textfiles/apple/DOCUMENTATION/breakers.3.of.3

pg.41

heavenly bodies intersect. Although the resulting collision
is not physical in nature, due to the insubstantial properties
of the alter-orb, it nonetheless precipitates utter chaos and
destroys all life on Borg, except for the Lau themselves and
certain portions of their habitat deep in the Borgian rifts
(see Chapter 4).
   Survival is not guaranteed, however. In order for them to
live through the catastrophic energy storm, the Lau themselves and
that certain preparations must be made well in advance.
These involve assembling a number of sacred objects - the
so-called elements - which are employed in a ritual recre-
ation of the universe in its proper image. The ritual is said
to be performed in a sacred cavern deep in the rifts.
   I have never seen the cavern or its alleged contents. But I
have observed apparent transmogrifications of Lau individ-
uals from corporeal form into water, fire and other states.
(Note: As I was the sole non-Lau witness, and given that my
profound astonishment precluded a precise recording of
my observations, this may be taken as a subjective field
report of empirically observed phenomena, although, I
humbly assert, something more that mere anecdote.)  These
transformations were apparently made possible by draw-
ing energy from certain stones. Could these have been the
elements alluded to previously?
   At the time of my visit with the Lau, they believed that
the grand event, the collision of Borg and the alter-orb,
Garbo, was imminent. As one of the more garrulous elders

pg.42

informed me, "The Creator wears a mask" when the cataclysm
is nigh. The old Lau was an habitual user of Magic, the
psychotropic narcotic unique to Borg (see Appendix B),
and may not have been entirely reliable in an objective sense.
   "The Creator wears a mask" apparently refers to the chief
constellation in the Borgian firmament, called the Crreator
(or, sometimes, Garbo). The image imposed on the stars of
the Creator is that of an ancient sage, his white hair and
beard blowing in the solar wind, with arms outstretched in
offering. In his left hand is a golden star, in his right, a blue
star, and his forehead is marked by a red dwarf, equidistant
from the two, which pulses blood-red, especially in the low
sky where the constellation resides for most of the year.
   It seems that during the latter part of 4999, the Creator's
face had begun to be occluded by a sort of celestial shadow.
Indeed, the constellation looked rather dim to me, and the
forehead stone seemed to shine bloodier each morning, but
I was unable to distinguish any kind of shadow. Of course, I
wasn't given to the use of Magic, either.
   My garrulous friend also informed me that his people
were worried because the various diruptions and pressureds
brought on by the gold rush had made it difficult for them
to maintain control over the elements. Some of them con-
fessed to deep fear that the elements would not be assem-
bled in time to avert the end of the Lau race and of the
planet Borg.

pg.43

   When the Federation mandate of 4999 forced me to leave
Borg, the Lau were in a state of deep trepidation, almost
of shock.

pg.44

   Riggs said, "Thank you, Druella". Then the young Terran
sat thoughtfully for a while listening to the broken hum of
worn-out machinery in the colony's gut and pondering what
he had read. Abruptly, he said, "Druella, would you open that
panel for me?"
   "Certainly Delbert," the perky voice replied. Then Riggs
stood and put on a heavy plastacot shirt, slipped his pass-
card into the pocket, and left the little room in D Module.

pg.47

   Another meteor whacks the hull; a hollow boom shudders
through the overgrown hydroponic beds, the domed
administration module, the empty residential modules, and
slowly fades. In its wake, structural stresses clang and
groan in the pipes dripping rusted water and machine fluids.
   One maitenance bay attracts the roving intelligence with
sighns of activity. The mind peers in at a lone, greasy Terran
in overalls, working on a broken-down pump. He looks
miserable. One of his fingers is bleeding, and there's blood
on the rungs leading up to the hydroponic carrot beds on
the agricultural level. The Terran stares at the gear assembly,
trying to remember how he got it out of the pump. He keeps
trying to tap it into place that's not quite its size. A pale
insect scuttles along a puddle of dirty oil and disappears
under a locker.
   Puzzled, the mind probes deeper into the colony. Where
are the ones it seeks?  Abruptly, it finds them - in the
shuttle bay.

   A bug-eyed shuttle had just come in from Borg. Amid
guffaws and wise cracks from lounging Gaks, six small golden
beings clambered down the ladder. One of them carried a
document. A Terran wearing a slouch hat and gray mask
stood with his hands on his hips and regarded the group
with amusement.

pg.48

   "I understand you carry some sort of ultimatum, eh?
Destruction! Oh, my goodness. And you want to tell the
Federation that you people are being abused by this Mulcahy
and his Breakers?  What - tortured, killed, kidnapped, sold
into slavery?"  He shook his head. "That's tough. I feel for
you."  Motioning to a pair of smirking Gaks, he said, "Tell you
what. Follow these gents topside, and you can present your
grievances to the head megalope, Mr. Nathan Grey."
   The Gaks led the Lau to a wide lift. They rode on level up
to a transfer bay, then filed through a hatch into a corridor.
The intelligence began to worry, they were headed straight
for the Gak station.
   Without warning the Gaks in the station turned on the Lau,
beating them and then tying them up and loading them on
the Gakmobile. But one of the six escaped and fled down the
corridor. Two steps ahead of the Gaks, the golden being ran
into the Breaker bar. A single mutant followed and beat the
little creature savagely, then strolled out contentedly, leaving
the Lau unconscious on the blood-stained dance floor.
All the time, the Breakers looked on respectfully. They
knew better than to get in a Gak's way.

Hurt and reeling, the all-seeing mind pulls back. The great
eyes blink outside the colony hull as the luminous, bubble-
like cloud begins to dissipate.
   Nearby, the golden planet, a solar system unto itself,
majestically orbits its two suns in seeming tranaquility. But
the shining eyes, knowing where to look, spot the sinister
shadow dogging Borg. The golden planet's curse!  It seems
closer than before, and has almost totally accluded the
benign constellation known as Garbo - the Creator. The
malevolent shadow has come on again to engulf and ravage
the golden planet. Only a holy Lau, one of the seven Garbo
shaman, can perform the ritual ceremony that will save Borg.
   Within hours, it will be too late!


HOW TO TALK TO BREAKERS


pg.63

You enter a would of BREAKERS by typing on your computer keyboard. You can
type whenever text appears on the screen and you are ready to respond. Your
decisions and your dialogue with characters will determine how the novel
unfolds.

BREAKERS responds to a wide variety of commands. Some common ones are
explained below, but you'll discover others as you begin play. In fact
Electronic
Novels recognize a vocabulary of over 1200 words. Many synonyms of com-
mands are possible. For example, "get" works as well as "take", and "rub" is a
synonym for "touch". For ease of typing, some commands can be abbreviated. You
can also type commands in either upper or lower case. When you are finished
typing
a command, press the RETURN key.

You can also take a greater part in the action by talking to characters and
evaluating
their responses. A note on how to use dialogue follows the discussion of
commands.

The universe of BREAKERS is constantly transforming itself. Even if you do
nothing,
characters will patrol Nimbus Colony, monsters will prowl the Borgian seas, the
cosmic weather will continue to change.

Occasionally, the text being displayed will be longer than your screen. Instead
of
"scrolling" information out of sight faster that you can read it, BREAKERS will
pause
and instruct you to Press any key to continue. When you press a key, the rest
of
the text will display on you screen.

pg.64

COMMANDS

AGAIN: Repeats you last command, just as though you had typed it again. After
this command, you must still press RETURN.

BOOKMARK: Retains your progress in the novel by making a copy of your current
position on a formatted diskette. Later you can resume the novel from that
point with
the RESUME NOVEL command. See the Special Features section of the com-
puter reference card packaged with you novel diskette for details.

CLOSE (object): Tries to close the object you specify.

DROP (object):  Frees you of an object you are carrying.

EXAMINE or EX (object):  Checks the characteristics of an object - works like
LOOK

FOLLOW or FOL (person): Allows you to follow a character who is going his won
way. But be careful; some characters don't like to be followd.

GET (object)  Tries to pick up the object you specify. Prduces the same effect
as
TAKE.

GIVE (object) TO (person): Giving objects to characters can be risky,
innocuous, or
crucial. You can also use this form:  GIVE (person) (object).

HEALTH: Checks your physical condition. Are you injured? Just stunned?

HIT (object or person) WITH (object): This and commands like it exercise your
aggressive tendencies.

INVENTORY or INV: Tells you which objects you've collected and are currently
carrying.

LOOK (direction): Describes what lies in a particular direction from your
position.


pg.65

LOOK AT (object): Describes the features of an object - works like EXAMINE.

NORTH and others Allows you to move in the direction you specify. You can also
abbreviate directions (N,S,E,W, etc.). GO TO (object) and WALK (direction)
produce the same result.

OPEN (object) Tries to open the object you specify.

PAUSE NOVEL: Halts the changing world of the novel as long as you wish. You can
resume the action by pressing any key. To stop the novel in a fster way, see
the
Using Special Keys section of the computer reference card packaged with your
diskette.

PLAY: Lets you indulge yourself with songs and musical instruments.

PRINTER ON: Creates a printed record of your progress though BREAKERS. See
the reference card packaged with you diskette for details.

PROGRESS or PR: Reports on achievements of importance in your electronic
mission.

PUT (object) IN (object): Tries to merge objects. The results may be important
or
pointless.

QUIT NOVEL: Ends your session of BREAKERS without saving your current position.

READ (object): Obtains written information, such as priceless clues, from the
object
you specify.

RESTART NOVEL: Begins BREAKERS again from the start.


pg.66

RESUME NOVEL: Reopens the novel from the point at which you typed the
BOOKMARK command. For specific instructions, see the reference card pack-
aged with you diskette.

SHOW (object) TO (person): Displays an object to a character. You may recieve
an
interesting reaction.

SING:  Ventilates your vocal chords.

TAKE or T (object): Allows you to collect objects which seem interesting or
useful.
You can take on thing or several at a time.

THROW (object) (direction): Lets you toss precious things accurately at a
crucial
moment in BREAKERS.

TIME FASTER: Speeds up the changing world of the Electronic Novel. This
command does not change the speed at which your commands are responded to by
the novel. It increases the rate at which characters and elements of the
novel's
physical world enter the scene, pop up, or fly by. Typing this command
repeatedly
will speed up the universe a little each time. To slow donw the changing world
type TIME SLOWER.

TIME SLOWER: The opposite of TIME FASTER. Typing TIME SLOWER
repeatedly will slow down the changing universe of the Electronic Novel
by degrees.

BREAKERS will respond to many other commands; feel free to experiment. Some
interesting examples might be:

get and examine the red bal

get the wire knife and the lava and drink it

look at everyone but the cirdonian

offer the medallion to nate grey

spary the bolt with the spray can

look at myself

give 15 pieces of gold casey

When you use numbers in commands or dialogue, use the numeral form; don't spell
the numbers out (25 not twenty-five)


DIALOGUE

Electronic Novels allow you to talk to characters and creatures, real and
imagined.
You can ask them questions, order them to do your bidding, or tell them to do
things
with objects or to other characters. They will respond in their own unique
ways. The
FORM you use for this kind of dialogue is important. Here are two examples:

betty, "who's mulcahy?"

druella, "thanks for the information"

Notice that it is not necessary to capitalize or to use periods at the ends of
sentences.
When your are finished typing a line of dialogue, be sure to press RETURN.

To relieve you of some typing, dialogue also has a shorter form. You may omit
the
comma following the name of the character you're addressing. The second quota-
tion mark may be omitted also. Example:


pg.68

Instead of

bobo, "give me the vbx"

you may type

bobo "give me the vbx"

Some other examples of BREAKERS dialogue might be:

panface "where's delbert riggs?

betty "please give me a drink

beek "what does it all mean?

cirdonian "you're a punk

jones "what is west from here?

corpse "you don't look so hot


TIME AND SPACE

Many of the characters in BREAKERS move around of their own volition. When you
talk to a character in you area, he will answer you in his own special way. If
he
happens to move to the next room, he won't brush you off; he will still answer.
However, if the character moves far away from your position, he'll no long
berable
to hear you. Examples:

(betty in your area)
betty "who are the gaks?

"Not so loud - you're talking about the toughest cops in the galaxy",
Betty cautions.

(betty in the next room)
betty "who are you?

"Don't try to get personal with me", the bartender snaps.

(betty far away)
betty "let me take you away from all this

Your words don't reach that far.

Engaging characters in conversation allows you to enter teh world of BREAKERS
completely. But remember, when you talk to an Electronic Novel, anything can
happen.


PERIOD

By typing several periods (...) and pressing RETURN, you can watch the universe
unfold over several time intervals. This is an advanced strategic tactic you
may find useful.


RETURN KEY

Press RETURN whenever you are finished typing a command. If you press RETURN
without typing any command, the world of the novel will still continue to
change all
around you. When ;you press only RETURN, time will pass and the universe will
turn
together with whatever else may be happening at the time: characters entering
the
vicinity, conversations beginning, etc. As in life, the universe of the
Electronic Novel
is constantly unfolding.

check ya later dudes....