Ever wonder how Gabe and Captain Drake met? Well, this is that story. Gabe is a low-level investigator for the mercenaries' guild and is having one hell of a rough month. He's been benched for a shooting, and his tab at the bar has grown to epic proportions. If he didn't get back to work soon, Sharky would be sending a few of his guys after him to remind him of his obligations. Life in the black wasn't easy, but if it was it wouldn't be so fun. This is a short story that ties into the overall world of the Fortune Hunters and Galactic Outlaws.

Drake and the crew are down on their luck after being ejected from the mercenaries guild. At this point, Drake will take on any job to keep the Talon in the black, even if it means working for a scumbag like Ellison. When you work with the riffraff of the multiverse nothing seems to go as planed. Still, the job was get in, get the package, and go home. What could go wrong?

The crew of the Star Talon are experts in their field of expertise, but they didn’t start out that way. Sure Drake has always been an ace with the ladies, but Ice only ever succeeded in accomplishing two things before she joined the disappointing her father and hacking the Solaris Corporation. Just because the world tells you that you can’t do more than data entry, doesn’t mean you have to take it lying down. Barbara aka Ice had a plan to get off Solaris One. All she had to do for their plan to succeed was learn to pilot a ship under the company's nose, and hope the two idiots that recruited her could hold up their end of the bargain. Once they made it to the stars things would be different for her family. Out in the black, you could be anything you wanted. Cruising the stars would bring all of them hope for a better life, something they didn’t have now. If Barbara could walk the tightrope just a little bit longer, everything would work out fine.

The murder is tragic, but the death of a sibling at the hands of a monster is something you never quite get over. Along with the gut-wrenching feeling of loss came the overwhelming sense of shame. Everyone had been counting on us to kill the first known vampire in three generations, and we let all of them down. Now the weight of our failure hung heavy around my neck like a yoke. Only one thing would remove the taint of failure from our family name, and that was the one thing keeping me going. Vengeance. If you ever wondered what happened to D’avin after Drake left him cradling his dead brother in his arms, this is the story for you.