Heavy Metal Thunder (64 page)

First Aid.
The human body is not a perfect engine of warfare; wear and tear, and even
death,
are
inevitable. To stay one step ahead of the
Widowmaker
is paramount to survival. This skill includes
knowledge of healing medicines, drugs that enhance performance, poisons that
impair bodily functions, and knowledge of the application of first aid in
space.

Xenology
.
Little is known of the Invader, but a few of the enemies’ ships and bodies have
been captured and studied extensively by the Black Lance Legion.
Xenology
can give a soldier the upper hand when dealing
with a strange, alien species. Knowledge at this level includes the basic
information that your leaders think may be of use to an Infantryman, but does
not include classified information.

Sixth Sense.
When death can occur anywhere and anytime, a warrior’s mind does anything it
can in order to stay alive. Some soldiers seem to develop a sixth sense that
warns them of danger when their eyes and ears do not. Some tacticians in the
Black Lance Legion believe that intuition is the ability to scan and sort
information on a subconscious level; when in danger, the subconscious warns the
conscious mind via a peculiar sense of fear. While no good Infantryman wants to
live in fear, separating raw fear from that inner voice of warning can help one
tread the fine line between being smart and alive and being a coward.

Stat Mod Skill: Weight Lifting.
If you pick this skill, then you have spent a little time in the gym and take
care of your body. You may add 1 to your
Strength
statistic. (This skill
and all other Stat Mod Skills may only be chosen once.)

Stat Mod Skill: Intensive Study.
You have a college-level proficiency in one or more subjects. You have trained
your mind a little more than most and can have an intelligent discourse on a
few things. Add 1 to your
Intelligence
statistic.

Stat Mod Skill: Gymnastics.
You have some understanding of how to leap and fall without hurting yourself,
and how to move quickly without wasting energy. Add 1 to your
Dexterity
statistic.

Stat Mod Skill: Public Speaking.
You don’t feel quite as much fear as others when it comes to making your
thoughts understood by a group. Add 1 to your
Charisma
statistic.

Be sure to make a note which 5 skills you choose.
You
must choose all 5 now.
As you rise in levels, you will be able to choose
more skills to add to your repertoire of knowledge.

Equipment and Bulk

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; some very small items have a bulk of zero.
You may
carry a maximum of 12
bulk
of items.
Any more than
that would hamper your movement. Your space suit and jetpack are already
figured into the bulk equation.

BULK
OF BULLETS TABLE

Handgun
bullets: 15 bullets = 1 bulk

Rifle
bullets: 10 bullets = 1 bulk

Shotgun
shells: 5 shells = 1 bulk

Note that once you have chosen to fire a gun at the
enemy, you must fire at least one bullet, even if you realize afterwards that
you have no hope of hitting the enemy!

Suit Durability

You wear the black, cumbersome, thickly-padded
vacuum-proof suit of a grunt infantryman in the Black Lance Legion. Your Suit
Durability (or
SD
) is like “hit points” for your suit.
Your current
space suit has 3 SD points,
which
is
its starting
amount as well as its maximum amount.

When your suit is damaged, its SD will drop. When
you fix it (for example, with the Sticky Fix item) then your SD will rise,
though never higher than its maximum amount. When your SD drops to zero or
lower
then
your suit has been destroyed, and if you
are in space when this happens then you will die automatically.

However, if your suit has sustained any SD damage at
all, then that means your suit is punctured or torn in some way. If you are in
the vacuum of space when this happens, and if the text prompts you to do so, then
you will lose 1 Blood per SD damage. (That means that if your suit has
sustained 2 SD damage while in space, and you cannot repair the damage, then
the sucking cold of the void will drain you for 2 Blood at regular intervals!)
This does not include the original section in which you lose SD, so if you
apply Sticky Fix to your suit in the same section in which it was damaged, you
will not lose any additional Blood.
Note that every dose of Sticky Fix
“heals” your suit 1 SD point.

If you are familiar with role playing games, then
think of SD as the “hit points” of your protective armor. But since you are
more often than not in an environment hostile to living things, then your armor
must be perfectly sound in order to afford you constant, complete protection.

Armor and Defense

During your journey you may find suits of Armor that
you can wear. Armor works like so: When you lose Blood, you will be told if you
may subtract your Defense rating from the amount of your Blood loss. If the
text makes no mention of subtracting your Defense rating from Blood loss (for
instance, if you lose Blood due to starvation, or due to a blow to a part of
your body not covered by armor), then, of course, you may not subtract your
Defense rating from the Blood loss.

The bulk of the Armor will affect the amount of bulk
you can carry whether it is worn or simply carried in your inventory. You may
only wear one set of Armor at a time, and so you may only receive the Defense
benefits of one set of armor at a time. However, you may carry in your
inventory as many suits of Armor as bulk permits, if you want to do so.

Your Black Lance Jetpack Infantryman space suit is
not a set of armor. It is simply a suit that protects you against the void of
space.

Food

You will have to eat regularly during your journey.
Each Food usually takes up 1 bulk in your inventory. You will be told by the
text when you are hungry and must eat 1 Food. Once you eat you must, of course,
erase 1 Food from your inventory. If you do not have any Food when you are told
to eat, you will usually lose 1 Blood due to starvation.

Even as humanity rose from the cradle of their
homeworld to harvest the bounty of the solar system, there was an overall
feeling that the species was at its end. In terms of culture, there was nothing
that felt
new
. Every book, movie and videogame was a sequel based on a
tired theme, every popular musician only borrowed elements from older musician,
every new generation actors and actresses was somehow more narcissistic and
empty-headed than the preceding generation, and the visual arts had become so
abstract, so postmodern, and so far removed from the realm of the common man
that many famous visual artists felt it beneath them to create any actual
artwork.

In terms of politics, nearly every system that had
ever been devised had been tried, but none could guarantee lasting happiness or
even stability. The divide between rich and poor grew until finally there were
two classes of humans: One class was so wealthy that they barely had to
interact with reality, and could pay others to manage every detail for them so
that they could live like pampered children, and another class that lived in
continual, unending debt and had to work demeaning jobs just to survive. Those
who refused a slavish, materialistic, and stressful existence were often forced
to live like animals on the outskirts of civilization.

As humanity rose to its zenith and laid claim to the
solar system, there were no celebrations, no cries of victory, no songs of
conquest – there were only wry, sarcastic smirks and debates concerning how
long it would take humanity to ruin the neighboring planets of the solar
system.

Then the Invaders came. Technologically advanced,
hyper-militaristic, highly organized… and completely uncommunicative. When they
came to our solar system with their fleet of black ships, they found in
humanity a race bent over and begging to be conquered. In an incredibly short
time they devastated our armed forces, annihilated all of Earth’s great cities,
and set up their own system of rule. They took their time in destroying our
off-world colonies. They felt no need to rush, for they had already won the
war.

Or so they thought.

The human colonies scattered about the solar system
continued as best they could. They worked, they tried to reestablish
communications with Earth despite the fact that it had “gone silent”, and they
watched as, one by one, they were casually picked off by the Invaders. Then,
one day, a voice was broadcast to every colony by a powerful transmitter – a
transmitter that was undoubtedly using alien technology. All labor ceased and
the world stood still as the speaker said, “Hello, my name is Admiral Franks.
I’m the leader of the human resistance against the alien invaders who have
taken our home and our freedom from us. I would like to talk to you for a few
minutes about how we humans must change in order to survive in a universe that
does not care about our survival and is unsympathetic to our situation…”

Nothing of the sort had been heard for years. Human
culture had been dominated by shrill, argumentative personalities for years,
both politically and culturally. The voice of Admiral Franks, the so-called
Storm Lord or
absolute
leader
of the Black Lance Legion, was
warm, calm, paternal, and wise. For one hour he spoke of humanity’s dreadful
situation and how it was not entirely the fault of alien outsiders; according
to Franks, there were probably thousands of other sentient species in the
galaxy who were just as childish, greedy, and shortsighted as humanity, and
they too were routinely culled by species that had a greater “collective focus”
on what they wanted. Admiral Franks spoke of the new culture that the Legion
had to offer - a culture of strength and maturity, a culture fit for a species
that could decide its own fate and protect its own interests. He claimed that
the Legion, and only the Legion, had the technology and the will to stand
against the Invader, and that any human who wished to see a solar system free
of outsiders should join them.

In order to meet with the Legion, the listeners
would have to solve a complicated puzzle based on an understanding of human
history, culture, and biology. The answer was a set of coordinates where a
Legion ship would pick up any human interested in joining the resistance, but
the solving of which would most likely prove too complicated to an alien
outsider as well as a human unfit to defend his own species.

Of course, the broadcast was mostly ignored.

There were a few who joined the call. Even though
the whole thing sounded like an elaborate joke, it was a fact that several
discontented dreamers, fighters, and scientists simply disappeared from human
colonies on Mars, Pluto, and the moons of Jupiter shortly after the broadcast.
Other than that, the broadcast was lampooned in a few popular comedy shows,
then
forgotten.

Black Heaven: The Power
Behind
the Human Resistance

The Black Lance Legion, a guerilla army whose
soldiers are the last humans who have not submitted to alien rule, are the last
chance our species has to regain freedom and awaken the old spirit that burned
in us long ago. The Legion is led by the elusive Admiral Franks. He is known as
the Storm Lord, and he rules from a secret location known as Black Heaven. He
is assisted by the staunchly pro-human Shadow Government, which sends its
command broadcasts out on secret channels to the highest-ranking members of the
Black Lance Legion.

The human species is also helped by Black Science, a
branch of the Legion composed of wise men and scientists who produce (and
reverse engineer) advanced technology and weapons for the Legion. Its members
are sometimes harvested from
Reaver
Tactical, the
so-called “cunning wolves” of the Legion who help plan operations that forward
the will of the Storm Lord.

The Entertainers are in charge of propaganda, and
spearhead the drive to create the kind of culture that is appropriate for a
strong and noble species. The Entertainers claim to be far, far older than the
Legion itself, but they willingly work alongside the Storm Lord because
he,
and he alone, has proven capable of protecting the flame
that drove our species. According to the Entertainers, that flame has grown dim
over the course of generations, and was in dire straits long before the Invader
arrived and threatened to snuff it out forever.

However, a terrible price must be paid in order to
walk the path of survival. The soldiers who fight for the freedom of humanity
are not free themselves; they undergo extreme behavioral conditioning and live
under a system of totalitarian rule so that, one day, no human will have to.
For a soldier of the Legion, the only choice is to fight and die as a
human
,
or to run and die as a coward. In the cold of the vacuum, there is no comfort
to be had outside of the vision of hope given by Admiral Franks, the Storm Lord
of the Black Lance Legion.