PROLOGUE The prong nosed rat knew that the dark heap lying in the tunnel was a dead man He could tell by the incredible incredible stench Unable to detect any other predators in the tunnel the rat's sharp nose twitched with excitement at his discovery a large and easy meal all for him The rat edged along the side of the tunnel stepping stepping over the skeletons of other creatures many small skeletons but others quite large as it moved toward the corpse Ragged scraps of broad waterproof fabric were piled over the lower half of the dead man's body His head arms and chest were exposed A fine layer of dust covered his skin barely concealing the bold jagged tattoos that adorned his remains His head rested at an odd angle against the ground because of the long sharp horns that jutted from his skull The rat slunk closer to the body and opened his jaws The rat never saw the fist that crashed down on the back of his neck And then the man who was very
much alive opened his yellow eyes as he rolled over and lashed out with his other hand to seize his prey He kicked away the fabric scraps he'd been using as blankets revealing the mechanical apparatus that formed his lower body The apparatus was affixed to the man's midriff just below his rib cage and consisted of a droid carriage equipped with six metal legs The legs were unevenly jointed cannibalized from the parts of ruined droids each leg ending with a tapered point As the prongnosed prongnosed rat writhed in his clutches the man skittered out from under the blankets like a monstrous robotic spider his metal legs clacking against the tunnel floor He had no recollection of how he'd lost his lower body or who had grafted his torso to the droid carriage Although he knew the tunnels that had become his domain he did not know that he was on a planet named Lotho Minor Nor did he remember his own name And for the moment he didn't care His mind was on only one thing Food He tore into the rat and began eating it greedily A few minutes later as he licked the last of the gore from his lips a familiar feeling returned to him It was the only feeling he had the only emotion he knew when he wasn't delirious with hunger Hatred Not just anger and rage but pure and total hatred He hated his circumstances Hated the tunnels and
all the vermin that ventured into them Hated being hungry and being unable to rest without some other creature trying to take a bite out of him Hated that he knew all those distractions were meaningless The primary object of his hatred was something far more significant something he despised with such incredible intensity that he Can't remember Hated his bad memory too How had he arrived at this place How long had he been living like a wild animal His yellow eyes darted back and forth sweeping the tunnel as if he might find a helpful answer in the shadowy nooks amidst the gnawed bones of small creatures that littered the ground Nothing He grimaced He wanted to remember He wanted to know The frustration was like a painful itch that he knew he could never ever scratch He lowered one hand to his side and his fingertips brushed against one of his cold metal legs Wasn't always like this He knew that he wasn't a man anymore that he hadn't been one for years He was just a creature in a filthy tunnel And then he remembered the object of his hatred A man the man who left me for dead The hatred surged through his veins filling him with
