Enter the world of Judge Dredd!
In a city crushed by overpopulation, under-employment, food shortages, and crime, one force upholds the Law. They serve as police, adjudicator and, if need be, executioner.
They are the Judges.
MEGA CITY ONE — 2099
Judge Maxine Stone gritted her teeth against the frustration of the rain pelting her helmet. Weather Control had released the unscheduled rain to put out the still-raging fires from the Karl Urban block war.
One group of cits believed their namesake was better in some old movie called The Bourne Supremacy.
Another group thought he was better in another movie called The Chronicles of Riddick.
One group broke into the block’s City Defense armory and made things violent. Other gangs in the block jumped on the opportunity and pursued vendettas.
It had taken nearly a hundred Judges to put down the war. The sector’s robot fire crews were behind schedule and understaffed due to maintenance issues.
Weather Control had stepped in with the rain to help.
Stone hated rain. Yet here she sat on her Lawmaster motorcycle, watching the Karl Urban block for any cits who thought they’d get in one last bit of violence.
“See anything suspicious, Stone?”
Judge Rowan Parker’s growl over Stone’s helmet comm broke her out of her doldrums. He was parked on his Lawmaster just around the corner from her position on the 2012 Meg-way.
“Bunch of cits collecting rainwater out their windows,” Stone responded. “If they try to sell or trade it, we bust them on Code Thirteen, Section Three.”
“I think the Chief Judge would be more concerned with any Code Twos or Threes flaring from the block war,” Parker said.
“Perps don’t get a pass for lesser offenses so we can wait out the bigger ones,” Stone said. “We do our job right, and we catch both the little and large. Keep the cits safe.”
“Or we scare them out of their minds, so they play it safe.”
That remark came from the third member of their patrol, Psi-Judge Amanda Asaji. Her constant empathy for the cits annoyed Stone. All the cits had to do was follow the Law.
If they didn’t, it fell to the Judges to dole out punishment. Stone didn’t enjoy it. It was merely her responsibility under the Law.
Asaji lived under the warped belief the Judges should show mercy for lawbreakers, taking consideration for context.
The only context Stone needed: whether to use her Daystick or a standard execution round.
“Head’s up people,” Parker said. “Report coming in of illegal activity on the fifty-second floor.”
Stone checked her Lawmaster’s computer link to the Macro Analysis Computer (MAC), the Judge’s database and crime detector. She pulled up info for the Karl Urban block.
Seconds later, she scanned the report Parker had mentioned.
“Two juves attacking another juve,” Stone said.
“The vic could be dead by the time we get there,” Asaji said.
Stone scoffed at the concern in her voice.
“That means we go from a Code Five to a Code Two,” Stone said as she started up her Lawmaster and headed toward an entrance to Karl Urban Block.
Asaji and Parker met Stone at the entrance to the thirty-second floor. Parking their Lawmasters, they proceeded inside and up the elevator to the fifty-second floor.
Parker was a tall, rugged man who Stone never remembered seeing with his helmet off. Even when in a sleep machine he’d have the thing on.
Word at the sector house was he’d gotten a nasty facial scar during the civil war with Mega-City Three back in 2084.
The scar didn’t hinder his abilities as a Judge, but it must be bad if it shamed him so.
Stone would project a scar earned like that as a badge of honor — but that was her.
By contrast, Asaji was slim, looked more like a holovid star than a Judge. She had her roots in Brit-Cit in what was left of the United Kingdom after its civil war.
Asaji was one of the few Judges from there who believed in Justice and wasn’t a corrupt criminal masquerading as the Law.
When Asaji’s psi powers had manifested, she put in for and received a transfer to the Big Meg for proper training under Psi-Division.
Stone presumed Asaji got her empathy for he cits from Brit-Cit training. The corrupt judges there didn’t have the discipline of Mega-City Judges.
As for herself, Stone was a clone of the Father of Justice, Chief Fargo. She was also one of the first accelerated growth clone cadets to graduate from the Academy of Law.
Judges Joe and Rico Dredd, fellow graduates of the Class of 2079, were also clones of Fargo. They had already made names for themselves in the Big Meg.
Stone would not be outdone.
Parker studied a small tablet linked to MAC. “Floor fifty-two is a recreational park,” he told his fellow judges. “Most of it was trashed during the block war.
“There are patches of artificial trees and plants. There’s also a playground, a few fields for old school soccer or American football.”
“I take it the park takes up a few floors?” Asaji asked.
“It’s on the fifty-second, but there are no other floors until the fifty-sixth,” Stone replied.
Off Parker’s glance, she added, “Used to patrol the area as a rookie. Lots of problems in the park. Sugar-heads, con men, gamblers betting on the kids playing ball.”
“Should we expect resistance?” Asaji asked.
Parker checked his tablet. “Cameras show minimal activity. Mostly wanderers out for a stroll or hanging around.”
“Sounds like several Code Nines,” Stone said.
Asaji shook her head. “Can we focus on the possible Code Two first?”
Stone drew her Lawgiver pistol and checked the action on the slide. “We focus on all of it because we’re Judges, Asaji.”
The elevator doors opened. The Judges stepped out into the park.
Take that step out of the elevator with our Judges next Tuesday!
With a little help from EN Publishing’s Judge Dredd RPG!
In addition to the Rebellion comic books “2000 AD” and “Judge Dredd Megazine,” I used EN Publishing’s “Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000 AD” role-playing game to help put this together. Check them out!
In addition to fanfiction, I write original content! Dive into an action-packed world of vampires, werewolves, and sorcerers in my Shadowdance urban fantasy saga! Click the link below for a free preview!
