The night the sky fell, twelve-year-old Kael Veyron learned that heroes do not always win.
Orbiting above the industrial colony world of Nerath-9, the planet's defense grid shattered like glass. The sky ignited with streaks of burning debris. Sirens wailed. Steel towers collapsed.
And from the heavens descended the fleet of the man who would become Kael's nightmare.
Lord Malrik Thorne.
Kael held his little sister's hand as they ran through the smoke. He remembered her fingers slipping from his. He remembered the sound of plasma cannons. He remembered the moment the ground split open beneath the refinery district.
And then—darkness.
When Kael woke, the city was ash. His family was gone. And the name Malrik Thorne burned into his mind hotter than the falling stars