.”

“
Boah
,” says Cletus, “
whyn’t
you put your Food where your mouth is?”

The three of you sit across from one another with a
buffet laid out, facing off in an arena of tasty treats. “Re-e-
eady
?” says Buford. “Set? All set? Three... two... ready
?...
two...”

“Go!” says Cletus. Immediately you all fall on the
food, glaring at one another and growling like animals. Buford grabs up hotdog
after hotdog, sucking the things out of his wet, glistening fist, but you
ignore the titillating sight and concentrate on jamming food into your face and
ignoring your stomach, which is already full. Cletus puts his face down into a
cake like a hog at the trough, then inhales in such a way that the cake seems
to implode,
then
the entire thing slithers into his
face. The contest is intense. Your opponents are both big men with big stomachs
and, not having any real interests or hobbies of their own, they know that only
their reputation can define who they are. Neither wants to give up, no matter
how much it hurts. You vow to do the same.

If your
Strength
is 3 or more, turn to
section
138
.

If your
Strength
is 2 or less, turn to
section
350
.

It seems as if you can no longer move. All is darkness.
You feel mouths, daggers, heat, and the fear that the monsters will eat you
whole from the bottom up.
These creatures have been drugged, they must have
been
, you think, for their howls are terrifying, unending.

One beast squirms up to your knees, and though you
try to push away from it, it bites down unmercifully: You lose
3 Blood
,
but you may subtract your
Dexterity
score from this amount of damage.

You manage to move around enough and knee the beast
in the throat hard enough to still its hunger. It goes limp. You push ahead,
breathing in your own vaporized sweat. Finally you come to a dark, open space.
You rise to your knees and 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
.

You race down the hallway. The lights flicker, then
the entire station shudders and you nearly lose your balance.

“REMAIN CALM,” says the voice on the intercom.
“THERE HAS BEEN A SLIGHT POWER SURGE IN DOCKING BAYS FOUR THROUGH NINE.
EMERGENCY PERSONNEL HAVE CLOSED OFF THE AREAS. RUMORS THAT THESE DOCKING BAYS
HAVE BEEN DESTROYED ARE COMPLETELY UNFOUN... OH GOD!”

Ominous static fills the audio speakers, then
crackling sounds. A new voice, shrill and manic, shouts, “Tools of the Stellar
Slave Corporation, hear this! The People’s Underground Revolutionary Forces
have commandeered this communications center! Your liberation is at hand! I
repeat
,
your liberation is at hand!”

I’m sure it is
,
you think, running harder.
Have fun working with the Invader towards a
better future, kids
.

Finally you come to a hallway filled with running
people. They are a mixture of frightened laborers, lawmen, mercenaries,
merchants, and corporate heads. You see the wide open doors of the docking bay
just ahead, and the scene before you makes all the chaos beforehand pale in
comparison.

Turn to section
53
.

You have a bad feeling about this stuff. You
scramble backwards. You rise as the stuff lands where you were sitting. You
note the loose papers lying about: When the mist covers them, they blacken and
curl up into ash. You imagine what would happen if that mist got in your suit,
your eyes, your lungs.

You turn towards the other door and run. The mist
expands to fill the hall behind you... and keeps coming.

Turn to section
229
.

You find the strange, quiet man sitting in the
pilot’s chair. “Arturo,” you say. “Sup?”

“Working my craft,” he says. He brings up a series
of maps with moving points on them. “We could stay within the Asteroid Belt. It
tends to be safer, as we might meet other humans if we need help, plus we could
avoid getting lost as there are many known asteroids plotted within our maps.
But I’ve chosen to swing us inwards slightly. There is that Invader ship to
consider. And given what you know of your own ship, we could swing outwards at
any time, later, and meet them down the line.”

“I see,” you say. “Any chance we could get lost
outside the Belt?”

“Not really. There are two large asteroids called
Scylla and Charybdis that lie on the inner path of the Belt. I’ve plotted a
course to fly by them, just to reorient ourselves if we need to.”

“I see,” you say.
“Re-e-e-
eal
interesting, bud.”

“Note this. These two asteroids were named after
mythological monsters. They once gave a legendary hero a very hard time.”

“Well for me they’ll be a good omen. It looks like
they mark the three-quarters point between where I began and where I want to
end up.”

Arturo closes his eyes and lies still for a long
time. At first you think,
Maybe
the chair is
just that comfortable
, then you think,
Maybe he’s trying to rest so he
can heal some Blood
. Then the navigational poet says, slowly,

We
crawl through the darkness,

Behold,
a tree with leaves on it,

A bunch of aliens are
trying to kill us

He opens his eyes, blinking, as he returns to your
world.

“Wow,” you say, floored. “That was amazing. Was
that...?”

“Poetry,” he says.
“The gift of
the gods.”

You realize that the world - no, the universe - is a
much larger, more multi-faceted, and altogether stranger place than you ever
imagined. “If our species has this power,” you say, “then I will do all that I
can to defend it.”

You leave the man alone so that he can come up with
more amazing poetry.

Until then, 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.

If
Simeon the Mechanic
is with you, turn to
section
531
.

If he is not, turn to section
262
.

In crystal clear detail you see the face of the
terrified revolutionary as he fires at you. You can hear, even feel, the
bullets fly by your head. Caught in your sights, you see his head jerk to the
side, mangled like a stomped cake. As he stumbles backwards you see red
splatter down onto his neck, shoulder,
chest
. Your gun
barks again, jumping in your hand, and the smiling revolutionary is caught from
two sides, and spins about in a spraying bundle of agony. Both revolutionaries
crash into the ground, twitching lamely, blood pouring freely.

While the lawman catches his breath, you look at the
wall behind you. It is completely riddled with bullets, as if you were the
poster boy for Swiss cheese. “Damn I’m good,” you say. You gain
1 XP
for
being such a smooth operator. Be sure to erase the amount of ammunition that
you used.

Suddenly the lawman looks at you. “What?” you say.

“I, uh,” he says, trying to recover himself. “I
gotta
get outta here. Fight some crime, or something.
Something.”
He stares ahead and marches out of the room.

“Right on!” you say.
“
Wha
-a-
atever
, bro.”
You
search the bodies of the dead and find the following gear.

Krieger-Colt Pump-Action Shotgun
(Shotgun, bulk 3)

3 Shotgun Shells (1 bulk)

Cold Cock Auto (Handgun, bulk 2)
(The serial number is scratched off.
)

4 Handgun Bullets (bulk 1)

When you are ready to hit the all-you-can-eat buffet
(and scoop up some XP), turn to section
260
.

You float towards the cake- and blood-smeared table
and tear open the bright packages.
This is the worst Christmas ever
, you
think. You find the following items which may be of some use. You may take or
leave what you like; just
be
sure to adjust your
inventory accordingly.

Bottle of
Kleingard
Hooch (bulk 1)

“Economic Independence
Through
Relaxing Visualization” (bulk 1)
(This is the kind of book that only a poor person would own.)

Framed Photo (bulk 1)
(Shows a group of laborers posing and smiling. You wonder if some of them are the
same people who are dead in this room.)

Your body cries out for oxygen.

If you have a
Dexterity
score of 2 or more,
turn to section
360
.

If not, turn to section
274
.

Just as you draw your gun, the man swings his rifle,
connects painfully with your wrist, and knocks it to the side. You grasp the
gun with your numb hand as he tackles you. You slam into the wall. You can
almost make out your own reflection in his tears as he grasps your throat. You
jam the gun into his gut and blast him. He slides down to your feet,
gushing
a trail of blood onto your uniform.

You have lost
1 Blood
in the battle. If
your
Blood score has dropped to zero, then the trauma of the
fight was enough to send you into shock, then into oblivion.

Be sure to erase the amount of bullets you have
used.

Turn to section
530
.

“Shucks,” you say, giggling. “I... I really like
you, Zelda!” You feel a terrible, bare openness.

Zelda relaxes suddenly, and it seems to you that she
“shifts gears” somehow. “
Awww
,” she says. “You’re so
sweet!”

Wow!
you
think, filled with wonder.
She thinks I’m sweet!
While you don’t know a lot about girls, it doesn’t take much to realize that
that’s probably the best thing a woman can say to a man.
Probably.

“Well,” says Zelda, “I guess I’m going to get some
sleep.”

You grin stupidly and wave goodbye to her. “What a
lady,” you mutter to yourself, watching the stars shining in the black heavens.
“Who knows what could happen between us? Tonight is just the beginning. And the
sky’s the limit!”

Turn to section
571
.

You lift as many of the heavy oxygen tanks onto the
cart as you can, then lead the cart out of the dock command station. It hums as
you push it to a heavy iron door that leads to the ruined dock. You think about
stacking them neatly, then remember the limited time and dump the things into
the hall. You make several trips, filling the hallway with the precious tanks.