A/N: Still working on next chapter, but I had been doing this in bits and pieces and figured what the heck. Give you all something to read. And this is totally not foreshadowing the next op in the RP after the Archpriest fight. Totes innocent.

As usual, the Editing Gang doesn't check or fix these, so any typos or errors are clearly their fault...


Jason Valthez grimaced as the assault lander touched down roughly, checking his Crossfire rifle yet again as he sealed his helmet. Behind him the three combat medics and meditech shuffled uneasily as the hatch ramp lowered, one of them already pulling out bags of blood plasma from a stasis capsule on her medical supply backpack.

The examination of Site Aleph-449 was supposed to be a routine sweep and clear. A Reaper attack estimated at over two million years old, it was seen as low risk for R&D Forward assets to clear while Sigma and SRT Kinnara went after dangerous sites. Of course, anything Reaper was technically a dangerous site, but at least Valthez wasn't assigned to nightmares like that deployment into the Traverse. And for the most part, 'low risk' meant at most you might run into a few poorly equipped pirates.

For the most part.

Unfortunately, this time, it was not the usual. The landing vessels – a trio of shuttles - had been hit by a shoulder-launched GST missile and crashed, and then things went south in a hurry as the shaken landing force ran into a larger force of HADES operatives. The firefight between a reinforced R&D unit with four platoons of marines and several units of HADES had been won because General Ashland had also attached Vandefar's old DACT unit as backup, but there were a lot of casualties before the DACT could drop from the orbital cruiser and push HADES back.

Sixteen were reported dead. At least a dozen were injured, some critically.

Valthez walked down the ramp, rifle ready. Technically he was only the pilot for the medical team, but the HADES unit had downed a lot of marines and even given the DACT problems, and no one was sure there weren't more of them. The remaining marines from the landing force were busy at the actual Reaper site, protecting it from additional assaults – and there weren't a lot of combat-rated healthy Marines left at the medical triage site, so he was doing his part.

Of course, technically he was not a combat-rated Marine, but General Ashland had everyone on the range after the attack at R&D, and one more rifleman was still one more rifleman. Besides, he'd lived through a rogue AI, attacking husk monsters, and whatever the hell that shit was Sigma Company had found on Kathis, so shooting a few terrorists in the head wasn't beyond him.

He glanced around, trying to see if there were areas he should keep a lookout for, while he took in the planet itself. The terrain of the unnamed planet was best described as barren, with huge piles of iron slag having eroded into hills framing the ruins of a once mighty city. Angular silvery stones hulked in piles of shattered outlines of buildings, odd looking plazas with delicately inlaid tiles now fields of uneven footing.

The injured were laid out under a quick-deploy survival tent of neoplastic and kinetic barriers, on tarps of more plastic. A trio of hastily deployed turrets, and two medical drop bags, were only real equipment on the ground, along with a pile of used slapgel packs and discarded stims. The combat medics unslung their packs,as a marine sergeant walked forward from one side, his armor displaying the flash of Ahaltocob, the specialist engineer group that worked with Sigma.

"Sergeant Lo Chan, 4th Arcturus, Ahaltocob. This is it for medical, sir? Got more wounded at base camp..." The sergeant saluted and Valthez returned it with a sigh.

"There is a medical frigate on the way, but it's still sixteen hours out. There's also a full medical support ship on the way, but that's all the way at Sol, and is more than a day out. Did what we could, grabbed all the medical people we had on hand, Sergeant and hauled ass out here."

Sergeant Chan nodded slowly. "I do appreciate it, suspect the boys lying in bits and pieces over yonder will too, just...it was bad. If the DACT hadn't dropped right in the line of fire they had us dead as shit..." He trailed off, and Valthez winced.

After a moment, the lieutenant frowned. "Where is your CO?"

The sergeant grimaced. "Dead. XO and BDO too. Like I said, the Hades fuckers hit us from up on high with raking fire and the command squads with four Hydra missiles. The third shuttle never even made it down so Colonel Markas was dead from the jump. The unit commissar somehow survived the firefight – and missiles – but.."

He gestured to one badly burned figure missing both legs and wearing only scraps of melted armor, and Vathez nodded, turning to the meditech. "Will they make it?"

The meditech was setting up a field mini-comp and laying out cases of equipment, her voice tight and terse. "Depends. Medigel isn't fucking magic, sir. It can seal wounds, it can temporarily patch arteries and veins, it can reduce inflammations and swelling. Don't do shit for broken bones, burns, radiation, or organ failure. Ain't like we can haul a fucking TS/A or full regen unit on our backs either." She tore open a package of sealed omniprobes and laid them neatly on a sterile paper cloth she set to once side.

He tilted his head. "Why are they...moving people around?"

The medtech began connecting things. "Triage, sir. Can't always save everyone. Critically injured but savable comes first, time is the key there. After that, depends. For field situation like this – no support, possible overrun? You kinda turn the rules on their head. Simple gunshots and broken limbs, fastest and easiest to fix, takes the least resources. The more injured ones are next." She grimaces as the combat medics place colored holotags next to people, a red one next to the burnt, unmoving form of the commissar. "The ones that are critical but you probably can't save come last."

One of the combat medics walked over. "Need two bone regens, tissue stimulator, and some deep scan slapons." The medtech nodded and opened her cases, turning away from Valthez.

Valthez scanned the horizon, nodding to himself as he saw another shuttle touch down, disgorging more marines and two more combat medics. He tapped his omni, pulling up his tech guide to try to make sense of all this medical equipment and determine if he could somehow help...or should just stand out of the way.

MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY

Modern medical technology can be broken down into four rough groups from the military medical perspective: field medicine, surgical recovery, drugs, and equipment. While omnitech, nanotech, modern composites and the like have reduced the size and increased the flexibility of some medical procedures, the ugly reality remains that most field medicine is just designed to stabilize the injured or keep them in the fight until proper medical attention can be administered.

Marine forces have medical officers specifically because the field is far too complex for any unit leader to truly be able to make the calls required when it comes to the injured, or to determine the best way to handle other situations – such as mass civilian casualties, epidemics, and the like. As an R&D science officer, it may fall upon you to determine how to utilize such assets.

This guide is not going to cover the full array of modern medicine and surgical options, but focus on what you are like to see deployed – or have used on you – in the field.

MEDICAL PERSONNEL CLASSIFICATIONS

While R&D is primarily tasked research and science, as an officer of the Systems Alliance Marine Corps, your job is to fight and protect our people. Many forward R&D missions may involve interaction with hostile forces, pirates or the like. Likewise, such explorations may run into more mundane dangers such as environmental effects, hazardous materials, alien hostile wildlife, or the like.

As such, it is a certainty that you will deal with your soldiers being wounded, injured, or killed. Offsetting this is your medical personnel. They are the riflemen, snipers and engineers of medicine and healing. Some are the medical equivalent of your basic infantry, providing fast support but limited depth, others are more specialized. The main difference is the cost of training.

Medical personnel cost six to ten times as much to train than a basic infantry soldier. Do NOT deploy them recklessly or without support. While all medical personnel regardless of other qualifications are at least B-2 or A-2 if they are allowed into any operating forward area, that does not mean they are combat-rated.

Personnel who do not have sufficient combat qualifications are given a green 'non-combat' TAB and are NOT to be deployed into any area with potential hostile forces or potential combat scenarios.

Roughly, there are two grades of medics, regardless of rank or office – generalists and specialists. The latter are assigned to hospitals, research facilities, dedicated medical frigates and NOT any forward combat locations.

Enlisted medical personnel (space or ground) are J-rates, called corpsmen. There are also W-rates for other medical functions, such as psychologists, physical therapists, dentists, and the like. H-rates are officer medical personnel with a medical doctorate.

J-1 through J-4 are rates associated with combat medics, J-5 to J-7 are medical specialists, typically with a degree, who assist H-rate doctors, or are otherwise speced into a field such as meditechs. H-1 through H-4, likewise, are typically lower level medical generalists, while specialty surgeons and focus types such as cyberneticists, are H-5 and above. W personnel are so varied that there is no hard and fast rule, but typically W-5 and above in medical terms are for officers with degrees, such as trauma psychologists.

There are four roles played by medical personnel. Combat medic, meditech, medical support, and doctor.

Combat medics are those with any medical rating in tandem with A or B or other ratings – typically greater than rating 3. A combat medic is a marine with combat experience who is trained to treat, medevac, or otherwise handle medical events in live combat.

Meditechs are 'pure' medical enlisted with no B or A ratings and are focused on handling deployment and operation of field medical equipment, coding medical omnigel and operation of nanomedical systems.

Medical support personnel are W-rate specialists who assist doctors and meditechs, mostly in very specific fields of limited applique such as scanning tech, nanooncology, and the like. Very few have an A or B rating.

Doctors, of course, handle direct surgical operations and dedicated medical procedures that require more specific training and experience. Doctors are very rarely going to have a red TAB so they should never be deployed forward without very clear reasons (epidemics, etc).

Understanding your medical personnel and how to deploy them is key. Most units will have medical corpsmen and combat medics in their line and TOEP but larger units will have a dedicated medical unit. Ensure you set protection around them, and that if you are forced to site non-combat rated medical personnel in an active warzone that they are secured and not in the area of military qualified targets.

SLAPGEL, MEDIGEL, MEDICAL OMNIGEL

The obvious consequence of battle – be that ranged, melee, explosions, biotics, or other methods – is injuries. Most modern combat involves mass accelerated rounds against hardened armor, and as such the injuries are mostly shock, penetration and shrapnel. The advances in materials science means that for weapons to reliably penetrate such armor the power is very high. With the exception of krogan, anyone not in armor hit by most modern weapons will probably die immediately.

The most simple medical treatment, therefore, is dealing with surface injuries – gunshots, lacerations, stabs, shrapnel, light burns, contusions and bruising. The old methods of field treatment involved little more than painkillers, disinfectants and bandages – hardly effective.

Modern omniscience has produced a range of 'gel' products. These gels combine several factors – clotting agents, binding agents, disinfectants, painkillers, compression and of course sealing the wound.

The simplest kind of applique is 'fast applied medigel' – typically called slapgel. This is lower grade medigel, typically in pouches or deployed through remote drone systems, in active combat. It will seal and stop the bleeding from minor wounds, but it has no real use for more serious issues or burns. Typically, soldiers use slapgel to stay in the fight longer or deal with non-critical wounds. Slapgel is high in painkillers and clotting agents, as well as disinfectants. It is not effective against more serious wounds, deep tissue or organ damage, chemical attacks, or the like.

Professionally applied medigel is the next step up, for more serious wounds requiring a medical specialist. These medigels are higher quality and tailored for a specific species, as well as incorporating blank totempotent stemcell fragments and organic fillers. Injected or applied with various medical tools or systems, medigel can treat internal bleeding and light burns as well as more serious gunshots.

The most advanced gel system is medical omnigel, a suspension of nanomachines in a highly reactive disinfectant gel that is loaded with various agents. Medical Omnigel (MO) requires a trained nanocoder and a medical professional, as well as specialized equipment and diagnostics of the injuries. It allows for very extreme wound treatments – extracting internal shrapnel, sealing organ breaches, clearing toxins, poison, radiation and even handling shock reactions. It is also the ONLY method for dealing with black nano related damage. However, medical omnigel is poorly adapted to the battlefield as it requires a long time to work, specialist training and equipment to apply, and is extremely vulnerable to EMP.

Medigel management is critical. Omnigel to medigel conversion is extremely lossy – three liters of omnigel is reduced to less than a liter of slapgel or half a liter of medigel. Medical Omnigel CANNOT be field fabricated. Ensure you keep sufficient on-hand supplies.

AUGMENTED CONVENTIONAL MEDICAL SUPPLIES

Conventional bandages, splints, tourniquets, and other non-technical medical treatment options still exist. Many bandages are infused with medigel for direct applique (see tapes and wraps below), while casts and splints incorporate attachments for regenerators or other equipment. Tourniquets auto-record when applied and use only the required force as well as being able to integrate with some medical cybernetic equipment.

Each marine pack contains a limited amount of medical supplies, disinfectants, painkillers and the like for rapid, simple healing when out of medigel, but these are not designed nor sufficient for serious injuries. Combat medics carry a larger and wider array of such supplies.

BONE REGENERATORS

Developed by the Sirta Foundation—famous for its pioneering role with medi-gel—the Osteo-Regen Device, typically called a 'bone regenerator', is a cutting-edge medical device designed to treat severe skeletal injuries. It uses mass effect micro-fields, a custom-formulated injected bioactive gel, and advanced tissue-engineering protocols to accelerate natural bone regeneration far beyond normal biological speeds.

The device (it comes in many sizes and setups, from field kits to entire tables) has a small-scale eezo emitter, which emits carefully calibrated low-intensity mass effect fields to both reduce the effective weight and stress on the damaged bone, resulting in a "weightless" healing environment, preventing further micro-tears while patients remain conscious and mobile. The fields can also subtly manipulate cellular fluid pressure, ensuring both blood flow to fracture site is not reduced while reducing the impact of swelling.

Once stabilized, Sirta's proprietary injected bio-gel formula is applied. This is a substance made of collagen, protein and specialized nanofibers. These nanofibers help form a lightweight scaffolding that binds directly to exposed bone surfaces, while the collagen and proteins fill in gaps. The gel also includes specialized growth factors that encourage osteoblast (bone cell) proliferation. They effectively "kickstart" the body's natural healing mechanisms. The gel's viscosity and composition are tailored to remain semi-solid under the partial mass effect environment, ensuring it bonds well to fractures without running or shifting and providing stabilization.

Integrated within the device is a medical VI that monitors cellular activity through micro-sensors in the gel. The VI issues low-level bioelectric pulses specifically tuned to stimulate osteoblasts. This approach is loosely adapted from the technology used in advanced prosthetic-limb therapy. The pulses mimic the body's own nerve signals, further prompting bones to "fill in" damaged gaps at an accelerated rate. An automated scanning system (related to the Omni-tool's scanning modules) maps and assesses the exact details of the fracture, so the device can adjust mass effect field strength, gel density, and bioelectric pulses on the fly.

On a practical level, bone regen machines only speed up healing. It is not a magical fix, it requires hours or days to work. While it can certainly shorten recovery times, it is not viable to use in the field except to stabilize people with extreme spinal injuries. Like with medical omnigel, it also requires trained specialists and support equipment to operate.

TISSUE REJUVINATOR AND STIMULATORS

The Caduceus Organ Rejuvenator is a large-scale, hospital-based device designed to heal and regenerate damaged soft tissues and organs. By blending controlled mass effect fields, state-of-the-art nanotechnology, and specialized biofabrication methods, this system offers full body healing and regeneration to patients suffering from life-threatening internal injuries.

At the heart of the Rejuvenator are nanometer-scale medical constructs, called bioweavers. These tiny machines systematically mend cellular damage from the inside out using the fabricated bioactive medigel and other compounds. BioWeavers are programmed to identify necrotic or injured cells, remove debris, and stimulate healthy cell growth. In effect, they serve as micro-scale surgeons that can reach into areas even the best medical VI cannot physically touch. A more advanced strain of medical omnigel, custom-formulated for organ regeneration, fills the Rejuvenator's patient chamber. Each formulation is adjusted to the target organ(s), incorporating specialized growth factors, immune modulators, and tissue-specific scaffolds. The gel's synthetic proteins and peptides create a supportive "molecular lattice," guiding nanotech weavers in forming new tissues with minimal scarring or rejection. Embedded element zero (eezo) nodal arrays generate localized mass effect fields around the patient's damaged organs. These fields reduce mechanical stress on critically injured tissues and help maintain optimal internal fluid pressures. They also ensure the nanotech BioWeavers remain precisely within the injury site rather than dispersing throughout the body.

Patients are placed on a specialized platform that slides into a cylindrical treatment chamber, creating a sterile, carefully regulated environment. Within the chamber, advanced 3D scanning and real-time imaging ensure that every micrometer of damaged tissue is tracked, mapped, and systematically repaired. Overseeing the entire process is a trained medical specialist, a trained operator, and a high-level medical VI. This VI constantly reads patients' vitals, cross-references genetic or xenobiological profiles, and coordinates the BioWeavers' activity. If the device detects immune overreaction or hidden micro-fractures, it automatically tunes the mass effect fields and shifts the composition of the medi-gel for maximum therapeutic benefit.

Once the injured tissues reach stable function, the device extracts residual BioWeavers through the patient's bloodstream (often filtered out via a specialized dialysis module). The nanobots are recycled for future use after a sterilization protocol. Patients then enter a short convalescence period. Some mild scarring may remain depending on the injury severity, but overall organ function typically returns to near pre-injury levels.

Unfortunately, the machine is far too large for any kind of deployment outside of hospitals. Additionally it is extremely expensive. It is included in this document as the Alliance has around forty such devices in various Alliance hospitals for critically injured high priority patients, but most uses of the COR are by nobles, the wealthy, and the occasional war hero. Notably, a number of Lords of Sol (Duke Drescher, Baron Holden, Baron von Alte) are only alive due to this device.

The less advanced version that is mobile, the tissue stimulator, is a far less impressive and complex product. It uses similar tech to the bone regenerator with some of the simpler bioweaving nanotech of the Rejuvinator, but the best it can typically do is seal ruptured internal organs or deep arteries and veins. More critically, rather than tailored medical omnigel it just uses protein paste and medigel so the repairs are very temporary, requiring more in-depth treatment at a later date. The biggest advantage is that it is designed for field use and works very fast, and even basic medical corpsmen can operate it.

MEDICAL PACKAGES

Medical healing is not a fast process. While certainly some devices and procedures can speed things up, the human (or asari) body still heals at its own pace in the long term, and sometimes injured soldiers are required to serve.

Medical packages are used in this instance. They are small machines that combine a diagnostics VI, a medi-gel applicator and dispenser, a small drug dispenser, and a transmission unit. A medical package monitors a wound and applies painkillers, medigel, antibiotics, or other drugs as needed, while transmitting the status and vitals to a nearby medical monitor station. Medical packages almost always include a waterproof and antibiotic skintight wrap.

Most commonly found on the installation sites of newly installed cybernetic limbs, they are also common in joint injuries (shoulder, knee, elbow, etc) since those areas bend and flex and this impedes healing and can open sutures or medigel sealed incisions.

TAPES AND WRAPS

The modern 'bandage' is much different than the stuff you see in holovids of pre-Iron medical dramas. Most are defined as wraps – an omnigel patch with a thin layer of medigel and a small flimsi haptic display showing very simple information – is the wound infected, does the wrap need to be changed, and so on.

The same is applied for more serious internal injuries, commonly called tapes. Some are comprised of bionetic rapid-cloned materials, others of sterile medigel. Tapes are used in surgery to seal and heal arterial or venous damage, lacerations to organ systems, or damage to the intestines. Both wraps and tapes are primarily focused on sealing wounds for a longer-term period than medigel alone. Wraps are designed to be quickly applied or removed, and usually marines will carry various sizes in their standard loadout, but they do require at least some pre-care – cleaning the area and in the case of heavy bleeding, slowing that.

Tapes are a purely surgical product, stored in sterile rolls until needed, and require dedicated medical training to apply correctly. Do not attempt to use tapes as makeshift tourniquets or without the proper equipment and scanning devices.

TEMPORARY IMPLANTS

Spike implants are medical devices that interact with the body via temporary spike attachments, sunk directly into flesh. Most of these are nerve-regulation implants – to keep heart and lungs working. Some are filter implants, for toxin or hazmat exposure, that filter air or blood. A few are biotic stabilization implants for biotic patients with loss of biotic field control.

All temporary implants have a VI and an active device package. Some also include medical telemetry screens or a data-link to view on an omni-tool.

BLOOD AND SMARTBLOOD

There is a host of blood replacements and supplements supported by Alliance Medical. The most common is stored blood plasma (either dehydrated or kept in stasis) and whole blood, followed by the so-called 'synthblood', which is rapidly cloned masses of cultured red blood cells, designed to counter massive blood loss rapidly. These will die out in a few days, so follow-on medical care is also needed.

The most impressive form of blood medical installation, however, is SmartBlood. SmartBlood consists of nanofluidic carriers suspended in a synthetic plasma analogue, seeded with cultured hematopoietic stem cells derived from the user's own genetic material. These nanocarriers continuously monitor and adapt to the host's physiological state, executing targeted micro-repairs to capillaries and minor vascular structures, clearing hematomas within minutes, and breaking down blood-borne toxins and pathogens using programmable enzymatic countermeasures. They can adapt with adjustable affinity, optimizing oxygen delivery during exertion, low-atmo, or hypoxic scenarios. It hyper-oxygenates tissues by increasing the binding efficiency of its artificial hemoglobin analogs and dynamically altering viscosity based on physical exertion, reducing cardiovascular strain and extending peak endurance by up to 45%. SmartBlood also reduces recovery time from traumatic injuries and significantly increases survivability in hostile or contaminated environments. Minor organ damage such as surface lacerations are sealed via temporary polymer scaffolds deployed by nanites, allowing tissue to regenerate under stable conditions, and the onboard monitor will scan for known blood-borne pathogens and common chemical agents. Neutralization occurs through molecular breakdown or encapsulation and isolation for later renal purge. Localized swelling and bruising are reduced through nanite microfluidic redistribution and lymphatic stimulation.

However, SmartBlood has some drawbacks. It requires much higher than baseline calorie and electrolyte intake to maintain nanite activity over long-term deployments. For biotics, this is almost unmanageable. Additionally, performance drops sharply if the host enters advanced sepsis, severe radiation exposure, or low-nutrient starvation states - fail-safe protocols will prioritize detox and triage response in such events.

NANOMEDICINE

Nanomedicine is a term that covers a wide array of carefully deployed nano designed for directed use in the human body. It is different than other kinds (such as medical omnigel) in that it is only intended for extremely specialized operations in special operating rooms with heavy VI and robotic assistance, and usually is done by a surgeon with a team of backups.

The main use of nanomedical techniques is the elimination of stage I and II cancer, various immune disorders, chronic conditions such as sickle cell anemia, and brain conditions such as Alzheimer's. These require weeks of careful planning, full body scans, and preparatory surgical operations.

Nanomedical nanites are extremely hard coded and cannot replicate themselves nor act without direct supervision from the surgeon. This is due to the fact they can literally take a body apart. Most such operations cost in the low millions at the minimum.

The only licensed operators of this technology is House Anderson in the Alliance. The Asari House T'Shora, the Salarian Reach Research Group, and the Palavanus also have clinics under equally tight control. For marines, the only time this is authorized is to counter black nano infections, which is done in iso-containment on Luna at the Anderson Isoclinic near Luna City.

PHARMACOLOGY

From the point of view of Alliance R&D, trying to understand the roughly 600,000 drugs and substances on the Alliance Master Pharmacy Formulary is an exercise in futility.

All medicine in the Alliance falls into four groups based on the source:

Natural Products: these are substances produced primarily by growing it or culturing it. Antibiotics, insulin, and other such substances have zero to very little active processing.

Chemical Products: Synthesized artificial substances that produce a given result, usually manufactured in bulk. Painkillers, most blood pressure medicines, and the like. These substances are artificial and have zero to little natural content.

Body Manipulative Products: drugs or substances that function primarily to force the body to do something, produce something or stop something. Adrenals, steroids, most renal failure drugs and the like are in this category. Most of these are produced as a mix of natural and artificial methods.

Nanological Products: Chemicals and drugs produced entirely by nanotech, usually from baseline catalysts. These are not nanonically active, but they require zero-g environments to be produced and as they are so artificial tend to break down rapidly unless stored in stasis cabinets. Almost all mind conditioning drugs fall into this category along with rapid-forced regeneration drugs.

Each of these has a certain drawback in terms of production. Natural produces require grow time and location, and ship poorly. Chemical products require large scale refinement factories and low yields, while the body manipulative products combine this with all the weakness of growing the products. Nanological products are expensive to make, to store, and to ship.

Most Alliance ship pharmacies stock only the very basics – antibiotics, painkillers, clotting agents, simple things like medicines for diabetes, asthma, blood pressure, and vaccines.

Unless you have specific training in medical pharmacology, do not attempt to use untested or unauthorized medical drugs without proper guidance and supervision.

MEDICAL TOOLS

Most modern medical tools are all in the medical omni-tool, a variant of the normal device. This one has built in VI systems, real-time telemetry links to the patient and any monitor data sensors, as well as a host of specialist hard-light surgical instruments. It also has pinpoint delivery systems for medical taps, medigel or other substances.

Most surgical incisions are made with conventional scalpels still, not omni-tools, as the edge is simply finer and cleaner. Modern scalpels are nanometer edge instruments, entirely capable of cutting bone as easily as flesh without the ugliness of things such as bonesaws.

Omni-scalpels do exist, and can even reseal cuts as they go along, but most are too clumsy for surgical use, although useful for field medics – and morticians.

Most of the other kit of a doctor – forceps, needles, stitches, spreaders, probes, clamps and the like – can be ominfabricated on demand and perfectly sterile on the spot. VI tracks all instruments and acts to avoid things like forgetting a surgical sponge inside a patient.

MEDICAL DIAGNOSTICS

Almost every modern medical group, regardless of race, uses the combined T'Shora-Anderson MedScan Unit framework or the salarian BioVIS framework for diagnostics. Both systems operate on similar functionality – a medical VI, a series of tiny omni-drone probe units, wireless omnigel scan 'pads' that can be placed on a patient and a host of over sixty thousand various tests and scans. Anything from primitive x-rays all the way up to adjusted FTL electron scanning at the atomic level can be performed by these suites.

The suites both handle scans and the like in similar fashions, via the scan pads. These are omni-generative devices attached with a bioadhesive (the salarian ones tend to be easier on the skin). They generate various scan results via the scan unit, or probes and tissue samples using small omni-probe needles.

The main difference is in applique. The BioVIS system is designed specifically for both hospital and field use, and incorporates equipment to synthesize both nutrition (saline and glucose for humans, drell, and asari, copper-stabilized sodium lactate with adrenals and lucrose for salarians, and hexacobalt polychelators in saline with antiox for turians or quarians) and a wide array of common medications – disinfectants, antibiotics, painkillers, etc. The entire thing also fits in an (admitted heavy) backpack.

The TS/A system on the other hand is the size of an air-car, and designed for hospital use only. While it has more diagnostic functionality than the BioVIS, it is obviously not mobile, nor does it have integrated drug functionality, requiring external support for that.

Less advanced and limited systems exist – for example, most anti-cancer cybernetics has onboard monitoring, as does some diabetic and biotic disorder illness support software. Medical packages also have limited diagnostic capacity. The difference is that the BioVIS and TS/A systems are designed to diagnose and recommend treatment (and in the case of BioVIS, stabilizing drugs and nutrition) without trained medical personnel. Of course, it works better with trained meditechs, but even someone with no understanding can operate either device in an emergency situation, complete with a very detailed video projected walk-through of how to treat the injury or steps to take to stabilize the patient.