The music pounded incessantly, the sea of black-clad juve bodies moving up and down in time to the insane rhythm. Music fads, as with all crazes in the Big Meg, came and went with alarming speed. But this was one craze that appeared to have staying power, and that worried the behavioural experts over at the Justice Department’s Public Surveillance Unit. A craze that distracted the populace from its essentially meaningless existence was all well and good, even one that espoused such overtly antisocial beliefs as this one. As long as the crime rate stayed within three standard deviations from the mean, all was well according to the PSU. But this one had some Psych-Judges worried. ‘Black Spug’ was that rare thing: a music fad that seemed to remain popular. True, the crime figures seemed to be in control, but still there was something about its borderline (anti-) hero worship of the Dark Judges and the Sisters of Death.
All of these thoughts ran through the heads of the two Judges standing unmoved at the back of the hall. Pushing his way over to the sound desk, the younger of the two Judges grabbed a microphone from a hunched sound tech and held it near to a monitor, causing a howling burst of feedback to pierce the already ear-destroying volume. It actually took the audience some time to realise that this wasn’t part of the performance; the band on stage, ‘Cryptic Goat’, were renowned for their experimental approach to deafening their audience. Even cocooned from the noise by the noise suppressors in his helmet, Muller felt his teeth itch at the squeal. Grinning at his partner’s discomfort, the younger Judge yelled into the microphone. ‘I am Judge Hart. This assembly is now unlawful. Any person remaining in this venue in 120 seconds will be deemed a lawbreaker, and will be dealt with accordingly!’ Hart grinned even more broadly; he knew it would be impossible for this crowd to disperse in that time. Muller looked on without expression; although Hart’s actions were within the letter of the law, it could be argued that its application was somewhat severe in this situation. Hart had rankled and riled Muller ever since they were assigned this task, the younger Judge looking upon Muller as an old man (at 26 years old!) and making his opinions known at every opportunity. As the seconds ticked down and the crowd had failed to disperse, Muller sighed and unclipped his daystick from his belt almost in unison with Hart. As they waded into the crowd as one, Muller had to admit the younger Judge at least had style…
The call came through from Control as the Med-teks dealt with the injured and sentenced juves were hauled off to the cubes or med-bays as befitted their condition. ’99 Code Red: Judge in immediate need of assistance!’ Recognising Tac-Team Wily’s ident-code appended to the priority message, Muller summoned Hart with a terse ‘On me’ as he turned to sprint to his Lawmaster. As he gunned the engine, Muller noted that Hart was unhurriedly approaching his own bike. He’d learn. It didn’t matter whose genes you had or how good you were; out on the Slab, you relied on your fellow Judges if you wanted to survive to take the Long Walk.
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‘Muller’s on his way!’ yelled Wily as he and Kowalski struggled to hold the door shut against whatever monstrosity was howling and clawing to get to them from the other side. Kowalski was injured and losing blood fast, but she gritted her teeth and nodded wordlessly as she summoned what strength she had left. As he searched her face for signs of the onset of shock, he saw her eyes widen. ‘There’s another one, Grud-dammit!’ she snarled. Stealing a glance over his shoulder, he saw another one of the creatures sliding out from a doorway opposite. Something about the way it moved set his teeth on edge. It seemed as though its joints were bending in a way that wasn’t quite human. Of course, he’d seen more that his fair share of mutants, but this was something else. He was shaken out of his musing by a fresh assault on the other side of the door. If support didn’t get here soon, they’d really be in trouble…
Almost as if it had been scripted, Muller and the younger Judge they’d seen him with back at the Sector House burst through the door from Jennifer’s apartments in a textbook hab assault pattern. Assessing the situation in an instant, Muller drew a bead on the creature moving to the south of the room: ‘Armour Piercing’, he growled. Hart, meanwhile, saw the smouldering remains of the first attacker on the floor and determined that an incendiary round was the appropriate response: ‘Duck and cover!’ he yelled. Wily and Kowalski looked at each other disbelievingly as everything seemed to go into slow motion. As one, they dived away as they seemed to see the shell leave Hart’s lawgiver and impact on the door restraining whatever lay beyond it. The incendiary burst with a gratifying ‘fooom!’ and sprayed Kowalski and Muller with burning gobbets. Luckily, their street uniforms were sufficiently fire-retardant to prevent the flames taking hold, but that didn’t stop Kowalski from glaring murderously at the grinning younger Judge. Whatever might have been said between them was mercifully lost, however, as the now-burning doors were pulled apart by a vision from the Dark Dimensions. Dagger-like talons slid through the crack in the doors, followed by a face that was only marginally human. Wily was particularly struck by the fact that its jaw opened far wider than it had any right to, and seemed to contain row after row of blackened, razor-edged teeth. Catching sight of what had been frustrating its attempts to open the doors, the creature’s lips parted even further in what could only be described as a predatory grin of delight.
To an observer, the remainder of the encounter would have been characterised by darkness pierced by flashes of bright gunfire, imprinting the after-images of combat briefly on the observer’s retina. Kowalski and Wily standing shoulder to shoulder, dodging sharp talons as they poured shot after shot into their assailant. Hart and Muller, blowing huge chunks from their target before thrusting a daystick through the resulting penetrating wound and hurling it against a rockcrete column, finally bursting its chest in two.
The noise was what would be expected in such a situation: gunfire, hissing and yelled or muted curses from the Judges depending on their nature. In the midst of the fight, even Hart showed a crack in his normally holier-than-thou demeanour as he uttered a curse proscribed under Justice Department regulations. Realising his error, Hart looked around; none of his colleagues seemed to have noticed, and he breathed a sigh of relief. He would of course admit his offence at his next review, but his worst fear was that he would betray his lineage in the eyes of his fellow Judges. But he didn’t see Muller stealing a glance at him in the darkness; he’d heard, all right. Nothing to be said now, of course, but that was one to be stored away for a rainy day…
Finally, the beasts were all put down, and not before time. All of the Judges bore wounds, but Kowalski was in the worst shape. She leant against a wall, gasping and clutching a series of puncture wounds from the creature’s talons. Whilst the stoic Judge fought to stay upright, the other three Tac-Team members searched the remainder of the unfinished hab, section by section as per Departmental procedure. Apart from a series of rooms filled with foul detritus and with walls bearing occult graffiti, their search uncovered the grisly remains of two citizens. It was clear that the skins of the unfortunate victims were in the process of being used to create some sort of garment, although it was impossible to tell what. By the time the Team had cleared the rooms, the remainder of the promised back-up appeared. Whilst a team of heavily-armed Judges fanned out according to protocol, Kowalski received treatment from a Med-Judge and a Meat Wagon crew began the task of clearing the rooms as Tek-Judges took detailed scans of the crime scene. Recognising the leader of the backup crew as his old sparring partner, Judge Ronaldo, Muller spared him a thin-lipped smile as he strode past: ‘better late than never, Ronaldo’.
After the minimum allowable period of downtime at the Sector House, Tac Team Wily assembled for a debriefing session prior to the morning briefing. The A-Watch Commander, Judge Kemp, ran his hands through his thinning hair as he scanned the dataslate in front of him. ‘Well,’ he began, ‘it seems you’ve solved some of our Missing Persons cases whilst uncovering quite a few more. DNA shows the two unfortunates you found in there were Loogi Beezlebrotz the spacer and Eunice Glover the missing KK Blocker. Med-Div has determined that the skin used in the part-finished garment had been recently tattooed with some so-called ‘occult’ symbols before removal’. Grimacing, he ploughed on. ‘Although Tek-Div found plenty of Jennifer Radley’s DNA throughout the hidden location, none of the assailants you put down have proved to be her. In fact, the distribution of her DNA seems to indicate that she was the one responsible for creating the flesh garment’. He looked up to the Judges’ faces, a heavy frown creasing his already lined face. ‘The three assailants you took down have been shown by DNA scan to have been part of ‘Racked’s clientele. Although they had been heavily modified, there was no way that the abilities you’ve described were due to what were essentially cosmetic implants. Neither did they possess any mutations, at least in the conventional sense. Instead, Psi-Div has determined that all three were heavily contaminated with thanaton particles’. Noting the blank expressions on her colleagues’ faces, Kowalski reminded them that these particles were almost always found in proximity to a breach between their reality and the Death Dimensions.
Judge Kemp continued: ‘Psi-Judge Dryden has theorised that their abilities may be due to the presence of these particles, but the mechanism remains unclear. More worryingly still, Radley’s nine remaining customers were also not present and have been posted as missing’. Wily sat back in his chair and stared at the ceiling. ‘So there could be nine more of those drokkers plus Radley still out on the streets?’ The Tac-Team looked at each other whilst Kemp outlined the actions being taken, ticking them off on his fingers one by one: ‘Judge Hart has requested that PSU conduct a risk assessment of the current upsurge in the popularity of Spug Rock, as there seems to be a connection. Also, Agnes Radley has revealed that her daughter became obsessed with death after becoming lost in a rad-zone near to KK Block some three years ago: we’ve got Tek-Div looking into that now. We’ve also got the Sector on high alert for reports of sightings of these creatures. So for now, that’s all that can be done. Meanwhile, we’ve still got a city to protect and I’ve got a briefing to run’.
An hour later, Tac-Team Wily headed out on their assigned case, Lawmasters rumbling beneath them. The surveillance on the suspected Stookie Glanders in Dust-Zone B3 was still being collated, so in the meantime they’d been assigned to investigate a suspected mutie smuggling ring in a run-down part of the Sector known as ‘Shoddy Lane’. Perhaps this would prove to be a more straightforward case than those they’d dealt with recently, although somehow they doubted it…
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