Judge Dredd Episode 3: the Bomb

Background
The rapidly toughening squad of rookie Judges under Judge Duck (Ollie) are in a
firefight with two desperate perps in a Shuggy Hall.  Following a run of incredible
bad luck, Judge Bolt (Matt) and Judge Hooker (Dave) are lying dazed in the alley by
the Hall's back entrance.  Hooker is suffering from several minor bullet wounds.
Judge Beth (John) is sheltering in a storeroom from Judge Duck's rubber Ricochet
bullets, which he doesn't seem to be able to get into the room where the perps are.
Two well-dressed perps with Spit-guns are the opposition, one of whom is very fast
and has drawn a bead on Judge Duck from behind a cupboard just inside the office
doorway.

The time is 0835.

The fast perp in the doorway lays down fire on Judge Duck, but can't seem to hit
him.  Duck calmly switches his Lawgiver to AP (Armour-piercing), aims back and
begins firing.  Bolt and Hooker pull themselves together outside, and Bolt makes a
run into the room to behind a Shuggy table.  A wild shot comes out of the room at
him but misses.  Judge Beth moves into the room and tries to get to a position to
take the creep out.

Duck is winged by a bullet and this seems to be the insentive he needs to shoot the
perp strainght through the cupboard and into his army, shaking him up.  This gives
the other Judges time to take aim.  The next thing they see is the perp disappear
back into the room as a hail of bullets strike his chest and head.  There is a
bloody stain on the wall where he was stood.

Bolt shouts a challenge to the remaining perp inside:  "Come out, give it up
spughead!  You don't stand a chance!"
The creep is defiant, "You shot Harry!  Come en get me ya dirty drokkers!"

Beth and Bolt Judges move up to the door with Stumm grenades, while Hooker fits a
heat-seeker and Duck covers the doorway.  The other perp appears brandishing
another Spit-gun.  Almost immediately he is shot through the arm by Judge Duck, and
then as the other Judges move in, Duck shoots again, blasting a huge hole in his
chest.  The perp is down, permanently.

Bolt is first in the room.  Its a bloody scene.  The two well-dressed perps lie in
rapidly growing pools of blood and guts.  There is a streetpunk who appears to have
been shot in the back of the head at close range and on the floor breathing harshly
is one of the Shuggy players, who has been Hypo'd and Stumm-gassed.  The second
well-dressed perp is still alive, barely.......

".....you're too late.  You'll (cough) never stop it now....."

Bolt proceeds to try and fix up the dying perp with his med-kit, but its too late.
"What won't we stop?!"
"....ha ha...we've already got one and you won't be able to stop this one...."

"Its another block they're going to blow up!" says and insightful Judge Hooker.

"...(cough hack)...thats right!  And theres no way you can stop
it!.......(fades)..."
"Where?  Which block?  Wheres the bomb?!"
But its too late, the perp has breathed his last.

A search of the bodies by Judge Bolt reveals that the two well-dressed shooters are
Harry Higgins (owner of Harry's Shuggy Hall and with a long record of previous
offences) and Dave Harm, one of Harry's dubious employees, with two counts of GBH.
The drugged Shuggy punk is Ed Jerky, with a few previous minor offenses and the
dead streetpunk is Tony Thermo, with no crimes on record.
Whilst this is going on Judge Beth is cuffing stumm-gassed or surrendered Shuggy
players and Judge Duck is loading up his gun with spare ammunition from his bike.
Judge Hooker is calling into control for a Psi Judge to come and read the fading
thoughts of the dead perps or the drugged mind of Ed Jerky.  It looks like they
aren't going to be available soon.......
Judge Bolt discovers a backpack near Tony Thermo's body.  After much discussion
between him and Hooker about whether it might contain a bomb, Bolt decides to
tentatively open the bag without tech support.  Luckily it isn't rigged and Bolt
finds timer, some electrical tools and some papers.  Judge Hooker jinxes the timer,
which goes off, putting the wind up the team, somewhat!  The papers are a pamphlet
from Skyhigh Interests Inc, talking about new block developments and espectially
about the opening of the first, Barney Sloane, developed along the same lines of
the prestigious Ed Asner block.  Also there is a scrap of paper with a sketched
diagram of Barney Sloane showing a Cross in the underground car park, marked
'Boom!!'.  They don't search the papers on the desk or the desk itself.

Some discussion follows in which the Judges realise that Ed Asner was the block
that was blown up yesterday, killing thousands, and that Barney Sloane is the block
that is opening this morning - at 0930. The time is now 0855.

The Judges move, patching in to control to warn them about the bomb, to divert away
the sector chief and the spectators and to get a tech squad on the scene.  Control
agrees, but it isn't going to be easy to evacuate the block and move 20,000
spectators in 30 minutes without panic and numerous accidental deaths.  The Judges
suggest preventing any other people gaining access to the site.  The time is 0900.

The Judges try and patch themselves up while the bikes drive them to the site, with
little success.  They get to the site at 0910.  A female Judge meets them and tells
them that the Sector Chief and celebs have been diverted from the site and that
they are trying to move the citizens away in sections to prevent panic.  The area
is not going to be clear by 0930.  The tech squad have not arrived yet.  The team
try to persuade her to join them, but she is commited to saving as many citizens as
she can.  They are on their own.

The team drive down the ramp into the car park.  Someone has already scrawled on
the car park entrance.  It soon becomes clear who when the Judges enter to find a
drunken party in progress.  "Judges!  Spug out Uggies!" calls one of a dubious
looking gang of creeps and they pull out weapons from hidden holsters and pockets.
There are two cars and a van in the car park.

Judge Bolt:  "Everyone out!  Theres a bomb!!"
Bug the Uggie, "Bomb, stomm!  Get em, boys!".  The Uggies open fire.....

The Judges pull out Lawgivers or Stumm grenades and three grenades take out four of
the gang members before they can even get off proper shots.  The surviving Uggies
don't have much more luck with all of them missing, except one who shoots one of
his mates in the leg - proving that Molstov and handguns don't mix.

The Judges and there bikes open fire and three more punks go down.
Bolt challenges them again:  "Half of you are dead or out, lay down your arms,
please....", but his squeaky voice does not scare the Uggies, who laugh drunkenly
and continue firing.

Hooker's bike cannon blasts at one punk, with the bullets passing either side of
his body.  He knows that today he is invulnerable.  The slugs strike the van behind
him.

Then all three bikes target the invulnerable punk and hit, blowing him away.

Judge Bolt notices that the van seems to be moving more than he'd expect after a
couple of gunshots and drives closer to investigate it, while the other Judges
blast at the remaining Uggies.  Beth's bike blows off one of thems left arm and the
Judges hit a couple in the legs.  A survivor runs for one of the speedsters,
jumping in.
Bolt and his bike have observed something is crashing around in the van, apparently
tearing it apart from the inside.  He and his bike open fire and there is an
enraged roaring from within.
The last punk heads for the speedster, under fire from 2 Judges, he is wounded
several times and finally drops to the ground and surrenders.

Meanwhile, a baby Tyranosaurus has burst out of the van and is bearing down on Bolt
and his bike in a frenzy.  Bolt orders his bike to reverse and blasts away at the
monster, but with little effect, while it lashes at his bike and tears of the
headlights with its huge jaws!

Judge Duck is now blasting at the driver of the speedster with armour-piercing
bullets, whilst Judges Beth and Hooker head towards the other car, where they
expect the bomb is, Beth shooting at the speedster driver on her way.  The driver
eludes the fire and manages to start the car, before Psi-Judge Hooker jinxes the
mechanism and the car stalls.  Duck's AP bullets then hit the driver a couple of
times through the windscreen.....

Bolt has reversed course and the giant reptile follows him, gnashing at him and his
bike, Bolts bullets seem to just bounce off its scaly hide.  In the Speedster the
punk has managed to start the car and hits the gas, burning towards the exit with
his wheels spinning!

Judge Duck has seen the dinosaur coming and reverses to allow maximum shooting
before the creature will be upon him, Judge Bolt rounds a pillar and his bike
begins to pull away from frenzied monster.  Just as it pounds out onto the road it
sees the Roadster baring down on it and turns to attack that - the car's ploughs
into the creature, smashing its right leg, and it rips at the vehicle, tearing off
a door.  The car spins out of control and crashes into the side of the exit,
blowing up and knocking the dinosaur over.

Judge Duck opens up with a burst of his bike cannons, before the monster can get up
and the bullets rip into the Tyranosaur, which heads for them in a rage.  Bolt's
bike misses and he bails out off the back of it, running for cover.  The dinosaur
is quick and it reaches them before they can shoot again.  It attacks Bolt's bike
and destroys the bike computer, swallowing most of it!  Duck reverses, firing,
whilst Bolt runs.  Duck shots hit and the monster appears to have been killed,
unfortunately its slow brain doesn't realise this and it carries on running
forward, before falling towards the fleeing Judges!  Duck's Lawmaster is fast
enough to make it, but Bolt is forced to dive out of the way and the monster's
massive head smashes into his legs, breaking bones and pinning him to the ground,
eating him from beyond the grave.

At the car Hooker has jinxed open the boot and then found the car keys.  Beth
confirms that the bomb is in there.  They daren't try moving it or jinxing the bomb
as they can't say what will happen.  Hooker starts the car and drives it out of the
building.  The time is 0932.  The bomb is set for 0940.

The Judges stand around the car and the injured Judge Bolt is preparing to attempt
to defuse the device with a Tech assisting him over him helmet radio.  Then Bolt
and Hooker have the same great idea - why not call one of the nearby H-Wagons to
take the car and bomb away.
A pilot acknowledges that he will pick up the car and does so, he says that me may
be able to get it to safety before it goes off.  Later they found out that he
landed in a nearby Rad-Zone and took off on his Lawmaster, escaping with minor
burns.....the team has saved 20,000 citizens, who will never know the danger they
were in.

Back at the Sector House, Judge Hooker proceeds to sentence the Shuggy Hall creeps,
reasonably, to 17 yrs and 6 months each.  She is harsher on the Uggy gang members,
giving them 24yrs and 6 months each.  She also recommends a comendation for the
H-wagon pilot.

....the end, for now......

Comments on the game:
A good laugh and good to see you acheive the objective and no players die.  We
discussed the games later and decided that JD has good and bad points - theres more
action and structure to the combat (which means less arguments), but the
role-playing element of the game is severely limited - which probably means less
arguments, too!