Heavy Metal Thunder (11 page)

You have lost
2 Blood
in the battle, but you
gain
3 XP
for successfully destroying the deconstructors. Be sure to
erase the
Implosion
Grenade
from your inventory.

Turn to section
126
.

You open the door and enter. You see all manner of strange
devices, most of them unfinished with spare parts lying about. You see a dead
man lying in the floor. He wears a scientist’s stereotypical white lab coat,
but has a few gunshot wounds in his chest that are his alone. A strange
contraption is in his hands, and while you don’t know what it is it feels
faintly malevolent in nature. You may take the
Mystery Device (bulk 3)
if you like.

Just then an
arhythmic
blue light flashes in the room from numerous bulbs. You hear a high-pitched
whir. You do not feel well.

If you have a
Will
score of
2 or more, turn to section
367
.

If
your
Will
score
is not that high, turn to section
2
.

You leave the others and plant your grapple near an
entrance to a side hallway, where you have a clear view of the intersection.
The rumble in the hallway grows. You kneel down and prepare your weapons. You
can just faintly make out the sound of the laborer cursing. Soon the entire
hallway shakes around you, the rumbling grows deafening, overwhelming - then
the wall at the T-intersection buckles, tears apart like dry paper, and two
giant machines, heads full of rotating drills and saws, grind their way inside.
Air rushes from the area with such force that you skid along the hall, then fly
up feet first, dangling in the air such that you are not sure if “down” is
somewhere at your side or if it is below your feet, where the deconstructors
are passing.

You watch the machines in horror. Suddenly there is
a blur, a body flies into a drilling mouth and simply disappears as the hall is
splattered with red. The machines lurch ahead, slam into the northern hall,
grinding into it and pushing it outward around their massive bulks. As they
move you can see the steel-grey side of one passing below.

If you have a
High-Power Implosion Grenade
,
you can use it by turning to section
89
.

If you have a gun, you can fire at the machine’s
flank by turning to section
117
.

If you would rather get closer to the machine’s
flank, you can lower yourself along the grappling rope by turning to section
236
.

You meditate on the nature of emptiness as you fly
through the void. For you, the cold and the unending darkness of nothingness
are not abstract: It is real, it is every day,
it
is
everything. You realize that nothingness has one attribute - torture, via the
instrument of boredom, and so even this drifting through emptiness is not true
nothingness.

With soul-rending clarity you realize that there is
only one way for your consciousness to experience true nothingness. You will
have to open up the helm of your suit, let the void come in, and see what it
looks like when your own eyeballs burst in the infinite freezer that is the
universe.

But something stops you. Some force, deep inside
your guts, forces you to endure, to survive. But not without a price: In your
slow trial you
temporarily lose 1 from your Will stat.
However, if your
Will has already dropped to zero, then you lose
2 Blood
instead.

The cold war against insanity continues.

If you have any
Rest-A-Spell
pills, turn to
section
445
.

If you do not have this drug, turn to section
213
.

When you wake, you find that all of your wounds have
been cleaned and patched up: You heal
9 Blood.
Furthermore, if any of
your stats have been temporarily lowered, then they are now restored.

You see the ex-lawman Philip moving about in a corner,
adjusting his medical gear. Nearby, the mercenary Cletus flexes his patched
hand and says to Philip, “Man I thank
ye
kindly. See,
that
ol
’ boy was
sayin
’
they was no way I could do that trick where you lay
yer
hand out and stab a knife down around your fingers without
hittin
’
em
. Now, thing is, sure, okay, I never done that
trick before, but that
ol
’ boy... if
you’da
seen how he run off at the mouth, you’d a done the
same thing, doc.”

“No big deal,” says Philip, smiling. “It’s what I
do.”

You shake the sleep from your eyes, then say,
“Thanks, Phil.”

“Anytime, friend.”

“But listen, did you, uh... did you open my suit
up?”

“Well, I had to.”

You pause for a long moment. The idea of your suit
being opened fills you with dread.
Did the Black Lance Legion program me
,
you think,
to never remove my suit unless I was on my own ship? Why does the
idea fill me with such fear?

“I had to get to your wounds,” says Philip. “But I
can see that you seem a little put off. Listen. I played doctor with you, but I
didn’t “play doctor” with you, if you catch my meaning.”

“Sure.
Whatever.
Thanks.”

Turn to section
317
.

As the smiling revolutionary cocks his shotgun and
ejects a spent shell, you grab up a chair and toss it at him as hard as you
can. “Take a seat!” you shout as you run at him, though it is difficult with
the weight of the jetpack bearing down on you.

If your
Strength
stat is 3 or less, turn to
section
353
.

If your
Strength
stat is 4 or more, turn to
section
297
.

You swing your weapon at the beast. It hops away and
swings a steel tentacle at you. Following through with your motion, you fall to
one knee, duck the tentacle,
then
spring forward and
catch the thing full in the face. It shudders, its visual apparatus knocked out
of alignment. You kick the thing into a wall,
then
beat it savagely with your weapon until its shell cracks and splits, spilling
mechanical innards at your feet.

You have survived your first fight. Turn to section
298
.

The tentacles seem to be in a competition to see
which one can beat more life out of you. But your submissive posture protects
your
manly will to survive: You lose only
2 Blood
as
the tentacles drag you through their gauntlet.

If you die, you may
Regenerate
by turning back to section
179
.

If you survive, then the tentacles suddenly release
your upper body and lift you up by your legs. A silent mound lies before you.
It quivers, uncoils, and rises. You jerk back in alarm. The thing is a thick
stalk about ten feet long, its base attached to the ground, and its end is
topped by a large head, featureless save for a gaping mouth lined with fangs
made of the same hard stuff as its body. The thing snaps its heavy jaw open and
shut.
Several tentacles at its base rise and sway in
anticipation.

The hungry head of the beast opens its fanged mouth
to accept you as sacrifice.

If you have a gun and at least one bullet, and want
to blast the head, turn to section
454
.

If you have a hand-to-hand weapon and want to go
toe-to-toe with the head of the beast, turn to section
155
.

If you have a
High-Power Implosion Grenade
,
you can use it by turning to section
584
.

If you want to try to wiggle free from the tentacle
and fly away from the monster, turn to section
467
.

You and the others creep forward as best you can. Your
jetpacks clang back and forth on your
backs,
and you
can only pray that the hum of machinery that fills the hall can cover you. You
peer into the room ahead, sure that at any moment enemy soldiers will burst
forth.

Ahead of you, the Commander swings into the narrow
doorway, then motions for the rest of you to follow. Suddenly, a black-masked
face crowned by two large horns peers through the far doorway. He sees you and
Marcus,
then
barks out some order. Immediately gunmen
swing around both sides of the doorway, blasting wildly. You feel something
smack into your stomach, driving the air from you,
then
Marcus pushes you into the doorway. Uther returns fire as you fall to the
ground, stunned.

“Return fire!” Uther shouts.
“Fire!”

You check your wound quickly. You lose
2 Blood
,
though you may subtract your
Defense
rating from this amount if you
happen to be wearing any armor. Furthermore you lose
1 SD.

If you die, then you may
Regenerate
by turning back to section
161.

If you survive, then it seems your suit has saved
your life, as the bullet did not penetrate your precious gut-bag.

Still on the ground, you lean over the edge and
blast at the enemy, who duck for cover. Uther fires standing above you while
Marcus, on his knees, returns fire with his rifle. You glance at Sybel; it
seems you are in some sort of large storage closet full of radiation suits,
which Sybel studies intently.

You must now compute a number that will determine
the outcome of your gun battle. This number is your
Dexterity
. If you are
trained in
Weapon Proficiency: Ranged
, and it is with the weapon you are
using, add 3 to this number. If you are using a
Shotgun
, add 1. For
every
3 Handgun bullets
you fire, add 1. For every
2 Rifle
bullets you fire, add 1. For every
Shotgun
shell
you fire, add 1.

If your number is 9 or less, turn to section
102
.

If your number is 10 or more, turn to section
31
.

You are wearing a black outfit thick with padding and
topped by a lean black helmet. The outfit is unmistakably militant. A single
yellow patch on your left chest is the only thing that denotes any sort of
rank. Several jets arc outward from the heavy device strapped to your back. A
thick utility belt and an empty holster hang at your waist. You look like some
sort of killer, and the shattered mirror and the smeared blood give perfect
reference to your place in this world.

The visor of your helm is darkened, but you can
still make out some features of the face within: Dark skin, a vicious hawk
nose,
deep
-set eyes hidden in shadow. Some aspects of
your broken memory come together, and you remember the basic nature of your
being.

Underneath your protective armor lies a human being,
unique from all others. Still, you live in a cold universe, and it is often the
simplest traits that help you survive the war that is life. The person that is
you can be reduced to five statistics:
Strength
,
Intelligence
,
Dexterity
,
Charisma
, and
Will
. You begin the game of life with a score of 1
in each stat. As you have grown and developed, you have gained 3 additional
points, which you may now distribute among your statistics any way that you see
fit. How you distribute your bonus points will help determine the nature of
your character and how you interact with the universe.

Strength
- Physical musculature, endurance, athletic prowess. A high score in this stat
will make you a more powerful warrior. A low score will make you a tired
weakling.

Intelligence
- Mental computing ability, creativity, cleverness, wisdom, and understanding
of the nature of things. A high score in this stat will help you outwit the
enemy and keep ahead of the competition. A low score will make it difficult for
you to grasp some concepts.

Dexterity
- Your flexibility, agility, reflexes, sense of
kinesthetics
,
and ability to fire a gun accurately. A high score in this stat will help you
pull off tricky maneuvers. A low score will make you clumsy.

Charisma
- Force of character, social grace, good looks, aura of charm, ability to lead.
A high score in this stat will make others trust you. A low score will cause
others to shun and distrust you.

Will
- Beneath the
thin veneer of your personality, behind everything you learn and all the
choices you make, there is the raw force that drives you. A high score in this
stat will help you to keep going where others have failed. A low score will
make you an emotionally weak, spineless person. One can even have a battle of
Wills with others.