Continuity

[Karmac]

Garth ran, he ran as fast as his tired legs could take him, and he made it just in time, the escape pod's door slammed shut behind him and a loud ker-chunk signalled the door bolts locking into place, nothing could get to him now, he'd made it. As Garth slumped down, his heartbeat slowed and the ringing in his ears stopped, he listened, and he heard the sounds of survival; of other escape pod doors clicking shut and the dying wails of the xenomorph threat that had assailed his fellow marines, destroyed his fortifications and penetrated the Almayer's defences. Then there was a quick fwoosh sound as Garth's pod also ejected from the ship he'd served on for so many years, no, that wasn't right, as the thought passed through his mind Garth sat upright and clutched his head as a searing pain wracked his mind, hasn't he only been drafted onto the Almayer at the beginning of this year? And then he remembered.

In an instant, Garth could remember everything he had forgotten, he remembered being drafted onto the Almayer for the first time, he remembered descending onto a colony with his friends, he remembered seeing them slowly picked off by an unseen threat, one by one, until he was alone, in the dark, and then he remembered dying. That wasn't it however, after remembering his death he remembered waking up back at the start of the year, with no memory of his death. Over the next few moments he recalled more and more of these years, these deaths, and sometimes, sometimes, the victories, the harrowing escapes, the terrible sacrifices made as the ship was set to self destruct and last but not least, he remembered every time he didn't die, shortly after his survival, everything went grey-scale, and eventually his vision turned to nothing but static, and he would be back at the start of the year, no closer to escaping this cruel fate. Just as he realised all this, as he looked out a window in his pod, contemplating who, or perhaps what had decided to do this to him and his friends, he saw the Almayer from so far away, and noticed it didn't look like the same shade of gunmetal grey it usually did, then came the static.

Then he woke up, with a strange pain in his head he attributed to a migrain or from getting far too drunk the night before, or maybe just both, and then deciding to pay it no more attention than was necessary he got up, got his shit together and headed out, after all, it was the start of a new year and if he didn't hurry he might miss his assignment to the USS Almayer.

[James5734]

I recall reading something like this a while ago involving the whole endless cycle of marine suffering thing. Pretty good.

[Enceri]

i really enjoy reading stories like this that people write. makes you think about the true pain your character goes through, continuously dying and waking up to die again.