  We theoretically study thermally activated elementary dynamical processes
that precede full structural relaxation in ultra-dense particle liquids
interacting via strong short range attractive forces. Our approach is based on
a microscopic theory formulated at the particle trajectory level built on the
dynamic free energy concept and an explicit treatment of how attractions
control physical bonding. Mean time scales for bond breaking, the early stage
of cage escape, and a fixed non-Fickian displacement are analyzed in the
repulsive glass, bonded repulsive (attractive) glass, fluid, and dense gel
regimes. The theory predicts a strong length-scale-dependent growth of these
time scales with attractive force strength at fixed packing fraction, a much
weaker slowing down with density at fixed attraction strength, and a strong
decoupling of the shorter bond breaking time with the other two time scales
that are controlled mainly by perturbed steric caging. All results are in good
accord with simulations, and additional testable predictions are made. The
classic statistical mechanical projection approximation of replacing all bare
attractive and repulsive forces with a single effective force determined by
pair structure incurs major errors for describing processes associated with
thermally activated escape from transiently localized states.
