Editing Palladium Rifts John Carter (section)

==Background==
John 1701 was just another mutant superhuman techie from Freedom Station, employed by the KLS Corporation in their service department. Then his life changed one day while on a routine service call to repair some KLS robots that were part of the Earth Containment Network. Due to a malfunctioning IFF transponder several satellites mistook the ship he was on for a hostile vessel and opened fire. Despite the best efforts of the pilot it was irreversibly crippled and sent plummeting down to the planet below. For everyone else on board it was the end. But fortunately for John one of his mutant super powers was intangibility, enabling him to survive to what anyone else would be an instantly fatal fall from orbit.<br>

Another twist of luck for John was the fact that he happened to land in the eastern portion of North America. Since Freedom Station was established by the United States and Canada, classes about those countries and their Pre-Cataclysm history were ubiquitous throughout the North American Union. Because of that, John knew a little bit about its geography and potential points of interest. Once he got his bearings he found the nearest human settlement and began using his skills to earn a living, taking the last name Carter in order to blend in better. Being fortunate enough to land in the vicinity of Ishpeming, home of Northern Gun, he was able to find a lot of work with various mercenary companies that operated out of that area, repairing their vehicles and power armor and covertly using the edge his mutant powers gave him to be an effective scout and infiltrator. Thanks to his talents he was able to procure an armored exploration vehicle and lessons on how to drive it.<br>

Now that he had a secure vehicle to operate out of John decided it's time to travel around to look for potential ways of returning upstairs, or at least a means to contact home. He also figured he might as well make himself useful while he was down on Earth by gathering useful intelligence of what was down here for the North American Union. And while doing that he could earn income doing odd jobs for whoever was hiring. Repair jobs, mercenary work, whatever was needed to finance his travels.<br>