Joe Phoenix > this is what happens when an imovable object meet a bunch of stupid dickheads

I came to be in New Eden somewhere around August. I can't remember the exact date. Perhaps someday someone will record the day that Damien McCandless came into New Eden, changing it forever, orphaning millions and causing rivers of tears to flow. For me, I think it was a tuesday.

Grand statements aside, I remember waking up in a tube (often the way, I've done this so often now its losing its novelty) and was pleasantly suprised to see that when I looked at my hands, eight fingers and two thumbs smiled back at me, so different from the stumps or bestial claws that often followed such a revelation. I had been reborn human again.

My memories of life before Rebirth are... hazy to say the least. Trying to remember anything before I woke up in a tube-station orbiting New Caldari is like trying to read a document that has been produced by a printer low on ink, faxed, photocopied, faxed back again, stamped, used as a coaster for a coffee cup, photocopied again and faxed back to the original sender with "Not Known at This Address" written over it in big letters with a cyan crayon. That said, those things I do remember from my lives on both The Many Earths and Mort aren't really conducive to a good night's rest or family viewing and so it is best that I do not dwell on them.

Contenting myself with the thoughts of a fresh start as the fluids in the cloning tube drained, I was a little annoyed at having to go through the implantation process required for the cybernetics that the Caldari Techs seemed so proud of, but it was explained that they served two purposes; firstly, they allowed me direct neural interface with a spacecraft's "Caspule" (similar to the VDNI system employed by the Word of Blake, an ultra fascist humanist organisation I previously encountered on "Zombie Earth". They used the system to network themselves into huge robot war-machines known as BattleMechs), and secondly my Genetic and Memetic codes had become corrupted and certain parts of me had not formed properly and required replacement.

This concerned me somewhat, but I calmed down when I noticed that they were not particularly essential parts; mostly a bit of skin here and there, a section of skull, my left ankle and my pancreas. The Techs were somewhat upset that the data on file for me was consistantly corrupted in this manner, but I decided against enlightening them as to the possible reasons. I felt quite pleased to have escaped oblivion once more as well as arriving somewhere I felt at ease communicating.

I discovered I had an inherent understanding of the Caldari language (remarkably similar to that spoken on Mort) and though their culture of obediance to the State was not one I wished to immerse myself in for long I was very grateful for the small amount of cash, clothing, equipment and the Ibis Class light spacecraft the state provided.

I noticed that Rabbit and /Emote were no where nearby, and assumed that though they would definately also be in New Eden, they could be anywhere. The first thing I needed to do then was hire on with the Navy to get my feet wet in space. VDNI makes piloting spacecraft exceptionally easy, even if it means laying in an egg-shaped pod full of slimy muck for months on end and after a week or two I found myself flying various light Caldari combat craft, mostly salvaging from the wrecks of the less forunate around the Gates at Nonni and Aunenen. I learned to duck and weave in tiny Condors, align and run in nimble Kestrels, and to fight those who had clearly made a very bad life-choice in the mighty Merlin.
Before long, I had accumulated the skill and cash which allowed me to climb into my first Manticore, the ship that would become my signature, and I began to look for my compatriots.