Traveller Vignette 017

The Field surgeon’s tale. “Every man dreams of his perfect day. For Captain Rydell, that would just be sitting outside his tent in the sun with a bottle of wine, a plate of freshly baked bread and maybe some cheese – anything other than packaged rations, really - and reading philosophy, with no wounded to treat or paperwork to do.

He haven’t had a day like that since he'd arrived on this godforsaken world, and he didn’t expect to. But a man could dream.

He had been the regiment's medical officer for too many years, and he'd seen its ranks filled with conscripts and emptied again by casualties several times over. He'd learned to follow the phases of the battle by the nature of the wounds reaching his surgical tent.

In the lead-up to a big attack, there were self-inflicted wounds where mens' courage failed and they “accidentally” shot themselves in the foot or the left hand to avoid going forward. Once the attack started, he got casualties from mortar fragments and machine gun bullets. If the position was taken, he began getting grenade and booby trap casualties. Then those too badly wounded to move under fire started to come in, mostly too late to save them. Worst was when the flow of casualties dwindled without reaching that peak, because that meant the assault had failed, and they'd had to abandon the wounded who couldn't be moved along with the ground they couldn't hold."


(Author's note - This is colour for a military / mercenary game, and the burnt-out Surgeon-Captain Rydell can be used as an NPC. He might need supplies, or the PCs to recover wounded to his aid post. It could even be a backstory to a medic character)


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