Template:InfoboxCharactersNex "He worked for the thieves-in-law before he joined the military through the same rehabilitation programme that Berdan and Lavochkin did. Trotskaya took note of his ability to slip through a tight security net and take someone out without anyone ever knowing he was there, and he made a name for himself as her personal hired gun. Whenever someone prominent needs to die, she sends Drago after them – and very often, he succeeds."
~ Visarion Tokarev describes Drago to Nathan Epstein during the Lenin Affair.
Introduction
Vyacheslav Drago is a Mecharussian assassin serving under General Elena Trotskaya from 2130. Often described as a counterpart to Victor Golovkin, alongside whom he infrequently serves, he is best known for his fighting ability and his expertise in missions requiring stealth.
In the Main Canon, Drago defects to Narodnaya Volya and becomes Blackhand's personal hitman. He states that his reasoning was because he became bored, but it is heavily implied that there is another reason for his defection than simply a fickle taste.
Background
Growing up as the son of an accomplished hunter close to Nizhneyansk, in the early years of the Mechanocracy, Drago was known for his remarkable ability to remain hidden for days on end while he tracked down his prey (which would sometimes include wasteland scavengers). It was his ability that would attract the attention of the legendary raider overlord Pandemonium, who dispatched his lieutenant - the assassin Odradek - to fetch and train the teenage Drago. In Odradek's tutelage, he would also meet the assassin's other apprentice, a nameless feral child picked up from the Sverdlovsk Organic Ghetto. Drago would often bully the ghetto urchin, giving him the belittling name 'Drakolich' because of his gaunt appearance and 'scaly' skin (from radiation poisoning). Odradek allowed this to continue as he believed it would harden the child - until the youth disappeared under unknown circumstances.
Under Odradek's wing, Drago would make a name for himself as an underworld assassin following in his mentor's footsteps along with his first daughter, Erika. When Erika was kidnapped by raider boss Hammerhead in 2127, he slipped into a deep depression. The same year, he would be approached by Spetsnaz commander Anton Goremykin, serving as his personal hired gun and becoming intimately involved with the Chthonia Project until he turned coat in 2134 following the temporary shelving of the project. Drago would train the prime subject, Elena Trotskaya, in combat using the same techniques taught to him by Odradek. To repay him, Trotskaya actively sought out his missing daughter, finding her as a slave girl to the vicious raider boss. Both Trotskaya and Drago fought Hammerhead, killing her and freeing Drago's daughter. As gratitude, the Dragos placed themselves in Trotskaya's service - the elder in the same capacity he served Goremykin after his death, and the younger as one of the Chthonia Programme's supersoldiers.
Personality
Though originally a brutish wasteland hunter during his days in Pandemonium's armies, his careers (in both the mafia and the KGB, which often involved him interacting with upper-classes) had reformed him into a proper gentleman. Being described as charming and deadly in equal measures, Drago is a smooth operator with plenty of charisma to complement his master assassin status, carrying over even into ghoulification. A taste for finer things also followed this, and he is rarely seen without his fine, custom-tailored black wendigo-leather jacket and matching gloves (which also double as a method of hiding his fingerprints).
After years of perfecting his craft, Drago is convinced that no one (with perhaps the exception of Trotskaya and his daughter) is his equal. Because of this, he carries a deep arrogance when dealing with friend and foe alike, much to the chagrin of those he serves alongside. Although very few can hope to prove him otherwise, this has led to complications as of late. One notable situation was his failure to eliminate private investigator Jonathon Rollins (who, unbeknownst to Drago, was the same Jonathon Rollins who was quite known for his time as an elite IIA field operative) during his mission for Narodnaya Volya, which was nearly botched after Rollins rejoined the IIA and followed him back to Mars and into an ambush.
Before his ghoulification, he was considered a master of disguise, capable of easily adopting the look and mannerisms of others to get close to a target. His ghoulification has hindered his talents in this particular field significantly, though he still manages to make it work in certain situations (such as successfully posing as well-known ghoul private investigator T.T. Calvin in his scheme to eliminate Rollins).
Notable Appearances
Main Canon
- He first appears in Red Planet as one of the main antagonists and direct counterpart to Rollins.
Alternative Canon
- Drago makes a very brief appearance in Access Violation, accompanying Trotskaya as she details Operation Darkhammer to the MAF Military Cabinet. He is later mentioned by Tokarev to Nathan.
- He returns in its sequel, A Blood Debt, to play a much more prominent role alongside Drakolich.
Trivia
- He was originally created by the author of the New Frenco Empire, before being adopted by the creator of the Mechanocracy as a secondary character for use in Altcanon roleplays.
- His name is an amalgam of Vyacheslav Grinko, an antagonist from Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell series; and Ivan Drago, the primary antagonist in the film Rocky IV.
- He is one of only two people known to possess a precognitive attack predictor, Trotskaya being the other.
- When Drago was adopted by the Mecharussian author, he was one of four characters considered for the role of Trotskaya's fiancée and father of the two characters that would go on to become Evgeniy and Yulia, the others being Bogdan Andropov, Drakolich and Victor Golovkin. Drago very nearly made the cut until the author lost a bet with a friend - the forfeit being to write a short erotica featuring Trotskaya and Golovkin, from which point on Golovkin was selected for the role.