Heavy Metal Thunder (29 page)

If you are trained in
Stealth
, turn to
section
535
.

If you do not have this Skill, turn to section
348
.

Batter up
,
you think as you swing the heavy wrench into the control panel. The panel
shatters and sparks fly. Electricity has a voltage party on your body and you
invent a crazy dance of pain on the
spot.Luckily
the
door grinds open slowly. Air rushes into the room and throws you against the
far wall: Lose
1 Blood.

You reenter the hallway, which is still brightly
lit. Its gravity pulls you down. You throw off your helm and breathe.

You wonder why the door suddenly stopped working. Is
the station slowly losing power on its own? Or is there someone - or something
- shutting down its systems?

Because you have survived this experience, you have
gained a greater understanding of the world. As you fight your way through this
situation you will earn
Experience Points
, which are abstract
representations of your actual experience. When you gain enough Experience
Points (or
XP
), you will gain additional character
Levels
and
receive additional Stat Points, Skills, and Blood.

You start out this game of survival at
Level 1.
For surviving the situation just now, you gain
1 XP.
Be sure to record
this. When you have at least
15 XP
and
make it out of the ghost
station alive
, then you will gain one character level and the rewards that
come with it.

When you are ready to continue down the hallway,
turn to section
178
.

You must now compute an abstract number that
signifies everything you’re throwing at these attackers. If you are skilled in
Weapon
Proficiency: Ranged
, and it is with the type of gun you are using, add 3 to
your total. For every
2 bullets
that you choose to fire, add 1 to your
total. Add your
Dexterity
to the total.

If the number you have created
is
5 or less, turn to section
553
.

If the number is between 6 and 10, turn to section
15
.

If the number is greater than 11, turn to section
292
.

Nobody moves for a long time. “No go,” says the
Captain, darkly. He levels his revolver and, as you move to the side, you hear
it blast loudly. His second shot tears into your thigh and you crash into the
ground in agony: Lose
3 Blood
and
1 SD.

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

A third shot cracks the air. You cringe
instinctively. When you open your eyes, you see the Captain stumble, then fall
in a heap. One of the guards stares down the barrel of his rifle, then smiles
and winks at you. “If you ain’t dead,” says the other, “hop in.”

The laborers seem shocked by the bloodshed.

“Don’t worry,” says the killer guard. “If the new
guy bleeds to death, we can eat him later.”

“Thanks, fellas,” you say. You may take the dead
man’s
Old School Revolver (Handgun, bulk 2)
and
2 Handgun bullets
(bulk 1)
if you wish.

Satisfied with having commandeered a ship, you can
turn to section
379
.

“Hey, listen guys,” you say, feeling out the guards’
personalities so that you can manipulate them. “I’m new on this ship. Is there
any way I can get in there and see how a real Black Lance Legion ship is run?
I’m just interested in the organization, you see...”

“Hell no,” says one guard. “Screw off.”

“Hey,” says the second guard, nudging the first. “
This pretty boy don’t
have any weapons. Why don’t we let him
in, and if he causes any trouble, we’ll just...” then the guard points his gun
at you and says, “
Pshooo
!”

The other laughs, says, “Cool. You hear that, pretty
boy? Anything funny out of you, and we’re legally entitled to blow the back of
your head off. Got it?”

“Uh, sure...” you say.

“What?”

“Sir, yes sir!”

“Well alright then.”

You gain
1 XP
for “tricking” the guards.

To enter the deck, turn to section
370
.

You stand over the body of the doctor and, resting
from the ordeal, you feel cold clarity wash through your awareness. To remain
on this ghost station with these desperate men is madness. There are no ships
with which to escape - but you still have your jetpack. It’s a short range
vehicle and there’s no way you could fill it with as much fuel as you need. But
in the void of space, all things are weightless; as long as there are intact
fuel lines in the dock command station, which was not destroyed with the docks
themselves, it is conceivable that you could fill some containers with enough
fuel to get you to the nearest working station. But even that must be incredibly
far from here - you will need a working oxygen tank and lots of spare oxygen.
And food, you will have to find food that would normally be impossible to
carry, but enough of it to sustain you through the trip… an incredible amount,
to be sure, but an amount that you could still pull through space.

That means your infantry suit will be your means of
escape. As crazy as it seems, it is the only vehicle capable of flight from
here. The entire plan depends on the fact that the fuel lines in the dock command
center are still receiving power - and also, that you cannot trust the other
three men, cannot let them do anything to get their hands on your suit.

Just then you hear feet pounding in the hallway,
panicky shouts, the barking of orders. The door to the medical room flies open.
The manager stands before you. He eyes the doctor’s body, shouts, “What the
hell is going on in here?!”

“He tried to kill me,” you say, staring him down.
“So I stomped his ass.”

“What the... how can... well, I...”

“What’s going on?” You see commotion in the next
room, and push past the manager. You see the guard and the laborer putting on
armor, loading rifles, tying some sort of rope to their belts.

“There’s something punching through the inner
perimeter,” says the manager. “I’ve been watching the station status logs.
We’re losing air like crazy. Walls were being breached in two different areas,
but now those things are traveling together to a single point - our backup
power system, near here.”

It must be those two giant drill-headed
deconstructors I saw outside
, you think. “What
about primary systems?”

“Knocked out in the original attack,” says the
manager, hands shaking and tearing through his hair. “That backup generator is
all we’ve got! If they hit that, we’re going to be in the dark... no life
support at all, man, nothing! And then they’re going to pound right through the
middle, the vacuum will be here before you know it! You and the others, you’ve
got to stop those things!”

You curse silently. Your plan to get fuel for your
trip won’t work if there’s no power to run the lines. Joining the guard and the
old laborer to destroy the deconstructors could provide valuable time to follow
through, to escape. Or, the whole thing could divert you from what you should
be doing now - using every valuable moment you have to get the fuel, gather
supplies, and jet out of here. The manager is gathering no weapons or armor at
all; while you gather supplies, he could do little to stop you, once he
realized what you were doing.

If you want to join the two men and try to save the
backup generator by destroying the deconstructors, turn to section
24
.

If you refuse to go with them, you can haul ass to
the dock command station and gather fuel before the deconstructors hit the
generators by turning to section
225
.

You run at the thing screaming a war-cry. It whips
about you, arc-fires blazing. The world seems to slow down as your mind speeds
up. The thing whips above your head. You throw yourself low. The thing shifts
wildly,
then
slams into you. You crash into the wall.
The thing pushes against you, its regular orbit interrupted. As it crushes your
lungs, you grab hold near its end and keep the torch from searing off your
face: Lose
1 Blood.

Suddenly it changes direction and whips away from
you. You dive and roll. You limp to the end of the hall and turn a corner.
Finding a door, you enter it and escape the mist of destruction: Gain
1 XP.

Turn to section
223
.

You charge the deconstructor, ducking low to avoid
its tentacles. Your spear slams straight into its mouth, shattering teeth and
forcing the thing back against a wall. You lean against the spear, forcing it
inward, as the thing flexes the tentacles holding it up. It
raises
against the wall. A forearm tentacle swings about, smacking you in the ribs,
forcing out air. You ignore the pain, jamming the spear in deeper. You force
the thing into a corner between the wall and the ceiling, pushing with all of
your
might, until the spear is jammed nearly through the
beast. It shudders, its eyes dim, and you drop the thing as its tentacles go
slack.

You lose
1 Blood.
If
your
Blood score has dropped to zero, then you lean against your foe and join him in
death.

If you have survived, turn to section
298
.

You walk the cold grey halls until you come to the
engine room. You enter and see many black-clad personnel moving about the great
nuclear reactor that powers the
Penelope’s Vengeance
. Steam drips from
the walls, and the floor vibrates sickly. Black-clad Legion women work
alongside bearded men, shouting at one another to be heard over the constant
angry hum of the reactor. You see small children scampering about metal
walkways, faces black with soot; they are in charge of cleaning places too
small for adults to fit into. There are even a few elderly people working
slowly, eyes vacant with old age; you suspect they are kept around so that in
the case of a radioactive leak, the old can stay and patch up the dangerous
problem while the younger people, whose bodies are more fit and perky and
smooth, can evacuate and continue to live meaningful lives.

You notice one rusty-haired youth who goes about his
job with ferocious speed. He glares at some of his co-workers with feral eyes,
and many avoid him. But anytime he finishes a task, he smiles with maniacal
glee.

Another worker nearly bumps into you. You stop him
and ask, “What’s up with that freak over there?”

“Oh, him?” says the worker, laughing good-naturedly.
“He’s one o’ them... uh, he’s a human fanatic, is what he is. Good worker,
though, got no problems.”

You look at him questioningly.

“Me? I was
workin
’ for
Stellar, see,
got
picked up. This job’s a little
different though,
cause
I can’t leave
.
Funny, huh?
Well, it isn’t. Listen, I’m
thinkin
’
of
tryin
’ to escape -”

“I don’t care,” you say. “What’s a human fanatic?”

“Guess it’s some kind of religion.
Or a philosophy.
Mostly, though, it’s kind of a
cult
.
Wipes out the mind, you know. No room for independent thought. Me, I tend to
live and let live. If someone’s got a problem with me, we talk it out.
These guys?
Hell.
Shit
, man. You better believe me.
Most of them spend more time in lock-down than anywhere else. All I’m saying is
,
has anyone even tried talking to these so-called Invaders?
Maybe it’s just some misunderstanding -”

You feel non-negotiable rage. “They invaded our
solar system, destroyed our colonies, and took our homeworld from us,” you say,
straining against the impulse to murder the man. “No human city has been left
standing. What is there to misunderstand about that?”

“I’m just
saying,
is all!”
says the man, his head shaking wildly as he sidesteps away from you. “I can’t
even talk to you people!
You
sound
just like one of them!
”

Once the man leaves, the anger fades. You think
about talking to the fanatic, but he seems incredibly busy. You decide to hurry
to the supply depot to check out your gear, since there’s no telling when
you’ll need it.

Turn to section
410
.

You scream a defiant
battlecry
that seems strangely high-pitched as you haul ass toward the door. Just as you
near the beautiful exit, the shotgun blasts like thunder and you rocket
forward, feeling a thousand nails driving into your back. You slam through the
door and careen into the hallway. The door swings shut behind you. You stagger
to your feet, mumbling apologies to your killers. Strangely enough, they do not
follow you.