Acculturation

[Storyteller]

“Shots fired. I repeat… shots fired and officers are down!”

The stormtrooper huddled behind a parked car, his focus on the bloodstained corpses that lay a few yards away. “Request immediate assistance.”

Back at the central headquarters for Coruscant’s police force, a group of desk-bound troopers were busy combing through the CCTV feeds for all nearby streets and all nearby buildings. With a dozen pairs of eyes rifling through the last thirty seconds of video, it didn’t take long for one of them to find what they wanted to see. “Got the location… coordinates are being sent to the nearest strike team. Should I inform the Judge?”

Before the man in the field could make a response, a distinct gruff voice joined their communication’s frequency. “He is already aware.”

[Marcus Wright]

Luger frowned and growled, her ears hearing picking up noises from the bottom of the floor. Stuart, you have no choices now. You're stuck with me, like it or not. Don't make me regret it.

Keeping the thermal goggles on, "Hope you like running, Stuart." "My hands are full right now. Look, if both of us want to survive this, we got to put our heads together."

Luger bent down in the darkness, and grabbed Stuart hearing distant voices. In a whisper, she cursed "Shit..." Luger would use her stealth on and off to keep Stuart close by and take out stormtroopers one by one with her M32 combat knife.

Luger frowned "Can you fight, Stuart?" "We need all we are going to need here.."

She flicked her thermal goggles and heat signatures began to pick up on the bottom level.

[Dave Strider]

Crash listened to the the two humans, unable to have any conversation due to his incapability of speech. Aku Aku nodded along and listened as well.

"Well Crash doesn't have much besides a few wumpa fruit and his fruit bazooka, and I don't think i can be of any help at the moment. We will follow you the best we can."

After the short conversation, they headed off into the shadows, keeping away from the troopers. Crash and Aku Aku followed close behind the to as they scouted the area, but Crash couldn't help but feel useless in the current situation. He sure hoped the rest of the omniverse was not the same, or he was not going to have a good time. He missed the warm sandy beach of his home island already.

[Stuart Gillman-Street]

Stu too would be pining for his home and his friends if he wasn't racking his brains for ideas.
"Aku, how powerful is this fruit bazooka?"

[Dave Strider]

Crash gave Stuart a wide smirk as Aku Aku answered his question, shaking his head up and down while making explosion sounds with his mouth as he simulated things blowing up with his hands.

"Well, we haven't tried it in this new world, but it was able to take out the mightiest of our foes."

[Marcus Wright]

Luger summoned some different clothing within a brief moment. A second later, some different clothing fell in the Assassin's hand. She slipped the different clothing over her camo and said "Maybe we can blend in rather than sticking out. She threw clothing at Stuart and Crash.

"Think you can use the big gun to make more chaos, Crash?"

She placed her sub-machine on her back and took out her knife. "Ready to go, boys?"

[Dave Strider]

Could he? For Aku's sake, it was what he was best at! He grin grew even wider as he summoned the large launcher, one of the small fruit already loaded. He felt the item drain his energy, but paid no mind. He was loving the familiar feel of his weapon.

"It seems that this weapon takes more of Crash's power to make, we should use it soon. What do you have in mind Luger?"

[Storyteller]

“They never learn,” the Judge growled, his voice rough like two slates of concrete grinding together.

The streets of the upper tiers had seemingly been overrun with crime, though not through the fault of the security forces on the lower tiers. Instead, swaths of new and inexperienced Primes had begun to flood the Gate. The troopers couldn’t keep up with the influx, despite their training and equipment.

In his career, the Judge had always been reluctant to put law enforcement in place that might endanger the innocent people of the sector. He had always been reluctant to use them.

Their fanatical devotion and overwhelming predilection towards violence made them a clear and present risk in the Judge’s eyes. However, with each new breach, with every fallen trooper, every innocent that died at the hands of some madman from another world, it became more and more clear that more drastic measured needed to be used. With multiple suspects of unknown origin and strength, with at least one having tactical experience, it seemed an appropriate time to test their discretion.

The Judge’s motorcycle filled the streets with the sound of its thunderous engine, whipping past cars and pedestrians as he made his way to the scene of the crime. “Control, this is Judge Dredd. Clear the area of all civilians and move all available troopers to create a perimeter. I want snipers on every point of egress. I don’t want anyone or anything entering or leaving that sector.”

A woman’s voice calmly echoed in his helmet, “Judge, this is Control, good copy, over. Reinforcements are en route.”

As he passed the edge of the sector’s territory, he brought the cycle to a stop. He brought his gauntleted arm up in front of his face and calmly opened a metallic seal above his wrist. Typing in a long serial code, he cleared the multi-tiered securities he had put in place. After a long beep, a choppy digital voice chimed, “Confirm identity.”

“Judge Dredd, badge number Zero, Zero, Zero, One.”

“Identity confirmed,” the machine submitted, “Channel now open.”

The man’s perpetual scowl somehow grew deeper as he paused. “Drop-Pod to sector T One point Oh Seven.”

-----

The population’s panic was suppressed by the static-filtered voices of the Stormtroopers, their blasters brandished to wrangle every pedestrian from the sidewalks, some cleared road traffic while others barred the doors of the many hundred-story towers that would have taken too long to evacuate. Any communication that didn’t carry the EPD encryption was forcibly shut down. The streets were still and quiet but tension pulled the air taught, ready to explode into conflict at any moment.

Far above them, the sky echoed with a distant boom. Eyes looked up, searching the heavens for the source. A hushed terror washed over the citizens and the troopers alike as a tear-shaped pod erupted from the clouds, the descent-thrusters kicking off just after it came into view. Several people fled as the object plummeted down, shrieks and yells now bouncing from the tall structures of Tier 1.

The drop-pod hit the ground and, even with the thrusters, it struck with enough force to shatter the earth below it, creating a crater at least twenty feet across. The five tall, triangular gates that made up each wall of the craft hissed and opened, folding away from the pentagonal core like a lotus petals in the center of the smoldering pit it had created.

From within, four massive creatures rushed out at speeds which belied their bulky, thick-plated exteriors. Each set of power-armor was dark blue with massive, white Omega symbols marking their left shoulders, a glorious golden eagle on the right. Large, red, wax seals were pressed over their armor and weapons, long strips of litany-scribed parchment fluttering in the heat-generated breeze. Skulls, wings and olive wreaths were a motif in their ornately decorated suits, and the uncaring, dead eyes of their helms glowed a baleful crimson.

The Ultra Marines’ commander swept his hand over the scene as his squad took up their positions, and through the vox that was implanted in his throat he screamed, “FOR THE EMPEROR!”

[Stuart Gillman-Street]

While Luger began to think, Stu overheard a small group of storm troopers muttering and conspiring amongst themselves, but couldn't quite make out what they were saying. Peeking his head just slightly past the end of the roof so that he wouldn't be seen, Stuart began to her them clearer, but still only heard snippets
"...has been alerted."
"Assume your ..."
"...ordered to..."

[Dave Strider]

Crash turned to look, seeing as snipers began to line the nearby rooftops, and troops began to close in on the group. He took a moment and aimed his trusty weapon to the nearest sniper, taking careful aim, firing two shots, the second hitting the trooper in the chest, sending him flying backwards. Crash grinned at his success, but saved the rest of the ammo, the other snipers were too far for him to be reliably accurate.

"We need to get to better cover. We are getting surrounded." Aku Aku nervously spoke aloud, alerting the others to the danger that was unfolding.

[Stuart Gillman-Street]

Stu figured, seeing as everyone was already found out, he might as well fire his Revolver. He was shocked to find how well he aimed it- he had never held a gun before- as he hit three perfect shots exactly on target, though. It wasn't nearly enough, though, so Stu tried to fire more, but ran out after three.
He then tried to focus on hiding places, while calling out, "Guys, what do you see?"

[Marcus Wright]

Luger's eyes moved to the snipers with her thermal goggles on and aimed at them from the window above her using the darkness as cover. She used Stealth once again and activated the laser sight on. It was either run now or go down fighting.

But wait, what the hell was that below them?

A loud noise landed a ship outside the building. There were some sort of blue armored men landing and screaming words such as "FOR THE EMPEROR!"

Luger looked at her associates, Crash and Stuart. "You two hear that loud voice? We have more company..

She nodded at Crash as he smashed more snipers outside the window ,making their escape at least a little less impossible.

"Listen, i know our chances are slim to none that we are going to make it but if my team was here, Jan would do the same for us. Thanks ,you two."

[Stuart Gillman-Street]

Stu knew his gun was useless, but kept it in his hand anyway so he could almost inevitably die in a blaze of glory- or, at least, a cool pose. Darting his head around, he noticed another building they could jump to, but it was about twice as far as he could jump. Then Stu remembered his Burst Movement- if he could get enough speed, he could launch the four of them across.
"Guys, wait. If I went fast enough, couldn't we all get to that roof?" He said, pointing.

[Marcus Wright]

Luger eyed the building Stuart was talking about and pointed to the bike that the big judge was riding "You are right Stuart, its risky if we show our faces but the farther away we can get away from this hellhole the better off we can be."

"Maybe I can stealth us across the gap so nobody notices we are doing this as well, Crash, Aku Aku you ok with this?

[Dave Strider]

Crash watched as the blue armored soldiers landed, creating a commotion and yelling out for someone named the emperor. Crash frowned and began to worry, each of those guys look like they could take Tiny Tiger on in a fistfight.

"That would probably be best, I'm sure Crash agrees. However you guys plan on doing this, go ahead and do it."

Aku aku hid beside Crash as they both looked at their friends, hoping they could get all four of them across the roof unscathed and alive.

[Stuart Gillman-Street]

"Simple, while grabbing each other's ha- er, wrists, Luger goes into Stealth, and the momentum from my speed will be enough to get us across. Provided we all jump at the same time."

[Dave Strider]

Aku Aku and Crash give each other a quick nod.

"Ready when you are then."

[Marcus Wright]

Luger placed her submachine gun on her back and nodded "Right". Everyone grab wrists, then. Luger grabbed Stuart's wrist and waited for Crash to grab on with Aku Aku before going stealth.

[Storyteller]

The sounds of gunfire rang out as two stormtroopers tumbled from their high, sky-top perches. Their spinning bodies fell for what seemed like minutes, descending the several hundred story skyscraper at terminal velocity before their armor shattered like egg-shells against the ground.

The Ultra Marines squad leader’s eyes peered up to the trio’s position, his massive bolter automatically tracing his line of sight. The trio of heretics stood on the fourth floor of a building, on a terrace that overlooked the street. The four servants of the Emperor required no words between them to understand what needed to be done.

Bolter fire tore through the air, ripping massive holes into the balcony, each round exploding in a plume of fire and force on impact. The three Primes were forced to retreat into the building as the balcony was quickly blasted into non-existence.

The veteran marine quickly gestured, and the other three members of his team fanned out to wide points of cover, peering in through the mouth of the structure they had opened up, their advanced optics easily filtering through the dust and debris. A vague heat signature of the perpetrators was seen, looming just inside.

For once, the squad used restraint in their execution, as their “Judge” had so many times demanded of them, waiting for a better shot to present itself.

[Stuart Gillman-Street]

"Okay guys, we need to go." Stu stated as he stared as intently as a cat who spied a bird and was ready to attack.