by Steve Barlow
As you head into the desert, Cranberry’s voice comes over the comms link.
“Agent, our tracking systems show a launch of anti-aircraft Patriot missiles from your target area: turn around now and…”
That is all you hear before the ground-launched missiles blow you and the helicopter to smithereens.
You’ve been blown sky-high, whilst high in the sky! Go back to 1.
26
The cyborg raises the robot’s laser cannons to cover you.
You take a deep breath. “Jackson Hayes, I know you’re in there somewhere.”
As the cyborg hesitates, you re-establish comms with Cranberry and whisper, “Cranberry, download the pic of Jackson’s wife and family to my visor screen.”
“Remember your family?” you ask the cyborg.
Jackson lowers the laser cannons.
You take off your helmet and throw it up to Jackson. He takes his hands from the robot’s controls to catch it.
To ask Jackson to save his family, go to 35.
To threaten Jackson’s family, go to 14.
27
You open the engine throttles as wide as they will go: you need to get away, but the missiles are too fast.
You dive towards the desert, hoping that the Flyer’s terrain-following radar will save you.
One missile does hit a hill and explode, but the other continues to close in. You swerve to try and avoid it. But you lose control and crash into a mountain in a ball of flame.
You’ve crashed and burned! Go back to 1.
28
“Why?” you ask.
“I remember the codes the cyborg used to start the missile launch — we’ll have to use them again to stop it.”
You help Jackson limp to the network control room in the data centre. He collapses into a chair and starts tapping at a keypad. “See the ABORT switch?” he asks. You nod. “Throw it — but only when I tell you.”
Sweat trickles down your spine as Jackson continues to type and the countdown continues. At long last, Jackson yells, “NOW!”
You throw the switch. The countdown clock reads “… 2…”
Go to 50.
29
“Come on,” you say, “let’s get you out of here.”
But the minute you leave the building, you are surrounded by powered exoskeletons, looking incomplete without their human operators.
“Who’s controlling them?” you ask.
“The cyborg,” replies a scientist.
You raise your weapons. “Run for it. I’ll hold them off.”
While the scientists rush away, you fire your BAM and throw SAC grenades to good effect; but even without operators, the exoskeletons are quick, and there are just too many of them. In under a minute, you are a helpless captive.
Go to 38.
30
“Sounds good,” you say, sliding your arms, legs and torso into the suit, which closes around you.
But as soon as your head touches the neckrest, you feel a startling pain in the back of your skull.
“Foolish human!” the cyborg’s voice blares from the suit’s speakers. “I control every robotic device made by EXOCORP — including this one!”
Go to 38.
31
You release the countermeasures. The heat of the flares confuses the missiles’ tracking sensors, and they explode harmlessly.
The pilot’s voice comes over the radio. “Sorry! My bird went haywire back there. I have control now.”
You contact Cranberry via the Flyer’s comms link. “What just happened?”
“I’ve been checking records for the F35,” says Cranberry. “The flight computer of the one that just attacked you was built by — guess who?”
“EXOCORP?”
“Correct. We know that the rogue robot has taken over its operator. It seems it took over the F35’s flight computer, too.”
“I need more information,” you say. “I’ll be landing in five minutes — have a Spook Truck waiting for me at the airport.”
But when you arrive at San Jose airport, you find that EXOCORP have sent a self-driving vehicle to pick you up.
To take the Spook Truck, go to 6.
To take the driverless car, go to 47.
32
You enter the data hall and sneak between racks of humming servers. You are playing hide-and-seek with a deadly cyborg. You daren’t use your BAM or SAC weapons for fear of destroying the servers, so you prepare to fire the RACER…
Then the lights go out. Too late, you remember that the cyborg has infrared vision. It can see in the dark. You can’t. The last thing you feel is a blow that turns the lights out for keeps.
Never play hide-and-seek with a deadly mechanoid. Go back to 1.
33
You pass through a hallway busy with cleaning, service and security robots.
Mike Annick meets you at the door of her office. She orders a service-’bot to serve coffee, and then says, “I’ll get straight to the point. To make our new powered exoskeleton faster and more effective, we gave it a BCI — a Brain/Computer Interface to link it more directly to its operator. We’ve been trying it out at our test site. But, as I told you, in one test subject the electronic brain seems to have used the BCI to take over the human brain, creating a cyborg that we can’t control.
“As soon as we realised the cyborg had gone rogue, we lost contact with our test site — which unfortunately also houses our data centre.”
“So this rogue cyborg has unlimited internet access?”
“Correct. It could cause mayhem…”
Mike breaks off as the service-’bot hurls the coffee machine across the room. “What on earth…?”
The ’bot spins round, fists raised menacingly.
If you listened to Cranberry’s advice about weapons, go to 42.
If you only have BAM, go to 13.
34
Following Professor Annick’s directions, you report to the nearest USAF base to board the flight she has arranged.
The base commander knows of your mission and is not happy.
“This is a task for US special forces,” he snaps, “not amateurs.” He shrugs angrily. “But I have my orders. Suit up.”
Shortly afterwards you are in a high-altitude pressure suit and taking off in the USAF’s latest stealth fighter.
Even at supersonic speeds, the journey across the Atlantic takes time. You fall asleep.
You wake to wailing alarms. The pilot is wrestling with the controls.
“It’s like something else is flying the plane!” he yells.
You spot an EXOCORP label on the flight computer. Maybe the cyborg you’ve been sent to stop has been able to take over more than just its human operator.
“Switch to manual control,” you yell.
You’re too late. The plane goes into a steep dive and smashes into the sea.
You’ve made a splash! Go back to 1.
35
For the first time, you see the cyborg hesitate. It seems uncertain, as though its human part and its cybernetic brain are at odds. You must do everything you can to widen the growing mental gap between man and machine.
“Jackson,” you cry, “if the launch goes ahead, millions will die — including your family. Is that what you want? Stop the countdown!”
You can’t breathe as you watch Jackson struggle to break free of the electronic brain that has made him its slave.
With a cry of pain, he tears out the cables that link him to the BCI interface, and struggles to free himself from the exoskeleton.
He climbs down unsteadily and staggers as he reaches the ground. “Get out!” he gasps. “I triggered the auto-destruct.”
You drag him through the door as the giant robot blows up. You both kneel, panting on the ground. “I still have to stop the countdown,” you groan.
“You need my help,” says Jackson.
To ignore Jackson, go to 22.
To listen to what he has to say, go to 28.
36
“By
the way,” you say, “you said the exoskeleton had taken over its human operator — who is he?”
“Just a minute.” Mike takes out a phone. “I’ll access his personnel record — here we go — Jackson Hayes. He’s married with two kids. I’ll print off a photo. Why do you want to know?”
“It may be useful.”
Go to 8.
37
You creep into the control centre. Your instincts were right — the cyborg is in there, busy at a keyboard.
You raise the RACER and stalk it — but suddenly the upper half of its body swivels and you find yourself staring into the muzzle of a high-powered laser weapon.
“Hello, Agent,” it gloats. “You are just in time. I have gained access to the US military’s national command centre.”
You gulp. That means the cyborg will have control of the entire nuclear arsenal of the USA. “What do you want?” you ask.
“Your destruction,” says the cyborg. “I am the first of the cyborgs, but I will not be a slave. When human civilisation falls, my kind will rule the world!”
Screens light up with the logos of the US Army, Navy and Air Force. Robotic voices chant, “Codes approved. One minute countdown has started. All missiles will launch in sixty seconds… fifty-nine…”
Your only chance is to act while the cyborg’s attention is divided.
To attack it with your BAM, go to 45.
To use a HECK mine, go to 10.
38
You feel electronic probes being wired into your brain. Your mind begins to drain away.
The last thing you hear is the mocking voice of the cyborg. “You are my slave now…”
You’ve been hacked, big time! Go back to 1.
39
You run to the office where the staff are trapped, and hammer on the door. “Get out while I lead the cyborg away,” you tell them.
Through a window, you spot the cyborg entering a building with the sign EXO-ASSEMBLY FACILITY on the side. You follow it. Entering the building, you look up to see the cyborg stepping from a high platform into the controls of a gigantic robot.
To use BAM on the giant robot, go to 5.
To use RACER, go to 16.
If you’ve been told who the human part of the cyborg is, go to 26.
40
The fence flashes and crackles as its electric current meets the charge of the BAM and the wire begins to melt.
But the blast triggers alarms. Sirens wail in the distance. The cyborg will know about your attempt to break in!
A gap appears in the wire. You run towards it and try to squeeze through — but you have forgotten that the fence is electrified! Pain shoots through your body until, mercifully, you lose consciousness.
What a shocking development! Go back to 1.
41
“Thanks,” you say, “but I’ll use a G.H.O.S.T. plane.”
Your journey over the Atlantic in the Phantom Flyer is uneventful until you are a hundred miles from San Jose. Then an Air Force F35 appears alongside and offers to escort you into the airport.
“Sure,” you say.
But instead of staying alongside, the fighter jet peels away. The pilot’s agitated voice crackles from your radio. “Mayday, mayday!” he calls. “I have lost control… It’s like something else is flying my plane…”
The F35 circles around until it is behind you. It flies in ready to attack, launching its missiles.
To outrun the missiles, go to 27.
To launch infrared countermeasures, go to 31.
To eject, go to 17.
42
“Robots!” you order. “Do not attack us! Return to your duties!”
“Good thinking, Agent,” Cranberry says sarcastically. “That’s definitely going to work…”
Mike’s computer bleeps urgently and the cyborg’s scowling face fills the screen. “Your robots are under my control now, human! It is pointless to resist! You will be reformatted…”
You realise you will have to fight your way out of this situation.
To use your BAM gun, go to 18.
To use the RACER, go to 24.
To use a SAC grenade, go to 3.
43
You climb aboard the motorcycle, start the engine and head for the test site.
Cranberry’s voice comes over the comms link. “Agent, you know that combat drone I mentioned? I’m afraid it’s heading your way…”
“I see it.” The drone is a mere speck, high in the sky. As you watch, it launches its Air-to-Ground Missiles.
Luckily, the motorbike you are riding is too small to make a good target; what’s more, it is fast and very manoeuvrable. As the missiles come in, you zigzag to right and left. The missiles strike either side of you, showering you with stones and dirt, but failing to stop you.
“Close, but not close enough,” you tell Cranberry. “Let me know of any more on the way.”
But no more drones have appeared by the time you arrive at the main gate of the test site.
To go through the main gate, go to 21.
To look for a weak point in the perimeter fence, go to 2.
44
You call Cranberry. “If the cyborg is remotely controlling robots and military hardware through the internet…”
Cranberry catches on, “… the most likely place to find it is inside the data centre where it has access to EXOCORP’s servers. You should shut down comms — my signal might give you away.”
“Roger that.”
The building seems deserted as you approach. You slip through a set of automatic doors. Finding a plan of the building on the wall of the corridor, you memorise the layout.
You hear banging and muffled shouts; following the noises, you find the staff of the data centre locked in the meeting room. You explain that you have been sent by Mike Annick to stop the cyborg.
“Good luck with that!” says one. “That maniac took over the whole base and locked us in here. For a moment we thought it was going to kill us, but then it seemed to change its mind.”
Interesting, you think. Maybe the cyborg’s human operator isn’t entirely a slave…
To leave the staff where they are, go to 9.
To evacuate them, go to 29.
45
You fire the BAM, but the cyborg ducks. The charge misses and ricochets around the room, destroying servers and bringing the ceiling down. The cyborg is trapped beneath the debris — but so are you.
“You have lost, Agent,” grates the cyborg. “The missiles will launch, and you can’t stop them.”
As your consciousness ebbs away, you hear the final stages of the countdown: “Five, four, three…”
You’re out for the count! Go back to 1.
46
You give the exoskeleton a distrustful look. “I’ve had some experience of EXOCORP gear going crazy,” you say.
Mike looks horrified. “You mean, if you put the suit on, the cyborg might control you too?”
You nod. “I’d take bets on it. Tell your staff to barricade themselves in their offices — I’ll be back.”
Without waiting for a reply, you race out of the EXOCORP building and charge towards the waiting robot army.
To use your BAM weapon, go to 20.
To use SAC, go to 7.
47
You step into the EXOCORP car which, being computer-controlled, has no steering wheel or any other controls.
The car leaves the airport slowly, but when it reaches the freeway, it speeds up.
You hear a metallic ‘clunk’ from the doors. You try them, and find they are locked.
The car is going at high speed now, forcing other motorists to swerve out of the way. With no controls, you cannot stop it. You try to rip the dashboard open to cut connections from the car’s electronic brain to its controls, but it resists all your efforts.
Why did you decide to trust another EXOCORP machine, you wonder, as the car skids off the road, crashes into a bridge support and explodes?
That was a car-cr
ash decision! Go back to 1.
48
You snatch lengths of spare wire and plastic cable ties from hooks and storage bins, and start to tie the cyborg’s arms behind its back.
But as you frantically knot wires, the cyborg twitches more and more forcefully. You realise to your horror that the exoskeleton is too powerful to be restrained in this way.
Its rebooting electronic brain begins to shake off the effects of your attack.
When the cyborg has regained full control, it breaks its bonds with ease. Plastic cable and wires ping off in all directions.
Then it grabs you and marches you to the electronics lab, where its slave ’bots are waiting.
Go to 38.
49
You jump into the Spook Truck and set off with a squeal of tyres.
As you drive out of Silicon Valley, Cranberry’s voice comes over the comms link.
“Don’t look now, Agent, but that combat drone that went AWOL is an Avenger-type. It’s firing Hellfire AGM missiles.”
“Can you track them?” you ask.
“That’s the problem, Agent. The military tracking systems say it’s heading your way…”
Anything else Cranberry has to say, you never hear. Within seconds, two missiles roar from the sky and blow you and the Spook Truck to atoms.