Medivac

The medivac, officially designated the G-226 medical transport, was a terran aerospace transport that combined troop and vehicle ferrying with frontline medical support. Built on the frame of the older Quantradyne dropship, it carried an advanced medical bay that allowed it to seal wounds and keep soldiers fighting in the field, while still moving personnel and even the massive thor into and out of combat zones. The medivac became a mainstay of the Terran Dominion and was adopted by other terran powers. (StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty; StarCraft Field Manual)

Design#

The medivac was outfitted with a medical bay reputed to be the most advanced in the Koprulu sector, paired with a triage station that used auto-sutures and laser scalpels to seal wounds, although marines questioned the precision of the tools. Wounded soldiers were administered pain suppressants to keep them in the field. (StarCraft Field Manual; StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty)

Because it carried this medical bay along with an array of stabilizers and gyroscopes to hold the vessel level under heavy cargo, the medivac was larger and heavier than the Quantradyne it was based on, yet it was actually faster than its predecessor. It retained the older ship's rotatable engines but moved its boarding ramp to the front, and it was fitted with a gravity tube for rapid loading and unloading of single units along with an installed spotlight. The ship was designed to ferry personnel and vehicles, including the thor, with minimal fuss, and could be flown by one or two pilots. (StarCraft Field Manual; StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty; Momentum; StarCraft II: This Sacred Land)

Origins and adoption#

Dropships filling a medical evacuation role and called medivacs predated the Great War and were used by the Terran Confederacy. The modern medivac concept, however, arose as an improvised solution devised by the Dominion's 19th Marine Division while operating in the acid storms of Thalon VII, where modifying a Quantradyne for remote control extended the combat life of medics. (Acid Burns; StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty)

The Terran Dominion went on to adopt the design as a forward triage station that kept units in the field. Its single gravity tube loaded and unloaded quickly but could only deploy soldiers or machines one at a time. By the Second Great War a healing AI allowed the medivac to acquire and treat two targets at once. (StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty; StarCraft Field Manual)

Service across the sector#

The Umojan Protectorate also fielded the design, and the extensive medical training of Umojan medivac pilots was credited with the longer than average soldier lifespan in the Protectorate. During the Second Great War, when the zerg attacked the main research campus of the Moebius Foundation on Tyrador VIII, Doctor Emil Narud gave Commander Jim Raynor control of the Foundation's medivacs so he could transport his men around the city and avoid most of the swarm. (StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void; StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty)

Mercenaries occasionally used customized medivacs for high-value missions, and private militias such as the Knights of Tyrador employed well-trained medivac pilots, mostly to rescue wealthy tourists from yacht crashes. After a covert operation cost the Dominion Special Forces heavy casualties, that branch was authorized to make greater use of medivacs for its specialists. Named vessels of the type included the KTO 08 and the Rescue One, and in the co-op missions a specialized variant, the imperial intercessor, served the forces of Arcturus Mengsk. (StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void; StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty; StarCraft II: This Sacred Land; StarCraft II Co-op Missions)