Heavy Metal Thunder by Kyle B. Stiff Page A

your weapon in your gut, losing
your breath. A tentacle from each of the monsters whirls about, then smack
heavily into either side of your head, jarring your skull. Dizzy, you swing
about in a whirlwind tantrum, striking metal against metal. You finally slam
into a wall and bounce backward. You grit against the pain, then see that one of the deconstructors has been smashed horribly. The other rises
from its brother’s body, shaken, and you fall on the monster, jamming the end
of your weapon into its top until, finally, you crack
the shell and smash the thing’s innards. You fall among the dead machines,
exhausted.
    You lose 3 Blood in the fight. If your Blood
has dropped to zero or less, then you pass out, dead, your blood mingling with
the coolant in the deconstructor’s veins.
    If you have survived, turn to section 298 .
     

110
    Red light flashes through a maze of hallways. You
can hear heavy doors slamming open and shut, over and over and at different
intervals like the drumbeat of some god of war. One seemingly calm hallway is filled
with fog that glows pink in time to the emergency lights. You hear buzzing,
flashes like thunder. An air conditioning duct thunders full of storm for one
moment, then clicks off again. Just before you step into the area, a heavy
cleaning machine rushes past you at breakneck speed, slams into a wall, then disappears around a corner.
    You enter the area and are overwhelmed by the choice
of hallways. You find two that seem the least forbidding of them all.
    One hallway to your right seems fairly innocuous.
You can take it by turning to section 499 .
    The cleaning machine went down a hallway to your
left. Reasoning that it will be far ahead of you and probably in another
hallway by now, you can take this path by turning to section 315 .
     

111
    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, but the other gets off a shot before you can move. Your helm is
blasted sideways and pain rings throughout your skull as you crash into the
ground. As you reach up to adjust your helm you feel a great dent that presses
against your battered head. You struggle to rise once more, though your vision
shakes sickeningly.
    You lose 4 Blood , though you may subtract
your Will stat from this amount. Be sure to
erase the amount of ammunition that you used.
    If you die, then it turns out there are two large
dents in your helm - one where the bullet went in, and another where it came
out again. No amount of Will can overcome that. You may Regenerate by turning back to section 161 .
    If you survive, then you hear the last guard blast
away at your cover as you crawl back onto your knees. 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.