Chapter 16: Wounded in Action
Pelican Foxtrot-930, Syphon Atmosphere, Epsilon Eridani System
The Pelican that had just rescued the two Spartans tore out of the Covenant controlled airspace and did a roll to the right, heading for some thick cloud cover about three miles out. Fred got up and helped Linda to her feet. He put her into the seat closest to the cockpit and buckled her in. Before going to the back to help defend them he went to talk to the pilots.
"Sirs, both of our suits are compromised in their hyperbolic seals. We'll need to close the door when we start to leave the atmosphere." When Fred said this the two pilots got worried looks on their faces.
"We won't have any rear coverage and from what I'm hearing over the COM channels the Seraph fighters are hitting quite hard. Seems the Covenant are retreating but are taking as many down with them as possible," the pilot replied.
"Aye sir, Thank you." Fred retreated to the back of Pelican and pulled a pistol out of the emergency box. He moved to the lip of Pelican and scanned the surroundings, carefully looking for the telltale purple metal of the Covenant fighters. After about three minutes –930 flew into the clouds and made its ascent out of the atmosphere.
"Doors closing buckle up!" The Pilot called out over the intercom. There was a whining as the door dropped down from the tail boom and locked in place, the whole time Fred watched for Covenant. He quickly sat down and felt the Pelican lurch forward accelerating to escape velocity. There was some heavy turbulence about halfway through their ascent till the end when they left the atmosphere. Fred headed back to he cockpit to see their surroundings. Directly in front of them the huge Covenant armada was firing on the numerically superior Human battle group. The pilots were talking quickly between themselves and the nearby UNSC space vessels.
"Bravo 5, I think you've got a deep shadow at your… nine o'clock," the co-pilot said.
"I see him thanks Foxtrot- Nine, after I get this guy…" to Fred the Longsword seemed to drift off but he was knocked out of his trance.
"Fred! What happened to your leg?" Linda yelled out. He looked down and saw a steady stream of blood flowing out onto the ground. The huge Spartan clumsily turned around and tried to focus on the flow of blood to the rear of the Pelican.
"Oh my god, I think his Femoral Artery is torn!" Linda yelled out. Fred started to stumble forward while Linda unclipped and rushed to help him down softly.
"This is Pelican- Nine Thirty, we have a critically wounded soldier, Spartan actually, and at first glance it looks like a torn Femoral. He's lost a large amount of blood, over." There was an immediate response.
"This is UNSC Medical Frigate Tybalt, proceed to us ASAP. We need his weight, with and without armor, blood type, and exact cause of wound," a cool female voice responded.
"Did you here that?" the pilot called back. Linda heard but didn't respond. She quickly called up his medical information.
"With armor is fifteen-hundred pounds, without he is two-thirty-one, blood type is AB positive, the wound is a gunshot to the thigh presumably severing or tearing the Femoral artery." As she said Fred's information the pilot repeated it to the Tybalt exactly. Linda quickly looked out the front window and saw the Tybalt near the rear of the battle group.
"Where is the wound located?" the female asked.
"About an two inches above his knee cap," Linda yelled out. She quickly grabbed the gunner and had him put pressure on the wound.
"Ok, we need the armor to be removed ahead of arrival so we can get him to the OR upon arrival. It has most likely torn at the point where it splits." Linda listened and started to do as she had been told. She went straight to his legs first removing them first. When she removed his thigh armor there was a small geyser of blood from the pressure being released. The hardest part was removing the pelvic armor that required Fred to be constantly put into dangerous positions but they managed. The other tech in the Pelican started to put the armor next to the cockpit door so they could easily access Fred.
"Docked in three…two…one!" Linda went to the override panel and unlatched the rear hatch that crashed to ground with a deafening boom. She looked outside and saw the medical team rushing towards them from the lift. Lifting Fred up she met them half way. He was carefully put onto a large gurney and wheeled away. One of the medics looked at Linda and saw a huge bruise on the left side of her temple that traveled into her hairline.
"You need to be checked out also. You could have a concussion."
"No, I'm fine, I-," but she was cut off.
"Listen to me soldier, you will listen to my orders like it or not," the medic was forceful with her but she knew his opinion was the best.
"Okay," she relented. The two of them walked towards the lift complex, the medic asking her questions to figure out what had happened. But on the way over Linda saw drops of Fred's blood leading towards a large lift that had just left. The two of them got on a lift and waited for others before heading up.
Fred tried to open his eyes but he was too weak. All around him he heard voices but he couldn't tell exactly what they were saying. He felt hands touching his leg along with his neck and stomach. Finally managing to open his eyes he saw that he was in an operating room and the doctors were about to give him some anesthesia for the operation. One doctor saw he was awake and came over to him. She put her hand on his forehead and started to whisper to him.
"We're going to have to operate on your wound okay?" All he could do was nod in response. She gave him a smile and went back to prepping. About ten seconds after that he blacked out, either from blood loss or the anesthesia.