The servo-droids marched towards the Judges, arms
outstretched and plasteel manipulators snapping at the air. Where there would
normally be an image of a smiling face displayed, instead a single baleful red
eye glowered at them through the cryo-crypt’s dim light. The sight was made all
the more eerie by the thick mist of cryo-tube vapours that swirled ominously around
the advancing droids’ legs.
Kowalski and Muller exchanged a glance; although droids of
this model were usually harmless, they were solidly built and sported
manipulator claws that could snip through even heavy gauge plasteel with ease. If
the approaching horde got within close combat range, things could turn very
unpleasant very quickly…
With this in mind, the Judges nodded to each other and set about
evening the odds. Whilst Kowalski used precision shots of Standard Execution
mixed with the occasional Armour Piercing, Muller defaulted to his preferred
option in situations like this: Hi-Ex! As groups of droids exploded, pieces of
them fountained up into the air, forcing the Judges to dodge aside as they
landed. Nervously, Kowalski eyed the support pillars holding up the crypt’s
ceiling. It seemed to be holding for now, although she was sure the building
would fail its next building regs review.
Distracted as she was by this thought, a droid managed to
use the deactivated shell of one of its brethren to close within snipping range
of Kowalski. Reaching out, it took a chunk out of the eagle pauldron that graced
her right shoulder, as it did every full Judge. Enraged, she snatched up the
detached limb of one of Muller’s targets that lay close by and set about
teaching it the error of its ways. As the droids were now too close to use
Lawgivers effectively, Muller took Kowalski’s lead and unhooked his daystick
from his belt. The crypt soon rang to the sound of crunching metal and
short-circuiting droids.
As Kowalski finished with the droids near her, she took a
moment to survey her surroundings. Near the entrance to the crypt, two droids
appeared to be hanging back. In fact, it seemed to Kowalski that they were
moving in a distinctly un-droidish manner. As she relayed this to Muller via
her helmet comms, the door to the crypt burst open. Through the swirling cryo-mists,
she could see the gaunt form of Willibald, the manager of the Vault, no doubt
come to investigate the source of the alarms sounding in his office. At his
appearance, the two droids grabbed Willibald and one of them back-handed him
about the face.
With the last of the no-doubt reprogrammed droids sliding to
the floor in pieces, Kowalski and Muller strode forward. Muller had taken a few
nicks, but overall had thoroughly enjoyed his brief workout. The not-droids
turned towards them, the limp form of Willibald hanging between them. One
droid’s vox emulator crackled and squealed, before bawling out ‘Put down your
guns, Jays, or the loser gets it!’; the other not-droid followed up with a
similarly weak ‘yeah; what he said!’.
Kowalski closed her eyes and reached out with her mind;
never mind their odd behaviour, it was clear that the droids were in fact human
perps inside droid suits. Sucking her teeth in pure peevishness, she lanced out
a bolt of energy at the nearest droid, lashing its occupant’s mind with her
psi-power. Her target responded instantly, its cortex overloaded, all its limbs
flying straight out from its body as it fell stiffly backwards. Willibald fell
to the floor as the other ‘droid’ released its face-mask to reveal a spotty and
pallid perp with greasy hair; Oswald Finkle.
(Oswald Finkle, courtesy of @K_O)
Back at the Sector House, and with minimal interrogation
needed, the Finkle’s scam became clear. In setting themselves up as
Body-Sharkers, they’d needed access to cryo-vaults. Their knowledge of robotics
had allowed them to gain access to the Vault undetected and, once inside, they’d
hacked the Vault’s mainframe so that their ‘additions’ to the business’s
inventory didn’t show up. Also, they’d created two ‘droid suits’ to be used as
disguises when accessing the Vault, and one droid suit modified to carry a
unconscious occupant . The scheme was simple; once ‘collateral’ (i.e. loved
ones) had been received, the Finkles knocked them out, brought them into the
Vault inside the modified droid and put them into an empty cryo-coffin. All
that would be seen on security vid feeds was droids entering and leaving the
crypts; as long as a physical audit wasn’t carried out, the scheme was
foolproof. Sort of.
Muller and Kowalski immediately ordered a physical audit of
the Vault’s occupants against the recorded inventory. Anyone not on the
inventory was revived and returned to their family. The newly-revived and their
families were then immediately arrested on charges of encouraging racketeering
and sentenced to an appropriate stretch in the iso-cubes.
With a feeling of satisfaction, Muller and Kowalski finished
their shift; as was often the case, it felt like it had lasted for months,
never mind sixteen hours! Before hitting the Sleep Machine, Muller visited the
Med-Bay to get his cuts and scratches dealt with. Kowalski likewise headed to
the Sleep Machine, although as a Psi-Judge her pod was modified to help manage
the psychological stresses of using her powers as well as allow her the
regulation amount of rest.
Almost before they knew it, they found themselves attending
the briefing at the start of the next day’s shift. Afterwards, the Watch
Commander summoned them for a detailed debriefing. Sitting in his cramped,
sterile office, the Judges went over the details of the cases currently in
hand. Whilst Oswald Finkle was starting his cube time, and Bisley was busy
drooling to himself in a kook-cube, the matter of where the Finkles had got the
creds to start them up in crime was unresolved. Muller and Kowalski felt there
was still a connection with the Contralto crime family, and were very
suspicious of Tiny Contralto and the generally low level of lawlessness in
Jimmy Gandolfini block. They were likewise suspicious of Agnes Radley and her
involvement in the disappearances of spacers from the Saturn Towers hotel.
Although her corporation owned a controlling interest in the hotel and someone
had hacked the security feed at the hotel, they didn’t have any concrete
evidence linking her with the MP cases. The digital tripwire that Muller had
placed in the system had not been triggered, and Kowalski was wary of tipping
their hand too soon. Finally, they knew there was a group of Stookie-Glanders
active in the Sector; the user Rock Beauchamp had pointed them towards a
small-time dealer named Barry the Lip, but unfortunately he had given them the
slip (much to Muller’s disgust). Kemp leaned back in his chair, almost bumping
his balding head on a low shelf in the cramped space. “When in doubt, go for
the soft parts” he murmured. Realising he was speaking aloud, Kemp looked briefly
abashed. “Admittedly, it’s not from ‘Dredd’s Comportments’ but it’s wise advice
all the same. When leads seem to dry up, go after what you know and make plenty
of noise. It's surprising what you can shake loose with a boot and a daystick’.
With these words of wisdom ringing in their ears, Kowalski
and Muller roared over to Jimmy Gandolfini Block to lean on Tiny Contralto.
Contralto was easy to find, speaking to an eld in the main concourse of the
block. As the Judges approached, the eld scowled at them briefly before tottering
off. “Hey, if it isn’t my favourite Judges!’ beamed Tiny. “Please excuse my
Aunt’s rudeness; she never misses an episode of ‘Midday Mutie Madness’”. Contralto
maintained his upbeat demeanour throughout their questioning about the Finkles,
even when Kowalski turned her usually reliable ‘evil eye’ on him. Even ordering
a Section 59(d) (crime blitz!) on his hab didn’t shake his smug attitude. It
was clear that they weren’t going to turn up anything useful on the suspected
mobster without a more concerted effort. The only comfort that Muller took from
their visit was an apparently offhand comment from Tiny regarding the Finkle’s
notoriously poor skin; was it possible that Tiny was taunting them with a link
to Radley’s well-known business interests in the beauty industry?
Musing on this as they headed back to their Lawmasters, a
call came through from Control: “Disturbance reported in the vicinity of Eddie
Snowden Block; Judge required on scene’. With a sigh, Kowalski acknowledged the
call. Muller, on the other hand, was silently jubilant. Any opportunity to work
out his frustration on some deserving perp always improved his mood.
(Judge Muller courtesy of @K_O)
As they approached the scene of the disturbance, the Judges
could see a crowd of juves clustered around something on the ground. As they got
nearer, they could hear shouts of ‘drokk it up good!’ and ‘smeg it!’. Whilst Kowalski
observed, Muller dismounted and walked quietly towards the crowd of juves. As
he approached, his natural authority and thud of standard-issue boot on
rockcrete caused those at the back of the group to look up. As soon as they caught
sight of the set of his chin and the curl of his lip, their faces fell and they
melted away into the shadows. Eventually, only a group of a dozen or so remained,
kicking a crumpled form on the ground. Reaching out, Muller grabbed one of the
pimply juves by the back of the neck and hoisted him to his eye level. As the captive
juve whimpered in fear, the rest of the juves stood rooted to the spot. As Kowalski
rode up, and started to cuff the perps, Muller threw the perp to the ground in
disgust. ‘No fight in ‘em at all’ he thought. ‘Very disappointing’. Looking past
the juves to the target of their violence, Muller was surprised to see the form
of an alien creature crumpled unconscious on the ground; a Stookie!
With the arrival of a Catch-Wagon and a Med-Team, the injured
Stookie was at last able to answer some of their questions. Its name, ridiculously,
was Fangooly and he and his nest-mates were being held by ‘horrible mens’
somewhere nearby. The Judges took this to mean a gang of Stookie Glanders was
holed up in the Sector. From the alien’s garbled description of his previous
surroundings and his route since escaping, it seemed that the gang was holed up
somewhere in the industrial Dust Zones to the north of the Sector, close to
Eustace Fargo Spaceport. Realising the area was too large to easily search without
massive use of scarce Departmental resources, Kowalski requisitioned a set of
spycams to monitor the most likely areas for any unusual activity. Meanwhile,
they would continue on their shift. Maybe they would run into Barry the Lip, or
perhaps it was finally time to confront the apparent spider at the heart of the
web: Agnes Radley…
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