Mega-City One

Mega-City One Is the first and largest Mega-City to have cropped up after the reemergence of humanity on the planet surface. These Mega-Cities are heavily fortified large, wide, tower-like structures that are capable of sustaining entire city-sized and growing populations. However as population grows, so does the crime rate, despite the capacity to give housing and food to all citizens, luxury always has its costs that not everyone can afford. Due to the extreme crime rates in certain sectors, Mega-City One has its own Justice Department to counter these extreme crimes.

Development began around 2065 with the proposal of the Surface Shelter initiative. This was in response to growing population rates and the desire to return to the surface as nuclear radiation was dying out. Temporary villages, town and city settlements were established until the Japanese and Chinese civilian groups sought to assist, giving access to environmental and economic efficiency to urban living and cuts in pollution emission.

The first mega-blocks were completed in late 2066 and so the first group of citizens were allowed to move up to the surface. As the years passed, more towers were being constructed which began to house more people. For a time, life was good: jobs were plentiful, many were earning an honest living, and there was no sign of suffering. A majority of the citizens were content, comfortable, and best of all happy. Very soon, China's Sino-Cities and Japan's Hondo City grew, and other counterparts were laid in many other nations to provide new homes for the citizens that wished to leave the "undercity" shelters.

However, there was a disaster involving a group that became disenchanted by the too-good-to-be-true utopia that Mega-City One presented,. Riots broke out by these groups, and soon the police was on the streets around the clock and the courts were being flooded by charged individuals. Corruption, just as it did in the past, still thrived in the new society given to circumstances that gave certain people power. The wealthy families in the city were able to bribe and buy their way out while the less fortunate individuals were arrested by greedy officers, looked away by phony attorneys, and ignored by petty judges. Law collapsed from within, and the good were few.

From the decay and chaos rose a new solution, a force that merged law enforcement and the courts into an agency that dispensed both justice and punishment within a moment's notice. This hereby abolished the traditional system and brought forth a new one where judge and police officer are merged into one to bring back order - the Judges.

Mega-City One Justice Department
In response to the increasing crime rate, the Justice Department organized through the merge of a crumbling legal system and an overburdened police force. Thus, the Judges were born. To limit their power as enforcers, the Judges kept intact the very principles that allowed the people to remain free: the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

However, due to past corruption in the government because of the last President, power was limited to only a number of individuals voted among the experienced of the Justice Department's ranks: the Council of Five which was headed by five Justices with a sixth, the Chief Justice, overseeing the Council and providing the voice of reason in a world of ever-growing chaos. Corruption within law was also done away with the abolishment of attorneys given to them being subject to bribery from clients and destroying possible evidence that could incriminate the guilty, thus allowing this evil to be removed and ignite instant justice on the streets.

Young cadet Judges started out through a fifteen-year training program arranged by the Council where the children could be molded into the city's protectors. Many of them were outcasts, runaways, orphans, and abuse victims taken in by the Justice Department through voluntary means of traditional recruiting. Basic schooling was implemented followed by education at the Academy of Law, each child taking in the difficult lessons that tested them mentally and physically. Only few managed to get into a fast-track program which consisted of thirteen years. Upon completion of training, cadets undergo a field test in the nuclear desert of the Cursed Earth outside the city walls: a Hotdog Run. Afterward, cadets then were inducted as rookies for their final assessment on the streets to determine if they can have the privilege and responsibility of being a Judge. Only so few of the cadets managed to graduate due to the intense training regimen.

Over the years, the Judges provided an image of fear as there had been some that abused the power given to them. Some sought to reform the system by being peacekeepers on the streets, indoctrinating the old ways with the knowledge they obtained. Not all Judges followed the hallowed law as some became corrupt and often aligned themselves with criminals, echoing the corruption of the old justice system. That was why the Justice Department implemented its Internal Affairs division, the Special Judicial Squad (SJS), to weed out any rogues and renegades among the Judges. Those found guilty of criminal activity, treason and sedition before a tribunal headed by the Chief Justice and the Council of Five was to result in being stripped of all entitlements of being a Judge and sentenced off-world for 20 years of hard labor or life imprisonment, or execution.

The Justice Department divided up into several divisions:

+ Street - Standard Judges on patrol throughout the city which include ground and aerial field work

+ Psi - Psychics used in the prevention of crimes, and both ongoing and unsolved investigations

+ Tek - Technicians that researched and invented advances in Justice Department equipment and weaponry as well as conduct necessary repairs to said equipment and weaponry

+ Med - Medical personnel that assist both injured Judges and arrested perps, and help with forensic investigation

+ Undie Ops - Mergence of SJS, Public Surveillance Unit (PSU), and undercover Judges (Wally Squad), combinting to make up Undercover Operations where the handling of raw intelligence, civilian resources and intuitive deduction are used

+ Defense - Trooper Judges that volunteer during an event of war, providing leadership and assistance to Citizen Defense (Citi-Def) militias who function much like traditional military reserves in early American society, and usually consist of Holocaust Squad and Strategic Target Attack Retaliation (STAR) Judges with volunteers from the international Space Corps

+ Tutor - Retired Judges that were heavily injured in the line of duty or lost their prime to serve the streets, becoming teachers to the cadets at the Academy of Law

Despite the efficiency of the Judges, they were still human. Most ended up dying on the streets, some lost their edge and either became Tutors or took desk jobs, and those who grew tired with the system were given the choice of ultimate retirement - the Long Walk into the desert wastlands of the Cursed Earth that was created by the nuclear war. Out there, those Judges could spend their days bringing law to the hostile mutants and monsters that plague the ruined landscape.