C-Sec itself is still standing, but I can still relate.
[He takes a breath. He doesn't like talking about this.]
I left because I felt like my hands were tied. Like I'd never be able to make a difference thanks to all the rules and regulations - all the loopholes that let damn near every high-profile criminal I caught walk away scot free.
I was sick of it. I knew that I could do more good without that, so I went somewhere those rules didn't apply. I tried doing things my own way in the middle of the most crime-infested, desperate part of the galaxy. Gun-runners, drug traffickers, illegal mercenary outfits - you name it - they all operated there.
It worked for a while, too. Well enough that the people there started to call me their guardian angel.
[A short, bitter laugh. Now you know where the name comes from.]
Some of those people wanted to help out, so I put together a team, and for a while, that worked too.
[He draws in and lets out another breath.]
I'm sure you get where this is going, so I'm going to just get to the point. They trusted me, and I couldn't do anything other than watch as they were killed. I was too far away, too slow, too stupid to see it coming, and I spent the next six hours trapped in the same safehouse as their bodies while the people who did it tried to finish the job.
And that wasn't the first time I've had everything come down around me.
[Maybe he doesn't know what Rich has gone through - not in grim, bloody detail - but he's not exactly a stranger to losing everything that's important to him.]
I'm not saying that you don't need to survive and move forward. Just that it can be hard to do that, and sometimes you need a hand.
no subject
[He takes a breath. He doesn't like talking about this.]
I left because I felt like my hands were tied. Like I'd never be able to make a difference thanks to all the rules and regulations - all the loopholes that let damn near every high-profile criminal I caught walk away scot free.
I was sick of it. I knew that I could do more good without that, so I went somewhere those rules didn't apply. I tried doing things my own way in the middle of the most crime-infested, desperate part of the galaxy. Gun-runners, drug traffickers, illegal mercenary outfits - you name it - they all operated there.
It worked for a while, too. Well enough that the people there started to call me their guardian angel.
[A short, bitter laugh. Now you know where the name comes from.]
Some of those people wanted to help out, so I put together a team, and for a while, that worked too.
[He draws in and lets out another breath.]
I'm sure you get where this is going, so I'm going to just get to the point. They trusted me, and I couldn't do anything other than watch as they were killed. I was too far away, too slow, too stupid to see it coming, and I spent the next six hours trapped in the same safehouse as their bodies while the people who did it tried to finish the job.
And that wasn't the first time I've had everything come down around me.
[Maybe he doesn't know what Rich has gone through - not in grim, bloody detail - but he's not exactly a stranger to losing everything that's important to him.]
I'm not saying that you don't need to survive and move forward. Just that it can be hard to do that, and sometimes you need a hand.