I remember my first stim.

It was only a few hours after we made planetfall.

Malevolon was unlike anything from our training.

There was no horizon beneath its canopy, 

only endless trunks dissipating to the mist,

We advanced in silence.

Not because we had been ordered to.

Because the forest made every voice feel misplaced.

Then a sound breaks the quiet.

I never figured from where.

Only the warmth running down my arm.

The corpsman pressed the injector against my neck.

The pain departed at once.

Remarkable medicine.

We marched forward.

\--------------------------------------------------

The second injection was much easier.

By then they had found us.

Trees turned to splinters.

The artillery deafened us.

Through the dust there were shapes. 

We fired until our barrels melted. 

We fired until commands became noise.

A fragment found my rib.

The injector was already there.

The blue vanished from the glass.

Someone called my name.

I turned.

There were only limbs.

We marched forward.

\--------------------------------------------------

I remember my last stim.

The needle entered.

Do you remember the Creek?

No.

Not anymore.

Only the branches remember.

Only the mud remembers.

They have always remembered better than us.

We marched forward.

The body became lighter.

The senses were distant.

I do not remember falling.

Only looking upwards.

And for the first time since I landed, I could see *it* clearly.

No obscurities

No distractions

Only blue.

The same blue as the medicine.

*A perfect blue*.

Perfect Blue (helldivers fan fic)