You play the beam of your particle disruptor over the generator as Yelov takes aim again. There is a sudden flash behind him and a gust of wind rushes past you and out of the tunnel, now that the invisible force field is destroyed. Noxious vapours stream in around you and Yelov is propelled, choking, to a hatch in the side of the tunnel that opens by the raildroid's grav-beam. You fire a rocket and then jet towards him, but he is through the hatchway in a twinkling. The droid's shield blocks the rocket, but the explosion damages its circuitry and it jars to a standstill. Using your particle disrupter you carve a hole in the tunnel wall and fly through it, after Yelov.
As you step through, a worker droid rushes to repair the hole you have made as air starts to whistle out into the tunnel. You have entered a colossal circular room which is crammed with computer banks. Coloured lights flash as fast as the eye can see. Yelov has, unwittingly, led you to the Central Computer. This enormous room is a single computerised brain which controls the whole of the factory planet. You marvel at its size but remembering the complexity of the task it fulfils you are not surprised it throws out enough light to illuminate a small city. Yelov is standing in front of the computer which is the brain of Mechanon, Its tones are very calm and reassuring, but it is saying, There is an organic hostile within my perimeter, Yelov. You assured me that this could never happen. Mechanon is at risk - exterminate the being at once.' Yelov spins to look at you and there is a frown of concentration on his face. He is trying to exert the power of his will over yours. His mind is strong and his will to live burns as hotly as ever. If yours does not, you will lose this battle of wills. Make a Power of Will Roll.
If you score 7-12, got a 2 and a 5, so:
Sweating with the effort inside your battlesuit, you manage to throw off his attempt to take control of your mind, but his mind is as quick as his reflexes and before you can attack him he hurls a blast of mental energy at you. You use your Power of Will to overcome his Thinkstrike which threatens to reduce you to a grovelling animal. Make a Power of Will Roll.
If you score 6-12, got a 4 and a 4, so:
Somehow you withstand the blast of Yelov's unhinged hatred but Yelov now has a plasma pistol in his hand. The computer's tones are slightly higher pitched as it says, 'Yelov, I told you to exterminate the being. Why do you wait?' You leap over one of the computer's fifteen foot tall memory banks - the powered battlesuit will make such a leap easily but Yelov is a crack marksman. Make an Evasion Roll.
If you score 6-12, got a 1 and a 2, so:
Yelov's plasma pistol rips into your battlesuit, twisting and rupturing its armour, and you lose 10 Endurance points as the plasma gets through to your midriff. If you are still alive, you recover, but the speed with which Yelov now rushes you shows that both of his legs are bionic. He is having himself transformed into a walking death machine. He punches you with his bionic arm which is twenty times as powerful as any man's. You hurtle backwards and smash into a computer terminal. Subtract 1 from your Suit Armour. The computer screams at Yelov not to hurt it.
Yelov rushes in to strike you again but you drive your powered fist towards his face. Make an Attack Roll.
If you score 7-12, got 2 and 6, so:
Your blow catches the metallic mask that is one side of Yelov's face and he is thrown backwards, stunned. His plasma pistol whirls through the air and lands some way behind him. You step forward, intent on using the strength of your battered suit to smash his head as Yelov staggers to his feet, when the computer activates a grab used for moving the data banks. You try to dodge its metal claws as it closes in on you. Make an Evasion Roll.
If you score 6-12, got a 6 and a 4, so:
You manage to dodge the huge grab and, using it as cover, you fire at Yelov with your particle disrupter. He has wrenched a huge girder from the floor in his one bionic hand and arm and is swinging its end towards you. Make an Attack Roll.
If you score 6-12, got a 2 and a 5, so:
The beam of your particle disruptor flays Yelov's bionic arm until there is nothing left but smoke. His nerves react as though you had blown off his real arm again and he collapses to the floor. You step towards him to finish it, but the computer opens a hatchway beneath your feet and you fall through it. You blast with your jetpack but the hatchway closes, trapping you at the neck. The floor starts to buckle under the surge of the jets and you pound the floor with your power-suited fists. You tear feverishly at the warping metal as Yelov begins to recover. Make an Evasion Roll as you try to burst free from the trap.
If you score 5-12, got a 5 and a 3, so:
You surge upwards through the splintered floormetal with a whine of power. Yelov gropes for his plasma pistol but you are too quick for him. Your particle disruptor drills into his chest and a look of primeval terror crosses his face as his very being pours out of him in a stream of atoms. Within seconds he has been spread in a thin coat all over the Central Computer. There is nothing left to show the world that you have defeated the greatest villain of all time.
The computer's tones are calm once more as it says, 'You must leave now, intruder.' Ignoring it, you look around for what may be the computer's core. It is difficult to tell one part of the enormous electronic brain from another so you decide to use your particle disruptor on all of it. As its memory banks are destroyed one by one the computer threatens you that the whole planet will explode, killing you, if you continue. As your beam of destruction creeps towards a large steel pyramid the computer's tone changes to a wheedling whine. 'Cease immediately, intruder, or I shall launch the planet killer at Earth.' Still ignoring it, you play your beam across the pyramid which seems to melt away to nothing as if by magic. Suddenly everything goes haywire. Lights flash everywhere and then dim as the main generators shut down. You manage to find your way back out of the tunnel in the darkness by the searchlight of your battlesuit helmet and climb into your Strike Fighter once more. The sound of distant explosions rocks the tunnel as you climb into your crash-couch. To your relief the ion drives are operational again now that they have cooled down, and you gun the fighter through the blackness of the tunnel, aiming for the white pin pricks of the stars of Mechanon's night sky at its end. There is a blinding flash and the tunnel is filled with light as another immense explosion rocks the complex, and the walls begin to cave in on you. You make it to the end of the tunnel just in time and hurtle skyward.
411
The surface of Mechanon is wreathed in flames and as you watch a fuel refinery explodes, sending a pillar of flame into the upper atmosphere. The droids are motionless, the space-artillery tubes hang down limply. Mechanon is dead. As the Strike Fighter climbs away from the stricken planet, something happens which you can hardly comprehend, let alone believe. The planet splits into two flaming halves. Its centre has been mined out centuries ago and from the hollowness within flies a ship as large as a mountain. It rumbles skyward on the thrust of a hundred colossal fusion tubes. This must be the planet killer which the computer launched. Its size alone would mean that Earth would be destroyed if it hit a continent at two-tenths the speed of light, but you can tell at a glance that it is a single flying bomb. The planet killer accelerates towards hyper-space speed and CAIN confirms that it is almost certainly on course for Earth. Will you:
Try to destroy the planet killer?
Ask CAIN if there are any other options?
There is a picture
here. That was a lot of dice rolling, but at least Falcon has properly got rid of Yelov, instead of taking him in alive so someone can let him go again.