Heavy Metal Thunder (47 page)

You see a look of shock in the laborer’s eyes as you
run toward him.

Add together your
Strength
and
Dexterity
stats.

If the number is 8 or more, turn to section
509
.

If the number is 7 or less, turn to section
407
.

You leave the dead monster behind and, fattened-up
with supplies, you continue your journey. Your successful dance with death, as
well as knowing that you are past the halfway-point to the next space station,
gives you newfound determination that holds your sanity together for several
days. You know that you have the trajectories of your ship and the Invader ship
stored with you, and you are confident that you will be able to find a proper
ship at the next Stellar Corporation station.

You alone can warn your comrades about the danger
that is stalking them.
You,
and no one else.

As days turn into weeks, you burn through fuel,
water, oxygen. You reason that you will have just enough to get you to the
Stellar
station. However, your food runs low while you are
still far from safety. You ration as best you can. It would be a shame if only
a corpse with a lot of good intentions arrived at your destination.

If you have any
Pork
Chop
Flowers
,
turn to section
311
.

If you do not have this item, turn to section
163
.

You draw your gun as quickly as you can but it is
impossible to get a lead on the fast-approaching Invader. You manage to fire
off one round before you have to scamper away as the horned Invader arcs by
your position, his
gladius
swinging out, boots nearly
scraping the ground and sending up a spray of icy dust.

You curse the inadequacy of the gun in the depths of
space, then draw a hand-to-hand weapon and face your foe.

Be sure to erase
1 bullet
from your
inventory.

Turn to section
159
.

You swing out over the side. Smoke rolls about in
front of you, casting deep shadows throughout the hellish red chamber. Two horned
heads rise into view. You fire at one, who jerks and slides along the ground,
dead,
then
you quickly drop sideways just as the other
blasts your cover with an entire round, sending sparks flying over you. More
bullets smack into the ground near your head and you scramble behind the steel
box.

You take in great gulping panic breaths as you
struggle to rise to your knees. You feel nauseous, cold all over and swimming
in the sweat of your own soup. And top of all that, you have to be sure to
erase the amount of ammunition that you used.

You glance over at Marcus. A pile of alien dead are
scattered about the narrow doorway, the stairwell, and beneath the stairs
themselves. The walls run thick with blood as Marcus reloads once more. Behind
you, you see Commander Uther throw the last of his alien guns away. Sybel hands
him one of his handguns and a clip of ammunition. When Sybel swings out of the
doorway to fire at the oncoming stream of reinforcements, he takes single,
controlled shots.

Your head rings and the constant battering of
gunfire
is
maddening. You can feel your sanity
drifting away, drowning in a tide of brutality. There is not much time left,
and everyone is running low on ammunition. You must hold together and kill the
last guard quickly.

You must now compute a number that will determine
the accuracy of your third shot. This number is your
Dexterity
added to
your
Will
. 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
Rifle
,
add 2. 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. Furthermore, if you have the
Sixth
Sense
,
add 2 to this number.

If you are out of ammunition, or have so little that
you do not think you can make an accurate shot, turn to section
73
.

If the number is 8 or less, turn to section
185
.

If the number is between 9 and 14, turn to section
208
.

If the number is 15 or more, turn to section
484
.

You wake in agony, your body weighed down by an
intense amount of gravity. A thick fog grips your mind. You try to move, are
nearly overcome by nausea, then strong hands grip you on all sides.

“Easy, buddy!” a man says.

“Hold on, hold on, we gotcha, man!” says another.

You open your eyes and see the grey steel walls of a
large chamber. Men in Black Lance Legion Infantry suits are leading you down
some stairs away from the
Narrenschiff
. It is
nearly impossible to breathe. You see that their helms are off, then realize
your own is off, and reach back lamely to put it back on so that you will not
suffocate.

“Just relax, man,” says an Infantryman with a thick
beard who is holding you up on one side.
“We gotcha.”
Your legs wobble painfully as they drag you down the stairs.

You see other soldiers in the docking bay. They have
no space suits, only the rough black uniforms of ship personnel. Many of them
wear the patchy grey sweaters that are standard issue among the Legion. All of
them look concerned and stare at you openly. “Is this,” you mumble, straining
at the words. “Is this real?”

An infantryman with a wrinkled face and blond beard
who is helping to hold you up laughs roughly, then says, “Soldier, I dunno
where you come from,
but you’re home now
.”

A team of medics and ship personnel quickly
lay
a stretcher out at the base of the stairs and you feel
hands yanking at the flaps of your suit. Your brain releases a flood of joyful
chemicals as you realize that against all odds you have finally made it back to
the
Penelope’s Vengeance
, the massive Black Lance Legion ship that is your
home, your training ground, your sanctuary against the void.

Turn to section
320
.

You lean against the far door so that you will not
be knocked back, then blast the door twice.

Nothing happens. The bullets went in, but they
didn’t come out the other side. The door must be reinforced. Subtract
2
Handgun bullets
from your inventory.

If you want to shoot the control panel, and have at
least
2
Handgun
bullets
, turn to section
170
.

If you want to put your gun away and go man-to-man
against the door and control panel, turn to section
349
.

You enter the cafeteria. “I got
my
crave
on for some
nugs
!” you announce - but
the group of people on the verge of killing one another don’t seem to care. You
take the scene in quickly: On one side of the room, a tough-looking young
lawman aims an automatic handgun at two revolutionaries, both in laborers’
coveralls and red bandannas. One revolutionary stands tall and holds a shotgun
pointed at the lawman; a strange smile stretches across his face. The other
revolutionary stands a little behind the
first,
literally shaking in his shoes, and holds an automatic at the lawman. The
moment you enter, the second revolutionary swings his gun at you, screams,
then
points it back at the lawman. On the floor, near the
revolutionaries, lies a man in a chef’s uniform, face-down. Either he was
cooking up a giant vat of ketchup and spilled it all over himself, or he has
been gunned down.

There are many chairs and tables, some overturned,
in the room. But more importantly, you can clearly see that the buffet area is
packed with the tastiest morsels in the solar system, piping hot and full of
nutrition - and it’s all on the far side of the three gunmen.

“Put it down!” shouts the lawman, his voice hard and
steady.

The smiling revolutionary hisses, then says, “I’m
not eating poisoned food, you parasite!”

“You’re insane,” growls the lawman. “You hear that,
dirt-bag?
You’re a scum-bag!
”

“C’mon, man!” says the scared revolutionary,
throwing his eyes at you and the lawman. “This is crazy, let’s just get outta
here!”

“I’m taking you both in for murder,” says the
lawman. “Or I’m dropping both your asses, here and now. The choice is yours,
skuzzbags
.”

“I choose death for us all,” says the smiling
revolutionary, “rather than a lifetime of eating poisoned garbage.”

The situation looks bad.
Time to
make it worse.

(Note that you don’t necessarily need any bullets if
you just want to draw your gun as a bluff.)

If you have
Sixth
Sense
, turn to
section
576
for some insight into the situation.

If you are skilled in
First
Aid
, turn
to section
157
to make an educated guess about
what’s going on.

If you have a gun, you can draw it on the lawman by
turning to section
258
.

If you have a gun, you can draw it on the
revolutionaries by turning to section
242
.

If you want to try to talk the revolutionaries out
of whatever they’re doing, turn to section
572
.

If you want to tell the lawman to beat it, turn to
section
319
.

“Just listen to what I have to say,” you say,
relaxing your posture.

The robot stands idle. “I’m listening,” says the
manager on the other end.

“First off -” you say, and then run toward the robot
as fast as you can. You maneuver between its massive lifters just as its body
lumbers into action. You bend low, pop open a small protective plate and pull
the manual override lever. The robot instantly drops into an idle stance,
then
says, “THIS LABOR ROBOT UNIT SET TO COMPLY TO NEW
USER’S VERBAL COMMANDS.
STANDING BY.”

“What’s going on?!” shrieks the
manager’s voice on the other end.

“I just initiated a manual override program,” you
say. “When these things malfunction, you think some guy sitting on his ass at
some computer panel is going to be able to shut down a robot and handle
repairs?”

“Uh...”

“You just better hope I don’t find you and initiate
an override program - by blowing your brains out the back of your head!” That
shuts the manager up. “Alright, robot,” you say. “Pick up all those food stuffs
there and set them down outside the docks, near the dock command station. And
gather all the water supplies out of that side room and set them down in the
same area. Got it?”

“YES, SIR,” says the robot. It rolls forward and you
move out of its way as it bends to organize and lift several of the food boxes.
Next, the fuel lines.
You jog down the hall while the
robot continues its work.

You gain
1 XP
for use of your Skill and a
further
1 XP
for overcoming the robot.

Turn to section
475
.

You rush to the front of the ship just as the
massive steel doors roll up slowly. The ship lurches forward slightly,
straining at its moorings, as the void pulls on it. Through the fore window you
watch a horrible, fascinating sight: Many dozens of people fly past on all
sides, screaming silently, as they are sucked into the freezing void. The ship
shakes as others prep their engines.

As soon as the bay doors are high enough, one squat
ship streaks out. It gains some distance. Then, in a flash of red light, it is
blasted apart.

“Holy crap!” screams one of the guards.

“It’s the Invader ship,” you say. “It’s cruising
by.”

“It’s a trap!” shouts the other.

Other ships pull out from the dock. “No choice but
to move ahead,” you say, “and hope it shoots down anything but the
Narrenschiff
.”

If you are trained in
Pilot Ship: Small
, turn
to section
237
.

If
Octegenarius
the Elder the Pilot
is with you, turn to section
140
.

If you do not have this skill, or do not wish to use
it, and this person is not with you, turn to section
580
.