Zander Greaves grew up in Compton, California—violence, pain, and strife were his life for his first eighteen years.

His personality was forged by his childhood, and he was determined to find a way to make his past work for him.

As soon as he could, Zander decided to find work as a military contractor. The company he’d badgered for a job eventually hired him, earning him the nickname “Badger.” While most people dropped out of the lifestyle after a few years, Zander had found a place that felt right to him.

A decade in, he’d even found a couple of friends who stayed on with him. One was Devin Smith, the heavy weapons specialist for the squad and a proud Texan. Another was Selda Engel, their tech specialist. She’d slowly transitioned from a friend to a friend-with-benefits, but even that had started to become more.

On rotation again, Zander made a vow to ask Selda to recognize their relationship as more than just a casual hookup, planning to do so as soon as they were back off schedule. The universe, however, was about to remind him of a crucial lesson and old adage: “Life is what happens when you’re busy making plans.” Sent out into the desert on what looked like a wild goose chase, they were about to head back when everything changed.

Shifted by quantum entanglement from Earth to an alien planet, Zander and his squad would have to adapt—and quickly—if they wanted to live. As they tried to understand what was happening, the stark truth of their new reality thrust itself on the shaken humans. Giant machines of war were attacking an equally humongous bug.

And, quite unfortunately, the giant bug had a lot of little friends. The ensuing firefight ended with Zander left as the sole human survivor. Out of his dimension and wounded, he had to face an entirely new universe, and the Antecedents' Legacy would soon become the primary focus of his life.