Power Rangers Thunder force #28 Zanek's legacy Chapter 4: Nightmare.
Power rangers is the property of Saban.
Zanek is laying over a prone female figure. He is crying.
"My love. Did I fail you?"
The others try to stand Zanek up but he shoves them away.
"Could I have saved you or were you destined to die?"
Finally the green ranger knocks Zanek out and drags him off of the prone body. The face is exposed and it's Janey.
"Could I have saved you..."?
""And now for episode 28.""
2 years later...
Zanek is standing in a break room drinking something. Suddenly someone covers his eyes.
"Guess whom?"
"A dreg grunt?"
The hands pull away and hit him in the back.
"Do I look like a dreg?"
Zanek spins around and sees that it's Janey.
"Only in the morning."
Janey gets in a huff.
"Zanek! Just for that you are paying for dinner tonight."
"I'm just kidding."
Zanek kisses Janey on the lips and she kisses back. When they separate they are both smiling.
"Well I wasn't. I am running short on credits this week."
Zanek sighs and checks his pockets.
"I am not exactly big daddy money bucks myself. But I think I can afford a small food cart on the corner."
Janey slugs him playfully.
"Okay okay, a small deli."
Janey gives him a sleeper hold and a nuggie.
"Okay it will put me in hock for years but I will take you to that new gourmet cuisine restaurant."
"Now that's better."
Suddenly an alarm goes off and Zanek rolls his eyes up.
"Not now."
"All personnel report to the briefing room immediately. Repeat all personnel report to the briefing room immediately."
Janey and Zanek rush out the room and meet the others along the way.
"Think this is another drill?" Carket runs almost out of breath.
"Again? They just did it last week." Anny whines.
"Oh come on you wussies. It's good for you." Zanek punches Carket playfully.
They rush into the briefing room and quickly take a seat.
"Okay we just got Intel on our initial attack on the dreg home world and it isn't good."
The screen comes to life showing bodies all over the place. Some are intact but most of them are decapitated with limbs all over the place. Zanek and the others can't help but to wince.
"Sir we are picking up another transmission." An officer runs into the room.
The main officer takes a data pad and hooks it up to the computer. A man appears on the screen.
"We need help general. They have us pinned with their superior firepower. It's like nothing I have ever seen before." A man on screen yells.
The officers watch in horror as a huge blast of white hits a fellow officer and seem to erase him from existence.
"Oh my god. What the hell is that?"
"It's the new weapon I was mentioning. It's nothing that we have Intel on. It doesn't leave any trace at all. Not even a single cell."
The general jumps out of his seat.
"Get the hell out of there. We are sending the special team in."
Zanek gets a knot in his throat as he knows what that means.
The screen gets all snowy.
"I'm losing you sir. What did you say?"
"I said..."
But before the general can finish his sentence, the screen is enveloped by a huge blast of white. The signal goes bad and never comes back.
"Soldier. Soldier!"
"It's no use sir. The signal is lost on the other end."
The general shakes his head.
"Okay everybody but the special team leaves this room now!"
Everybody but Zanek and the 4 other rangers leave the room.
"Okay you know what this is all about."
"Not really sir." Zanek looks up.
"What is that soldier?"
"I haven't really kept up on the war news much."
"Why the hell not?"
"I've been busy sir."
"Well fine. Then I will tell you again even though everybody else has heard it already."
The general pushes a button and a picture appears on the screen. The picture shows a humanoid like creature that is deformed and has yellow eyes.
"The Dreg is a mutated form of our species. We created them to work on harsh planets."
The picture changes to show more text.
"Unfortunately they developed a higher intelligence and became resistant to our drug to make them compliant."
The general pushes another button and a video appears. The video shows hundreds of dregs attacking regular humanoids.
"They revolted and overthrew every planet they were on."
Zanek gulps.
"So far they haven't targeted earth. Yet. But we have Intel that they plan to attack soon. And the weapon Intel confirms our fears."
"So what's the mission you want us to go on?"
The picture changes to show a relatively small planet.
"This is one of their main weapon manufacturing planets. I want you to go and take out this new weapon at all costs. Failure is not an option."
"You want the five of us to take on a planet full of those bastards?" Carket laughs.
"Yes soldier. Do you have a problem with that?"
Carket gets serious immediately.
"No sir!"
"Good. You are leaving in 0800 hours. Good luck and god speed."
The rangers all salute the general. That night Zanek lies in bed and thinks about the upcoming mission.
"Whacha thinking about soldier?"
Zanek smiles when he sees Janey in the doorway. Janey comes and sits down by Zanek.
"You know you could get in serious trouble for being in the men's barracks."
Janey smiles.
"Seeing you is worth a thousand pushups."
They embrace and kiss.
"So you never answered my question."
Zanek gets a serious look on his face.
"We haven't been on a mission this dangerous since that one 2 years ago."
Janey frowns.
"I can only imagine what it was like since I wasn't part of the team at the time."
"Our leader was a good one. He shouldn't have been lost."
Janey lays her head on Zanek's chest.
"Tell me about him."
The next morning...
A man comes storming into the men's barracks.
"Wakey wakey. It's 0600 hours and time to prepare to leave."
The 2 male rangers get up groggily.
"Man I bet the birds are still asleep."
They get ready and enter the briefing room once more.
"Okay this is your Intel."
A picture of the planet's surface appears with some buildings on it.
"This is their main base and we believe that their new weapon is housed in it. As I told you yesterday you're primary mission is to take it out and come back alive."
"I hear they have a really nasty security system."
The general smiles.
"We have just the thing for that."
The general brings up a picture of a bunch of battle suits.
"These are a new kind of weapon we developed. You will get in them and fight with them."
The general pushes a button and a video of the suits coming together shows.
"In a desperate situation you can bring them together to form on big fighting suit."
A buzzer goes off.
"Okay it's time to move it out!"
The 5 file out and head for the docking bay and the drop ship. They all enter and sit down as it lifts off. Hours later they meet with a spaceship and continue on into space.
"Are you ready for this?" Janey asks.
"I'm as ready as I ever will be." Zanek responds.
A shudder announces that the ship has entered low atmosphere and the drop ship is ejected.
"Okay people. We will land in 10 minutes. Weapons check."
The 5 rangers pull out their blasters and check the power levels on them.
"Ready sir!"
The drop ship lands and they all file out.
"The lords are contained in the spaceship above and will be dropped in if needed. Now hopefully we won't need them." Zanek calls out to the others.
"Yes sir!"
Zanek takes out his binoculars and scans ahead.
"I am not picking up any life readings within a 5-mile radius. According to Intel the base is 10 miles from here. Hope you feel up to it."
"Yes sir!"
The 5 race at a steady pace. After 10 minutes Zanek makes the motion to drop down to the ground. Zanek whips out his binoculars and looks again. He sees a very heavily armed and guarded base.
"Okay just as Intel said this is very well guarded. Stealth won't work. We need to go in with our weapons blazing."
Zanek takes out a small sphere.
"This should distract most of the guards enough for us to get a jump on them."
Zanek and the others slowly approach the perimeter. Zanek throws the sphere at the entrance. It explodes on contact with the ground and throws up a lot of smoke.
"Let's go!"
The rangers come running in blasting and take out the guards easily.
"Sir permission to speak freely?"
"Granted."
"That was too easy. Something is up."
"I feel it to. But until we know for sure we are to continue with the mission." Zanek nods.
Zanek places an explosive on the door and then runs away as it blows the door. The rangers immediately fire on the guards alerted by the explosion. They rush in under the cover of the debris. Each one takes a position and fires on guards at different positions.
"Sir the entrance is secure!"
Zanek takes out his scanner and scans the area.
"I am not picking up any energy readings consistent with the weapon we were sent here to destroy." Zanek frowns.
"Perhaps they got wind of this mission and moved the target."
"That's what I was afraid of."
Zanek leads the others into where the weapon should be. They blow the door open and are greeted by the sight of nothing.
"What the hell?"
Suddenly Zanek is knocked down from behind. He spins around to see Carket holding a rifle. The others all have a blaster pointed at him.
"Carket explain yourself."
Carket answers by hitting Zanek again.
"Explain myself? Just look at my birth records. Or lack of them."
Zanek feels like throwing up when he realizes what he means.
"You're a first generation Dreg? The ones that made it?"
"Yeah. And I am not about to let you destroy my people."
"Why didn't the corp know about this?"
Carket laughs.
"Oh they knew about it. Why do you think they set us up?"
Carket pulls the trigger slowly but Janey shoots him down before he can fire. Zanek pounces on Carket and puts a foot on his throat.
"Explain that remark soldier!"
Carket laughs and coughs up blood.
"You mean you didn't know? You normals are so ignorant. People like me run the whole corp."
Zanek finds his world spinning around him and bile coming to his mouth. Zanek spins around to confront the others.
"Are you all filthy dregs also?"
"No I swear. I had no idea."
Carket laughs some more.
"They aren't. They are normals. The dreg wanted to recruit normals to use them. To test your mettle so to speak."
Zanek hits Carket hard.
"What was the real purpose of this mission? TELL ME!"
Carket coughs up more blood and gives Zanek the finger before going limp.
"Damn!"
"Wait a minute. If he was supposed to kill you then..."
Suddenly the earth rocks as bombs hit the building. The roof starts falling apart.
"Let's get out of here!"
"But why. There's nowhere to go."
"It's better than dying in here."
Zanek grabs the green swords and they exit the building. Another explosion hits right in front of them.
"They want us dead and they won't stop until they succeed!"
They continue running but suddenly a group of squad members show up.
"Surrender your weapons now!"
A firefight ensues but in that fight Janey is hit bad. Seeing his love laying their bleeding puts Zanek in a rage. He fires and takes out all the squad members.
"Go to hell!"
Zanek lays over Janey crying.
"Come-on. We have to leave now if we are to survive."
Zanek shakes his head.
"No we have to take her with us. She must live!"
The blue ranger shakes his head and knocks Zanek out with his blaster. The 4 rush into the forest not knowing what to do. Suddenly a ship lands and a friend of the rangers steps out.
"Come-on. I know what is going on. Come with me."
The four get in the ship and it takes off.
"I can't believe that the whole crop is full of dirty dregs." The pilot frowns.
The pilot looks around.
"Hey where's Janey?"
The others look down in sadness.
"She didn't make it."
"That's too bad."
Suddenly the pilot pulls out a blaster.
"What are you doing man?"
The pilot's face changes to show a dreg face.
"Oh shit!"
The dreg laughs as he blows away everybody at point blank range. But by this time Zanek has awaken and he shoots the pilot. He takes the controls but frowns.
"What do I do now? My whole team is dead. I can't trust anybody."
Suddenly the pilot stabs Zanek in the back with his last ounce of strength. Zanek falls to the floor as everything goes black.
"I'm coming Janey."
Zanek finds himself floating in a dark space void of anything.
"Am I dead?"
"No."
A white figure appears.
"Who are you?"
"My name is Auros. I have come to give you a second chance."
"Why me? I lost all my team. I let them down."
"Because you are destined to help save another generation and another place."
"I don't believe in destiny. Not anymore."
"You will."
The memory stops and Zanek is floating through the void once more.
"You couldn't have done anything to stop it. Can you see that now?"
"Yes."
Zanek is startled as a flute appears in his hands.
"Remember this?"
Zanek gasps as memories flood his head. Memories of the tense period after losing the captain of the first ranger team. How this flute calmed him.
"I lost this flute along time ago."
"Not just lost. But held over until it is needed. And it will be needed now."
Zanek smiles.
"Thank you for everything."
The void disappears.
To be continued...
You know his past. Now see Zanek's future and if the rangers have one. Can he save them from the clutches of Turlok? And what roll will this flute play in this whole thing?
Power rangers is the property of Saban.
Zanek is laying over a prone female figure. He is crying.
"My love. Did I fail you?"
The others try to stand Zanek up but he shoves them away.
"Could I have saved you or were you destined to die?"
Finally the green ranger knocks Zanek out and drags him off of the prone body. The face is exposed and it's Janey.
"Could I have saved you..."?
""And now for episode 28.""
2 years later...
Zanek is standing in a break room drinking something. Suddenly someone covers his eyes.
"Guess whom?"
"A dreg grunt?"
The hands pull away and hit him in the back.
"Do I look like a dreg?"
Zanek spins around and sees that it's Janey.
"Only in the morning."
Janey gets in a huff.
"Zanek! Just for that you are paying for dinner tonight."
"I'm just kidding."
Zanek kisses Janey on the lips and she kisses back. When they separate they are both smiling.
"Well I wasn't. I am running short on credits this week."
Zanek sighs and checks his pockets.
"I am not exactly big daddy money bucks myself. But I think I can afford a small food cart on the corner."
Janey slugs him playfully.
"Okay okay, a small deli."
Janey gives him a sleeper hold and a nuggie.
"Okay it will put me in hock for years but I will take you to that new gourmet cuisine restaurant."
"Now that's better."
Suddenly an alarm goes off and Zanek rolls his eyes up.
"Not now."
"All personnel report to the briefing room immediately. Repeat all personnel report to the briefing room immediately."
Janey and Zanek rush out the room and meet the others along the way.
"Think this is another drill?" Carket runs almost out of breath.
"Again? They just did it last week." Anny whines.
"Oh come on you wussies. It's good for you." Zanek punches Carket playfully.
They rush into the briefing room and quickly take a seat.
"Okay we just got Intel on our initial attack on the dreg home world and it isn't good."
The screen comes to life showing bodies all over the place. Some are intact but most of them are decapitated with limbs all over the place. Zanek and the others can't help but to wince.
"Sir we are picking up another transmission." An officer runs into the room.
The main officer takes a data pad and hooks it up to the computer. A man appears on the screen.
"We need help general. They have us pinned with their superior firepower. It's like nothing I have ever seen before." A man on screen yells.
The officers watch in horror as a huge blast of white hits a fellow officer and seem to erase him from existence.
"Oh my god. What the hell is that?"
"It's the new weapon I was mentioning. It's nothing that we have Intel on. It doesn't leave any trace at all. Not even a single cell."
The general jumps out of his seat.
"Get the hell out of there. We are sending the special team in."
Zanek gets a knot in his throat as he knows what that means.
The screen gets all snowy.
"I'm losing you sir. What did you say?"
"I said..."
But before the general can finish his sentence, the screen is enveloped by a huge blast of white. The signal goes bad and never comes back.
"Soldier. Soldier!"
"It's no use sir. The signal is lost on the other end."
The general shakes his head.
"Okay everybody but the special team leaves this room now!"
Everybody but Zanek and the 4 other rangers leave the room.
"Okay you know what this is all about."
"Not really sir." Zanek looks up.
"What is that soldier?"
"I haven't really kept up on the war news much."
"Why the hell not?"
"I've been busy sir."
"Well fine. Then I will tell you again even though everybody else has heard it already."
The general pushes a button and a picture appears on the screen. The picture shows a humanoid like creature that is deformed and has yellow eyes.
"The Dreg is a mutated form of our species. We created them to work on harsh planets."
The picture changes to show more text.
"Unfortunately they developed a higher intelligence and became resistant to our drug to make them compliant."
The general pushes another button and a video appears. The video shows hundreds of dregs attacking regular humanoids.
"They revolted and overthrew every planet they were on."
Zanek gulps.
"So far they haven't targeted earth. Yet. But we have Intel that they plan to attack soon. And the weapon Intel confirms our fears."
"So what's the mission you want us to go on?"
The picture changes to show a relatively small planet.
"This is one of their main weapon manufacturing planets. I want you to go and take out this new weapon at all costs. Failure is not an option."
"You want the five of us to take on a planet full of those bastards?" Carket laughs.
"Yes soldier. Do you have a problem with that?"
Carket gets serious immediately.
"No sir!"
"Good. You are leaving in 0800 hours. Good luck and god speed."
The rangers all salute the general. That night Zanek lies in bed and thinks about the upcoming mission.
"Whacha thinking about soldier?"
Zanek smiles when he sees Janey in the doorway. Janey comes and sits down by Zanek.
"You know you could get in serious trouble for being in the men's barracks."
Janey smiles.
"Seeing you is worth a thousand pushups."
They embrace and kiss.
"So you never answered my question."
Zanek gets a serious look on his face.
"We haven't been on a mission this dangerous since that one 2 years ago."
Janey frowns.
"I can only imagine what it was like since I wasn't part of the team at the time."
"Our leader was a good one. He shouldn't have been lost."
Janey lays her head on Zanek's chest.
"Tell me about him."
The next morning...
A man comes storming into the men's barracks.
"Wakey wakey. It's 0600 hours and time to prepare to leave."
The 2 male rangers get up groggily.
"Man I bet the birds are still asleep."
They get ready and enter the briefing room once more.
"Okay this is your Intel."
A picture of the planet's surface appears with some buildings on it.
"This is their main base and we believe that their new weapon is housed in it. As I told you yesterday you're primary mission is to take it out and come back alive."
"I hear they have a really nasty security system."
The general smiles.
"We have just the thing for that."
The general brings up a picture of a bunch of battle suits.
"These are a new kind of weapon we developed. You will get in them and fight with them."
The general pushes a button and a video of the suits coming together shows.
"In a desperate situation you can bring them together to form on big fighting suit."
A buzzer goes off.
"Okay it's time to move it out!"
The 5 file out and head for the docking bay and the drop ship. They all enter and sit down as it lifts off. Hours later they meet with a spaceship and continue on into space.
"Are you ready for this?" Janey asks.
"I'm as ready as I ever will be." Zanek responds.
A shudder announces that the ship has entered low atmosphere and the drop ship is ejected.
"Okay people. We will land in 10 minutes. Weapons check."
The 5 rangers pull out their blasters and check the power levels on them.
"Ready sir!"
The drop ship lands and they all file out.
"The lords are contained in the spaceship above and will be dropped in if needed. Now hopefully we won't need them." Zanek calls out to the others.
"Yes sir!"
Zanek takes out his binoculars and scans ahead.
"I am not picking up any life readings within a 5-mile radius. According to Intel the base is 10 miles from here. Hope you feel up to it."
"Yes sir!"
The 5 race at a steady pace. After 10 minutes Zanek makes the motion to drop down to the ground. Zanek whips out his binoculars and looks again. He sees a very heavily armed and guarded base.
"Okay just as Intel said this is very well guarded. Stealth won't work. We need to go in with our weapons blazing."
Zanek takes out a small sphere.
"This should distract most of the guards enough for us to get a jump on them."
Zanek and the others slowly approach the perimeter. Zanek throws the sphere at the entrance. It explodes on contact with the ground and throws up a lot of smoke.
"Let's go!"
The rangers come running in blasting and take out the guards easily.
"Sir permission to speak freely?"
"Granted."
"That was too easy. Something is up."
"I feel it to. But until we know for sure we are to continue with the mission." Zanek nods.
Zanek places an explosive on the door and then runs away as it blows the door. The rangers immediately fire on the guards alerted by the explosion. They rush in under the cover of the debris. Each one takes a position and fires on guards at different positions.
"Sir the entrance is secure!"
Zanek takes out his scanner and scans the area.
"I am not picking up any energy readings consistent with the weapon we were sent here to destroy." Zanek frowns.
"Perhaps they got wind of this mission and moved the target."
"That's what I was afraid of."
Zanek leads the others into where the weapon should be. They blow the door open and are greeted by the sight of nothing.
"What the hell?"
Suddenly Zanek is knocked down from behind. He spins around to see Carket holding a rifle. The others all have a blaster pointed at him.
"Carket explain yourself."
Carket answers by hitting Zanek again.
"Explain myself? Just look at my birth records. Or lack of them."
Zanek feels like throwing up when he realizes what he means.
"You're a first generation Dreg? The ones that made it?"
"Yeah. And I am not about to let you destroy my people."
"Why didn't the corp know about this?"
Carket laughs.
"Oh they knew about it. Why do you think they set us up?"
Carket pulls the trigger slowly but Janey shoots him down before he can fire. Zanek pounces on Carket and puts a foot on his throat.
"Explain that remark soldier!"
Carket laughs and coughs up blood.
"You mean you didn't know? You normals are so ignorant. People like me run the whole corp."
Zanek finds his world spinning around him and bile coming to his mouth. Zanek spins around to confront the others.
"Are you all filthy dregs also?"
"No I swear. I had no idea."
Carket laughs some more.
"They aren't. They are normals. The dreg wanted to recruit normals to use them. To test your mettle so to speak."
Zanek hits Carket hard.
"What was the real purpose of this mission? TELL ME!"
Carket coughs up more blood and gives Zanek the finger before going limp.
"Damn!"
"Wait a minute. If he was supposed to kill you then..."
Suddenly the earth rocks as bombs hit the building. The roof starts falling apart.
"Let's get out of here!"
"But why. There's nowhere to go."
"It's better than dying in here."
Zanek grabs the green swords and they exit the building. Another explosion hits right in front of them.
"They want us dead and they won't stop until they succeed!"
They continue running but suddenly a group of squad members show up.
"Surrender your weapons now!"
A firefight ensues but in that fight Janey is hit bad. Seeing his love laying their bleeding puts Zanek in a rage. He fires and takes out all the squad members.
"Go to hell!"
Zanek lays over Janey crying.
"Come-on. We have to leave now if we are to survive."
Zanek shakes his head.
"No we have to take her with us. She must live!"
The blue ranger shakes his head and knocks Zanek out with his blaster. The 4 rush into the forest not knowing what to do. Suddenly a ship lands and a friend of the rangers steps out.
"Come-on. I know what is going on. Come with me."
The four get in the ship and it takes off.
"I can't believe that the whole crop is full of dirty dregs." The pilot frowns.
The pilot looks around.
"Hey where's Janey?"
The others look down in sadness.
"She didn't make it."
"That's too bad."
Suddenly the pilot pulls out a blaster.
"What are you doing man?"
The pilot's face changes to show a dreg face.
"Oh shit!"
The dreg laughs as he blows away everybody at point blank range. But by this time Zanek has awaken and he shoots the pilot. He takes the controls but frowns.
"What do I do now? My whole team is dead. I can't trust anybody."
Suddenly the pilot stabs Zanek in the back with his last ounce of strength. Zanek falls to the floor as everything goes black.
"I'm coming Janey."
Zanek finds himself floating in a dark space void of anything.
"Am I dead?"
"No."
A white figure appears.
"Who are you?"
"My name is Auros. I have come to give you a second chance."
"Why me? I lost all my team. I let them down."
"Because you are destined to help save another generation and another place."
"I don't believe in destiny. Not anymore."
"You will."
The memory stops and Zanek is floating through the void once more.
"You couldn't have done anything to stop it. Can you see that now?"
"Yes."
Zanek is startled as a flute appears in his hands.
"Remember this?"
Zanek gasps as memories flood his head. Memories of the tense period after losing the captain of the first ranger team. How this flute calmed him.
"I lost this flute along time ago."
"Not just lost. But held over until it is needed. And it will be needed now."
Zanek smiles.
"Thank you for everything."
The void disappears.
To be continued...
You know his past. Now see Zanek's future and if the rangers have one. Can he save them from the clutches of Turlok? And what roll will this flute play in this whole thing?
