Robot Read online

  CONTENTS

  Mission Statement

  Introduction

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  EQUIPMENT

  Monster Hunter

  About the 2Steves

  About the illustrator: Paul Davidson

  Copyright

  If you liked this, you’ll love…

  Also by the 2Steves...

  Mission Statement

  You are the hero of this mission.

  Each section of this book is numbered. At the end of most sections, you will have to make a choice. The choice you make will take you to a different section of the book.

  Some of your choices will help you to complete the adventure successfully. But if you make the wrong choice, death may be the best you can hope for! Because even dying is better than being UNDEAD and becoming a slave of the monsters you have sworn to destroy!

  Dare you go up against a world of monsters?

  All right, then.

  Let’s see what you’ve got…

  Introduction

  You are an agent of G.H.O.S.T. — Global Headquarters Opposing Supernatural Threats.

  Our world is under constant attack from supernatural horrors that lurk in the shadows. It’s your job to make sure they stay there.

  You have studied all kinds of monsters, and know their habits and behaviour. You are an expert in disguise, able to move among monsters in human form as a spy. You are expert in all forms of martial arts. G.H.O.S.T. has supplied you with weapons, equipment and other assets that make you capable of destroying any supernatural creature.

  You are based at Arcane Hall, a spooky and secret-laden mansion. Your butler, Cranberry, is another G.H.O.S.T. agent who assists you in all your adventures, providing you with information and backup.

  Your life at Arcane Hall is comfortable and peaceful; but you know that at any moment, the G.H.O.S.T. High Command can order you into action in any part of the world…

  Go to 1.

  1

  You are in Arcane Manor reading Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. As Cranberry comes in, you drop the book on the floor.

  “Aren’t you enjoying the story, Agent?” asks Cranberry.

  “It’s nonsense,” you complain. “A scientist creates an intelligent creature that turns on him — it couldn’t happen.”

  “Hmmm.” Cranberry hands you a mobile phone. “There’s a video call for you from EXOCORP — a cybernetics company based in Silicon Valley, California, USA.”

  A young woman peers out of the phone screen. She looks very worried.

  “I’m Project Director Annick of EXOCORP,” she says. “We have a problem with a computer interface on one of our human/robot hybrids…”

  If you don’t think you can help, go to 12.

  To ask for more detail, go to 23.

  2

  Warning signs tell you that the perimeter fence is electrified and alarmed. You ride along it until you spot a point where loose rocks are insecurely balanced on a steep hillside overlooking the fence…

  You set your BAM weapon to its lowest setting.

  To fire at the rocks, go to 11.

  To fire at the fence, go to 40.

  3

  The electronic SAC grenade detonates with a flash. You feel nothing more than a faint vibration, but the robots immediately grind to a halt, sparking and smoking from every joint.

  “That was close,” says Mike. “Thanks.”

  You look out the window. “Don’t thank me yet. Look out there.”

  Mike joins you at the window. “Oh boy.”

  The EXOCORP building is surrounded by a ’bot army. The cyborg must have ordered every robot on the site to attack.

  “They’re too far away to blast with a SAC,” you say. “I don’t have enough grenades to deal with them all. But I have to get to your test site if I’m going to deal with the cyborg.”

  “Come with me.” Mike leads you to a lab where a brand-new powered exoskeleton is standing, waiting for an operator.

  “If you wear that,” says Mike, “there’s not a ’bot inside or outside this building you couldn’t handle.”

  To refuse to wear the suit, go to 46.

  To put on the suit, go to 30.

  4

  You find an unlocked door and sneak into the hangar.

  The interior is dark, but you find a bank of light switches and turn them on. The harsh overhead lights reveal the hangar to be full of powered exoskeletons, ’bots and cybernetically controlled machines. With their infrared vision, they don’t need light — and they already have you surrounded. In a split second, you are their helpless captive.

  Go to 38.

  5

  You raise your BAM and fire.

  But your shots are ineffective. The giant cyborg is too big, its armour too strong.

  The cyborg pounds towards you at unbelievable speed. Before you can dodge, it raises one enormous foot…

  You’re about to be squashed like a bug. Go back to 1.

  6

  “I’ll take the Spook Truck,” you tell Cranberry. “I’m getting nervous about EXOCORP products.”

  You drive to the EXOCORP offices.

  “You’ll need weapons.” Cranberry’s voice, buzzing in your earpiece, is really annoying. “Take Blasts All Monsters. It’s good in most situations.”

  “I know that,” you say, rolling your eyes.

  Cranberry drones on, “And I suggest you…”

  To ignore Cranberry’s advice and head inside, go to 33.

  To listen to what he has to say, go to 15.

  7

  As the robots close in, you take out the nearest ones with a blast from a SAC grenade.

  But the cyborg seems to have an unlimited number of mindless ’bot slaves at its command. Every time you take the nearest ones out, more rush in to take their place. Eventually, you run out of grenades, and the surviving ’bots hold you helpless in their mechanical grasp.

  Go to 38.

  8

  You reload your BAM gun and pick up more batteries and cartridges for the RACER and SAC.

  “The cyborg will be a tougher opponent than the ’bots,” says Cranberry. “You’d best take a few HECKs as well.”

  The High Energy Cyborg Killer is a mine designed to cling to a cyborg and fire a burst of energy into its electronic brain.

  “Right.” You finish rearming. Now you need to decide how you’re going to get to the test site.

  The Spook Truck is ready to go. A powerful Harley Davidson motorcycle is pa
rked in the next bay, and a Bell 206 helicopter is standing on a pad nearby.

  To use the Spook Truck, go to 49.

  To use the motorcycle, go to 43.

  To use the helicopter, go to 25.

  9

  “Have you come to get us out?” someone asks.

  “Sorry,” you say, “you’re safer in here while I deal with the cyborg. Barricade yourselves in.” You slip out of the room and immediately hear the sound of furniture being dragged to block the doors.

  You have to find the cyborg — but where will it be?

  To check the data hall, go to 32.

  To look in the electronics lab, go to 19.

  To head for the network control centre, go to 37.

  10

  You slap a HECK mine on the cyborg’s back plate. The mine’s electronic pulse detonates with a flash, scrambling the cyborg’s cyber-brain and bringing it to a sudden halt.

  You think you have won, but then the cyborg looks up with a grin. “Nice try, Agent, but I have TWO brains. The human brain has just initiated a self-repair of my circuits.”

  You have only seconds to act.

  To try to escape, go to 39.

  To use your BAM weapon, go to 45.

  To tie the cyborg up, go to 48.

  11

  The blast from the BAM disturbs the rocks. They roll down the hillside and slam into the fence, demolishing several metres of it. The electric power shorts with a flash and sizzle.

  By the time recon-drones arrive at the scene, you are inside the fence and well-hidden. You hope the drones will report the break in the fence as an accident.

  As soon as they buzz away, you head for the buildings at the centre of the site. You call up a plan on your visor screen.

  The large building in front of you is a hangar where testing is carried out. The building to your right is the data centre housing internet servers.

  To investigate the data centre, go to 44.

  To make for the hangar, go to 4.

  12

  “I’m a monster hunter,” you say, “not a computer repair expert. Have you tried turning it off and on again?”

  Project Director Annick is furious. “I said it was a mistake to call G.H.O.S.T.,” she snaps. “Forget I asked — we’ll try another agency.” She ends the call.

  Five minutes later, the Director General of G.H.O.S.T. is on the line. “EXOCORP is a big player in the development of human-controlled robots,” she rages. “They’re upset. I’m angry and you’re…”

  “…feeling sorry!” you say quickly.

  “I was going to say, ‘Fired!’” snaps the DG. “You get one more chance. I’m sending EXOCORP’s call to your number — listen to them this time!”

  Moments later, EXOCORP is back on the line.

  Go to 23.

  13

  More robots appear: security-’bots with electro-truncheons; service-’bots armed with screwdrivers and spanners; cleaner-’bots with floor polishers and dusters. They’re all clearly intent on rubbing you out.

  “Do not resist!” they chant in their emotionless, metallic voices. “You will be reformatted…”

  “What’s happening?” snaps Mike.

  “At a guess,” you say, “the cyborg is using the internet and bluetooth to control all your ’bots.”

  The computer monitor screen on Mike’s desk switches from a screen saver of the EXOCORP logo to the gloating features of a half-human cyborg. “Good guess, Agent,” he sneers. “But too late to do you any good…”

  The ’bots reach out towards you.

  Go to 18.

  14

  “We have your family, Jackson,” you lie. “Stop the countdown if you want to save them!”

  Jackson scowls and drops your helmet. Uh-oh, you think.

  That’s the last thought you have before the robot raises its laser cannons and blows you to pieces.

  You don’t threaten a gigantic killing machine! Go back to 1.

  15

  Cranberry may be irritating, but he’s also an expert on G.H.O.S.T. weapons. “Go on,” you say.

  “You’ll also need a RACER — a Robot And Cyborg Electronic Restraint.”

  “That’s a one-shot weapon, right?”

  “It only works on one robot at a time, and it’s slow to reload,” agrees Cranberry. “So, take SAC grenades as well. SAC is short for Scrambles All Cyborgs. It’s an electronic pulse weapon. One grenade will fry the electronic brain of any robot or cyborg within a range of twenty metres.”

  “Right.”

  You lock the truck and head into EXOCORP.

  Go to 33.

  16

  You fire your RACER at the huge robot.

  The only response is a gigantic giggle. “That tickles.”

  Before you can rethink your strategy, the cyborg raises a massive laser cannon and blows you to atoms.

  It’s been a blast! Go back to 1.

  17

  You eject a split second before the missiles destroy the Flyer. As the parachute opens above you, you sigh with relief…

  But to your horror, you see the F35 coming round again. It still has its guns and, dangling in mid-air, you are helpless.

  Aw, shucks! You’re a sitting duck! Go back to 1.

  18

  You quickly adjust the BAM to its highest settings and fire!

  The resulting blast destroys the robots. But in the confined space of the office, it also blows you and Mike Annick off your feet, wrecks the furniture and buckles the walls. With an almighty crash, the ceiling falls in, burying you alive.

  Don’t make a boom in a little room! Go back to 1.

  19

  The electronics lab contains workbenches, racks of spare parts, several broken-down ’bots and an exoskeleton. Hearing a noise outside, you turn to see the door lock melt. The cyborg has trapped you in here.

  You hear a mechanical creaking from behind you, and turn quickly. The exoskeleton you thought was inactive is coming to life. It grabs you before you can react. The other ’bots wheeze into life and hold you prisoner.

  Go to 38.

  20

  You fire in all directions. Robots fall to right and left, blown apart by the powerful weapon.

  As soon as the last of the ’bots is a pile of smoking scrap, you go back into the EXOCORP building, meeting Mike in the hallway.

  “Call the military,” you say. “Tell them to deactivate anything with EXOCORP technology that might be taken over by the cyborg. I need to get to the data centre and finish this off.”

  Cranberry’s voice interrupts you. “Agent, the US military reports an unauthorised launch of a combat drone…”

  “I’d better get going,” you tell Mike. “The cyborg will get me if I don’t get it first.”

  To go to the Spook Truck to rearm, go to 8.

  To ask Mike about the human operator of the cyborg, go to 36.

  21

  The main gate is closed, but following a blast from your BAM gun, this is no longer a problem.

  However, as you ride through the tangled remains of the gate, remote-controlled weapons stations pop up from hidden bunkers either side of the road. They swivel towards you with deadly accuracy. Powerful machine guns open fire. You have no time to dodge.

  That’ll teach you to knock! Go back to 1.

  22

  You shake your head. You can’t wait for Jackson to recover.

  Reaching the network control room, you turn the ABORT switch and use your BAM to blast every computer in sight. But without the launch codes, you can’t stop the countdown.

  “Three… two… one… zero.”

  The ground trembles. Missile trails climb into the sky. You have unleashed Armageddon.

  That went well — NOT! Go back to 1.

  23

  “What’s the problem,” you ask, “and how can I help?”

  The woman takes a deep breath. “I’m Michaela Annick… ‘Mike’ for short. I’m a robotics engineer and head of a project to develop and tes
t advanced powered exoskeletons for the US military.”

  You are confused. “Powered exoskeletons?”

  “Machines that support the human body and make it faster, stronger — better.”

  “So you make robots?”

  “Cyborgs, to be more accurate — a mixture of human and robot. Our exoskeletons have robotic brains and one seems to have taken control from its human operator. It’s gone on the rampage. If you help us, the US Air Force will fly you here.”

  To accept Mike Annick’s offer, go to 34.

  To say you’d rather go by the Phantom Flyer, go to 41.

  24

  The electronic zap of the RACER takes out a powerful security-’bot. While sparks and smoke pour out of its artificial ears, you make a frenzied attempt to change the discharged cartridge for a fresh one.

  But you should have remembered that the RACER is strictly a one-shot weapon. As you fumble to reload, the other ’bots close in. You are overwhelmed.

  No ‘ifs’ or ‘bots’ — go back to 1.

  25

  The helicopter is ready to go. You strap yourself into the pilot’s seat and take off, heading for the EXOCORP test site.