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
the urge to kill anything within reach He surveyed the skeletons and rotting carcasses on the tunnel's floor then used his droid legs to launch several swift and vicious kicks that sent bones crashing against the walls Finding a large rib cage he seized it and brought it down hard across the back of one metal leg then threw aside the splintered bones He found no satisfaction in this petty destruction He only hated more Why can't I remember Balling his hands into tight fists he felt his sharp dirty fingernails dig into the bases of his leathery palms He gnashed his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut as he struggled to conjure up a memory any memory that would help him recall his own identity It was then while he felt his hatred burning within that a spark ignited in his mind And he saw a sea of fire
CHAPTER ONE The boy named Maul had to stand on his tiptoes to peer through the thick window in his small room The window was polarized to block heat and light but the view was still so intense that it made the boy squint The light did not come from the sky which was choked with black smoky clouds but radiated from the river of lava that flowed below the facility where Maul lived Turning his head slightly he saw the lava empty into what looked like a wide fiery sea The planet's name was Mustafar according to the droid that looked after Maul The droid also served as the boy's teacher and had shown him holograms that illustrated Mustafar's terrain and the planet's location in the galaxy The droid had shown him holograms of other worlds too Maul had a hard time understanding that the holograms represented actual planets but he had to memorize their names and correctly indicate their locations locations or the droid would subject him to a painful shock
