Thursday 29 August 2019

Judge Dredd - Sector House 13

A fifty-storey fortified bubble, vaguely resembling a Justice Department helmet, Sector House 13 is located to the north of the sector near the intersection between the Aaron Burr and Davey Copperfield Megways. The original Sector House was smaller but it suffered badly during the Apocalypse War and was rebuilt into its current form shortly after. The Sector House is well-equipped with Med, Psi and Tek Divisions all represented to a reasonable degree. The sub-level garages house a Manta Prowl Tank and the upper level hangars house three H Wagons that are detailed to cover the whole of Sector 13 and provide back-up to Sectors 11 and 12, as needed. The Med Division medbays are as well-equipped as those of the Mega City One Central Memorial Hospital over at Zeb Pike and provide relief med facilities for Sectors 11 and 12 also.
Sector House 13 under construction
Ground Floor
The main entrance to Sector House 13 is a large doorway that remains open unless the sector is in a state of emergency. This door also serves as the public entrance for any citizens wishing to report a crime or turn themselves in. The entrance leads into a small plexiglass foyer with a set of automatic doors that provide additional security and can be locked down should any dangerous looking creeps attempt to gain access to the building. the foyer opens out into a check-in area where Station Judges deal with civilian enquiries and arrests from behind bullet-proof screens. From here, a secured door leads to a processing area where perps are logged and searched before being taken to the detention levels. The ground floor main security is located next to the check-in areas and provides a good view of anyone entering the building and provides quick access should any troublemakers enter the building.
The ground floor has two designated "watch rooms" for Judges working on the current watch, including the Watch Commander. These rooms provide facilities for Judges to work on active investigations and see the latest watch reports as they occur. Also located on this floor is the emergency medical bay that deals exclusively with critical injuries. Access via the rear entrance or directly from the sub level vehicle bays allows patients to be tended to in the shortest possible time. The rear entrance to Sector 13 is secured, allowing access to Judges and staff only. Anyone entering through the entrance  must pass through a small security area before being allowed access into the building proper.
Anti-Grav Chutes provide access to most other levels within the Sector House and back up stairwells are located by the chutes should they be out of order. A large lift is also available for transporting heavy equipment and medbay patients from the sublevels. Outside the building, wide ramps provide access to the sub level vehicle and maintenance bays.
Detention Levels
The detention levels occupy floors one through four and all have an identical layout. Access to these floors can only be gained through the detention stairwell that begins in the perp processing area on the ground floor, ending on Level 4. Should a perp manage to escape his cell he cannot gain access to any other part of the building without passing through the secured areas. The security room has two exits that lead to the interrogation cubes and holding cells. The holding cells vary in size to allow varying amounts of perps in each one and each detention level can hold roughly 50 people. Each cell is monitored by security cameras and is under regular observation. These cells are only temporary holding areas where criminals wait to be interrogated or assigned to an Iso Block to serve their sentence.
Sector House Security
Level 5 of the Sector House is the security level. It is divided into eight units of three Judges, known simply as A Unit through to H Unit. These units occasionally patrol the building checking for potential security problems but mostly perform support duties within the Sector House, from guarding prisoner transfers to taking delivery of new equipment and munitions. Two teams are always held in reserve to respond to any emergency, as needed. each of the reserve units is stationed in one of the two standby rooms providing protection to the security level itself and access to a small arms locker.
All communications and camera feeds from the Sector House are monitored in the observation room. The whereabouts of all the units is known at all times so if any suspect activity occurs anywhere in the Sector House, the nearest unit can investigate. the security incident room is where the Tac Group Commander assigns duties and briefs the security Judges on any relevant information.
Med Division
Med Division spans floors 6-11. Level 6 provides medical facilities for civilians - mainly perps apprehended by the Judges. Most treatments are carried out in the two large medbays with the more delicate and sterile tasks being performed in the operating theatres. Isolation bays are also available should patients be contagious in any way. These facilities are primarily for short term treatment, with long term care provided on Level 7. Dangerous perps are restrained where possible and there is always a number of Judges guarding these two floors.
Levels 8 and 9 provide exactly the same medical facilities as levels 6 and 7 but for Judges and Sector House staff. Levels 10 and 11 are dedicated to research facilities and have a similar layout to he other med floors with laboratories replacing the medbays and operating theatres.
Stores and Armoury
Level 12 houses the Sector House stores including standard and special issue equipment such as armour and tools.Level 13 is the armoury where all the weapons are stored from Lawgivers to Widowmakers. Both levels have the same layout, comprised of four main rooms full of shelves and racks that are neatly packed and ordered with almost every type of Justice Department equipment available. Very large items, such as bomb containment units are stored in the sub levels in or near to the vehicles that transport them. Access to the stores and armoury is via the quartermaster's office on each of the two levels. Many specialist items, especially weapons, usually require authorisation from high-ranking Judges but the quartermaster is able to issue replacements and other basic items upon request.
Briefing Levels
Levels 14 through 16 are dedicated to a number of briefing, incident and conference rooms. Briefing rooms are standing room only with a small podium set before a large Tri-D display on the outer wall. Incident rooms are slightly small and have seating for 200 people. Conference rooms are smaller still, providing a table that seats up to 30 people. Level 14 is usually used by the Watch Commander for the initial watch briefing. Special assignments and duties are discussed in whatever room is most appropriate to the number of people. The other two briefing levels are typically used by special task forces and high ranking Judges respectively.
Tek Division
Tek Division spans four levels, 17 to 20. The first two floors house the forensics laboratories and the upper two floors are for research and development. Each level has six laboratories, one of which is secured for classified or dangerous projects.
Psi Division
Although the Psi Division of Sector 13 is currently very small, the Sector House was built to accommodate a larger number of Psi Judges and occupies four levels. The first floor on Level 21 contains the core facilities as well as a Trans-Dimensional research laboratory. Each of the other three levels is dedicated to the special units of Pre-Cogs, K-Unit and Psyker-Unit on Levels 22, 23 and 24 respectively but they currently see little use.
The layout of each of these floors is identical. The main room of each is a general purpose room, that is used for a variety of tasks such as administration, communications with Psi Units out in the field and requests for Psi assistance. When Psi Units are required, a small briefing room is used to explain the situation to the assigned Judges and the investigation room is available to Psi Judges on active investigations. Each level also has a training room where Psi Judges can practice their abilities with other Judges and a laboratory for any psionic based research from theory to practice. Secure rooms are also provided for special tasks such as quiet rooms that are free of distraction.
Office Levels
The office levels span six floors. Levels 25 to 27 are used by Accounts Division and Levels 28 to 30 are occupied by Personnel Division. Each of the office floors has the same layout comprised of four small offices, two large open plan areas and one large office for the highest ranking Judge who will typically be in command of that level.
Training Level
The training area on Level 31 is comprised of three rooms. The largest is the firing range with 15 metre and 20 metre ranges running the length of the room. There is also a gymnasium where Judges can work out and exercise on a variety of machines. The third room is a small auditorium where Judges can watch a number of training and educational Tri-D recordings, these include recordings of actual field operations highlighting both good and bad strategies.
Mess Halls
The mess halls are located on Level 32 and provide 24 hour catering to the Judges and Sector House staff. A modest sized kitchen sits between two mess halls connected by serving counters that run the length of the kitchen.
Dormitories & Senior Quarters
Spanning Levels 33 to 42 are the Judge Dormitories. Each floor has a washroom, a sleep machine room and nine dormitories that can sleep between four and six people depending on the size of the room. Levels 43 and 44 have the same layout but each room is sole occupancy and reserved for the senior Judges.
Sector Command
Sector Command is split over four levels. Level 45 is the communications floor and handles all the Justice Department communications throughout the sector and with other Sector Houses. Level 46 is an extension to the communications level but specialises in satellite link-ups and long range communications. Levels 47 and 48 are used exclusively by the Senior Judges and their support staff for running the Sector House, with Level 48 occupied by the Sector Chief, Deputy Sector Chief and their assistants.
Vehicle Bays
The hangars of Levels 49 and 50 actually span the height of four storeys. The main hangar on Level 49 houses two H-Wagons, a Riot Wagon and a Gunbird. The upper level provides landing bays for an S-Wagon, a Claw Patrol Ship and three Law Pods.
Adopting a similar layout are the sub-levels that are accessed by the ramps on the ground level. These bays house a Manta Prowl Tank, an Omni tank and a variety of other specialist vehicles, including the sector's fleets of Banshee Pursuit Interceptors and Lawmaster Bikes. Situated around the edges of the vehicle bays are workshop areas with the tools and equipment necessary to maintain the vehicles. Cranes and hydraulic arms attached to the walls and ceiling provide heavy lifting when necessary. Refuelling facilities are also situated on these levels.

In the shadow of Sector House 13 is Iso Block 911, which houses perps doing stretches of between 8 and 15 years. Next to it is Psycho Block 101. which holds mid-level kooks who can (or should) be curable within two to four years of referral. Sector House 13 provides Judges on guard duty for both facilities.

I'll be showcasing the major characters of Sector House 13 in future posts.

6 comments:

  1. Great background for the Sector House Bryan, look forward to meeting the charcters

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    1. Greatly appreciated, Dave, You'll see the principle characters real soon, including Senior Judge Stone, one of the leading Street Judges.

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  2. I take it you won't be building one for your games then Bryan ?

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    1. Ha, ha, no way, Frank! What an undertaking that would be!

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    2. Well that's disappointing, I was looking foward to seeing it ;)

      I remember your WW precinct house, that was a mammoth build with all the interior detailing.

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    3. Sorry John, but I'd need a mansion or something similar to store it. Assuming a height of 3" per floor, it'd be 13.5 feet tall! The WWG precinct house was my most ambitious build ever and almost put me off card building all together. It was quite a slog to finish it! I had to take a long break before completing it... and that was only 3 storeys tall.

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