I lost the disclaimer saying that I don't own any Galaxy Rangers characters. Just some more musings from Zach's point of view.
Out Of Reach
It started as a routine mission to check out a distress call from the Ambrose Seven Space station. It turned out pretty much like all other 'routine missions' end up. Complete chaos.
When we got there we found out that it had been attacked by a small fleet of Crown ships that somehow penetrated our border. It was a scientific research station and there were a hundred and fifteen humans on it.
Five had been killed in the raid. Two were wounded and managed to escape capture by hiding in the cargo bay. They told us the rest were rounded up and taken.
We knew exactly where they were headed.
There was no time to waste. We had to use our hyper drive at maximum in order to catch up to the raider ship. Fortunately it was not near Tortuna yet. Apparently for once luck was with us. It seemed that they had a little engine trouble.
When we got there they had more trouble than that.
I remember making my way through the ship, blasting every single Crown trooper in sight. We'd blasted open the cargo bay and were now making our way, trying to rescue as many captives as we could.
I remember blowing up the last of the cell doors, shouting for the prisoners to follow Niko to freedom. Then suddenly a Slaver Lord appeared before me. I was about to blast it when I heard Niko shouting.
"ZACHERY! NO!"
Then I saw the Slaver Lord change shape for a moment. It turned into Eliza.
That Slaver Lord was Eliza.
The Queen of the Crown was using my wife's psychocrystal to enslave other humans.
I put down my blaster and lunged toward her, growling and screaming. Several Crown Troopers got in my way. Instead of using their blasters they made the mistake of trying to pin me down.
You can't pin down a man with bionics in his body and rage in his heart.
Unfortunately it gave the Slaver Lord time enough to escape through another ship.
I had her.
She was only a few feet away from me and she got away.
The last thing I remember is the Queen's laughter as she escaped.
She may have lost any other humans for her psychocrypt but she still had one.
She still had my wife.
She still had that power over me.
And there was nothing I could do about it.
I can still hear that witch laughing in my nightmares.
She taunts me, holding Eliza's crystal just out of my reach. Every time I try to grab it I fall into a pit and wake up covered in sweat.
I don't know how much more of this I can take.
Why is it that I can save everyone else in the universe except my own wife?
How could I be such a failure to my family? My children need their mother and I can't give her to them.
I have to get better. I have to get stronger. For Eliza.
I have to save her.
She's waiting for me to save her.
Always just out of reach.