Texas City

Texas City, as seen from Lake Louisiana

Texas City was one of the successor megacities to the United States of America and one of the two largest cities in North America. It's one of Mega-City One's oldest allies and the Great Road connects the two. The Texas City Territories - being whatever Texas City claims jurisdiction over - spread out across the former southern states in the Cursed Earth. Mutants can be citizens of the Territories - mainly in the Mutie Homelands - but have been banned from the city itself, with the exception of certain jobs. They were allowed to serve in the military as the Buffalo Soldier Mutant Irregulars.

The Texas Badlands desert surrounded the city. The Angel Gang used to live there before their deaths. Covering the east of the city is Lake Louisiana.

Texas City is famously isolationist, rarely getting involved in crises outside its walls - even ones happening to allied and neighbouring cities.

History

Texas City was formed before the 2050s, and in 2052 it was given extensive self-governing powers under the Autonomy Act. It was formally titled the Dallas-San Antonio metropolitan district when it started.

Texas Chief Judge Honnicut reacts to Booth, former governor

"Bad Bob" Booth had been the Governor of Texas City by 2052, and in 2057 he claimed that his city lacked any of the juvie crime rates as "the coastal cities". In 2060 he was elected to the Vice-Presidency and, after 2068's election fix, to the presidency. He was opposed to the Justice Departments and Texas City's Chief-Judge Marlon Hunnicut travelled to Mega-City One to discuss how to deal with him - unfortunately, a summit that took place on the eve of the Atomic War. Hunnicut found himself now running one of the few bastions of civilisation in North America. Afterwards, it was one of the signatories to the Hiroshima Accord.

In 2075, psychic mutants were being locked up in "the freak cages". The future Pa Angel fled the city for the Badlands after robbing the Southern Angel bank, a job set up by the corrupt Judge Hess. At this time, Texas City was trading with Hondo City.

Texas City and Mega-City One and Two at war in the Cursed Earth

By 2083, relations broke down between Texas City and Mega-City One: the Texans felt they were not getting a fair deal and were being dominated by the north. In the 'interests of unity' and (probably more importantly) to secure the highly valuable resources controlled by Texas City, Mega-City One went to war. The conflict turned into a bloody stalemate and Texas City was allowed greater independence. Luna-1 was built two years later, partly as a diplomatic gesture: all three Mega-Cities would have control over it.

After thirty two years of allowing mutant citizens, Texas City enacted the Mutant Resettlement Program (unofficially the "mutant clearances") in 2102. This moved them to "new homelands" across Lake Louisiana. Whatever the official reason was, a Texan Judge boasted to Judge Dredd that "Texas City will walk tall again without them uglies!" Mutants with permits could still work in "danger parks" where they were exploited for the purposes of entertainment. Saul Cain, later the "Missionary Man", was in charge and notorious for his bloody actions like the Mutieville Massacre. Over the years, mutant ghettos would appear around the city's new walls: the Outer Wall Dependencies. Judges would sometimes disguise themselves and raid the ghettos for sport. Sterilisation and the selective use of retroviruses have been used to prevent new mutants developing in Texas jurisdiction.

The Chief Judge agrees to stay out of the Apocalypse War

Texas City and Mega-City Two stayed out of the Apocalypse War. They were aware that the Sov Block would come after them later but hoped to spend the time working on their own defences.

Mega-City One made a gift of five Judge clones to the city in 2106. (One would grow up to be Judge Rico and return to the city)

While Texas City stayed out of Necropolis, it sent aid in the aftermath to the starving and disease-racked Mega-City One.

A large number of perps fled to Texas City to escape MC-1 justice and in 2114, Dredd was sent to collect dozens of them. The overbearing Deputy Chief Judge Honus refused him a warrant out of spite but Dredd exploited the local laws, capturing the fugitives as a 'debt recovery' officer. Honus ordered the Texan Judges to stop Dredd but they deliberately let him succeed. Honus would later be deposed and arrested.

Judgement Day broke out in the same year. Zombies besieged Texas City but it was able to survive. The Chief Judge was horrified by the idea of nuking the five overrun cities.

In 2117, Clinton Box discovered a silo of three hundred nuclear warheads. He used them to blackmail Texas City into letting him form the United Mutant States of America in the Northern Radlands. In the end, Mega-City One had to stop the USM and disable their warheads.

An Outlands Division garrison had been around the independent city of New Orleans but the Judges there mostly allowed crimes as long as they got a kickback. They were quite put out in 2118 when Saul Cain rode into the "Big Sleazy" and set himself up as sheriff.

Deputy Chief Judge Honus was arrested for corruption - a move to give the impression that other high-ups weren't corrupt - and replaced by Judge Wotan, soon before "committing suicide" in his cell in 2120.

Once he became the new Deputy Chief Judge, Wotan (calling for "New Justice, New Order") used 'corruption charges' to purge Lone Star Justice of those in his way and consolidate power. Those who'd been found guilty of corruption kept 'committing suicide out of shame'. He decided to officially annex the independent city of New Orleans as part of Texan territory, and Saul Cain - now self-proclaimed sheriff - was targeted for assassination. Texan tourists in the city were considered acceptable losses and after pulling it off, Wotan had all Texans moved out of city and all mutants "and holders of genetic-disorder certificates" rounded up.

All of this was a mistake on Wotan's part as Cain survived and just before Christmas 2120, he as able to breach the Hall of Justice with his knowledge of the backdoor codes. Wotan was abducted and murdered. Before arriving, Cain had already wiped New Orleans and its Texan garrison off the map with the Mississippi Burning.

Chief Judge Huston attended the 2126 Global Justice Summit in Mega-City One. He was irritated to learn there were still Judda, as MC-1 had assured they'd all been destroyed, and later argued Hershey should capitulate to them.

Total War's leaders were living just outside Texas City in 2126. When they tried to blackmail Mega-City One with nuclear bombs, Texas City Judges were sent in and executed two of the leaders. The Chief Judge at this point was a man called George.

Texas City joined the 2128 multinational intervention in Ciudad Barranquilla's civil war, unaware Mega-City One was using this as cover for regime change.

The Texan authorities were glad to see Dan Francisco start 'encouraging' mutants to live Mega-City One again and their ambassador Dallas Sorry (secretly into sex with mutant prostitutes) went to a ceremony to reaffirm their ties. On his way back, he crashed in the Cursed Earth and had his aide kill an entire town to cover up his whoremongering. Dredd and Rico rescued Sorry from mutants hanging him for a crime he didn't commit so they can take him to be hanged for the crime he did commit.

In 2138, the new Chief Judge Pamelina Oswin began to covertly arm and organise a mutant gang into the "Grindstone Cowboys" and turned them against Mega-City One's Cursed Earth food farms. Once the city was weakened, and with its diplomatic ties with Brit-Cit damaged, it turned to Texas City for aid - Mega-City One capitulated to Texas' terms in exchange for thousands of new, 'retrained' Judges. This was part of Oswin's grander plan to reunify the former United States under TC's direction, with reactionary elements in Brit-Cit colluding with her for their own purposes. While the Texan Judges did swiftly boost arrests by 6%, executions went up 9% and with a disproportionate number of them being mutants, whom the Texans shot outright; the northern city was then pressured to accept new immigration laws to keep more mutants out, with the promise of further changes to come, and accept Texas City's surplus population. Hershey realised too late that this was a quiet takeover and Judge Rico learned too late that the Texans were running the Cowboys.

Mega-City Judges taking out Oswin's loyalists.

However Dredd, Rico, Dolman, Psi Judge Lewis, and Texan defector Judge Knox form a plan to stop Oswin, the end result being her death and the end of the union, with Oswin loyalist Judge being killed off. Hershey installed Psi Judge Lewis as Chief Judge of Texas City, silently putting TC under the control of Mega City One. Relations between Texas and Brit-Cit were suspended for a year until Lewis and Hershey felt sure the latest ambassador could be trusted. Some prominent Brit-Citters were unaware Oswin had been replaced, one confused to see Lewis and saying the previous Chief Judge had been a personal friend.

City highways in 2139.

The year after the quiet takeover, Judge Dredd was sent to quietly root out and arrest members of the secret Sector Zero, preferably without Texan Judges being aware of it. As well as carrying out this mission, he rescued several wealthy Brit-Cit teenagers who had been kidnapped by a mutant gang and holed up in Sector 9's abandoned oil refineries; we're sure this minor rescue of Messr Nelson Kreelman won't go badly wrong.

When discussing states that might move against Guatemala, the Humanistas leader mentioned Texas City.

Society

• Texas City patterns itself on Wild West imagery, with a giant statue of "Tex" looming over the city.

• The citizens like showing off their toughness and independence at the "danger parks": "The City That Breeds Big Men", as their motto goes. No license is needed for any type of firearm.

• As with the Big Meg, there is a Citi-Def citizen defence militia.

Judges and law

Texan Judge in 2102

Texas City has one of the oldest Justice Departments in the world. The Mega-Special #1 described them as "a tough, fiercely independent Judge force (they have successfully fought off plans to rename their city Mega-City Three). Judges are trained to deal not only with problems among their own citizens, but also from the high concentration of mutants from the nearby Mutie Homelands."

In 2138, Judge Beeny remarked that Texas's laws were the closest to Mega-City One's out of all other cities.

The Chief Judge, Deputy Chief Judge, and Justice Council operate out of the Lone Star Hall of Justice; the Justice Council comprise of Judges who have retired from street duty. Divisions include Outlands Division and Citizen Relations Unit. Judge garrisons exist in large cities in the south like New Orleans.

Outlands Marshals and Texas Rangers patrol the territories and badlands outside the city proper, but don't have any jurisdiction in freetowns.

Deputy Chief Judge Honus and a Texan Judge in 2114

Uniforms mostly resemble Mega-City One Judges but, as with the rest of the city, they've added cowboy iconography: Stetson hats with a 'sheriff badge' symbol instead of helmets and a belt icon of the five-star inset in an eagle (which is sometimes the Stetson icon as well). In 2075, Texan Judges were shown with MC-1's helmets but with a lone star icon in the forehead. The standard weapon is the Smith & Wesson Peacemaker. Judges have used bikes and cars in different strips. Badlands territory is also patrolled by Texas City Rangers.

Under Texas City law, cattle rustling in the Territories - and pretty much every crime in the territories - is punishable by hanging.

As with Mega-City One, Texas City cadets are taken on hotdog runs in the Cursed Earth. Unofficially, another form of hotdog run was for cadets to disguise themselves as nightriders and terrorise the "Mutieville" ghetto so as to learn how to 'handle' mutants.

Tex-Cit or Mex-Cit?

Three Mexican Judges, Che, Chico, and Mex, appear in the Luna-1 stories with Texan uniforms - sometimes drawn with sombreros instead of stetson. As the strip established that only the former US cities were running Luna-1, the intention may have been that Texas City has Mexican-accented inhabitants and Judges to fit the Wild West ethos of the storyline.

Later strips would mention a Mex-Cit and the book Eclipse would retcon Che and Chico as Mex-Cit Judges, following a mention of Mex-Cit Luna work in the contemporary Mongoose RPG.

Mongoose RPG

In the early 2000s Dredd RPG from Moongoose, extra details were invented:

• When it was still Mega-City Three, it was ruled remotely by the Chief Judges of MC-1 and MC-2 - this state of affairs went back to the mid-21st century, as the US Senate couldn't agree on who to put in charge. The Second American Civil War was to gain sovereignty and Chief Judge Duke was its first ruler. (Origins contradicted this a lot!)
• The vast stereotypically Texan buildings and iconography is a post-independence development
• The main power source is the Ten Gallon Power Station, sheltering under a giant steel Stetson hat
• The perimeter is guarded by forts and a patrol of armoured prairie wagons

Trivia

• Some sources have said it used to be called Mega-City Three - and it's both names in the 701 world map - but "Origins" retconned it to have been Texas City since the 2050s.

• The "Civil War" between MC-1 and Texas City was part of a fan-submitted timeline that saw print in an annual. It has since been depicted on the prog 169 cover, made it into the RPGs, and briefly brought up in the Dread Dominion book, but Garth Ennis remains the only comic writer to bring it up, in "Monkey on my Back" in Megazine #204.

• While not specified, Texas City forces would logically have fought in the Battle of Armageddon.

Gallery

A map of Notable Regions in the Judge Dredd Universe.