Heavy Metal Thunder (19 page)

While you adjust your gear, you look over at the
priest. He ties off his arm and fills a syringe with an amazing assortment of
drugs. He winks at you.

You gain
3 XP
for surviving this ridiculous,
dangerous situation.

“Well,” you say, finishing up, “looks like it’s time
for me to hop on a space ship and get the hell out of here.”

“Yeah,” says the priest.
“Same
here!”
With that, he plunges the needle into his arm. Within moments his
eyes roll into the back of his head. If you want, you may take the priest’s
Bowie
Knife (Blade, bulk 1)
, since he won’t need it where he’s going.

You can continue down the hall to the docking bay by
turning to section
254
.

You kick off gently and glide away from your
stockpile. You slide against the wall, guiding yourself with your hand as
quietly as you can, until you reach a side hallway. You catch yourself and
swing around, then push yourself downwards, crouching. The flashlight suddenly
shines on your supplies and you hear a grunt. The guard hovers into view. He is
covered in blood; how much of it is his, you are not sure. He floats above your
stockpile, surveying it.

“The man is a murderer!” you hear over the radio. It
is the voice of the manager. “He said he would kill you! You have to, man,
you
have to!
”

The man is beefy, but does not seem fully sure of
himself
in zero-G. He is armed with a thick lead pipe.

He has not seen you, and so you gain
1 XP
for
successful use of your skill.

If you wish to call out to him, turn to section
299
.

If you have a gun and at least 1 bullet, you can
shoot him from behind by turning to section
505
.

If you want to sneak up on him and attack him, turn
to section
141
.

You shake your head shyly. “Fine,” says Buford, “if
you can’t run with the big dogs, stay outta the kitchen.”

“
Boah
,” says Cletus, “
whyn’t
you put your Food where your mouth is?”

The two mercenaries sit across from one another with
a buffet laid out before them, an arena of tasty treats. “Re-e-
eady
?” says Buford. “Set? All set? Three... two... ready
?...
two...”

“Go!” says Cletus. Immediately the two slam their
faces down into the food, glaring at one another. Buford grabs up hotdog after
hotdog, sucking the things out of his wet, glistening fist (a slight turn-on)
while Cletus puts his face down into a cake like a hog at the trough, then
inhales in such a way that the cake seems to implode, then the entire thing
slithers into his face. The contest is intense, as they are both big men with
big stomachs and, not having any real interests or hobbies of their own, they
know that only their reputation can define who they are. Neither wants to give
up, no matter how much it hurts.

Eventually, however, Cletus falls into a stack of
bananas he has already peeled, crushing them all into mush. “
Gawd
,” he bellows, “the pain!”

“Hah!” cries Buford, chunks spilling from his mouth.

“
M’stomerk
! Gonna
explode!”

“Hah ha-a-ah!”

With that, Buford proves himself the better eater
and, by extension, the better man. You nod to him submissively, an
acknowledgment of his superiority over you. While Buford struts around, proud
and in agony, you roll Cletus into a corner and take stock of what’s left of
the food.

Erase
5 Foods
from the
Narrenschiff’s
inventory.

“We kin have a rematch tomorrow,” says Buford,
hovering over his beaten foe.

Turn to section
143
.

One Invader crashes into the ground, dead from
Sybel’s
gunshot. Two more of them, desperate for cover,
roll directly into your line of sight. Marcus blasts one with a spray of bullets
that tosses blood onto the far wall. While the other Invader whirls in
confusion, you blast the side of his head, shattering his mask and spraying
blood onto one of his bone-white horns.

The last alien guard, realizing
that he is outnumbered, runs through your line of sight in a desperate bid to
survive.
As Marcus and Sybel nail him from two
directions, he fires wildly. You crash into a wall to avoid his gunfire. As he
falls dead, you turn and see that a line of bullets has torn into the wall
directly above your head.

You gain
2 XP
for killing an alien guard. Be
sure to erase the amount of ammunition that you used.

Sybel runs down the hall and you rush to rejoin him.
Turn to section
416
.

You lean against the far door so that you will not
be knocked back, then blast the control panel twice. The gun kicking in your
hands feels familiar. Sparks fly from the control panel. You don’t have a
scientific explanation for what happens - and maybe there isn’t one - but the door
grinds open awkwardly. Air rushes into the room and pushes you against the far
side, and you are grateful that the other door holds. You reenter the hallway,
which is still brightly lit. Its gravity pulls you down. You throw off your
helm and breathe. Subtract
2 Handgun bullets
from your inventory.

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
148
.

Down on your belly against cold stone, you aim down
the barrel of your gun at the sniper.

If you using a
Rifle
, and are trained in
Weapon
Proficiency: Rifle
, turn to section
504.

Otherwise, you must compute a number that will
determine the outcome of your shot. This number is your
Dexterity
. If
you are using a
Rifle
, add 2 to this number. If you are using a
Handgun
,
for every
3 bullets
you fire add 1 to this number. If you are using a
Shotgun
,
for every
2 shells
you fire add 1 to this number. If you are using a
Rifle
,
for
every bullet
you fire add 1 to this number. If you are trained in
Weapon
Proficiency: Ranged
, and it is with the weapon you are using, add 3 to this
number.

If your number is 12 or more, turn to section
243
.

If your number is 11 or less, turn to section
465
.

Then, all at once - everyone fires. The entire room
erupts in thunder and blood.

You must now compute a number that determines the
outcome of the gunfight. 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, but you may only fire a maximum of 3 bullets due
to the quickness of the battle. Note that you must fire at least 1 bullet.

If the number is 6 or less, turn to section
238
.

If the number is between 7 and 13, turn to section
71
.

If the number is 14 or more, turn to section
13
.

“Think of what you’re doing, man!” you say through
gritted teeth. “Are you really capable of this?!”

“The void is lawlessness!” says the doctor, bearing down
on you. “In the name of survival... I must kill! I... want... your... suit!”

“You have a choice!
A choice to be
a human... even if it means dying as one!”

“No...
choice
! An illusion!
Environment and genes... nowhere for free will to fit between
the two!”

The doctor leans forward, pushing you against a
wall. Your hands shake with the effort. A necklace with a cross on it swings
from his neck.

“And what about your God!” you say. “What would He
think?!”

“God would let a child starve to death... would let
me die in this void... and so He is no being by which to set your moral
compass...”

On a strange whim, you say, “And what if I am your
God?”

He hesitates for a moment - and you swing sideways,
jerking the syringe around. The doctor stumbles forward and you slam his face
with an elbow. He drops to his knees and you reach down with your free hand and
grasp his throat. A terrible rage goads you on and you crush the man’s throat.
He drops the syringe and you push off from the wall, slide down to the floor
and on top of him, taking his throat in both hands and squeeze, without mercy,
until his eyes roll back into his head and his body spasms its last.

You gain
1 XP
for your quick wit and
1 XP
for slaying the mad doctor. You may take the poisonous
Mortenol
Syringe (bulk 1)
if you want.

Turn to section
269
.

You fire. The gun silently kicks in your hands. You
think at first that you have missed, frustration welling up in you. Then you
note a plume of air jetting out from the fighter. He swings about in a wild
series of loops, then crashes full-speed into the asteroid, sending up a plume
of dust. He twirls about like a tornado. Then, as the ash and ice drift away,
you see the dead Invader floating limp.

You gain
2 XP.
Be sure to erase the amount of
ammunition that you used.

Just then, a cloud of dust tears up before you. You
swing sideways and see the sniper take cover behind a high stone wall.

If you want to fly upwards and quickly swing around
into his position, turn to section
276
.

If you want to creep towards his position low to the
ground, turn to section
21
.

The shrieking man swings his rifle into the side of
your face, jarring your skull and knocking you into a wall. You lean against
it,
then
nearly topple over as he bashes you in the
side and kidneys with his rifle butt. You feel a rib crack, breathing becomes a
nightmare. You bring an arm up
to ward
him away and
catch him in the jaw with a lucky blow from your elbow. He staggers back and
you whirl about, slam your knee into his gut,
then
grab his neck in a head-lock. You squeeze as hard as you can while he punches
you in the gut. His blows become slower and weaker, then stop altogether as he
goes limp. His eyes remain open and you realize that you crushed his windpipe
in your fury.

You lose
4 Blood
in the terrible battle. If
your
Blood score has dropped to zero or less, then you
realize that much of the battle was a hallucination - the man actually had you in
a fatal headlock and you were simply identifying with your killer in the few
moments you had before death.

If you survived, turn to section
530
.

The undeniable fact that you are looking at a living
creature floating in the vacuum of space reeks of the unnatural. This thing is
here because of the Invaders. The need to smash it is overpowering. If you can
get something from it to aid you in your desperate journey, that would be nice,
but really - killing a pet of the Invaders would be sweeter than blood.

If you wish to land on the surface of the creature,
turn to section
181
.

If you wish to avoid touching the surface, you can
fly around the thing and get a bird’s eye view by turning to section
356
.

As the other infantrymen fly around the corner, you
hear shouting in your com-link,
then
Sybel pulls
Marcus away from you and runs back the way you came. You cannot seem to move your
feet. A dozen masked, horned Invaders turn into the hallway, eyes gleaming in
the dull red light.