Heavy Metal Thunder Read Online Free PDF Page A

realizing your need for
speed, kick the whole cart over and dump them all noisily into the hallway. You
continue the process several times. As you work the robot moves back and forth
down the hallway, gathering food and water for you.
    You and the labor-bot amass a ton of supplies.
Perhaps an hour passes in this way. Then, without warning, the lights flicker
and go black. Even the red alarms continue for only a few seconds before they,
too, are cut off. The whir of the air conditioning system clicks off, and you slowly rise from the floor. You can hear
rumbling, grinding, far away.
    The backup generators have been destroyed and more
deconstructors are tearing their way through the station. The end is near. You
kick off a wall and check the fuel canisters. You disconnect one, glad to see
that it is full, then attach a line from your jetpack and refuel yourself. You
seal the canisters, then kick them into the hallway and gather them near the
rest of your supplies. The robot floats down a side hallway, treads moving
uselessly, head whirling in confusion.
    Near exhaustion, your heart races with the hope of
escaping this ghost station. You kick off and stop at the door to the ruined
dock so that you can follow through with the last part of your plan.
    Turn to section 47 .
     

33
    You raise up over the box,
blood singing in your ears drowning out all else. A horned head hovers into
view. You fire - and the guard falls back, one of his horns shattered, blood
spurting from a new opening in his head. You drop down again just as the other
two return fire, their bullets ringing against the steel box that covers you.
    Be sure to erase the amount of ammunition that you
used.
    Your com-link clicks to life. A calm, aristocratic
voice says, “Commander Uther, do you read me? This is Captain Numitor.” You can
hear him loud and clear over the Penelope’s powerful communications
link.
    “SIR, YES SIR!” cries Uther.
    “The good news,” says Numitor, in a conversational
tone, “is that our infantry have beaten back the attackers. Unfortunately I’ve
had to recall most of them. You see, some nine enemy units have broken into the Penelope . We had quite a battle on the deck and killed three of them,
but they managed to find our shield generator. Another has died against the
soldiers there, but the last five are putting up quite a fight. My second is
throwing around the word ‘retreat’. How are things over there, Commander?”
    “Few minutes, sir!” says Uther. “Few minutes, that’s
all we need.”
    Damn! you think. I hope that hot supply depot chick didn’t get
her face seared off or her intestines blown out by some monster. I never even
caught her name ...
    You prepare to fire at the second guard.
    You must now compute a number that will determine
the accuracy of your second shot. 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 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 Sixth Sense , add 1 to
this number.
    If the number is 7 or less, turn to section 488 .
    If the number is between 8 and 13, turn to section 111 .
    If the number is 14 or more, turn to section 422 .
    If you are completely out of bullets, turn to
section 471 .
     

34
    While the ship directs itself ,
you spend some time going over the supplies that the laborers loaded. The
ship’s relatively-advanced engine uses liquid hydrogen as its fuel, just as
your jetpack does, and there is plenty of that on board. You find many heavy
tanks full of compressed oxygen. Best of all, there is plenty of water; so much
so that, not only will none of you have to worry about rationing, you can even
take baths. (Since the small ship is equipped with Fat Mass coils that induce
artificial gravity, you won’t