... Unto the Night (The Story of Medivac 13-11)

[Lehrrap Uniltìranyu]

A long time ago, when my father's father was just a boy, he was told about the way of the world.

"In our world,
The Strong pray upon the weak,
The Blind leads the seeing,
The Inhuman drives us astray,
And the Dead pave the road."

He took these words to heart when he charged into battle, carrying nothing but a field surgery kit, some armor, and a three-inch penknife.

He did this, because the strong pray upon the weak, the blind lead the seeing, and the inhuman drives us astray...

But we can pull the dead out of the road, and keep them from paving the way.

My father told me about him, when I was but six years old...

He told me about him, my father's father, and taught me the values of a man...

And what it meant to be a Medic.

As I lay here, writing out my final memoir, light years away from home, Dying from a bullet from someone I thought was my friend... I have no words left.

I... this is my end... and this was my story... to whoever finds this, whoever reads this... remember me, and pass it on, so that others may know one thing:

For even though my body dies, and my spirit is cast from this world, I have naught but to fight on, for I shall not go Gently.
Gently, Unto the Night.
-------------------

Daylight. Bright, shining strong on the jungles of Pandora. Few ever see this sight, but those that do are forever touched by it, in some way or another.

But on the planet of Pandora, somewhere in the Alpha Centari System, a war rages, fought on all sides. The natives, a race of proud warriors and hunter/gathers known as the Na'vi, and a human company mining for the most valuable mineral to have ever come from the ground of any planet, fight over the sacred lands of the Na'vi...

The source of Unobtainum, the miracle metal that has driven Humanity into a new Golden Age of technology... and another costly war, not only on Earth, but among the stars.

But this is not the story of the Unobtainum... not of the RDA, the human mining company, nor of the sacred lands of the Na'vi.

In the skies of Pandora, a squad of humans in a lone SA-2 charge across the skies, the engines screaming in complaints as they race to the next battleground. A large cross of blue and black marks the side of the mighty helo as it races across the skies.

The SA-2 lands quickly, at the scene of a battleground, a bloodbath that no one won... too little too late to save everyone, but maybe someone.

As it lands, a flash of the slowly dying light of Pandora's sun glints off the windshield. Medical Evacuation Helo Thirteen-Double One has arrived.

The squad leaps out of the SA-2, medical bags in hand as he rush to the closest prone victom, a Na'vi with a bullet in his shoulder. A single man stops, pulling out a scalpel and tongs and sets to work, pulling out the bullet quickly as the Na'vi hisses at him weakly. She got hit pretty hard, and must have been bleeding for a while.

The man ignores her hiss as sets the scalpel into a special holster with the tongs, letting them get autowashed as he pulls a needle and some thread, and sews the bullet hole closed, and quickly wraps it.

All over the field the small medic squad rushes, helping human and Na'vi alike. A few die while they are being worked upon, and the medic takes a moment to close their eyes properly and cross their hands to send them to the after before they move on.

But unexpectedly, the haunting call of the dead rises again as RDA troopers show up, and open fire on the Medics.

Medivac 13-11 was to be executed on sight for high treason of cooperating with the enemy.

The Helo was first to go, pilot and SA-2 going down in a hailstorm of heavy fire as tracer rounds light up the dead night, the clatter of gunfire the only sound.

Slowly the Medics tried to escape to the trees, only to be shot down one by one, executed with point-blank shots.

The man who helped the Na'vi girl was last, as he was farthest away from the others when the firing started, bullets wizzing by him until the heavy round of the GAU-9 hit his kneecap and ripped his leg out and off as he hit the ground.

He cried out in pain, his howling the only sound as the guns fell silent, the only light that of the jungle lighting up... the bioluminescent of the night.

Slowly, tears running across his face, the man pulled out his journal, and wrote his final entry, and put it down by his side. Eye closed, he let out a final scream of defiance as he pulled out his scalpel, pointing it at the marine who was stepping closer and closer to him.

A bullet ended the scream, and Medivac 13-11.

As the soldiers left, and the armor left, a lone figure slipped to the body of the man, and copied his actions and her slender fingers softly pulled the lids of his eyes close, and moved him off the tree, settling him to the ground.

The Na'vi girl didn't know english, nor how to read, but she took the journal as she crossed his hands, and softly said a prayer to Eywa for him, a sole tear rolling down her cheek for the man who saved her life, even if she hadn't known him, she would.

And so she stood and left, and the war for Pandora would continue. Years would pass and one day, Pandora would be saved by a unlikely hero in a seemingly hopeless battle.

But that night, Medivac 13-11 would not be remembered, but for a lone survivor.

A survivor...


Who went Gently, Gently unto the Night.

~Fin~