Heavy Metal Thunder (23 page)

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

If he is not, turn to section
262
.

You swing your weapon about as the man swings his
rifle. He catches you full in the head, jarring your skull, while you hit his
chin in a glancing blow. You stagger backward and he tackles your midsection,
slamming you into a wall. You swing your weapon into the air and bring it
crashing down on his back. He howls, punching you in the side. You slam him in
the back again and again, until he falls back, gripping his back and sputtering
curses. You fall on him and bash his head until his face collapses into his
skull. He spews blood from his ruined mouth and twitches, already dead.

You have lost
2 Blood
in the battle. If
your
Blood score has dropped to zero or less, then multiple
vessels burst in your brain from the earlier blow, and you out-twitch the dead
man who killed you.

If you have survived, turn to section
530
.

“Fine,” you say, “but try not to break your hip on
the way in.”

“You’re just a little punk,” says the old fart, “and
before this trip’s done,
I’m going to humble your ass
.”

“Whatever. Just try not to pass away during one of
your naps. I’ve heard that’s common among your kind, is it not?”

The old man snorts, says, “Name’s Jeremiah Brown the
Third.”

“No it’s not,” you immediately say, “not on my ship,
it isn’t. From now on, you’re
Octegenarius
the
Elder.”

Make a note that
Octegenarius
the Elder the Pilot
has joined you.

Turn to section
371
.

The first thing you do when you are deeper into the
void, after all the adrenaline has washed itself out of your body, is take a
massive nap. A day or more passes as you sleep, and all of your
Blood
is
restored as well as any temporarily-lowered stats like
Strength
,
Dexterity
,
et cetera.

Once you are rested, you think back on your
experiences, considering what you did well and what you could have done better.
You grow as a human being. If you have scored
15 or more Experience Points
in your journey so far, then you become a
Level 2 Jetpack Infantryman.
As you continue to gain XP in your journey, your Level will continue to
increase (for instance, when you have at least 40 XP, you will be at Level 3,
75 XP for Level 4, and so on).

When you attain a higher Level, you receive several
rewards. Every Jetpack Infantryman receives the following bonuses upon Level
advancement:

+3
Blood

+3
Stat points to distribute

+1
Combat point to distribute

+1
Skill

You may now add this bonus maximum Blood, distribute
these Stat and Combat points, and choose an extra Skill now - if you have
achieved Level 2. If you advance another Level during this journey, you may
consult the
Rules
Index
at the back of this book if you need a
reminder of the Level advancement bonuses; the in-game text itself will no
longer remind you to level-up.

Turn to section
352
.

You open the door to the doctor’s office. “My knee
hurts,” you announce. “Well, it’s more of a tingling sensation than anything
else, but I was wondering -” You stop suddenly, for it seems the screaming
people in the office couldn’t care less about your problems. You take the
situation in at a glance: At the far end of the room, a man in laborer’s
coveralls holds a young female, also in coveralls, in front of him as a human
shield. He has an automatic handgun held to her head, and his face is contorted
in panic such that his eyes dart about like scared rabbits. Near you, a
middle-aged priest glares at the laborer; he tosses a large bowie knife from
one hand to the next, and is hunched over like a ravening beast. He eyes you
with mistrust. The girl held by the laborer is small, very young-looking with
short black hair, and she looks enraged as she struggles against her captor.

The worst part is that you can clearly see
containers of medicine and first aid kits on the far side of the violent scene.
Many boxes are torn open, scattered about. In the far corner of the room you
see a man in a doctor’s frock lying face down, most likely the doctor of this
office. He is
either doing brain surgery on himself and
is currently in the middle of a snack break, or his head has been bashed in by
someone.

“Stay back, asshole!” shouts the laborer. “I’ll do
it! I’ll blow her brains out! That’s just how much I love her!”

“I just want some medical supplies,” growls the
priest. “I swear by all that’s holy that I’m not going to slit your belly open
and dance around in your steaming entrails, you degenerate!”

“Go to hell!” the girl shrieks to her captor. “I’ll
never marry you! Let me go or I’ll kill you!”

“Baby,” mutters the laborer, pressing the gun to her
forehead. “Please, please tell me you don’t mean these hurtful things you say.”

(Note that you don’t necessarily need any bullets if
you just want to draw your gun as a bluff.)

If you have a gun, you can draw it on the laborer by
turning to section
308
.

If you have a gun, you can draw it on the priest by
turning to section
149
.

If you want to try to convince the laborer to let
the girl go, turn to section
447
.

If you want to talk to the girl, turn to section
472
.

If you want to talk to the priest, turn to section
281
.

You pull yourself over the steel box. Death hisses
in your ears. Then the horned monster peers over the edge, gun extended. As you
pull the trigger, you see the flash of
his own
gun.
Just as your bullet slams into his mouthpiece, shattering teeth and tongue and
blowing out the back of his head in a spray that paints the far wall, you feel
a terrible fire along the side of your neck as the dead alien’s bullet tears
through your neckpiece and slides along flesh before burning through the back
of your suit.

You lose
5 Blood
, though you may subtract
your
Defense
rating and
your
Will
stat
from this amount. Be sure to erase the amount of
ammunition that you used.

If you die, then you feel your suit filling with hot
blood. “Hey Marcus,” you say, though your voice seems dim in your ears. “Man, I
totally wasted those alien... guards...” As you fall down more corpse than man,
Marcus seems unimpressed. You may
Regenerate
by
turning back to section
161
.

If you survive, then you feel about your neck, heart
racing as you curse the dead monster. You are lucky: The bullet has only torn
out a chunk of meat, but no vital tubing has been laid open.

Turn to section
520
.

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
Spear
, add 2 to this number.

If this number is 5 or less, turn to section
119
.

If this number is 6 or more, turn to section
570
.

You swing your weapon towards one of the
deconstructors, aiming for its 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 5 or less, turn to section
534
.

If this number is 6 or more, turn to section
296
.

You jump down onto the lower ledge. The weight of
your jetpack feels like a cinderblock slamming into your back. You crash onto
your knees. The edge of the platform rises to your face. You push your hands
against it in order to stop your horrible momentum.

If you have a
Strength
score of 3 or more,
turn to section
278
.

If your
Strength
is not that high, turn to
section
506
.

The guard slams his fist into your torso, driving
the air from you. You feel like either you are going to black out or your heart
is going to explode. But you do not cry out.

You must now compute a number to see if you are
being beaten to death, or just close to it. Add your
Ground Combat (1 G
Combat)
to your
Strength
and your
Will
stat. 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 manage to reach down to your utility belt and
free your weapon. Just as the guard prepares to slam another knuckle sandwich onto
your plate, you swing your weapon about and crack him in his head. His eyes
dilate and his mouth goes slack. You haul back again and smash the thing into
his nose. Twin jets of blood spray onto you as he recoils in pain and falls. He
staggers up, blinking wildly; you swing the weapon into his mouth; you nearly
throw up, so sickening is the sound of teeth and bones crunching in his face.
He slams into a wall and slides down, face pouring blood like a syrup fountain.
A few good whacks
finishes
the job - that is, if the
job is to find out exactly what this man had inside his skull.

You gain
2 XP
for killing the guard. You
search his body and find the following items:

STELLAR Hand-Held Radio (bulk 1)

Lounge Card Key (bulk 0)

Turn to section
565
.

Your flight through the freezing void continues.
Continues.
Continues.

Stay the course. Endure. Madness! The sane are all
dead, you realize, dead because they chose moderation in a universe full of
extremes, rife with monsters.
Floating through nothingness.
Freezing: this place is a sanitarium for those too insane to be killed.
Twinkling stars, points of light... creators of shadows. You stare them down,
wondering who will blink out first. Are you teetering on the brink of madness,
or have you just revolved around to the point at which you are fully insane and
conscious of that fact?

It is deathly cold and in a moment of pure terror
you realize that the vast majority of everything that exists is just this: dark
and freezing cold. Life exists only on the fringes.
A thin
film, ready to pop at any moment.
A tiny sliver of bacon that could
unzip its space suit at any time and end it all...

Horrified, you realize that your hands have been
working like little squirrels to unzip your suit and end your life. “Get a hold
of yourself, soldier!” you scream and slap your helm. “The night is long and
you are the watchman! Get your shit together! This epic journey isn’t going to
work itself out!”

Not entirely convinced, you still somehow endure the
unendurable. But survival can be a nightmare: You temporarily lose 1 point from
your
Will
stat. However, if your Will has already dropped to zero, then
you lose
2 Blood
instead.

Turn to section
556
.

On your way to the dock command station, you pass by
the main computer station, where you originally watched the video feed of the
Invader ship fighting your own. You glance inside. You see empty food wrappers
that weren’t there before, probably left by the manager. You wonder if he will
come back, and even consider waiting for him so you can beat the crap out of
him. But you don’t have time to wait, as the deconstructors could destroy the
backup generator at any moment, ruining any chance of getting fuel from the
lines.
However...

If you have a
Motion-Sensitive Bomb
, you
could set it and leave it for the manager in case he comes back, by turning to
section
61
.

If you do not have such an item, continue on to the
dock command station by turning to section
347
.