Treating the Wounded

[Kaizer Sutsgy]

As the ship reverted to realspace, Kaizer turned to the seated co-pilot, a Zabrak, and a standing Human who would fill in as needed once they figured out what was going on. The twin suns of the Tatoo system blazed behind the ship as it made its way towards the desert planet of Tatooine. The Jedi had received a distress signal from the Outer Rim planet and Kaizer had volunteered to find out what had happened, especially considering a team of Jedi had already traveled to the planet. The Jedi leadership on Jedha had authorized him to take medical equipment and a Fathier class light freighter, as well as the two beings with him, though had not found it prudent to send any additional personnel.

Kaizer relinquished the controls to his co-pilot and he made his way to the entrance of the ship despite having a bit of a journey throughout subspace. The Knight had been training with a group of trainees when the alert came in and he stopped only to gather his belongings before reporting in. Due to the fact that three Jedi had been noted in the mission log, the Council allowed Kaizer to use a single monitor, which could monitor vital signs and sound an alert whenever an abnormal result popped up. They had also given him enough fluids for three wounded Jedi, though had only given him a limited amount of Kolto and only a few life-saving drugs. They'd also provided him with three litters in the event that the Jedi were wounded to the point of being unable to walk.

Planning on loading and returning to Jedha, or at least a Jedi facility with a hospital, Kaizer had instructed his fellow Jedi to, assuming the area was safe, to grab a litter and begin loading the casualties. He rehearsed his treatment and plans in his head and came up with plans for potential catastrophes, though there were too many to adequately plan for them all.

When the ship touched down and the rear ramp opened, Kaizer, with his lightsaber in hand, strode down the ramp. His senses were almost immediately bombarded with the stench of death. While the Knight could not feel any impending attack, his use of the Force to sense a potential attacker's intentions were no doubt hindered by the emotions that surrounded death. He looked down the nearby canyon shelf and noticed a cave and, just in front of it, two bodies. Further down, on the canyon floor, he noticed two additional bodies.

Instructing the pilot to wait around for a few minutes, Kaizer took a look around and noted the carbon scoring and other signs of battle. He saw what appeared to be two slain bounty hunters, one between some rocks and another out in the open. He knelt beside the one in the open (@The Matt) and noticed visible, if weak, chest rise and fall. Kaizer also felt for a pulse and, while it was also weak, felt the man's heartbeat as his carotid artery pulsed about twice a second. Kaizer motioned to his two assistants, who grabbed a litter and rushed to where Kaizer was kneeling. "He's badly hurt, but alive. Secure his weapons and place him in the left cargo hold. The right one will be for KIAs. There's another over there between those rocks. I'll check him out but once he's loaded, go to the canyon floor." Both cargo holds could be sealed, though the left cargo hold had been where Kaizer had set up his equipment.

The Knight made his way to the other apparently dead bounty hunter, though the lack of chest rise was not a good sign. The Knight repositioned the man's head in order to open his airway, though no spontaneous respirations occurred. A quick pulse check confirmed that the man was deceased and Kaizer grabbed the man by a notch on his armor and used it as an improvised handle to drag the man towards the freighter. Calling out to his fellow Jedi, Kaizer was as calm as if he did this frequently. "This one's dead. Strip his equipment and secure it with the other guy's, though keep it separate. Right cargo hold, of course."

As his fellow Jedi loaded the first KIA, Kaizer made his way towards the shelf and, finding the smoothest area, slid down the shelf towards the two bodies. He stopped at the first Jedi, a large green slug looking thing with weird body proportions. He watched the being's chest rise and fall and felt for a pulse. This Jedi seemed conscious, if fading in and out, and Kaizer spoke to the Jedi. "Rest, my friend, we'll get you loaded up shortly but focus on slow deep breaths. We've got it from here."

Kaizer would pause for only a moment to ensure that the Amanin understood what had been said and to listen for a response before moving to the other Jedi. This one did not appear to be breathing and, after opening the man's airway and feeling for a pulse, Kaizer confirmed he was dead. He grabbed the man and tossed him over his shoulder. To Kaizer, the fallen Jedi was surprisingly light, though he wasn't sure if it was the Force or the fact that the man couldn't have weighed more than 170 pounds.

Commenting to the Amanin Jedi that he would return, Kaizer half-slid, half-leapt from the shelf towards the floor of the canyon. The freighter had already touched down and Kaizer handed the fallen Jedi to the Zabrak. "He is dead. Check these two down here and deal with them accordingly. Secure all equipment."

It took longer than expected, though soon everyone was sorted and all equipment was secured. Only two live bodies had been recovered, that of the bounty hunter and that of the Amanin Jedi. Kaizer hooked the bounty hunter up to the monitor and had the co-pilot assist with obtaining vital signs on the Amanin. He directed the co-pilot to leave any remaining fragments in the wounded Jedi and to bandage them as necessary while saving the limited kolto for Kaizer to administer as needed. He also had the co-pilot get an IV in the Amanin while Kaizer did the same for the large human.

The Knight began running fluids for both casualties and put kolto on the human's waist blaster wounds before covering them with sterile bandages. From there, Kaizer would turn his attention to the Amanin and begin assessing him, both by talking to him and by looking and feeling for wounds with his gloved hand. During this assessment, the ship would enter hyperspace and leave Kaizer alone with his patients.

@Odric

EDIT: PvP is death disabled if it happens at all, would prefer a nice recovery/social thread given the wounded state of all involved.

 

[Zaq Alphax]

Zaq could feel the hum of a ship's engine underneath him, and the unmistakeable feeling of being in hyperspace. At first, this seemed normal. Then he was hit by the feeling of waking up in a foreign place, and he jerked upright. A man (@Fyston) sat by his side.

It was now that he took in his surroundings. He seemed to be in a medical ship, judging by the IV next to him and the sterile environment. He could see someone else on a bed nearby, still unconscious. He recognized the creature as the slug-like alien Jedi that he had seen fighting on Tatooine.

Kriff, he thought. So close to a million, and all I do is get shot. It was then that he realized he was unarmed. It made sense that he would be stripped of arms as soon as he was rescued, but it worried him that he was defenseless on someone else's ship. And where the hell were they headed?

"Where are we headed?" he asked the man next to him, thoughts still swirling through his head about lightsabers and credits.

 

[Kel'th Torr]

Kel'th Torr was focusing on his breathing, the medpack didn't manage to cover a lot of his wounds but, the air and force he was channeling, kept him alive. He was bleeding out a bit, the fragments every now and then would rise to the surface then fall off onto the ground, but his stamina was quickly fading. Fading, in and out, his mind at war with itself along with the thought of his failure. He had not saved his Jedi bretherin, he had not protected life. His lightsaber, that which makes a Jedi complete, it is a part of them, their life and Kel'th Torr's life may as well have been taken away.

As he lay there, much, went through his mind, the Jedi Order and how he should not let his failure make him sad, how all life, even his is precious and he should not waste it right now, he should do the right thing. Another Jedi had shown, their warm force signature like a call from the better part of his heart, his eyes slowly fluttered open to look at the Jedi. His hand raised, over-sized and clamp, it grabbed the Jedi's shoulder after he had spoke.

"The, Others... I, Can't, Leave, Them, Here..." Kel'th Torr said with a practical tear in his eye, the pain of moving too great as his hand fell back down, he continued to talk as the woe and regret weighed on him. "We must.." He said as his head started to feel numb, but he kept in there. "Must, Tell, The, Council..." He said in follow up, immediately after the final word he coughed blood across the front of his chest. All of the fragments had his internal organs in a mess, even with his large size this would take a great deal of time to heal.

His assessment went as you'd expect, a grumble in pain every now and then followed by blood leaking out into the bandages, they were soft, they were more comforting. Kel'th Torr every now and then would merely say "Must, Tell, The Council." in some sort of mantra. He was keeping himself awake, he was keeping himself alive with his determination to do his duty and keep the balance.

 

[Kaizer Sutsgy]

Kaizer wasn't unfamiliar with how to save a life, though he had no idea what species the conscious Jedi was. He knew that a few cardinal rules held true to all species: air goes in and out, blood goes round and round, and any variation of those rules were a bad thing. During his time as his dad's assistant, Kaizer had tended to most humanoid species, though calling Kel'th a humanoid was a bit of a stretch for the Knight. The wounded Jedi seemed to be part slug due to his skin, part gorilla due to his lanky arms and shorter legs, and part snake because his head looked like a cobra ready to strike.

Kaizer was in the middle of searching for what species Kel'th was when the human sat bolt upright and began looking around. Kaizer, having foreseen such an event, withdrew a syringe from his pants pocket that was filled with sedative. He hooked it up to the man's IV tubing when he seemed to settle down. While the Knight did not disconnect the syringe in case the bounty hunter became aggressive, he did not depress the plunger. He watched the man closely, though lowered his guard somewhat when he spoke. His tone of voice was curious, though not aggressive and the man's body language did not show signs that he would become combative.

Choosing his words carefully, Kaizer spoke softly yet firmly. "We're going coreward." The Knight did not dare give out any further information simply because he didn't know the rescued man. The Jedi way was to help people, though Kaizer would have been the worst Jedi in history if he blabbed to any Joe Schmoe about Jedi base locations. If the man kept asking about their destination, Kaizer would shoot him a look that said "Drop it, that's all you're getting." Regardless of what happened, Kaizer would keep his voice low and speak once more to the human. "I'm Kaizer Sutsgy. I'm no surgeon but you should survive until we get you to one. Who'd you piss off enough to shoot you right where your armor stops?" Keeping an eye on the monitor, that showed that the man's vitals were improving, albeit slowly, Kaizer attached another bag of fluids to the human's IV tubing so that he would not have to do so later.

To give the man time to think of an answer, Kaizer turned back to his datapad that revealed a few key bits of information regarding the Amanin species, a few of those bits making Kaizer glad he always wore gloves when dealing with patients. Knowing now that they could heal themselves, Kaizer breathed a slight sigh of relief. He didn't know much about Jedi healing trances, a skill he admonished himself for not at least knowing how to perform. Still, he had a job to do and didn't let his self disappointment get in the way. At the very least, he had to find out what had happened on Tatooine and get the Jedi to Master Sige so that he could brief the Jedi leadership on Jedha as to what had occurred.

The Knight pushed himself off of the human's bed and, grabbing a syringe, a needle, and a vial of kolto, drew up the entire vial. He turned to the human but spoke loudly enough to ensure both could hear. "I only had three vials of kolto. You," he said, pointing at the human, "Received most of one vial over both of your wounds. It should help provided you don't move around too much. After this vial," he started, pointing at the vial that was currently being drawn into the syringe, "I'll have one more between the two of you." As he finished speaking, Kaizer connected a second bag of fluids to the Amanin's IV tubing and hung a second bag higher than the first. In the second bag, he injected the entire vial of kolto. This would provide less instant benefit than what Zaq received, though would have the benefit of going straight into the bloodstream and would last much longer. He had done the same with what remained from Zaq's vial, though it was substantially less kolto than Kel'th was receiving IV.

 

[Zaq Alphax]

"Pissed off?" he chuckled. "Exiles don't need pissin' off. I had just landed. I walked out into the big open space, walked a few meters toward this Exile that was talkin' to another bounty hunter, and they had the audacity to knock me out on the spot. Took me out with some Force mumbo jumbo and 2 shots to the abdomen."

He shook his head. "But I remember that bounty hunter. And I'm fairly sure others won't take kindly to someone who worked with an Exile. Criminals or not, some of us have morals."

Zaq wasn't too happy about heading toward the core, since he mostly frequented the Outer Rim (as most other criminals did) due to its notable lack of enforced laws, but it sure beat dying of exposure on Tatooine. He just hoped he wouldn't have to work for his freedom or something like that, which was fairly common where he came from.

"What exactly is gonna happen to me once we get wherever we're going?"

 

[Kaizer Sutsgy]

Exile activity on Tatooine wasn't the weirdest thing Kaizer had heard recently. After all, it was the Outer Rim and was expected to be fairly lawless. Exiles and bounty hunters working together also wasn't that weird, though was a bit more unexpected. With the Hutt bounty putting a price on every Jedi's head, or at least their lightsaber, the Jedi were certainly being targeted. By having Exiles and bounty hunters work together, the Jedi were certainly up against a wall and this did not bode well for their future unless something changed.

Kaizer looked at his monitor and was relieved when Zaq's vital signs continued to improve. As Zaq continued to speak, the Knight stood and switched the monitor over to Kel'th, who continued to seem semi-conscious. While his vitals weren't great, they were stable and weren't life threatening. Perhaps the kolto and pain medicine put him out or perhaps he just needed to sleep, thought the Knight, a slightly worrying look being shot to the Amanin.

As Zaq finished speaking, Kaizer glanced at him and replied as he sat in a nearby chair where both patients could see him and from where he could see both patients, his lightsaber in plain view of both patients. "You'll be asked to give some information regarding what happened. While you don't have to give any information, it could help us out in the future. Provided everything checks out, your legal equipment will be returned to you and you will be allowed to leave."

Kaizer paused as he finished, looking into the man's eyes and stretching out with the Force. While he wanted to use it to attempt to persuade the man to tell the truth, to do so would risk upsetting him and Kaizer didn't want to risk further issues. He would, however, use the Force to help him study the man's body language and tone of voice so that, when Kaizer asked his next question, he would be able to more easily tell if what the man said was the truth. "Whatever happened, I've got four dead bodies in the other cargo bay. I'm going to ask you only once: did you have anything to do with that? Did you kill or injure anyone prior to being incapacitated?"

 

[Zaq Alphax]

"Well, I stepped out of my ship out to all sorts of combat. There were two bounty hunters piled on an Exile I think, and then some Exiles and Jedi fighting. I walked to the nearest two, an Exile and a bounty hunter. I asked for the Exile's saber, after which she shoved me with the Force, and then the hunter shot me. I remember seeing an Exile impale a sniper, then the sniper's friend shoot the Exile. I passed out as the hunter that knocked me out threw a frag toward the Force users."

Zaq seemed a bit irritated, considering he was out of combat before he even made his way in. "Truly an unfortunate set of events. Judging by the aftermath, I suspect it was quite the blood bath."

He looked out the window as the stars whirred past them. He was thinking about what might have happened if he hadn't been knocked out upon entry into the fray; would he have met his end there as well? Or would the bounty hunters have let him live? He felt sure that he would not have been able to score any lightsabers, however. They were in high demand, and the others would not have let him leave with a saber, unless he killed them. No matter what, he would never forgive the events on Tatooine. He decided to henceforth refer to the fight as the Battle of Tatooine, and to tell the tale to all that would listen. Of course, he couldn't specify the part where he got knocked out cold, but he was certain it would make for an interesting story once it was more fluffed up.

Snapping out of his thoughts, Zaq looked at the remaining Jedi, who lay passed out on the cot next to him. The poor soul truly had seen the horrors that had transpired that day. The bounty hunter could only imagine the massacre that had followed.