Do No Harm

[Carrionghoul]

Do No Harm

The green, glowing beam shot from the gun, striking the soldier's chest. Slowly, the glow spread upwards towards the part of the body that was damaged, and the nanites began to reconstruct the top half of the dead man's skull.

Colton never ceased to be fascinated by the reconstruction process. Bone and muscle, fatty tissue and flesh, all writhing back into place while the little machines performed their modern magic trick. He knew that in reality the nanites were merely reading the stored DNA map of this soldier, a new recruit named Jackson, and then taking the parts that didn't match and returning them to their original state. Carbon and water being mechanically woven at a microscopic level in a cloud of sterilized anesthetic gas and energy.

Still, thought Colton, if only this type of thing could be used by everyone. He knew that was a fantasy. This technology was tremendously expensive, and only the military received access to it. This was because the military was fighting to hold onto the precious land that contained the minerals leading to the wealth and prosperity of the entire Terran Republic. The civilians would just have to deal with laser sutures and genetic stem cell stimulation.

Colton had wanted to be a doctor since he was a little boy. His father had been a renown surgeon, but since his test scores had been low and his VR gamer score high, Colton had to resort to a different path to saving lives. Hah, saving lives. He remembered his father's plaque of the doctor's oath "Do no harm". A military medic didn't have that luxury, not if he wanted to survive long enough to keep the troops up and moving to take the next objective.

Colton chuckled darkly, thinking back to the painfully inadequate field medicine class that they taught to everyone during basic training. The only difference between a medic and an assault trooper was that the medic had to learn how to use and maintain the medical data back pack and nanite gun kit. He wasn't a real surgeon like his father. The nanites did all the work. He just pointed and clicked the trigger. Viola, instant surgeon.

The glassy eyed look on Jackson's face started to fade. Colton shook off his melancholy thoughts and readied himself to go through the same process he had hundreds of times before. Colton watched as his patients eyes rolled back into his head, his eyelids fluttering. The young soldier gasped heavily and tried to jerk himself up into a sitting position. Colton kept him on his back with a hand pressed firmly against the young man's chest.

" Calm down." said Colton. " You're all right now. Wait for your defensive shields to reactivate before you get up."
The young soldier looked up nervously at the Medic. "Thanks, I owe ya one."
Colton chuckled " Don't mention it, Son. Maybe next time, you won't peek your head out the window when your squad leader tells you there's a sniper on the north ridge."

Son? Colton laughed to himself thinking that even though he was pushing 45, thanks to his frequent and unexpected trips to the Rebirthing Chambers, he still looked as young as when he first signed up for the Terran Republic Army when he was 22 years old.
Looking sheepish, Jackson asked "Where's the rest of the squad?"
" They moved on to capture points Bravo and Charlie. You can move up to meet them soon enough."

Colton suddenly felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. Old instincts honed over years of combat kicked in as he slowly scanned the room. He wasn't sure what it was....
Then he saw it, the slight warping of the wall nearest the north entrance. Whipping up his assault rifle he unleashed a salvo into what appeared to be a blank wall. Jackson jerked instinctively, spinning to see what the medic was shooting at. They both heard the static crackle of a defensive shield being overloaded and the wet impact of bullets penetrating flesh. A slight groan and a thump followed, along with the unique sound of a cloaking matrix deactivating. There on the ground, blood slowly pooling around him, lay a Vanu Sovereignty Infiltrator, a pistol in one hand and a viscous looking combat knife in the other.

Colton scanned the room once more until he was certain they were alone. Looking at Jackson's wide eyed stare, he smirked. " Looks like that sniper got tired of waiting for us to exit the building."
Jackson shook his head in disbelief "Looks like I owe ya two."
Colton laughed " Damn right ya do. Now get moving, they need you at Charlie."
Only once the new recruit had left the building did Colton somberly walk over to the Infiltrator's corpse.
" I'm sorry I don't have your DNA mapping to fix the damage I've done." he whispered to the dead Vanu. "Hopefully, once you've exited the rebirth chambers, you'll forgive me, but it was either you or me.... Maybe I'll even forgive myself some day."

"Do no harm" indeed, though Colton as he turned from the body and walked off towards his squad mates new position.

[Sonny]

Hi Carrionghoul,
I missed this one somehow when you originally posted it. A very well-written short story with a good flow and a catchy ending . I love that you also expanded a bit on the respawn tech, how it works and how it is only available to the military. I really like when short stories try to expand a little bit on the background of the war on Auraxis with ideas like that while still fitting into the lore. Keep it up!

Sonny

P.S. Isn't it sad how it seems that we only have ~ 5 people commenting on the stories here when there seems to be 50 - 100 people reading each story? Come on people, let us know what you think !

[Koadster]

Really liked it dude! I felt like I was reading a Dan Abnett novel

I loved the explanation of the nanites repairing the guy, very well thought out idea about that phase.

[Rictavius]

This is very good, I hope Sony does a collection soon, Im working on some lore breaking ideas myself.

[CraazyCanuck]

Excellent work. Love the description of the repair process. Keep'em coming.