Heavy Metal Thunder (42 page)

Turn to section
341
.

“ATTENTION!” says the voice on the intercom. “SEVEN
MINUTES UNTIL DOCKING BAY DOORS OPEN!” The lights blink ominously,
then
a group of people rush toward a large ship nearby,
where they are repelled mercilessly by a line of gunmen. The cries of the dying
and the bereaved tear through the docking bay.

“Step it up!” you shout to the laborers, then you
turn to the guards and say, “Be ready, we might have to repel boarders any
second now.”

One guard scratches his beard, then says, “Here
comes one now.”

A squat, hairy man rushes through the crowd toward
you. “Please let me on board!” he squawks, in severe pain from his run.

“Why should we?” says a guard, stroking his rifle.

“I’m... I’m a mechanic,” says the man. “What if
summin
’ goes wrong with
yer
ship?
I can help, man, I can help!”

The man is in terror at the thought of being left
behind.

If you want to invite him on board, turn to section
559
.

If you want to reject the man, turn to section
575
.

Thunder shatters the room, deafens you, and a bullet
slams into the side of your ribs. You cannot breathe, your legs go loose, and you
fall against the wall and slide down painfully. You force your eyes open. You
see the lawman flat on the ground, his chest peppered with holes, his eyes
still. The smiling revolutionary stumbles backward slowly, his face now pale
and loose; he clutches a spreading red spot on his chest, leans against the
wall for a moment, then falls forward, limp and heavily.

In front of you, the scared revolutionary clutches
his smoking gun, eyes wide with terror as he glares at you. While the man
stares at you, you stare back,
then
feel of your
wound. A bullet is lodged between your ribs: You lose
6 Blood
to the
terrible assault. Furthermore, part of your suit has been shredded. If you have
any
Sticky
Fix
, you must use one dose now to fix your suit;
otherwise, make a note that
your suit has been damaged.
Lastly, because
of your wound you temporarily lose
1 Strength
and
1 Dexterity
.

If you have died in a hail of gunfire, you may
Regenerate
by turning back to section
312
, or, if you want to go back further, turn back to
section
179
.

Finally the revolutionary lowers his gun to his
side, looks away from you as if he’s written off your existence, then walks out
of the room. You stumble painfully to your feet.

You search the bodies of the dead and find the
following gear, which you may take with you.

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

3 Shotgun Shells (1 bulk)

Enforcer Automatic (Handgun, bulk 2)

5 Handgun Bullets (bulk 1)

Stellar Corp Law Enforcement Uniform
(bulk 1)
(Damaged and bloody)

Steel Baton (Mace, bulk 2)

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

You and
Reika
jog down the
hall toward the far side of the station. Screams of terror echo in the
distance. Bullet-holes riddle the area and bloody corpses line your path. You
come to an electronic map on the wall. As you study the map a terrific
explosion rocks the station. You ignore the distraction, intent on your own
survival. According to the electronic map, docking bays are blinking out and
going black all around the station.

“What’re you
doin
’?”
Reika
says.

“
What’s it look
like?
Saving our lives.”

“Ignore that thing. It’s never right, never has
been. Follow me!”

Before you can come up with a counterargument,
another blast rocks the station and the map goes black. You hear gunshots,
then
screams mixed with laughter. “Fine,” you say. “Lead the
way.”

During your run through the halls of madness, you
see a door marked

STELLAR
CORP LAW ENFORCEMENT ARMORY

AUTHORIZED
PERSONNEL ONLY!

The lock has been smashed open, and you can hear
activity inside.

If you want to enter the armory, turn to section
245
.

If you want to bypass the area and hurry on to the
docking bay, turn to section
539
.

Something hot burns in your mind and you cannot
straighten out the crashing train of your thoughts. Anger wells up in you like never
before, and you say, “John Christian, I went through Hell because of you, and
I’ve come through the other side as something
more
than I was before.
The void always repays its debts. Now it’s time I repaid my debt to you -
by
sending you to Hell!
”

“NO, WAIT -” he screams before you pull your helm
away from his.

Your arm swings back for a killing stroke and his
face opens horribly in sheer, mind-numbing panic. Then you swing, hard, and
smash his faceplate open. Air rushes out in a mist that hides his face.

When the mist clears, his face warps unnaturally
before you, red with massive blue veins, his eyes bulging,
mouth
working to draw in air that no longer exists. His face turns purple, a network
of bruises blossom along his neck, forehead, cheeks,
his
tongue swells horribly then his eyeballs explode and without pause you wipe the
goo from your helm visor so that you can watch your murderer die the death of
the weak.

Amazing
,
you think. While your heart rages and floods you with panic, you ride the wave
of nausea until it brings you to a place forbidden to all normal human beings:
The feeling of a revenge sated fills you with dark satisfaction.
Now the man
who set me on my terrible journey is dead. Why he tried to kill me, I do not
know and I may never know. But the human species has one less craven dog to
worry about
.

You set your boots on the dead man’s chest, bend
your knees,
then
kick him away as you fly back toward
the battle. The corpse floats away, one more ghost damned to float forever in
the vast nothingness.

Make a note that
you have killed John Christian
,
as this will affect the rest of your life.

Turn to section
222
.

Looking back and forth between you and the dead man,
the guard smirks and says, “M-mean... no...
harm
!” He
slaps his knee as he falls against a wall, overcome with laughter.

You chuckle a bit yourself, then say, “Well, he
attacked me first.”

“Guess the old asshole got what he wanted, then!”
says the guard.

“How many more of you are there?”

“
They’s
five of us,” he says, wiping away a tear. Glancing at the dead man again, he
says, “Uh, four now, I guess. But it don’t make
no
difference. You, me, the others, we’re all gonna be dead pretty soon!”

“What do you mean?”

“Well,
them
robots
is
all over the place, right? And all our ships are
wasted,
and no help
comin
’.
Can’t say the situation looks all that good!”
The man laughs
again. “Anyway, the hell you come from?”

“Don’t remember,” you say. “But is it true that you
have no ships here?”

“Hell no, not a one,” he says. “Invader made sure to
hit our docks pretty hard.
Nothin
’ but scrap metal
left.”

“Might there be a ship in another station?”

“
S’far
as I know, this
little heap took about the least o’ the damage. Besides, it’s not like we got
any suits or ships to go check the others out, right?”

You eye one another for a moment. Then the man says,
“Anyway, I was just about to head to a supply room. Big Boss is still in
charge, I guess... he wanted me to see if we got
anythin
’
useful. He’s a real asshole. I might kill him, I dunno jus’ yet.”

“Alright, psycho,” you say. “Lead the way.”

Turn to section
392
.

You cross the silent, grey landscape with gliding
steps until you reach the dark hole. It looks as if something has dug the hole
into the beast. You shine your helm light into the hole and see exposed pink
flesh, frozen over. Thick blue veins jut out from the wound. The scanner on
your helm lamp beeps with some finding: Some traces of liquid hydrogen are bubbling
out of the creature’s wound and are dissipating out into the void.

Strange
,
you think.
That’s the same stuff our ships use for fuel
.

You decide to move your investigation to one of the
blue channels.

Turn to section
373
.

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: Spear
, add 3 to the number.

During your pounding you lose
9 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.

After some awkward groping you manage to drag your
weapon into place, holding it above your head. You had simply hoped to ward off
his blows; instead, he brings his hand crashing into the weapon and yelps in
pain, clutching his broken hand. You swing the weapon around and, with both
hands, bash him in the face with the end of it.

He snuffles loudly as his nose shatters and spreads
like red silly-putty all around his face. You leap up as he falls backward. As
he crawls about, you swing the thing like a golf club into his head; 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
.

You bring your boot down on one of the
deconstructor’s heads,
then
slip backwards like it was
a banana peel. Even before you hit the floor, the things start beating you
senseless with their steel tentacles. You cover yourself and kick out with your
feet. A lucky blow smacks against the side of the one of the things. You haul
yourself up, tears streaming down your eyes, and grab the thing by two of its
appendages. “L-leave me alone!” you scream in terror as you swing the thing
about, smashing its companion to pieces. You lift the thing above your head.
Its tentacles smack you in the back of the knees; you hit the ground, but bring
the deconstructor down with you. Even as the monster smashes into hundreds of
pieces, a broken plate flies upward, catching you in the forehead. Your head
reels and the ground
rises
to meet you.

You lose
5 Blood
from this terrible
encounter. If your Blood has dropped to zero or below, then you have
died,
a disgrace to the Legion.

If you have survived, you rise to your feet, winded
and bleeding. Turn to section
298
.

The two louts charge and Buford slams into you. You
crash into a stack of boxes and your head slams painfully against the floor,
jarring you. Immediately the two take turns kicking you in the sides and in the
head, and it is all you can do to roll into a ball to minimize the horrible
agony. It seems like an hour passes and you can barely draw a single nauseating
breath when you hear Cletus mutter, “Hell, man... exhausted...
lorda
’ mercy, I need some air...”

You must now compute a number that will determine
the outcome of this fight. This number is your
Strength
stat added to
your
1 G Combat
stat
. If you are skilled in
Weapon
Proficiency: Hand-to-Hand
, and it is with the weapon you are using, add 2
to this number. If you are using a
Blade
, add 1 to this number. If you
are using a
Mace
, add 2.