Intro to "Erase and Rewind"



Dark night. Cold wet air. Fog haze around the street lamps.

Stillness has settled on the city by the bay. Even the hippies and hookers are off the streets. All sound is muted; the

wind is silent as it passes. Back street noises almost do not even exist now, let alone the summer of love.

Far off I hear a radio play a tune in the night that I have never heard before and have known well for decades.

"all the leaves are brown
and the sky is grey
I've been for a walk
on a winter's day

I'd be safe and warm
if I was in L.A
California Dreamin'
on such a winter's day"


I shiver and draw my coat close around me, raising the collar to the cold dark and damp and walk faster. The cigarette

tastes good along with the salt air. The whiskey makes it even better.

A figure exits the whorehouse right on time. A pretty hooker kisses him goodnight. I see black hair, dark eyes and a long

sharp face so like my own.

I increase my stride's tempo as he marches uphill.

In my pocket, in my left hand, I palm the injector which will save his life. In my right hand inside my coat, I flip the

safety off my weapon, trying to extend my awareness all around me for threats, straining to hear more than our footfalls or

the lap of ocean on the shore.

I draw the injector as I close with him and ready myself to take him in the back of the neck.

Something explodes in a orange and meat colored flash. I think it is my right shoulder. My right arm falls in front of me

as I spin down to the pavement. I vomit and curse, looking up at the street lamp.

He turns, an undescribable expression on his face, then he runs off.

My father was always good at running away.

Someone stands above me and levels a pistol between my eyes, as far away in the dark the music plays:


"If you are going to San Francisco
Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair

If you are going to San Francisco
You are gonna meet some gentle people there.."


A flash and the lights go down.


Click - snick.


It would be warmer now.

I had gone outside for wood and meat, stopping to make sure the cabin was covered in snow for insulation.

Lisbeth leaned up against my chest and tried to sip some of the ox meat broth from the spoon I held for her, her tiny seven

year old hand holding my own tightly as she coughed up blood.

Everything had died in the winter, including my wife.

When morning came I did what I could to bury her beside her mother, tieing a small green bow of velvet in her blonde hair

before I wrapped her in her blanket.

I then said goodbye to others in our village. Even the ones we had helped were visually relieved I was going away. Surely

it was the one God's punishment against us pagans, and the village might yet survive in my exile.

I took from a kerchief a dried sprig of heather Mara had given me and added a lock of our childs hair. I put it in my shirt

against my heart. Then I resolved to walk to the ends of the earth to find and slay this one God if he was responsible.

Mostly I walked on to find an end in a now empty world.


Click- snick.


Glenn Miller's "In the mood", cheap liquor and a hot lady in my arms. Heaven with a good smoke and being a newly minted

officer with an officer's salary to boot, courtesy of the Japanese Empire.

It really rained on my parade when I was summoned to the naval yard without a clue why. This was February and Pearl had

happened in December. Lots of hurry up and wait had ensued until now. A private car none the less waited.

I lit up a lucky and tried to enjoy the ride.

We passed through several cop, mp, and sp checkpoints as we approached the docks. At the last one a jowly rear admiral

climbed in, then we continued down the dock.

"Uh, Sir?"

He glared at me and bit off each word,

"You were.. Requested"

I could now make out something large, long and low in the water with a conning tower on it. It grew more distinct in the

arc lights. It was a sub, but rounded and smooth, and as big as an aircraft carrier..


Click-snick.


I tried to turn my head, but all I managed to do was throw up on the guy next to me who turned out to be another girl. I

shook my head and puked again. I hate stasis.

Another girl?

I glanced down. I was naked as was everyone else in the pod save for the tubes and such we all had jabbed in us. I was

definitely missing some equipment this time around. I touched my breasts: I was a female again. Yep.

I would have continued with this exploration, but just then we got the 20 minute warning.

This was going to be another rough one, straight out of stasis and into battle. The drugs kicked in about the same moment

my augment began downloading the mission brief. I'd need both; we weren't raiding Atalon, we were invading it with two

hundred and seventeen starships and nearly a quarter million Marines and more AI.

I'm not sure what the Jin had in mind when they swept through our outer star systems in a killing spree. Intel said that

almost all the other races in the Jin Sphere had capitulated easilly over the centuries, so maybe they thought it was

simply a law of nature for them to rule and bully everyone else.

They were about to get educated very differently.

In seconds the fog of cold sleep had disappeared. After a few moments more the umbilicals detached and I stood and began

donning my skin suit as did the three hundred or so others around me. I touched the pad at the collar and the suit

contoured to my skin exactly and began talking to my mechanical monster alter-ego in the bay down below.

***

It hits very hard when you realize all those unique experiences in your life are just the latest chapter for the immortal

you seem to be, but cant remember. Every time I re-mind and reconnect with the flesh, it is hell suffering those losses

again just to gain that ancient perspective, to gain that part of memory that is mine and not machine.

***

I slide down the access ladder and into my suit. It is almost an orgasmic feeling as the skin suit interfaces with my

monster. The drop vehicle, misnamed a "Lifter" detaches from the Sargent York. I am now the machine.


Our lifter is through the entry heat of the atmosphere. It inverts and accellerates down, then launches us monsters in our

battle suits. Headlong we fall towards the planet. Death incarnate rains from the skies.

I can die. But not today. Say good night to the universe Jin. You attacked us; we come now to kill you as a race and a

species.

Taking Atalon meant the Jin homeworld would be in striking range. Soon, their sun would be made to go supernova in their

home system.

They had pissed off the wrong aliens this time.

I was born in December of 1904, the youngest girl of a large and loving family. It was said that I learned to sail as soon as I could walk, but my older twin brothers always loved to tell a tall tale and I was the apple of their eyes. I remember my father holding me up so I could take the wheel as we sailed across the ocean. Strong hands that would never let me fall.

The Spanish Flu of 1918 killed my family and 50 million others in 18 months. Only Jason and I survived; his twin Jared died taking our hearts with him.

We lost the family shipping business and were put out on the streets of Cambridge, Maryland.

I began earning money in that age old way a young pretty girl can. The last time I saw him, Jason kissed me and swore that he could make it all better. He said he had a job. He said he would come back for me.

Whoring is a tough life. I was beat to death in 1921. Not sexy, just very brutal.

I awoke in the middle of a fight. I had much more upper body strength. I was a man.

I slayed with joy, using my horse-sword or "Zanbato" with great abandon. Songs of valor echoed in my mind.

I knelt on Atalon.

My battle suit worked to save my life. My right side had been torn off. The suit was so damaged that it could no longer carry me and the AI was lost. I had expended all my antimatter bombs, killing millions, I hoped.

I was in some sort of shrine. I touched an artifact and spun away to another life.

Entertaining. Yet, I am confused. Is this a story you have written yourself, or have read somewhere? And is there a....point? A conclusion?

---

Posted Via ATS Mobile: m.abovetopsecret.com

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I enjoyed the short storys
Kind of reminded me of the song..The Highwayman
A book perhaps.adding more charactors..Like an old west gunfighter..or a boxer dureing the depression
On and on..Thanks for the previue ..enjoyed them

Originally posted by Shawny2222
Entertaining. Yet, I am confused. Is this a story you have written yourself, or have read somewhere? And is there a....point? A conclusion?

---

Posted Via ATS Mobile: m.abovetopsecret.com

---

This is all me, not something I have read. How many lives have a meaning, a conclusion? This is about a human who touched the face of god and saw everything.

I am trying to stitch these snippet scenes together into a larger coherent piece; sorry for some of the formatting errors, but I'd welcome any comments on style or whatever.

The genesis of these related scenes started almost thirty years ago and have kind of been banging around in my head ever since, so any input is welcome.

EDIT: The title comes from the Cardigans' song.

Originally posted by mydarkpassenger
I am trying to stitch these snippet scenes together into a larger coherent piece; sorry for some of the formatting errors, but I'd welcome any comments on style or whatever.

The genesis of these related scenes started almost thirty years ago and have kind of been banging around in my head ever since, so any input is welcome.

EDIT: The title comes from the Cardigans' song.

edit on 11-7-2011 by mydarkpassenger because: Added

Strange as how I read I saw snippets of people and I dunno backgrounds? Tell me something... are these snippets of memories from perhaps past lives? Can you actually weild a Zanbeto? Do you hate war? If so... perhaps these are actual memories. Also, that artifact you spoke of... it lookes amberish red and was in a weird shape was it not? I dunno how to explain what I saw but it appeared like a very ancient looking artifact that spoke of time itself and renewal of birth. Bah yeh don't have to pay attention to my ramblings though. I am spiritualist and as such I am also a believe of lives gone past and lives in the here and now. But this is the third or second time I've seen images like I was there whenever someone spoke of stories such as these.

Originally posted by granpabobby
I enjoyed the short storys
Kind of reminded me of the song..The Highwayman
A book perhaps.adding more charactors..Like an old west gunfighter..or a boxer dureing the depression
On and on..Thanks for the previue ..enjoyed them

Thanks grandpa. Still trying to get the right frame to hang a narrative on with all these elements.