Hey guys it's Able, the following is the story finally getting back to its roots and that's medical, some of my knowledge may be incorrect from lack of knowledge/expertise or seem odd but it is what I know from my scope of practice.
Hopefully I got everything right lol thanks for reading :)
And hey, comment which of my boys is your favorite. I love hearing from ya'll.
Cutter had been shot.
Jace bolted to help him, Asher couldn't move, couldn't breath. Bedlam clutched in his arms.
"Sir what are we doing?" Harper asked.
Cutter had been shot.
"Sir! We have to do something what are your orders?"
But Cutter had been shot.
"Sir!" Harper insisted.
He shook his head, turning to his junior.
"Shut up!" He roared.
Harper's head tilted in confusion staring blankly at him.
Jace began to work on Cutter and Asher glanced his way, training and muscle memory demanding he jump in.
But he has bigger things to worry about. He took a rough inhale and exhaled slowly, he grounded himself like Master Nema said, count to four and inhale….
He did.
Count to four, exhale.
He couldn't afford to let his emotions get the better of him, not now.
"I'm sorry brother." Asher began turning to the squad leader, "Take your squad and slam into those trenches, clear it with thermals and bring the heavy blasters to bear. I have to tend to the First Sergeant, leave me two, go!"
"Yes sir!"
The squad moved out, leaving two who Asher had pull security, slowly lowering Bedlam onto his back.
"Archangel-five to Shaman-Main, I need Medics to my position now over!"
"Roger Archangel, drop a pin and they'll be there in five mikes over."
Asher unslung his aid bag and glanced at Cutter. Jace had already gotten to work, stripping off Cutter's armor with the quick release.
Sensing his brother, he looked over his shoulder at Asher.
"He's got a pulse vod! He's not gone, I got him you work on those two!"
Mickey's form was curled up beside them, he could make out his ragged crying.
"Cutter and Bedlam are dead! They're dead and it's my fault…" He sobbed.
Asher tore off Bedlam's chest plate and abdominal armor. His trauma shears cut through the sweat soaked garment easily, his chest showing a single broad blaster shot on the right side of his chest.
"Bedlam can you hear me?" Asher asked.
No response, he could barely hear his breathing. His heartbeat was slowing down and it was clear his chest wasn't expanding. Asher ripped off his helmet and saw that Bedlam's eyes were shut like he was sleeping, his lips blue. The veins in his neck popped like he was straining himself, his trachea beginning to move out of alignment.
"Mickey, come here." Asher said.
Mickey shook his head and sobbed, his hands clutching his belly.
"Mickey! If you want your brother to live I need you to get ahold of yourself and do what I kriffing say!" Asher barked.
Mickey stared at him for a good minute, his middle bleeding down his belt.
It took a moment but seemed to do the trick, the wounded clone shuffling over on his hands and knees.
"Take your hand," Asher grabbed it with his free hand, "And place it here."
The back of Mickey's hand sealed the wound, freeing Asher's hands to snag a chest seal.
He opened it, and withdrew the dressing and a pad of gauze.
"Lift." Asher said, which Mickey did.
Asher wiped the blood, sweat and falling rain from the wound, and slapped the seal onto Bedlam's chest.
He hefted him up, ripping the bodysuit and armor from his back.
Asher raked his fingers down Bedlam's back and found no exit wound.
Armor took most of the hit it seemed.
Gently he lowered Bedlam and withdrew one of his NCD needles. (Needle chest decompression)
They were ten gauge needles about three inches in length with a catheter around. It wouldn't save Bedlam but it would buy him time.
The extra medics came up, collapsible litters with them.
"What have we got?" The Corporal of the two asked.
"Work on him! I got these two!" Asher announced as he felt for Bedlam's ribs.
The extra medics knelt at Cutter's side and got to work with Jace.
Asher found his spot, withdrew the needle and sank it downward between his ribs and counted to ten.
He pulled the needle from the catheter and tossed it into the mud. He saw no relief for Bedlam.
Asher grit his teeth and withdrew another, dropping it in the same way.
Nothing.
A fourth.
Nothing.
He dropped a fifth needle.
Nothing.
"Stay with me Bedlam."
He grabbed Bedlam's left arm and draped it over his chest his hand falling just beneath his armpit. It was a fast trick, the injured clone's pinky giving Asher a landmark for the next spot.
"C'mon…. C'mon…" Asher whispered.
He stuck it into the new spot, and Asher leaned down, the whistle of air escaping accented with a pop.
Bedlam's chest expanded and he took a single, deep breath that made Asher's heart soar with relief. Bedlam's eyes shot open, coughing and retching as he frantically looked around.
He looked down at the ruin of his chest and he began to scream, hands fearfully moving for the catheters.
Asher moved to hold down one arm while Mickey sprung for the other.
"Get off of me! Get off of me!" Bedlam cried, thrashing feebly.
"Bedlam calm down it's me I'm here to help, Mickey talk to him." Asher growled.
"Brother it's me." Mickey said, moving his knees sloppily onto Bedlam's arm to free his hands. He removed his helmet and looked into his brother's eyes.
"….Mick…?"
"Yeah vod it's me, Captain Asher is gonna help you okay? Please calm down…" Mickey plead tears streaming down his cheeks.
Before Bedlam could answer Asher jammed a fentanyl lozenge between Bedlam's cheek and gum, it took a few seconds but then he went slack.
"Never gets old." Asher muttered dryly as he taped the plastic rod that gave the fentanyl the slang name of the "Combat Lollipop" to Bedlam's finger to have it ready in case he woke again.
"I need a litter!" He shouted as he taped the catheters to Bedlam's skin.
"I got you sir!" One of the medics said, moving from Cutter. He unslung the bag and tore the litter out of it, and began expanding the equipment with haste.
The Medic Captain tore open a survival blanket and splayed it out with a flick of his wrists the medic grabbing it to make it flush with the litter.
Asher rolled Bedlam onto his thighs gently and slowly lowered him onto the litter, the medic and him working frantically to get him wrapped up and warm.
"Strap him in." He ordered the medic who had already begun.
"You and you," Asher pointed to the two infantrymen, "Take him to the aid station on the double."
"Yes sir!"
"You, go with them." He told the medic who didn't pause for a second.
Asher moved to Mickey.
"Mickey, you alright?"
Mickey's choked cries and shaking hurt Asher deeper than anything.
"It hurts brother… maker above it hurts…"
Asher peered at the bleeding mess of Mickey's abdomen, he could see the bolt had gone through the plates, dissipated and tore his abdomen.
The angry red things that wriggled from Mickey's belly made Asher swear under his breath.
"Mickey listen to me, I need you to lay down, I'm going to do something that will feel odd to you but I need you to focus, when I'm done I'll give you a shot and you'll feel better okay?"
"Y-yes…" The younger clone whimpered.
The Medic Captain slowly lowered his subordinate, Mickey's head spun as his stomach burned, the pain making him nauseous.
He never wanted to be like this, a casualty, but he found comfort in the fact the person looming over him was Asher.
"Okay ner vod, lift your hand up, and let me see it."
Mickey gingerly lifted his hand, strands of coagulated blood following it. His abdomen cut open, his intestines bulging out somewhat.
It looked bad but wasn't nearly as bad as it could've been, the stench of perforated bowels did not make itself known, luckily for the both of them.
The Captain withdrew a bag of saline mixed with bacta, pulled the stopper and sprayed the wound.
Mickey didn't know how to describe the feeling, Asher knew the bacta would feel good at the very least.
"You alright brother?" Asher asked as he emptied the bag.
"I-I'm fine b-but it hurts… sir am I going to die..?"
"You're not gonna die Mickey it isn't as bad as you think you'll be okay."
He withdrew a hypo, popped the cap with his thumb and pressed it into the gap of armor on Mickey's anterior thigh.
The younger clone gasped and gave a shuddering breath as his shaking stopped.
"You feel good?"
"Y-yeah I feel… I feel… I don't feel anything…" Mickey trailed.
Asher withdrew an abdominal dressing, pressing the gauze side down onto the irrigated wound. He gingerly wrapped around his stomach not too tightly, just enough to keep his guts in place.
He secured it with a huff and taped it.
"Okay little brother, can you walk?" He asked.
"Y-yeah…. Yes sir…"
"Okay, when I tell you I need you to get to your feet alright? I'll help you when I can I just need to see Cutter."
Asher turned away from him, Mickey's words weighing heavy on his heart.
"Sir… I'm sorry."
Asher shook his head, banishing the sorrow he felt for his younger brother.
He crawled over to Cutter, Jace and the medics had removed his helmet and Asher felt tears prick his eyes at what he saw.
A rough bloody cleave along the right side of his head, he was already stripped to the skin, wrapped up in a blanket and litter bound. Asher could barely see the upper half of his body, the IO infuser already jammed into his sternal notch.
Jace had done well thank the stars, his chest was sealed and the NCD's to fight a tension pneumothorax in place. Asher grimaced at the sight of the surgical cric performed on Cutter's throat. The medic that stayed held a BVM connected to the cric tube, giving him a breath every few seconds. (BVM: Bag valve mask)
"We gotta get him out of here now sir, he's circling the drain." Jace said, syncing Cutters vitals as of five minutes ago to his HUD.
Increased heart rate, lowering oxygen saturation, Asher had a hunch but knew that a cardiac monitor would tell him for sure.
The bolt that hit Cutter through and through barely missed the spine, but he definitely had a lung gone.
Not punctured, gone.
And that was what was likely causing this, decreased oxygen rich blood by virtue of a ruined lung and a chest trauma meant the heart was beating faster but nowhere near as efficient.
"We got him let's go." Asher said taking the head of the litter.
"Hey doc!" Asher yelled to the medic, "Get that trooper to his feet and follow us!"
The medic knelt to Mickey and guided him up, snagging his rifle and draping his arm over his shoulder.
"Archangel-five to Shaman-main over." Asher commed.
"Shaman-main, go ahead Archangel, over."
"I've got one headed your way, triage priority India, and Kincaid…." Asher's voice trailed.
He almost couldn't bring himself to say it.
"It's Cutter."
There was a moment of pause, Kincaid likely processing what Asher had just said.
Before long he heard Kincaid take a breath and respond.
"Roger Archangel… Shaman BAS has room for two as of now, Bedlam and Mickey will go there. Witchdoctor aid station is ready to receive Cutter over."
"Roger that brother, Archangel-five out."
Reha's forearms were soaked in blood by the time she bid her finished round of casualties to their next level of care.
She dipped them into a wash basin they kept, scrubbing it off with soap. The water was tinged with red and she was glad her hair was shorter, the last time she got blood stuck to it.
It hadn't stopped, troopers from the 501st, the 224th and sadly her own unit had come through.
Some she could save, others she could not.
She sorely wished she could change that.
Reha and her Master hadn't slept, barely eaten and now she greedily drank from her canteen and coughed as the icy water attacked a throat made hoarse and dry from yelling.
"Drink up boys, good work." She rasped.
One of the clones stood outside the entrance, the water he poured onto his forearms turning red.
Non stop they'd worked, numerous surgical maneuvers, a combative patient here and there that they'd sedated. A growing pile of fallen armor and weapons was nestled in the corner, white smeared with mud and blood.
"Ma'am we got one incoming." Her radio operator, Sergeant Kidd announced.
She donned her gloves, ready for more. Her exhaustion was beginning to set in but she steeled herself for what was coming and swallowed a caffeine pill.
But try as she might, she wasn't prepared.
It was Cutter.
Captain Asher and Lieutenant Jace carried him in, hefting the litter.
Instantly the clones were on their feet, Nero following close behind.
"I've got a through and through blaster wound on his chest, another on his right leg and his head." Jace explained, "Laceration to the right shoulder, wrapped, surgical cric in place, chest is sealed with three NCD's."
"Roger." Nero said as he took trauma shears to what was left of Cutter's bodysuit.
Reha was frozen to her spot, eyes wide as the medics began to work, blood seeped from the side of Cutter's head.
This can't be, Cutter was invincible, unstoppable, her stomach did a flip and she almost vomited. The last time she'd seen him he was smiling, and now he lay in a bloody heap.
A hole in his chest and his head bleeding, a deep wound on his shoulder and another on his leg.
"Ma'am?" Nero asked.
She wordlessly moved in, swallowing the feeling that she'd somehow failed Cutter already.
"Get me three grams of TXA, grand slam now. And snag me some chest tubes!" She shouted.
Within seconds the needle was hooked up to the IO Jace had initiated into Cutter's sternum and TXA was administered, time 0425.
Another medic placed pads onto Cutter's chest, to monitor his vitals via heart rate and oxygen saturation.
"Radial pulses are gone ma'am." Nero said as he pulled his fingers from Cutter's wrists.
"I need a bag of whole blood." She called.
"We're out!" A medic reported from their blood bank.
Reha cursed.
"Take mine." Kidd said, removing his gauntlet, "That's my brother right there, take it all."
"Miles, Bannon, get the stick on Sergeant Kidd." Nero ordered as he snagged the chest tubes, "Get that karking heart monitor up!"
Reha sterilized the right side of Cutter's chest, and felt for his fifth intercostal space. The cardiac monitor was booted up, the machine scanning his rhythm.
Slowly, she grabbed a scalpel, and cut downward between the ribs before taking the tip of the blade and making a small hole.
"Clamp." She said.
A trooper held it up from across the room, before he could move to hand it to her she yanked it from his hand with the force.
She wouldn't waste any time.
Reha shoved the clamp into the hole she'd made and opened it to expand, blood pouring slightly but the TXA did good on stopping the flow.
"Tube." Reha said.
Instantly it was in her hand, she tore the seal with her teeth and withdrew the tube.
She clamped the tip, and inserted it, once it was in she released the clamp and pulled them out.
Blood began to fill the tube but not a lot of it thankfully.
"Cole," She called to one of the medics, "Stitch this."
"Yes ma'am." Cole affirmed suture kit in his hands.
The cardiac monitor began to show Cutter's heart rhythm, fast but so far so good.
Miles and Bannon got the artery stick on Kidd who grimaced as the needle bypassed a bundle of nerves, his own heartbeat filling the line.
"Blood administered time, zero-four thirty."
The medic kept bagging Cutter, whole blood moved into his bloodstream, but that still meant damage to his brain which they had no capabilities to fix.
Reha heard the most awful sound in her life as she worked, it was a one note monotone beep that the cardiac monitor blared rapidly.
No no no no no.
The rhythm was fast, his heart racing but not working nearly as well as it should've.
"Cutter!" Nero cried.
"Pulseless ventricular-tachycardia ma'am, we're losing him!"
Sergeant Kidd's blood line was disconnected with a stream of scarlet that sprayed all over the floor before the clone simply clamped his thumb over the end of it.
Reha grabbed the defibrillator pads and hooked them up to the cardio monitor.
Luckily, the device was idiot proof, the words "SHOCK ADVISED" blaring across the screen with the machine repeating it. The pads on his chest working as landmarks for what she was about to do.
Reha rubbed the paddles together, building the charge.
"Clear."
"Clear!" Everyone shouted, hands in the air.
She gave a shock.
Cutter's chest jolted, his muscles spasmed.
The rhythm did not revert to normal, it merely kept its quick cadence. His heart was compensating for the trauma, heart beating faster and faster but not filling adequately enough.
"Cutter don't you do this." She cried, her eyes stinging.
"SHOCK ADVISED." The screen said in a mechanical voice.
She upped the power level and hovered the pads above his chest.
"Clear."
"Clear!"
Asher had ripped off his helmet, his eyes wide, Jace had done the same, and watched with a grim expression.
The shock hadn't done anything.
"No no no Cutter come on!" Reha yelled.
The monitor let loose a steady beep that silenced the entire tent.
Flatline.
Reha stared at the screen as she felt tears prick her eyes and her heart broke all at once. She didn't know what to do, she wanted to scream, to cry, to call for her master. Her master always knew what to do! Why couldn't she? This was her responsibility while her master ran another aid station, Why couldn't she think of anything?
She'd promised Cutter she could do this… and here he was paying for his trust. The failure of this weighed heavily on her, she wanted to scream, scream until her throat tore.
It had already been hard when clones she didn't know had come in, but this was her friend, a man who called her little sister.
The rudest thing she'd heard that day however was the most comforting thing as well.
"Get the hell out of my way." Asher spat, shoving a medic out of his path.
He began chest compressions and Reha had never felt more foolish in her life for forgetting something so basic. It was almost taboo in their world, so unadvised that she'd never even considered it.
"One, two, three, four, five…" He began to count as he pressed.
When he reached thirty, the Medic with the BVM gave two breaths, that's when Asher took his time to speak quickly.
"Ma'am, I need one gram of epi and twenty milliliters of saline right behind it."
She moved fast, the Force bringing the supplies to bear.
"Hook it up to the IO." Asher said, continuing the compressions with sweat bearing down his face. The tip of his tongue between his teeth as he focused.
Thirty compressions for every two breaths. More often than not, Combat Medics didn't do CPR, because once they started they couldn't stop.
"Vod let me, you've been at it for a bit." Jace said, taking over compressions with the ice cold calm he was known for.
"Got it." Reha announced, finishing the epinephrine and the flush of saline.
She hooked the adrenaline up to the IO port and held down the plunger, pulling it and tossing the syringe before setting up the saline.
"Stop compressions and check his rhythm." Asher said, the neckline of his bodysuit soaked with sweat, his eyes frantic.
Slowly the cardiac monitor loaded up a new rhythm.
"SHOCK ADVISED." It droned.
"Yes! That's what we needed!" Asher whooped.
"We have a pulse." Nero said, with a triumphant laugh, "Maker above we have a pulse!"
"Not outta the woods yet it's V-fib, ma'am standby to shock." Asher explained.
Adrenaline to bring his heart back from zero, a shock to balance the rhythm. Cutter should be dead, he couldn't even breath for himself! And as Reha pressed the defibrillator paddles together she looked to Cutter's face.
"Hold on big guy." She begged.
The charge was complete.
"Clear!" Reha shouted.
"Clear."
She shocked him, his chest jolting once more, the entire aid station seemed to hold their breath.
Slowly, steady wavelengths came onto the cardiac monitor.
The aid station cheered, Reha let loose a laugh of relief before her eyes burned with tears she finally let fall. Her hand giving Cutter's a squeeze she desperately wish he'd return.
Gently she grabbed a roll of gauze coated in bacta and wrapped his head. The medic that had come on with Cutter, continued his task of bagging his patient.
Asher snagged an IV pack from the bin beneath the litter and ripped it open with his teeth.
"Kidd get a bag filled with blood, I'm gonna get a port for it in."
"Roger sir." The Sergeant said hooking up his line to an empty blood bag.
"Almost done ma'am?" Asher asked as he fought to get the stick on Cutter's forearm.
Blood didn't fill the hub, Asher cursed.
"He's shunted, veins have moved back, ma'am do we have the ultrasound gear?" Asher asked glancing her way.
"Nero, get the kit by the drugs." She ordered.
It was tossed her way, she knew without words what Asher intended.
She ripped open a pack of water based jelly and smeared it onto Cutter's neck. The Jedi powered on the ultrasound and pressed it to his skin.
"There you are…" Asher muttered to the screen, needle in hand.
He was going for the jugular in the only good way one could.
Needle kept at a a good thirty-five degree angle, using both tactile sensation and the ultrasound to find his spot.
He advanced.
Asher clenched his jaw, fighting for it.
It was a one in a million chance, a billion maybe with how much trauma Cutter had suffered.
But he'd believed in Reha, and for that she reached for the only card she had left in her deck.
Reha shut her eyes and focused.
'I am one with the force and the force is with me.' She thought.
Serenity flowed through her as she grew still, distant blaster fire and explosions dulled in their intensity before they faded into nothing.
"Ash." She began, eyes still shut, "Move your hand three degrees to the left."
He blinked at her confused, but complied.
She could see it, she could feel it, the Force guiding her. Dozens of voices whispering comfortingly into her mind, she felt warmth and comfort that had been absent from the moment she set foot onto this planet.
"Now bring the angle down five degrees."
He did.
"Now advance." She whispered.
A bit of silence came, before blood began to spurt out of the needle, Asher's gloves absorbing it.
"I'm in." He gawked, attaching the saline lock hub and taping it down. He snagged the bag of blood that Kidd had filled, hooking it up.
Asher gave Cutter's shoulder a squeeze and he sighed.
His decision caused this, his brother was knocking on heaven's door and it was his fault.
He held up his arm for the comm.
"Wildman-One this is Archangel-Five, how me? over."
There was a moment of silence before Showtime answered.
"Roger that Archangel-five I read you loud and clear, what can I do for you?" Showtime's voice held a smile as he spoke.
"I need immediate MEDEVAC, priority urgent over."
"Roger that Archangel-five I am ten mikes out but uhhh… no nine line?"
"Showtime, it's Cutter, he needs to get onto the Valkyrie now."
"I'll get there in three." Showtime said immediately, the seriousness in his voice gave Asher pause.
"Roger that, Archangel-five out."
Asher pulled his handheld holo-projector and called Captain Atomus.
"Captain Asher?" She asked, her blue silhouette fizzing to life.
"Ma'am, alert the on ship trauma ward to expect a suspected brain damaged patient who has already flatlined. We brought him back, but he needs immediate medical care as soon as he's off the bird."
"Of course Captain, serial number?" She asked.
"CT-07149."
Asher hated that, his name was Cutter not some numbers.
"Roger Captain, they're on standby to receive, ETA?"
"Ten mikes, maybe less."
"Roger that, thank you Captain and… good luck out there."
Asher nodded and killed the transmission.
He saw Reha leave the tent and grabbed his helmet. Moving out to check on her, he'd never seen her look so exhausted, not on Arantara and not in recovery for her own injuries.
She sat on a crate with her knees hugged to her chest as she sobbed, her shoulders shook and she gurgled.
Asher slowly walked up, his hand resting on her shoulder.
"He's going to be okay." He said soothingly.
"I should've done something… this was all my responsibility! How many of these troopers?" She cried gesturing to the body bags, "Died because I didn't know what I was doing?!?"
He knelt in front of her and she rested her forehead against the hard shell of his shoulder pad, his arms encircling her.
"You got tunnel vision it happened, as soon as I knew what to do, you did too. You can blame yourself for your failures, but they don't mean anything if you don't learn from them." He whispered.
"But if you weren't there…"
"Someone would've figured out what to do, it could've been you, Nero, Kidd, anybody."
Asher looked Reha in the eyes, dark circles under them.
"Did you know I almost failed my medical exams?" He asked.
"What?"
"When I was a Cadet, couldn't do the written tests to save my life. Everyone else was so good at it I couldn't fathom it."
He shook his head with a rueful sigh.
"I felt like a failure, defective, unworthy. Was ready to just be recycled because what kind of medic would I be? How could my brothers rely on me when I couldn't do anything right."
"What changed?" She asked.
"There's this Clone back home, on Kamino, he... he's defective, but he's a brother all the same. He talked to me, assured me that there's nothing wrong with me, that I just have to try harder than my brothers." He explained, "Before long, I stayed awake longer studying, learning, and he helped. I passed my test at the top of my class before long."
Asher smiled fondly at the thought of his older brother, 99's smiling face taking him someplace better. Reha felt the surge of warmth in his emotions as he thought of his brother, his smile became her smile.
"What's his name, this big brother of yours?"
"Ninety-nine, he's the best of us." Asher said sincerely, "I am here now because of him, so is every brother under my care that's made it. Ninety-nine believed in me, just like Cutter believes in you."
Asher gave her shoulder another firm squeeze.
"Cutter would be proud of you, he's going to make it because of you." He said sincerely with a smile, "That… thing you did with the Force? That was the most amazing thing I've ever seen."
Her eyes still stung, her heart felt heavy but still she smiled.
Asher gave her shoulder one more gentle squeeze before he stood, took a short sip from his canteen and slid his helmet on.
"I'm heading back out, we have a battle to win." He said simply, "You're doing amazing, you should head in, he needs another dose soon."
Asher strode into the tent, and Reha almost immediately entered behind him.
She had a job to do after all.
"Ma'am we have more incoming!" Kidd reported from the radio.
"How many?" She asked.
"Seven, mortar round, two of them are amputees."
Reha took a sip from her canteen and cracked her knuckles, ripping off her old gloves before putting new ones on.
No rest for the wicked, not when she had people counting on her.
The casualties came in and she got to work.
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