Heavy Metal Thunder (49 page)

While surveying the oxygen tanks, a strange
prickling runs the length of your spine. You push off farther down the hall and
crouch near the ceiling. In a few moments you see the bobbing light of a flashlight,
then
hear someone kicking around in the hall that
leads back to the lounge. You wait, barely breathing. Then
the
a
radio sputters suddenly and you hear the voice of the guard before it
clicks off suddenly. The light shifts and the stalker bounds away. When you can
no longer hear him, you return to the main hall.

You reason that it was the manager - and something
tells you that you have no reason to trust him.

You gain
1 XP
for the use of your skill. Turn
to section
100
.

Days stretch on and time becomes a torture rack for
your body. You tell yourself that you are nearing the station, but your stomach
refuses to wait in silence. During the last leg of your journey to the station,
you must eat
2 Foods
, or lose
1 Blood
for each missed Food.

Regeneration
:
If you die, you may return to section
179
to try
again.

If you survive, turn to section
124.

“Whatever,” says the
laborer.
“We don’t want
no
part in your world.” Horrified, you
hear the gun blast and see the girl’s head jerk. Blood splatters onto the
laborer’s chest and he drops the girl’s limp body. Before you can react, he
puts the gun to his own head.

“Stop!” you shout. “Don’t do it!
You’re wasting
bullets!
” But it’s too late - the man fires, blowing his brains out like a
rainbow that comes in only one color. His body falls in a twitching heap beside
the woman he loved. You may take his
Bloody Chrome-Plated 9mm (Handgun, bulk
2)
and
3 Handgun bullets (bulk 1)
if you wish.

Turn to section
166
.

You try to shake the feeling. Try to tough it out.
You see
Octegenarius
dozing at the ship’s control
panel. “Hey, old man,” you say, forcing a smile. His eyes open slowly, resenting
your presence. He wants only to sleep.
To be at peace.
“You
workin
’ hard... or hardly...
workin
’...”
The joke feels disingenuous.

“Shit...” he says, slowly, as one who knows he is
already dead, and that anything else is pointless.

The unthinkable happens. Without warning, one window
of the ship shatters, blows outward, you feel the breath sucked out of you and
see boxes and gear fly
free,
you are suddenly cold,
cold all over. You crash into a steel-wall and your eyeballs roll around
loosely. A large box slams into the opening, sealing the vacuum off, but before
you come to a rest on the ground you see the metal just in front of your face
explode inward as something from the outside pierces it, then the vacuum sucks
against the ship again. Chaos before you, someone’s limbs flailing, objects
crashing against one another.

As you toss about the freezing maelstrom in the
ship, you lose
2 Blood
, though you may subtract your
Defense
rating from this amount if you happen to be wearing any Armor.

You manage to force your helm on just as ice
crystals form in your tear ducts and greasy hair. You are overcome with a
black, dark feeling that drowns out all humane concerns. Without thinking you
haul yourself towards an exit. Two more holes are blasted into the side of the
ship and you know that a sniper is attacking from a hideout on one of the
asteroids. As the vacuum churns within the
Narrenschiff
you clamber into a small depressurization chamber, lock the door behind you,
then kick open the exit door. Darkness lies before you and you blast your jets
on full throttle. All is silent but the kick of the jet behind you is a roar of
freedom in your blood, a freedom from all ties as you leave behind the fantasy
world of soft things and enter into the dance of death with which you have
become familiar.

A sniper in the service of the Invaders waits for
you on one of the asteroids. Now, finally, you will face the true enemy.
And
one of you will die
.

(If you have died, then you may
Regenerate
by
turning to section
312
, or, if you want to go
further back, section
179
.
)

Turn to section
247
.

You stare at a circular, open expanse of destruction.
It looks as if some missile entered the station and went off here. You can see
exposed sections of hallway with frantically blinking lights all around.
Thousands of open water pipes leak into the floor far below. Many hallways to
the far right are covered in quick-drying solution that protects against the
vacuum. The hallway in which you stand comes to an abrupt end before you; you
lean over and see pooled water, darkness,
strange
reflections. Twisted steel, concrete, and glass rise up from the floor like an
architect’s nightmare.

Just then you hear barking and splashing. Wild dogs
run about the ruins in the water below. They glare at you, hungry for flesh.
Some of them have pink-stained muzzles. All of these wild dogs are wearing
collars. You wonder at the fact that these creatures, once tame and only a few
hours free from their masters, have already reverted to savagery. None of these
dogs are small or cute in any way; all were animals kept by roughneck laborers,
and so the wild was probably always just under the surface.

Orienting yourself with the intention of getting
deeper into the station, you will have to make your way towards one of the
hallways on your left. A section of floor juts out on the platform below you,
and could provide some safe way to that area if you jumped down onto it. But
there has to be another room or hallway beyond the wall to your left; though
you can’t see it, you could possibly hang on to the ruined wall and swing
yourself around into the next area.

Whichever way you choose, you will have to keep away
from the dogs. You should probably hurry, too, for they are eagerly trying to
find some way to come to you.

If you wish to jump down onto the lower hallway,
turn to section
211
.

If you wish to swing around the wall to your left,
turn to section
256
.

You bring your boot down on one of the
deconstructors, smashing its head into the floor. The monster shrieks its last.
You feel a steel tentacle slam into your back, sending you airborne. You crash
into the ground, jetpack bouncing awkwardly. As you rise the monster is already
upon you,
baring
down with its terrible pincers. You
kick
upward,
stunning the thing, then grab a loose
tentacle in both hands.

“Donkey Kong Junior ain’t got
nothin
’ on me!”
you scream as you roll
over in the hallway, pulling the thing with you. You hit the wall, hard,
smashing the deconstructor between the wall and your jetpack. It quivers
lamely. You rise awkwardly, then stomp the thing with your boot, crushing it
until its eyes darken and it lies still.

Overall, you lose
3 Blood
from this
encounter. If your Blood has dropped to zero or below, then the last thing you
feel is dizziness before the dead station claims your life.

If you have survived, turn to section
298
.

Screams and gunfire echo through the tastefully
decorated hallways of the station while a benign voice on the intercom
announces, “PLEASE REMAIN CALM. THE STATION IS NOT BEING DESTROYED. YOU ARE NOT
ALL GOING TO DIE. PLEASE RETURN TO YOUR WORK AREAS...” You limp down a hallway,
leaning against a wall, fighting the unbearable weight of one-G entropy.

You cross a wide intersection of hallways. Seemingly
out of nowhere, a gang of men in Stellar green laborer coveralls charge into
the area. They all wear red bandannas and several carry automatic weapons, and
they have an insane glint in their eyes. “To the Revolution!” they scream,
stinking of alcohol.
“Revolution!
Now!
”
As they cross nearby one of them glances at you, swings his weapon around, and
fires. You stumble sideways and fall to the ground as bullets smack into the
wall. Before you can even raise a weapon they are already gone.

You hobble away from the area. Ahead, several women run
screaming, crying, tripping and begging for their lives. After they pass, a
half-naked man chases after them, knife held high, giggling wickedly. You rush
ahead, mumbling, “See here, now!” but, before you can charge down the hall to
save the day, three men in grey law enforcement uniforms and heavy riot gear
run by. They stop when they see you,
then
level their
shotguns.

“
Conservationalist
or
progressivite
?!” one of them shouts.

“I just... uh, I just need a ship,” you say, edging
away from them.

“
Well how do you tend to vote, dirt-bag?
”
screams another, near panic himself.

“I’m not into whatever’s going on here!” you shout,
hands in the air. You backpedal near another hallway, then say, “Let me
explain,” before you suddenly whirl and run down the hall. The cops do not
pursue you.

You run until your lungs give out,
then
lean against a wall. Some great explosion rumbles
through the walls, steady, like the heartbeat of doom itself. Down a side hall
you see one man with a heavy pipe standing over two bodies. He beats the bodies
over and over, slipping in their blood. Tears stream down his face. “REMAIN
CALM,” announces the voice on the intercom. “THE STATION IS DEFINITELY NOT
BEING DESTROYED BY AN INVADER SHIP. THERE IS NO REASON TO PANIC OR GO CRAZY IN
ANY WAY.”

“Like hell,” you mutter, sneaking away from the
scene.

You continue down the hallway, hopefully toward a
ship docking bay that hasn’t been destroyed. Not that you feel comfortable
asking for directions. You come to a hallway with two doors on either side, one
marked DOCTOR’S OFFICE,
the
other marked CAFETERIA. On
the one hand, you are half-starved and will need food for you trip, and it
would be nice to have some medical supplies to counteract your growing wound
collection. On the other hand, behind both doors you hear crazy people locked
in what seems to be shouting contests.

There’s no telling what’s going on behind those
doors, and since time is short you guess that you only have enough time to
investigate one room.

If you want to check out the cafeteria’s specials,
turn to section
425
.

If you want to see if the doctor is in, turn to
section
207
.

If you think the whole thing sounds insane, you can
continue down the hall and avoid all this nonsense by turning to section
254
.

You program your helm computer to keep you on your
current course,
then
you swallow the sweet, sweet
unconsciousness-producing drugs. “Now why didn’t I think of this before?” you
mutter. “
Goodbye,
stars! And I hope you
die!
”

You jerk awake. The stars have not changed, not at
all. You check your helm computer... and find that you have slept for nearly a
week!

“Quite refreshing!” you say. “Now if only I could
sleep through this entire epic journey. Then I would be... happy!”

Erase the sweet, sweet pills from your inventory,
then
turn to section
556
.

“You know what, John Christian,” you say, “I
wouldn’t be what I am today if it weren’t for you. I’ve been through Hell, and
Hell no longer has anything in it for me to fear.”

The man’s face freezes in terror.

“And that’s why I’m keeping your punk-ass alive,”
you say, “so you can stay in this freezing nightmare with me.” With that, you manhandle
him, blast your jets, and give him a violent push toward the ship.

Asshole
,
you think.
I hope some Invader bashes your brains out on the way there
.

To turn around and fly back toward the battle, turn
to section
222
.

“Alright, man,” you say, hands upraised. “Let’s just
take a deep breath and chill out. Surely things aren’t that bad.”

“Aren’t that bad?!” shrieks the laborer. “We’re all
gonna be dead soon, and all I
wanna
do is marry the
woman of my dreams so I won’t die alone - and
nobody’s
helping me out
here!”

“I’ll help!” said the priest. “I’ll marry you two
lovebirds,
then
carve you up real good an’ pretty!”