Drake Pranger is a Daehremman mercenary and leader of the mercenary company known as Pranger's Bangers. He is considered to be the most famous mercenary in the known universe.[1]
Pranger was once a career soldier in the Daehren military on his home world of Daehre. He spent years working through the ranks from infantry to artillery, and then to heavy armor command, eventually achieving the title of Colonel. Unfortunately, at the age of 90 he was left unemployed when a pacifist movement led to severe military cutbacks.
Ever the opportunist, Pranger called a few friends, took out a loan, and purchased all the military surplus equipment he could get his hands on. He used this equipment to build up his own mercenary company and set off to make a very impressive name for himself.
Ironically, within fifteen years he was once more called back to Daehre, where he and his company were hired to put down a provincial rebellion. He gladly accepted the job and handily put down the rebellion, but in doing so he also staged a bloodless coup that left control of the Daehren government in more sensible (by his definition) hands.
When the government offered him his old job back, Colonel Pranger politely refused, waiting until nobody was watching to use rude gestures. He then left Daehre for good, and continued to operate as a mercenary for several decades.
Averted Future[]
In the Averted Future Pranger was successfully recruited by Tem Phica, a Ystreben representative of House Phica and sympathizer of the Tausennigan Ob'Enn Empire. Unfortunately, he was caught unawares in a botched attempt by Tagon's Toughs to kidnap his employer. Mortally wounded by Sergeant Schlock, he used his dying breath to return fire with a variable plasma grenade. The grenade almost fully destroyed Schlock after he swallowed it, leaving only a small fragment with amnesia. Kaff Tagon managed to teraport Schlock and Ellen Foxworthy's head back to their ship, but stayed behind and was killed by Pranger's mercenaries.
The Bangers' flagship, the Integrity, was renamed the Colonel Pranger in his honor. The company pursued Tagon's Toughs (as well as Kaff's father Karl Tagon) in order to avenge their commander, but failed to inflict any further casualties. When the Bangers attacked the Serial Pacemaker at the Emergency Council on Teraport Degradation in Celeschul, they recklessly engaged the battleplate UNS Vredefort who sought to capture the Toughs alive, and were quickly destroyed.
Revised Timeline[]
When Kevyn Prime traveled back in time to save the galaxy, he also sought to prevent Kaff Tagon's death. To this end, he contacted Drake Pranger prior to his departure for Ystre, offering him an extremely lucrative contract to double-cross Tem Phica and assist the Toughs in his capture. Pranger accepted, but insisted on Kevyn accompanying him into Phica's fortress as collateral. In the ensuing encounter, Pranger initially pretended to double-cross Kevyn, capturing Tagon's crew, in order to lure Tem Phica out of his fortress, then triple-crossed him, freeing Tagon and taking Phica captive instead.
In the course of the battle, the Phican Annie-plant was damaged by a hand-held antimatter grenade by Kevyn, and lost neutronium containment. The resulting explosion caused the Integrity to crash-land on Ystre, where it was later claimed as legal salvage by the Toughs (with the help of Petey's legal meddling, although they didn't know this), then repaired and renamed the Touch-and-Go. Under the terms of his contract with Kevyn, Pranger had been compensated for the loss of his ship, but he was still annoyed at the Toughs for getting the salvage rights to it, and bribed the shipwrights to play a humiliating but harmless prank on Kaff Tagon.[2]
Much later, Pranger was approached by Petey for a contract to rescue Karl Tagon and Kevyn Prime from the Damico-P'sloqye crime syndicate on 3317 Paris in Sol. He emphatically refused this contract.[3]