Desert of Danger
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 "Appear on the cover I shall! Snarl at the reader will I!" | |||||||||||||
| "Desert of Danger" | |||||||||||||
| Publisher | Corgi Books | ||||||||||||
| Imprint | Young Corgi Adventure/Adventure Game Books | ||||||||||||
| First published | 1987 | ||||||||||||
| Writers | Dave Morris | ||||||||||||
| Illustrator | Bob Harvey (interior pencils and cover painting) | ||||||||||||
| ISBN | ISBN 0 552 52502 2 | ||||||||||||
| Page count | 71 pp | ||||||||||||
- Desert of Danger is a first-person multipath adventure from the Young Corgi Adventure portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.
Synopsis
You are the co-pilot of an interstellar cargo ship, making a delivery to a mining town on the equatorial continent of the planet of Nebulos. While Harry the pilot files your flight papers with Traffic Control you are left to unload the ship's cargo—a crate of Sirian brandy for the Wolf at the Door nightclub and two deliveries to Professor Sparks' laboratory. The first is a package containing computer discs and the second is a flashy red-and-gold sports car which you are astonished to find transforms into the Heroic Autobot HOT ROD.
HOT ROD agrees to deliver the discs to Professor Sparks while you deliver the brandy to the nightclub. The Wolf at the Door caters to Nebulan miners, playing loud electronic music while androids serve high-grade oil and sparkplugs. Using an anti-gravity pod you take the brandy down to the cellar but while you are down there you stumble across a pile of gnawed human bones. Returning upstairs in shock you bump into HOT ROD and Sparks but the three of you are quickly bundled out by Monzo, the club's owner. You tell HOT ROD that there's something unusual about the club's cellar and the three of you investigate, observing Monzo and Vorath collaborating with WEIRDWOLF, one of the evil Decepticons. They have retrieved a cylinder from the desert, killing a space pilot in the process. As they leave you explore further discovering that the cylinders contain Attack Squad robots—ancient Decepticon robotic infantry from the war on Cybertron which contravene the rules of the truce established on Nebulos.
When you return to your ship that night you are hit with some terrible news. The Nebulan police inform you that they have found Harry's ID and they fear he may have been murdered. You meet up with HOT ROD and Sparks who believe the Decepticons are responsible, but before any of you can act two ASRs storm the laboratory followed quickly by MINDWIPE, SKULLCRUNCHER and WEIRDWOLF. HOT ROD takes care of the ASRs while you and Sparks handle MINDWIPE, then you trick SKULLCRUNCHER into swallowing your anti-gravity pod so he floats high above the battle. Reunited with HOT ROD and Sparks, the three of you face down WEIRDWOLF and he retreats. HOT ROD ruefully notes that they will have to return the Decepticons under the terms of the truce, but the ASRs will be melted down into slag.
You head back to the ship to be greeted with the surprise of your life—Harry is waiting for you in the pilot's seat. It turns out that the night before he had lost his jacket and wallet before getting drunk on Betelgeux whiskey with an old friend. You plot the course back to Earth and promise to tell him about your adventures with the Transformers.
Featured characters
| Autobots | Decepticons | Humans | Nebulans | Others |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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Errors
- Monzo is drawn as being at least as tall as Hot Rod.
- Weirdwolf eats people which is more Skullcruncher's thing, although Skullcruncher does eat a hoverjeep.
Endings
The ending given in the synopsis is the result of the optimum path through the book but there are alternate endings that lie in wait for you:
- You, Hot Rod and Sparks are captured by the Decepticons and non-specifically "doomed".
- Mindwipe melts Hot Rod with his viper pistol then crushes you with his fists.
- You electrocute yourself trying to recharge Hot Rod and Sparks.
- Weirdwolf shoots you and you are vapourised.
- You are shot by the ASR's ruby lasers.
- Weirdwolf eats you.
Notes
- All Transformers' names are printed in CAPITAL LETTERS.
- Hot Rod's Targetmaster partner is referred to throughout as "Professor Sparks". Like all Nebulans in this book, he's robotic rather than fleshy.
- The treaty in operation on Nebulos is to ensure that the conflict does not spill over into full-scale war, and rules that only those Transformers who are binary-bonded to a Nebulan may stay on the planet.
- Hot Rod abbreviates "Decepticons" to "Decepts". He also asks Monzo if he's feeling lucky.
- Oddly, Grax is nowhere to be seen.
