Drake Vance and the Black Mongoose

The Heist That Shouldn’t Have Worked...

Drake Vance never planned on becoming a legendary rogue, infamous smuggler, and general pain in the ass for anyone with an official badge.

All he wanted was to get off Pryon IX before he turned into another nameless corpse in the back alleys of a syndicate-run world where even the rats paid protection fees.

So, at seventeen, he did the most logical, rational thing he could think of.

He stole a freighter from the Red Blades, the most feared cartel in the sector, loaded with stolen Imperial Dominion weapons.

To be fair, he didn’t exactly plan to steal the Black Mongoose, he was just looking for a way off-world that wasn’t a coffin or a trash barge. The Mongoose was supposed to be a quick getaway ship, but when he found out what was in the cargo hold, well, it would have been downright irresponsible not to steal the weapons too.

The First Rule of Smuggling. Don’t Ask Stupid Questions

Drake had exactly zero experience flying a freighter, but that didn’t stop him from crashing through the atmosphere of Pryon IX like a drunken asteroid.

His first few days in space consisted of:

1. Figuring out how to actually fly the damn ship 

(Turns out, buttons that say "DO NOT PRESS" actually mean it).

2. Avoiding bounty hunters sent by the Red Blades 

(Spoiler: He failed. Several times).

3. Selling stolen Imperial weapons without getting shot 

(Mild success. Mostly because he talked fast and ran faster).

By the time he reached the outer fringes of the Oris Belt, he had three bounties on his head, four different criminal syndicates looking for him, and an Imperial patrol cruiser that apparently took offense to stolen military-grade explosives being sold to freedom fighters.

But on the plus side? He had credits in his pocket, a ship that actually worked, and no immediate plans to die. So, all things considered, it was a solid start.

The Art of Talking Your Way Out of Certain Death

Drake quickly learned that survival in the underworld required three key skills:

1. A quick tongue 

(because blasters are expensive).

2. The ability to run fast 

(because blasters are useless if you’re dead).

3. The skill to shoot back when option one and two fail 

(because sometimes people don’t appreciate sarcasm when you owe them money).

His first real job as a smuggler came when he accidentally (on purpose)

conned a gang of Jorvaxian slavers out of a cargo hold full of stolen fuel cells.

Instead of delivering them to a crime lord on Kalvex Station, he sold them to an independent colony on Zeta-4 that desperately needed power.

His reasoning?

He liked getting paid, but he also liked annoying crime bosses.

The crime lords sent killers after him.

The colony named a bar after him.

Honestly? A fair trade.

Becoming a Professional (Kind of)

By the time Drake turned nineteen the Black Mongoose had become more than just a stolen freighter, It was home.

He refitted its engines, added a stealth modulator, and even installed hidden smuggler compartments which ironically saved his life more than once when overlord patrols decided to board him for ‘routine inspections’.

His jobs ranged from:

• Running contraband 

(spices, weapons, stolen tech, very illegal liquor).

• Transporting people who may or may not have been wanted criminals 

(Drake never asked - Less questions, fewer blaster wounds).

• Scamming small-time crime bosses by promising cargo he had no intention of delivering (this ended… poorly many, many times).

When Luck Runs Out

Drake’s luck finally ran out when he took the wrong job from the wrong person.

A simple job: Deliver an "unmarked crate" to a client in the Mourvas System.

Easy money, no questions asked until that is, Overlord Destroyers showed up.

It turned out that

• The crate was classified Dominion Overlord tech.

• The client was a rebel faction fighting the Dominion.

So after barely escaping through a gravity rift, Drake soon realized that:

1. He was now wanted by the Dominion Overlords .

2. He was probably a rebel now, whether he liked it or not.

3. He needed a new line of work.

But most importantly?

4. He needed a drink!

The Rebel Smuggler

Drake never saw himself as a hero but after dodging Overlord bounty hunters, being shot at by warlords, and somehow surviving an encounter with the Red Blades who still wanted their bloody ship back, he started to realize something.

The Overlord Dominion wasn’t just after him for his usual crimes.

They were hunting down people like him—smugglers, traders, misfits, people who didn’t want to be part of their "perfect empire".

For the first time in his life, Drake Vance had to make a choice.

• Run forever?

• Or stand for something?

And that’s when he meets Lyra Kane, the person to drag him into the fight for the future of the Thirteen Star Systems.

Drake Vance still sarcastic, still reckless, still one of the most infuriatingly lucky bastards alive, but now he fights for more than just money. He fights because he's finally found something worth fighting for. And if the Overlord Dominion wants to take the galaxy?

They’re going to have to catch the Black Mongoose first.