I'm a killer. I don't remember every face of every victim, but I remember this: that look means going off the grid, slipping quietly off world, and making a run for it. To do this, Stanley must kick fate in the eyes of someone facing their end, the mixture of fear, resentment, resignation It was my job, just my job. I stole lives. Now they steal my sleep, my peace of mind, my soul. The men, the women and, God help me, the children. I am a haunted man.This government asked too much from its soldiers. It asked too much from its citizens. It asks too much from me.Now, I'm asking for something. To get my soul back.This story begins well before Raven West was born, before the battles of Saigus or Los Dabaron, before her father Stanley West met her mother Lilia Slone. Indeed, before any of it. This is the beginning of Raven's heritage such that it is. It is a time of war and killing, a time of human suffering on a galactic scale. This is her father's story, the beginning of hope.