Judge Dredd: Pre-Emptive Revenge

Judge Dredd: Pre-Emptive Revenge is the 16th audio drama produced by Big Finish Productions based on the character Judge Dredd in British comic 2000 AD.

Taking place in the immediate aftermath of the Judgement Day storyline, Pre-Emptive Revenge is likewise a crossover between the Judge Dredd and Strontium Dog comics, featuring Toby Longworth as Dredd and Simon Pegg as Johnny Alpha.

Plot

In the aftermath of Judgement Day, Judge Dredd and Johnny Alpha are stuck together, making their way back to Hondo City on foot, across the rad-desert outside the recently destroyed Sino-Cit One.

Finding a seemingly abandoned radar tower, they enter and find the bodies of the crew, apparently killed by Sabbat's zombie army before Dredd and Alpha stopped him. Dredd notices a small radio transceiver wired to the back of each soldier's head, but can only guess at its purpose.

Alpha finds a pen and writes a note to his employers in the future, giving his exact latitude and longitude at a fixed moment in time; if Dredd promises to deliver the note to a law firm in Hondo City, it will eventually be opened by Alpha's bosses in the future, who will know exactly from when and from where to time-warp Alpha home. Dredd reluctantly agrees, but Alpha does not disappear, indicating that something yet to happen will stop Dredd from reaching Hondo City safely.

The next night, they are hailed by a flyer from Hondo City, but their relief is short-lived when the flyer is shot down by an automated missile defense system linked to the tower. The pilot, Judge Goto, survives the crash, but is killed when he steps into a minefield surrounding the tower.

Dredd and Alpha ascend to the highest floor of the tower to find and switch off the missile defense system, where they stumble across the tower's last survivor, a conscript Sino-Cit soldier named Lam. Lam refuses to tell them anything, and tries to commit suicide by leaping from the tower. Dredd tries to stop him, realizing that the tower and its crew are a "pre-emptive revenge" measure by Sino-Cit: as soon as the last member of the crew dies, in the hypothetical event of an attack by Hondo City, the radio transceivers will trigger a "doomsday device" targeted at Hondo. Dredd and Alpha try to resuscitate Lam, but fail, and a missile silo opens beneath their feet.

Dredd recognizes the weapon inside as a converted manned rocket, and tries to board it, reasoning that it will have a manual control cockpit aboard. But when they open the hatch, Alpha (with his superior vision) sees that the rocket is packed with radioactive waste, potent enough to kill Dredd. Over Dredd's objections, Alpha locks himself inside the rocket, since Alpha can withstand the radiation, and winches Dredd back to the control tower.

Alpha is unable to stop the rocket taking off, and radios to Dredd that he will not be able to engage the manual override until the rocket reaches apogee and starts hurtling down towards Hondo City. Losing radio contact with the rocket, Dredd drops to the ground and sprints across the minefield to the wreck of Goto's flyer, using its longer-range radio to re-establish contact. By the time he does so, Alpha has successfully changed the rocket's course, and demands that Dredd return the favor by getting Alpha home before the rocket burns up on re-entry.

Dredd quickly contacts Hondo City and obtains the rocket's exact coordinates and vector at a fixed moment in time, then radios Alpha to say Dredd can deliver Alpha's "postcard," and grudgingly thanks Alpha for his help. There is no response.

Aboard the rocket, seconds before it breaks apart and burns up, Alpha is yanked through a time portal and splashes down into a recovery pool in 2178. The teleporter crew informs the Doghouse that Alpha is back home, while Alpha, spluttering, gripes that his bosses don't pay him enough.

Cast

• Toby Longworth - Judge Dredd/Judge Goto/Judge Sadu/Wulf Sternhammer
• Simon Pegg - Johnny Alpha/Nelson Kreelman
• Ian Hallard - Lam

Related Publications

• Judge Dredd audio dramas
• Strontium Dog: Down to Earth
• Strontium Dog: Fire from Heaven

External links

• Pre-Emptive Revenge at Big Finish Productions