FALCON 1: THE RENEGADE LORD
FALCON 3: THE RACK OF BAAL
FALCON 4: LOST IN TIME
MARK SMITH AND JAMIE THOMSON
SPHERE BOOKS LIMITED London and Sydney
First published in Great Britain by
Sphere Books Ltd 1985
30-32 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1X 8JL
Copyright © 1985 by Mark Smith and Jamie Thomson
Illustrations by Geoff Senior and Nic Weeks
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
Set in Andover
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Collins, Glasgow
A third of the land's surface is populated with cities which stretch miles up towards the Ionosphere and are also tunnelled deep into the Earth's crust.
The world is united - war within the atmosphere of a single planet can only lead to total destruction. Government is carried out by Executives, each having full powers within a certain area. The Food, Health, Pleasure and Enforcement Executives are centred in Alpolis, a city covering what was once an independent country - Switzerland - and it is here that the most recent Executive, TIME, exists.
People live for fun, not to work. Most tasks are performed by robots, so life is quite easy. Only 10% of the population still works, and then only for fun or out of a sense of social duty. Food is plentiful, the main source being a fungus grown in huge vats under artificial light. Luxury foods, such as meat, are a rarity. Communications have improved so as to transform society: holophones connect all homes across the Space Federation so it is possible to be in direct contact with many alien species light years across space. Travel on Earth is done by hovrail, jetcopter or stratocruiser, so that the longest journey need take no more than an hour.
The average Earther lives for two hundred and fifty years and the ageing process only begins during the last fifty years of life. Life-prolonging drugs, called Anagathics, are freely available, and transplant surgery is now a simple operation. Unfortunately, because people live longer, there are many problems. There is overcrowding and very little to do which has resulted in a rapid increase in violent crime. With so many people needing new hearts, lungs and other organs there is a shortage of spare parts for use in transplant surgery and the Enforcement Executive has passed a Termination Code. All violent crimes are punishable by painless death. The Enforcement Executive has had sensors set up to catch criminals, especially Bodybrokers who deal illegally in organs for surgery. If Energy Weapons are used by criminals, for instance, a police jetcopter will be there in seconds.
Earth, using Hyperdrive, faster-than-light travel, has established itself as head of the Space Federation, which includes all the earth colonies and alien planets. The Navy patrols the colonies: Lastlanding, Proxima Centauri, Ascension and so on, as well as the alien worlds: Kelados, Sundew, Dyskra, Clyss, Rigel Prime, the Hive and others. Contact with alien life forms is commonplace and the colony ships of the twenty-fourth century are still approaching the centre of the galaxy.
Travel through time involves crossing a fourth dimension, 'Null-space' or the 'Void' as it is known. This dimension joins all points in time and Space from the beginning of the universe to its end. Imagine time as a cable. Earth's Timeline (or past, present and future) is a single strand of this cable stretching from Earth's beginning to the end of time. The Timelines of other planets run alongside this and weave around each other, because events on one planet affect things on another. These strands, or Timelines, are insulated from the fourth dimension in the same way that an electrical wire is insulated. At certain points there are holes in the insulation allowing travel from one point on the wire through this hole to a different point on this or another wire. In this way a Time Machine may move from one 'Timehole' to another and from one point in space to another via Null-space.
The Timeholes are formed when the fabric of time is damaged by unknown forces. They can be larger, but are usually less than five miles across. Timeholes come and go as new damage occurs and older Timeholes close up naturally. The Monitoring Section is responsible for keeping the map of current Timeholes. Your up-to-date map is opposite. At least one hole has been there for a long time - the Eiger Vault, near the TIME Building in the Alps. It is thought to be a permanent Timehole and your Time Machine, Falcon's Wing, is kept there along with those of the Lords of TIME and other Agents. Some Timeholes are safer than others and it is possible to go back in time only to find that the hole through which you travelled has closed up, trapping the unfortunate traveller in the past. Time passes at the same rate in all Timeholes as on Earth. If you begin a journey to a Timehole ten minutes after somebody else does you will arrive ten minutes later than them. Only those with Psychic Awareness can navigate across Null-space.
In certain paragraphs you will have the chance to attack an enemy. When you choose to do so, you will be asked to make an Attack Roll. To do this, roll two dice and add the numbers together. You will be told which paragraph to turn to next, depending on your score. In all combats you are more likely to succeed if your score is high than if it is low.
Whenever you make an Attack Roll you must add or subtract your Attack Modifier to the dice score. Your Attack Modifier may change as the adventure unfolds and you should keep a note of this on your Agent Profile (at the beginning of the adventure). To begin with your Attack Modifier is zero.
In certain cases you may need to avoid the attack of an enemy or escape from a difficult situation. You will be asked to make an Evasion Roll, to which you must add or subtract your Evasion Modifier. This works in the same way as the Attack Roll and Attack Modifier as described above. Your initial Evasion Modifier is also zero.
There are moments in any agent's career when pure luck will play its part. On such occasions you will be asked to make a Chance Roll. Roll one die. You will then be instructed to turn to a new paragraph.
Some paragraphs will offer you the chance to make a mental attack, either a Thinkstrike or Power of Will. Make an Attack Roll, just as if you were attacking normally, but add or subtract your Thinkstrike or Power of Will Modifier, not your Attack Modifier. In all other ways mental attacks work in the same way as a physical attack. To begin with your Thinkstrike and Power of Will Modifiers are zero, as noted on your Agent Profile.
Your Psychic Awareness operates at all times and you will be told when you have discovered anything of interest.
You, Falcon, start the adventure with 20 points of Endurance. If you are wounded in combat, suffer something unpleasant such as an acid atmosphere without a space suit, or become exhausted, you will lose Endurance points. A running total of your Endurance should be kept on your Agent Profile. If at any time you fall to zero Endurance or less you are dead and your adventure is over. Endurance points can be regained by visiting the Autodoc in your Time Machine (see equipment list) and you will be told when you can use your Autodoc.
You will notice as you use this book that certain paragraph numbers are followed by a letter in brackets. If you wish to score your performance as Special Agent Falcon, you will need to make a list of the letters following these numbers on the box provided on your Agent Profile every time you come to one of these paragraphs. If you should be killed or fail in your adventure, you should delete your current recorded letters except for all the Qs which must be kept and begin again. Each letter corresponds to a score, and you will be given a rating, depending on what the total of your score is. The letter scores may be found at the back of the third book of this series, The Rack of Baal. This is necessary, since printing the scores in this book would allow you to find out what the right decisions to take in this adventure are! The scores for Falcon 1: The Renegade Lord, may be found at the back of this book.
The action in Falcon 2: Mechanon, carries straight on from Falcon 1: The Renegade Lord. If you have played Falcon I, transfer the modifier scores from your Agent Profile in that book, to the Agent Profile in the beginning of this one. It is not essential to play Falcon 1 first, but information you may gain while playing it may help you to complete this mission successfully. If you have not played falcon 1 then all of your modifiers begin at zero.
During falcon Book 2, you may be issued with a Weeks/Senior Corporation Space Navy Strike Fighter and a standard issue battlesuit. These have 10 Defence points each. When you take damage in the Strike Fighter or battlesuit, you will be told to lose a certain number of points. Simply cross off the relevant amount in the box provided on your Agent Profile. The Strike Fighter also begins with four fission warhead guided missiles of enormous power. Each time you use one cross it off the relevant part of your Agent Profile.
STRIKE FIGHTER
STRIKE FIGHTER
STARSHIP TROOPER BATTLESUIT
Your own Time Machine, Falcon's Wing, is silver with bright scarlet markings and is the eleventh machine capable of travel through time ever built. Its cost cannot be computed, since it involves the use of certain materials and scientific skills which are priceless. The silver and scarlet hull will withstand enormous pressure, heat and exposure to harmful gases and liquids, as well as providing protection from radiation.
The six hydraulic legs which support the machine are extended when it materialises in a new Timehole, to provide stability on uneven ground. The Main Access is operated by invisible Tractor Beams (energy beams that can be used to grip and lift) that will draw the Time Traveller up into the cabin, to rest on the Access Disc. This disc is matter but is changed to air as you move through it by the Molecular Converter (see Item 4). The pressurised cabin is lined with instruments and gadgets. The crash couch is moulded to fit your shape and can be moved up to the command console or up into the Flyer (see Item 6).
The air inside the machine is kept pure by the life support unit and can be flushed out and replaced within ten seconds. The Main Access will work only when its Memory Scanner recognises your own brain patterns. Specially sensitive cameras and power floodlights are mounted on top of the Machine. The Variac Drive, which forces the Machine into Null-space, is housed beneath the deck and is controlled through your computer (CAIN, see Item 7).
TIME MACHINE
TIME MACHINE
Each Time Machine is equipped with a Hologram Generator - very important if the First Law of TIME is to be obeyed. The
Generator changes the appearance of the Machine by casting a hologram around it, so the computer can make the Machine look like a small wood, hayrick or grassy hill etc, which is very lifelike unless you are within two metres of the Machine itself. This stops people in history being curious at the sight of a highly technological machine.
Due to the existence of Hologram Generators you may find it difficult to see other Time Machines. As a member of the Time Police you have been given a Hologram-detector which is portable and operates to a range of fifty metres. This will reveal the presence of a hologram and therefore another Time Machine.
Each Time Machine is equipped with a Molecular Converter, a device which uses the rarest of all elements, Polybdenum, as its fuel. Small articles, placed in the Converter, are transformed into whatever the computer decides. In this way, Time Travellers have disguises which allow them to pass undetected amongst the intelligent beings of other times. CAIN, your computer, carries information about the Timeholes shown on your map, so that the blueprints required by the Converter to make the disguises accurate are usually available. Your Psionic
Helmet, for instance, can be turned into a legionary's helmet, while keeping its modern powers.
This is a couch-like device which has needles, a drip, a blood supply and surgical robo-arms. You may lie in the Autodoc during the time taken to travel from one Timehole to another, for instance, and come out healed, restoring your Endurance by up to twelve points. You will be told when you can use your Autodoc.
Your crash-couch swivels up onto the platform of your flyer when you wish to use it. The flyer is a small hover raft which is catapulted out of the Time Machine through the Launch Doors, two sections on top of the hull that slide apart. Once safely away from the Machine the Ion Drive can be cut in, giving the flyer a top speed many times the speed of sound (Mach 6). It can hover which allows you to use it as an observation platform, but it is too small to carry a Hologram Generator and should only be
used when strictly necessary. Fortunately, its Ion Drive is almost soundless. You are also issued with a Homing Beacon, which, when activated, will make the flyer move to its location as quickly as possible. The flyer is then piloted by its micro computer. The Beacon is magnetic, and about the size of a die.
FLYER
CAIN is one of the most advanced computers known to man. Its data banks offer information on all subjects and historical data on all Federation and alien planets. Its memory banks are continuously updated with information concerning the Time- holes and it is able to link with the massive memory banks of the TIME Service Computer at the Eiger Vault. A Holophone,
through which you can contact any other Holophone in the Federation, is built into CAIN and you also have access to most of the files kept by TIME. CAIN answers your spoken commands and runs the Time Machine for you. It can give information visually, via the terminal screen, or verbally, using its melodic chimes.
This is your Standard Starship Trooper issue Plasma Pistol. It fires superheated plasma to a range of 100 metres, and the Energy Pack is sufficient for ten minutes continuous use. You have more Energy Packs in your weapons locker. Your blaster is labelled. For use in exceptional circumstances only'.
BLASTER
This helmet helps your Powers of the Mind by damping all other thoughts. It senses when you want to use your power and activates automatically.
PSIONIC ENHANCER
A light, pressurised suit for use in vacuum, inhospitable atmospheres and extreme ranges of temperature and which monitors your life signals such as pulse and temperature. It is compatible with your Psionic Enhancer.
ENVIRONMENT SUIT
Special Agent (TIME)
Codename: Falcon
For three years you have studied at the Academy as a cadet attached to TIME: the Temporal, Investigative and Monitoring Executive, and you have passed the difficult training programme with flying colours. You have been selected from the Academy to be a Special Agent because of your unusual talents having been born with Powers of the Mind: you can sense things that others can't and even influence their actions through thought alone. These powers have been strengthened and focussed during your training and you have been issued with a Psionic Enhancer, a helmet which increases these mental powers. You have been taught to attack the minds of others with a blast of mental energy you call Thinkstrike. Your Power of Will allows you to control the minds of those weaker than you, and your Psychic Awareness allows you to sense things that others cannot, including the presence of another with such mental powers. This Psychic Awareness also lets you navigate your Time Machine through time and space. Few have such powers and even fewer are trusted with one of the small number of Time Machines in existence.
You are expert in survival techniques including armed and unarmed combat. History and detective powers of deduction have also been major subjects of study. You are now an Agent in the Time Police, whose job is to guard the Timelines of the past and to ensure that no-one tampers with past events in any way that would change things as they are now.
TIME, the Temporal Investigative and Monitoring Executive, was set up in Alpolis forty years ago shortly after Time Travel was discovered. The realisation that anyone with access to Time travel could change the past so that the entire human race might cease to exist was worrying, so Time Machines were built for the Time Police in their crystal domed TIME headquarters, in order to stop this. TIME is headed by five Lords, representing the most powerful groups in the Space Federation. Each of these have Powers of the Mind, and their own Time Machine.
The Executive is divided into four sections: Administrative, Research, Monitoring and the Special Agent Section (or SAS). the Monitoring Section, headed by Section Chief Jobanque, is responsible for noting any disturbances in the past, or timelines, of the planets in the Federation. The Research Section, headed by Section Chief Skirrow, is responsible for all equipment used by Special Agents and is also examining the possibilities of travel into the future, as yet impossible. Your own Special Agent Section is headed by Section Chief Agidy Yelov, a Siriun humanoid from the Federation member planet, - Sirius Secundus. Agidy Yelov and others have told you the importance of the First Law of TIME when on active service: 'A TIME Agent must, in all cases, act naturally according to the time in which he is currently operating, thus minimising any disruption of the Timelines his or her presence might be causing'. As Yelov once said to you: There's no point in coming back to 3033 if you have left an atomic hand gun near Hitler's bunker, because this would change the present - in fact, you'd probably find you had never existed!'. As with all Special Agents, your bloodline has been traced back, in your case to the French Revolution in 1789 AD. Should any one of your ancestors fail to produce the next in line it would be as if you had never existed.
The rules are very simple - you could almost play this book without reading them at all. But reading the Personal Background and, of course, the Mission Brief will help you to understand what is happening as you begin the adventure. If you come across something you don't understand, don't worry, check the Equipment List and this may give you a clue. If not, carry on anyway, it will probably come clear later.
Good luck, and remember, the fate of the Space Federation rests in your hands.
[A Subsidiary of Intelfax Corp] 3rd Solstice Edition, 3033 AD Section: History
Subject: THE RENEGADE LORD
SPECIAL AGENT FALCON SAVES THE FEDERATION
Twelve days ago, Agidy Yelov, once head of the Special Agent Section of the TIME Executive was made the subject of a Termination Order by the Enforcers.
His crime - aiding the Hiver beings in a bid to seize control of Earth and the Space Federation.
Special Agent Falcon, formerly under the command of Yelov, was responsible for foiling a complex plot to change the course of history using Time Travel. The Keladi Lord of TIME was assassinated and the Hiver Lord of TIME attempted to slow the development of civilisation on Earth by allowing the Mongol horde to overrun Europe in the 13th century. When Falcon thwarted this, he moved through time to change history in Napoleonic times at the battle of Borodino.
Falcon preserved history unchanged, even though Yelov had ordered two other agents of TIME, Bloodhound and Lynx, to kill their colleague.
This courageous and resourceful agent at last cornered the Renegade Lord on planet Hel where a meeting with Yelov had been planned. Falcon destroyed the Hiver Lord and brought Yelov to justice.
Agidy Yelov, a Siriun, has pleaded 'Uncontrolled Actions' saying that the Hiver Lord of TIME had used its Powers of the Mind to force him to do its bidding. Yelov is under stay of execution until further information is received from the Hive, homeworld of the dead Renegade Lord.
There remain only three Lords of TIME, heading the TIME Executive and of these, the Earther, Lord Speke, has been disgraced. Pilota, the Lastlander solar racer, and Lord Silver- mane of Rigel Prime are presently in command. New appointments are expected soon. Jobanque of the Monitoring Section has replaced Yelov as head of the Special Agent Section. Special Agent Falcon has been awarded the Golden Wings, the highest honour the Space Federation can give. We all owe our lives to Falcon.
Complete Datadump in our next update.
As you walk into the recreation centre, under its glasteel dome at the top of the TIME Building, you hear the deep booming voice of Special Agent Bloodhound. You nod to some operatives from the monitoring section and, passing the empty dream booths, head towards the voice.
Unusually, all except one of the SAT team, the Special Agents of TIME, are off duty together. A celebration day has been given in honour of the success of your mission against the renegade Lord. The agents are involved in a historical simulation of diplomatic intrigue; occasionally one or other of them types on the micro-terminal you all carry in place of a watch, and they examine a hovering globe screen to see the results of each move. Bloodhound looks up and says, 'Here's glory hunter, on-line Falcon! Won any more medals since yesterday?'
Lynx smiles sardonically, 'Don't let the fact that Falcon won the Golden Wings straight out of the Academy ruffle your calm, Blood.'
'Oh well, at least I wasn't Yelov's golden girl,' he replies. Agidy Yelov trained Lynx himself and she is more deadly at unarmed combat than any of you, but she laughs at Bloodhound's jibe.
Agent Sparrowhawk says quietly, 'No-one has proven that Agidy was a traitor yet.' Like Yelov, she is a Siriun, and an electronics genius. Her feline features quiver momentarily as she turns on her heel and glides, cat-like, towards a dream booth.
'It's bad for morale, losing a boss like this,' says Lynx.
Sparrowhawk looks back and says, 'Don't you think it is worse for Agidy? They had to rebuild half of him, he's as much a droid as a man.'
The other agent at the table, Leopard, who himself is no more than a living brain in a robot body butts in, The advantage is all his, Sparrow,' but she is gone, locked in a dream booth.
You are about to greet your fellow agents at last when the globe screen flashes and your new section leader, Jobanque, seems to become flesh and blood before you. 'On-line, SAT Squad. Falcon, I need to see you right away. The rest I'll see straight afterwards. Where is Sparrowhawk?' You leave Lynx to explain as you run towards the pedway which will take you to your new leader.
The door to Jobanque's office slides open at your touch - the building's service computer recognises your handprint. Jobanque is standing before the holo-projector. He smiles and says, 'Well, I would apologise for asking you here on a Federation holiday but, in a way, it's your fault. I need you. I have a mission for you, Falcon. It may be every bit as perilous as your last.' You nod, then stare as a hologram of Yelov fills the room. The left side of his face is hidden by a silver mask and his left arm is that of a robot. Jobanque says gravely, 'When your blaster seared him he was damaged so badly that the medtechs had to use bionic parts to replace those you had destroyed. He is now half man, half robot. Now this thing (he is quite mad) has escaped from the Vault. Obviously, there can be no question that Yelov's claim that he was controlled by the Hivers is a lie.'
Jobanque's dark unmoving face stares at you. Until recently he had been Yelov's colleague, now you could almost believe he had hated him. 'There was a fault in the Psionic Damper which was grafted into his circuitry. He still has his formidable Powers of the Mind and he has used them to steal his old Time Machine. He has sworn vengeance on all Earthers, and on you, Falcon, in particular. There is no telling what damage he will do, his lust for absolute power is as great as ever. Agent Chameleon, returning from a routine patrol with a readout from the Timehole Monitoring Beacons on the current Timeholes, has reported a disturbance in the timeline of Mechanon, an enormous factory planet run entirely by droids, programmed only to mine metals, build copies of themselves and construct the most deadly arsenal of interstellar weaponry the universe had ever seen, until a terrible nuclear catastrophe reduced the planet to a tangled ruin of rock and metal. If Yelov is responsible and if he should find a way of reversing this accident, the entire galaxy would be held to ransom. You are our best agent Falcon, you must stop him before it is too late.'
You leave Jobanque's office at a run, bound for your Time Machine, Falcon's Wing, at the Eiger Vault. The other agents step aside to let you pass. Sparrowhawk is not with them. Turn to 1.