Medic

The medic, also called the combat physician, was a terran support unit who could heal friendly biological ground troops on the battlefield. Clad in light infantry armor similar to the CMC series and equipped with arm-mounted trauma gear, the medic attached to infantry formations to keep marines and other soldiers in the fight. First experimented with by the Terran Confederacy during the Guild Wars, the medic became a frontline fixture for the United Earth Directorate expeditionary fleet and remained an essential support unit for the Terran Dominion.

Role and equipment#

Medics wore light infantry armor similar to the CMC series and carried arm-mounted compartmented shields stocked with trauma gear, including nano-conveyed anesthetics, chemical modifiers, and attenuated lasers for on-site surgery. When stabilizer medpacks were available, medics gained access to the latest generation of injectable medical nanobots programmed for cellular hyper-repair, and live field studies indicated that medics using medpacks healed troops 25 percent faster, a difference that could turn the tide in a fierce encounter. Medpacks required advanced facilities to store them, and Remedius Medical Systems offered a storage facility that could be housed in a barracks. Casualties still occurred, and for dying marines a medic would administer a drug known as the "Final Protocol."

Because they were so valuable, medics were often specifically targeted on the battlefield, which was the reason for the arm-mounted shield carried in addition to their armor. Despite that protection they remained vulnerable. Their only armament was generally the A-13 flash grenade launcher, used to provide illumination and to blind enemy targets, and even that was limited to United Earth Directorate medics. Some medics carried the C-7 gauss pistol and wore CMC-405 light combat suits.

History and service#

During the Guild Wars, the Terran Confederacy experimented with adding Colonial Fleet medics to front-line infantry units. Marines suffered high casualties but kept their strength through aggressive recruitment, and Confederate medics generally remained at bases to care for the wounded, though they were sometimes assigned to squads and platoons. Confederate medics had a distinct appearance of white armor marked with a red cross, while the medics of Raynor's Raiders operated on the front lines on at least some occasions.

As conflict escalated to include the protoss and the zerg, marine losses became prohibitive, and the United Earth Directorate pacification fleet included combat medics in its front lines, with recruitment drawing mostly women. The UED's technological prowess extended to medical science, and its medics expanded their tools with chemical modifiers that increased marine survival rates and with nano-conveyed anesthetics and attenuated lasers for on-site surgery, including the removal of parasites placed by zerg queens. Caduceus reactors allowed UED medics to draw on more energy in the field. Following the Brood War, terran factions across the Koprulu sector continued to use medics. The Terran Dominion maintained a combat medic program because medivac dropships were expensive to deploy, and by 2505 the medic was considered an indispensable support unit for Dominion forces. A new variant of medic armor had been developed by the time of the Battle of Camp Pitcairn.