Blood and Circuitry

When a drone strike drops one of her own, Captain Elise Carter has seconds to respond. With biochip feeds and AI triage guiding her every move, the line between medic and machine blurs in the blood-soaked ruins of tomorrow’s warzone.

A medic equipped with advanced technology attends to a wounded soldier, while drones and emergency vehicles operate in the background, showcasing high-tech warfare and medical response.

The alert hit Captain Elise Carter’s visor like a thunderclap. "Priority One: Trauma. Combat ID 4421. Autonomous UAV projectile impact. Unconscious. Severe hemorrhage. Tachycardic. Initiating auto-response."

The wearable sensors in Private Callum Ford’s armor had done their job—detecting the injury and blasting the alert to the entire team’s heads-up display (HUD). Carter’s visor flashed red, a holographic pulse guiding her gaze to the fallen soldier barely ten meters away. His vitals streamed in real-time on the augmented reality interface inside her helmet, data pulled from his embedded biochip wristband.

"AI Assist engaged," came the calm, clinical voice of MIRA, the Military Intelligent Response Algorithm. "Scan the casualty wristband to establish link."

Carter reached out, her wristband synchronizing with Ford’s in a millisecond burst of blue light. His full medical history overlaid itself onto her visor—blood type, genotype, allergies, previous injuries. The AI immediately calculated treatment priorities, pulsing visual indicators onto the HUD.

"Major hemorrhage detected. Apply tourniquet. Nearest teammate, prepare hemostatic gauze."

Corporal Davids, standing nearby, saw the floating visual guide in his own HUD, his gloved hands snapping toward his medical pack. The visor had highlighted exactly where the gauze was, tracing an outline in luminescent green. A small progress bar appeared on his screen, updating as he unsealed the packet and placed the gauze into Carter’s waiting hands. Above them, the sky buzzed.

Resupply in ten seconds. Prepare for payload.

The Resupply Drone was inbound. It had already calculated Ford’s injuries and was bringing the exact equipment needed: a compact hemorrhage control kit, freeze-dried whole blood (universal donor), and a genotype-specific autoinjector of precision analgesics.

Carter barely had time to finish tightening the auto-tourniquet before the drone descended, its carbon-fiber chassis whirring as it hovered a meter off the ground. Mechanical arms extended, dropping the payload in designated color-coded containers, each marked with haptic guidance markers that lit up in the team’s HUDs.

"Blood infusion pack identified," MIRA guided. "Connect to casualty’s subcutaneous port."

Ford’s combat suit automatically adjusted, revealing a small access point just beneath his left clavicle. Carter snapped the infusion line in, the freeze-dried blood rehydrating instantly within the pack’s pressurized chamber before flowing into his body.

"Casualty distress reduced. Blood pressure stabilizing," MIRA reported. "Administer analgesic."

Carter grabbed the autoinjector, its smart needle recognizing Ford’s unique metabolism and adjusting dosage in real time. She pressed it against his neck; the injector hissed, delivering a calibrated neuro-responsive painkiller optimized for his genetic profile.

The ground rumbled as the autonomous ATV casualty extraction unit arrived, its reinforced frame unfolding into a stretcher mode. Carter and Davids secured Ford onto the platform, the AI integrating with his biometric data, adjusting transport stability and monitoring vitals as it began its self-driving route back to the field hospital.

MIRA's voice was steady. "Casualty extraction initiated. Full medical record updated. Incident recording uploaded for after-action review and VR training simulation."

Carter exhaled, watching as Ford disappeared into the dust, the autonomous medevac AI ensuring his survival. She glanced at her visor—every step, every action had been logged, recorded, and transmitted in real-time, ensuring lessons learned would be hardcoded into the next generation of medics training in VR.

"MIRA," she muttered. "Save that playback. I want the trainees to see how it's done."

"Acknowledged, Captain Carter. Mission success."

The war would rage on. But for today, one soldier would live.