Heavy Metal Thunder (61 page)

You lose
3 Blood
in the terrible fight. If
your Blood has dropped to zero or less, then you pass out, bleeding until you
are dead and free of this harsh world.

If you have survived, turn to section
298
.

You check the guard’s body. You may take his
Thick
Pipe (Mace, bulk 2)
if you wish. You also find a STELLAR radio. Just as you
pick it up, the voice of the manager squawks on the other end.

“Well?” he
says,
his voice
high and shrill. “Did you kill the fool?!”

Smiling, you say, “Yes, the fool is dead.
And I’m
coming for you next
.”

There is silence on the other end as the manager
realizes he is living his worst nightmare. Then he says, darkly, “None of that
matters. Those mechanical monsters must have torn all the way through the
station. And I can hear more of them, eating their way through. We’re losing
air like crazy now. Neither of us has much longer.”

“Sounds pretty bad,” you say. “But I’ll wager I’ve
got a little more time than you.”

“Such tough talk!” squeaks the manager, then turns
off his radio.

You may take the
STELLAR Hand-Held Radio (bulk 1)
if you wish. You kick off and float back to your supplies and the door to the
ruined dock, so that you can follow through with the last part of your plan to
escape from the ghost station. You make a mental note to watch out for the
manager.

Turn to section
47
.

The gun bucks in your hand and sparks fly up from
one of the robots. It shrieks,
then
crashes in the
darkness. The other deconstructor emerges into the light, segmented tentacles
whirling, insect-like face glaring without mercy, pincers grinding against one
another. You step back as it leaps into the air. The terrible face hovers
before you. Full of the rush of the battle, you raise your gun and blast the
monster in its face. Its momentum stops as its eyes dim, and it falls dead at
your feet.

Be sure to erase the number of bullets that you
spent in the battle.

Turn to section
298
.

You leap, clear the door, and roll to safety before
it slams against the wall: Gain
1 XP.

Now you are trapped between the two doors. You rest
for a moment to consider your options. Just then you hear a vent click on
loudly. You look up. You see pink mist filling the air above you. It is heavy,
and begins to fall toward you.

If you wish to stay where you are and get a nice
pink-mist sauna experience, turn to section
457
.

If you want to get away from the stuff and move on
towards the next door, turn to section
11
.

You jog down the hall back toward the lounge. When
you reach the door, you push the button to open it. The door does not budge. At
that moment red emergency lights flash on and off, and a dim siren chimes
repeatedly. You seriously doubt that it has anything to do with the locked door
before you.

If you have a
STELLAR
Radio
, turn to
section
261
.

If you do not have this item, turn to section
115
.

You slowly bounce along the hallway from floor to
ceiling. The light from your helmet bounces around, cutting up the darkness to
pick up motes of dust. The silence of the station reports your isolation, but
you know that this is illusory; you expect, at any moment, for some strange
thing that is also wrapped in the silence of the vacuum to turn the corner of
the rounded hallway. The only sound you can hear is the terrible hissing of air
as the vacuum robs your oxygen tank. If you do not find an area deeper inside
the station where there is free air, you know that you will soon suffocate to
death and become another piece of floating debris, no different from the rest.

There is a door at the end of the hallway. It is
slightly ajar. Just before you move to open it, you notice gobs of blood
floating in the next room.

If you want to open the door anyway, turn to section
120
.

If you would rather turn around and try the other
side of the hallway, turn to section
305
.

You yell and run at the monster. The metal coil
ignores your
battlecry
and slams into your mouth. The
thing takes you off your feet, whips your head around, and throws you on the
floor at the far side: Lose
2 Blood.
You offer up a pray of thanks to
the god of dumb-luck for keeping the flaming end of the coil away from you.

You nurse your damaged head and ego, then run to the
end of the hall and turn a corner. A door lies there. You enter it and leave
behind the mist of destruction: Gain
1 XP.

Turn to section
223
.

You rise onto your knees and clumsily throw your
arms across a table, aiming down the barrel of your gun. A fraction of a second
is drawn out like an hour. You see the scared revolutionary flailing his gun
about, screaming and firing all around you, while the smiling revolutionary
cocks his shotgun and ejects a spent shell as he prepares to fire at you again.

You must now compute a number that will determine
the outcome of your raging
gunbattle
against the two
revolutionaries. This number is your
1 G Combat
added to your
Dexterity
stat. If you are skilled in
Weapon Proficiency: Ranged
with the gun you
are using, add 3 to this number. For
every bullet
you fire, of any
caliber, add 1 to this number. Note that you must fire at least 1 bullet.

If your number is 7 or less, turn to section
301
.

If your number is between 8 and 14, turn to section
491
.

If your number is 15 or more, turn to section
62
.

Buford charges and slams into you. You crash into a stack
of boxes and your head slams painfully against the floor, jarring you. He
lashes out with a series of wild punches while Cletus hollers like an insane
man while kicking you in the side. You hear a terrific ringing sound and Buford
crashes into the ground. You peel your eyes open and see
Reika
staggering under the weight of a heavy oxygen tank. She brings the thing down
on Buford’s head again, nearly knocking his eyes loose from their sockets.
Cletus’s boot crashes into your face, smacking your head into the floor again.
You roll into a ball and pray that
Reika
can deal
with this situation. Unfortunately Buford rises once more and punches little
Reika
in the gut, sending her to the floor. She seems out
of the fight, but Buford rises and kneels over her, a line of bloody mucus
hanging down from his leering face.

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.

During the fight you lose
12 Blood
, though
you may subtract the number above from this amount. You may also subtract your
Defense
rating, if you have any.

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

Cletus savages your head with his boot once more and
a red haze covers your
vison
. You grab his leg in
your arms,
then
roll into him. He falls screaming and
you look down at his face. As in a dream, you see your own limbs rearranging
his face, blow after bloody blow. Like blowing out the candles on a birthday
cake the light in his eyes goes out and you hear the devils in your mind
applauding. You drop his limp body and leap at Buford’s back. Your knee crashes
into the back of his fat head, then continues on until his face smashes into
the wall. The man falls unconscious and you beat his head until something like
soup pours out.

You lean over
Reika
and
shout her name until she recovers. She smiles weakly, says, “You okay, soldier
boy?”

“Yes ma’am,” you say, elated. “Thanks,
Reika
.”

She smiles her crooked smile.

“But I didn’t have to thank you,” you say, growing
serious. “Cause you owed me one, anyway.”

Turn to section
341
.

The man lunges at you wildly and you drive the end of
your weapon into his chest, winding him and pushing him back. He drops his
rifle and you swing yours into his face, knocking him about,
then
trip him as he staggers. You stand over him and bash his torso with your
weapon, shattering his ribs and grinding his organs into mush.

Turn to section
530
.

The next day everyone gathers around for another
meal. You must subtract
1 Food
for every person on the
Narrenschiff
, including yourself. You may use your
own supply of Food in your inventory, if you have any. If you do not have
enough to cover everyone, you must use up all possible Foods and then lose
1
Blood
due to the harsh effects of slow starvation.

If the girl
Reika
is with you, turn to section
400
.

If she is not, turn to section
492
.

“Well, well, well,” you say pseudo-casually, “looks
like I just walked into Crazy Town. So who’s the mayor around here? Just
kidding - don’t answer that.”

“Stop joking around!” the scared revolutionary
shrieks. “This is serious, man!”

“Yeah, I know it’s serious,” you say. “I know things
have gotten a little out of control around here. But there are other ways of
doing things than shouting and waving guns around, fellas.”

While the lawman eyes you suspiciously, the smiling
revolutionary chuckles, says, “You
dumbshit
consumer.
This isn’t crazy at all. In fact... it’s pretty simple. The food here is
poisoned in such a way that it makes us stupid, slow, spineless, over a long
period of time. Now that I’ve let the truth out, this little man with his big
gun is scared. He knows we’re all going to die, and he can’t handle it. Well…
death is the ultimate reality, you
robots
, and I’m going to prove it.”

You realize at once that you can’t sway the smiling
man at all - he’s beyond saving. You focus on his scared friend, whose gun
wavers continuously between you and the lawman.

If you want to tell the scared revolutionary that you
will protect him from the lawman and his “friend” if he wants to leave and
forget about this scene, turn to section
293
.

If you want to psych him out and tell him to kill
his friend in exchange for his own life, turn to section
30
.

You gather your inner strength about you, then glare
at the dogs and shout senseless words of warning to them.

If you have a
Will
score of
2 or more, turn to section
84
.

If
your
Will
score
is only 1, turn to section
455
.

Buford retches long and loud,
then
screams out, “I... will never... give u-u-u-up!” moments before he cranes his
head back and sprays vomit into the air. Before you can tell him that such an
act will disqualify him, he crashes to the ground in agony.

With juices dripping down your face, you beam with
pride: You gain
3 XP
for showing those brutes that you are a force to be
reckoned with.

While Buford practices his different moans and Cletus
gives his best corpse impression, you take stock of what’s left of the food.
Erase
8 Foods
from the
Narrenschiff’s
inventory. But it is worth it, for your victory fills you with such magnanimous
feelings that you pray the moment will never end. You are superior, and nothing
can ever change that.

“Ah demand a rematch,” moans Buford.

“Hell yeah,” groans Cletus, stirring suddenly.
“
Cheatin
’ assholes.”

Turn to section
143
.

“Beat it, dipshit,” you say. “If you had a gun
pointed at me, then sure, maybe we could talk. As it is? You’re dead weight.”