Earliest Memory
Stan found himself in a medical bay. He was sitting, or rather reclining, on one of the examination tables. These general facts about his surroundings he recognized easily. As he looked more closely at anything in particular, his stomach knotted as his mind tied into sickening knots. His earliest memory was waking up in this very med bay about two hours ago, and everything since then had confused him terribly.
The door hissed open, and a man stepped through. He walked directly to Stan’s table and stuck out his hand. Stan saw this, and thought that it was a strange thing to do. “Stan?” the man asked.
Stan looked up at the sound of the voice, with his eyebrows twisted in a questioning gaze.
“Oh shit, it must really be as bad as they said it is,” the strange man said, his eyes showing more white than usual as he looked at Stan.
“Look, your name is Stan. You’re a member of the 23rd infantry unit, and yesterday you were on the front lines of an invasion. See, this is your tag,” the strange man said, and tugged at a piece of plastic pinned to Stan’s shirt front.
Stan looked down, but when he looked back up, the only effect was that his face was more screwed up than it had been at the strange man’s appearance. He remained silent.
“Look Stan! I’m your best friend! Or I was, until yesterday afternoon. It’s Jack, don’t you remember me just a little bit?” Jack leaned in closer, his hands resting on the edge of the table, as he searched Stan’s face for a glimmer of recognition.
After a brief pause, Stan began, “I can hear you speaking. I can understand your words. But what you are saying confuses me. I can’t remember anything more than two hours ago, anything besides this room.”
“Okay, let me try to orient you. It all began almost a hundred years ago, in 2068. That was when the first successful Earth colony on Mars was established. It was a crowning moment in humanity’s history.
“Mars was fresh new uncharted frontier, like Earth had not known for half a millennium. The early days were without parallel, the news coverage was everywhere, the scientific breakthroughs came in droves. Things quieted down pretty soon, of course.
“The Earthers got back into their own routines, and the Marsers set up their own new usual routines. It wasn’t until seven years ago when the problems began to surface.
“Factions on Mars were warring for resources, and the people nominally in charge back on Earth were unhappy about this. Earth had come to depend on Mars as its primary scientific research center. Now with all the money, materials, and manpower tied up in their civil war, nothing was left over for Earth. A few years of negotiations and peace talks got nowhere, and an invasion force to restore order was set up. We were both on the front lines.
“We were all the best soldiers that Earth could muster. With the cost of flying us over, they weren’t sending duffers. But even we weren’t ready for what the Marsers had in store.
“Okay team, we’ve been assigned the left flank,” the commander bellowed with his usual voice. “We’ll be deployed at the base of this valley,” he explained. At that moment, the spot he was referring to lit up with a pulsing red dot on the holo map floating at the center of the drop craft. “From there, we hike around to hunker down in strategic points along this ridge here,” he continued, swiping his hand through the map, a slice of it glowing green beneath his touch.
“Our job is both recon and support. We are the first in-person survey of the battlefield, and last to forces to move, when we’re needed. Any questions?”
Silence, the room full of cold stares.
“Alright then! Touchdown is T-minus twenty minutes. Get your heads screwed on straight while you still can!”
Touchdown, and the hike up the valley, was completely routine. The civilian Marsers were probably wondering what the unscheduled landings were about. There was no time for them to investigate closely, but the military branch knew all they needed to.
The battle started right on schedule, and continued like a scene out of a training manual. Everything seemed to go right for team Earth, and Mars had relatively little return fire. The entire Earth unit was mobilized. Having expected more resistance, they were in the wrong position for the battle that was unfolding. Then it happened.
With a line of sight to almost every Earth fighter in the battle, the Marsers opened fire with a myriad of brilliant beams of light. Only those who saw it indirectly were able to recount the details. In only moments, the beams disappeared.
The Earth fighters were standing fixed in their tracks, looking about themselves with wide eyes and furrowed brows. Some dropped their weapons to the ground, some walked in circles. Some fled, and some threw themselves to the ground. Precious few remained coherent, and found themselves the new leaders of a very confused group of troops. One of them called a retreat, and that is when the 23rd infantry decided it was time to lend a hand.
Only the commander, taking an extra moment to survey the status of the batallion on the holo, and myself, reloading my weapon at just the wrong time for the call out, were spared.
Clearly the Marsers had noted our entrance, and were expecting us. The beams returned, a dense field, at least one striking each member of the team. The 23rd reacted much as the rest of the troops, and soon joined their fellows in retreat, some carrying, some carried.
“You, Stan, were carried. You probably got two or three direct shots, in your location,” Jack informed him.
“Right now your earliest memory is probably waking up in this bed isn’t it?”
Stan nodded.
“As best as anyone has been able to figure it, The Mars scientists have figured out a way to completely block access from the conscious mind to the memory centers, in the form of a projectable weapon. The beam overloads part of your neural pathways. At best, you can’t remember anything you used to know. At worst, you’re knocked out, or even might get brain damage.
“We were tricked. They knew we would believe that they were not ready, and they knew how rapidly and accurately their memory weapon could fire. They lured us into the open, and managed to hit over ninety percent of us in those two volleys.
“It’s quite disorienting, I have been told, what you’re going through. Some of the docs have managed some very promising results, concentrating on the victims who are worst off first, of course. For the rest of you who can still function though, heck you might even enjoy it!”
Jack invited Stan to follow him, and joined up with a group of a half dozen other men. He explained that they were all victims of the memory weapon, as Stan was. And that Stan once knew each of them, and they him. Now, they were all wearing name tags on their blue jumpsuits. Jack handed Stan a matching suit.
“Get dressed, Stan. And fill out this name tag. You’re in for one heck of a night of first experiences!”
Prompt: Sunday Scribblings #10.