NATE WINTERS (CABLE): Approximately one million years ago, the First Celestial Host came to Earth and performed experiments on the nascent human race, creating the subspecies of Eternals and Deviants, as well as introducing to the mainstream human race the genetic potential to one day develop the 'X-factor', and become Homo superior. In the process of experimenting, they created various prototypes of these three subspecies -- Eternal, Deviant, and Homo superior. When the Celestials left Earth, they left behind a monitoring device that was tiny in their scale, gargantuan in human scale. This monitoring device would one day become called 'Ship'.

To guard this monitoring device, the Celestials chose one of their prototypes, and appointed him as 'watchdog' of the ship. This prototype Homo superior was then placed in stasis, to be awakened by the ship at regular intervals to do maintenance on the ship, monitor the evolution of the human race, record advancements, and transmit data thru space to the Celestials. In effect, the watchdog became a Cable between the human race and the Celestials.

Cable was awakened now and then thru the next million years or so. He slowly aged over that time, but not nearly as fast as he should have, because he was only awakened for a couple of days at a time every thousand years or so. Doing the math, we get that he aged roughly twenty years during those million years, progressing from a young adult in early twenties, to an old adult in mid-forties. The Celestials' Second Host visited Earth roughly twenty-five thousand years ago. At this time, they found that the Deviants had become destructive and their continued development would endanger all of Earth, so yea, they didst smite the Deviants mightly with their godly wrath, destroying their main power base and scattering them all over the world. Seeing that Cable's 'systems' were starting to fail and he was growing old, he was merged with Celestial technology from the ship that was designed to function as a 'life support system'. In effect, he was made a cyborg. The Celestials then, upon having made certain their 'watchdog' would keep functioning, departed Earth again.

Now, however, Cable had functioning 'life support' systems, and he no longer grew old, so he opted not to go into stasis anymore. However, his time on the ship was not very stimulating, and in order to keep his mind keen, he developed a new way of thinking that he called 'Askani'. Utilizing these Askani rituals he developed, he could stay in trance for hundreds of years and still wake up when he so chose, instead of having to rely on the ship to wake him up. Among these Askani rituals he developed was the principle of simplicity, or 'What is...is.' This is the cornerstone of Askani thinking, to accept things, to not over-think, to be able to be simple, to disassociate oneself from emotions, people, even the world.

After roughly twenty-four thousand years of this life, Cable experienced something he had never before experienced. The presence of another human being. Someone had broken into the ship. This was the arrogant immortal mutant Tiamat, who intended to take the ship for herself. Cable, naturally, resisted, but he was not trained in the ways of fighting, and got his butt handed to him by Tiamat, who tossed him off the ship, bloody and broken, and left him to die. Tiamat, however, underestimated the Celestial life support system. She had ripped Cable's arm off, popped his eye and demolished him. The life support system kicked into overdrive, and replaced those parts with Celestial technology. Whereas previously the technology had only been inside him, invisible, it now came to the surface, a visible part of him.

Cable vowed to take the ship back from Tiamat, and make her pay for his humiliation. Suddenly, he found he had a purpose in life. Previously, he just *was*. Now, he was going to *do* something. He no longer wasted time with his trances, but instead began meticulously training in the arts of combat. It was the twelfth century AD, and he began hiring out as a mercenary in order to gain experience and skill. Mercenary is one career that may not be the 'oldest profession', but it is one that has lasted consistently thru mankind's history -- it has always had demand. And, indeed, Cable spent the next several centuries working as a mercenary, amassing a considerable fortune by doing it, and spending that fortune in fruitless attempts to find Tiamat and the ship.

It is now late twentieth century, and Cable is still a mercenary, one of his most commonly used aliases being 'Nate Winters'. He is waiting, searching, anticipating, for some signs of Tiamat, so he can put his centuries of combat experience to use, and finally pay her back for what she did. Creator: Samy Merchi.