It’s no small thing to be a medic in the army. No matter the advances in science and technology, deployed corpsemen have to deal with sprains, trenchfoot, accidental weapons discharge, and all manner of mental psychoses as well – soldiers trust their in-company sawbones, often with far more than just their physical health. Time inside the UCAS military was good to Doc Sanders, even when deployment meant action in some of the most inhospitable cities and back-woods the world had to offer. The rise of magic in the Sixth World meant all sorts of new threats and problems, but Sanders was talented and particularly skilled at healing mages in the field.
Trouble came for Saunders not for participation in a wartime operation, but rather for trying to save lives. After an operation had gone bad in [REDACTED] and the team was ambushed, three soldiers needed immediate treatment while they waited for evacuation. Saunders was able to get one stabilized, using most of the remaining medical supplies the team had on hand, and a second kept alive by a blood transfusion directly from the doctor, along with assistance from the rest of the team. The third wounded solder, a recent addition to the squad by the name of [REDACTED],died as the rescue rotorcraft touched down nearby. Saunders passed out from blood loss, owing to the transfusion, and spent several days in a military hospital. The two other wounded soldiers had been saved, kept alive long enough that proper medical treatment could take over.
[REDACTED]‘s father,a UCAS [REDACTED], was not however impressed with Saunders’ selfless attempts to save others, due to the untimely death of his son, for which he held Saunders directly responsible. A campaign began to hold the medic personally liable, both civilly and criminally. Admittedly, there was little the combat doc could do to prevent the unrelenting juggernaut of misplaced anger coming their way.
Against their better judgement, but seeing the writing on the wall, Saunders went AWOL.
Restarting life as a back-alley, unregistered doctor was rough work, even with the wide expanse of combat wound-related training received in battlefields across the world. Eventually, waiting for patients to limp in wasn’t enough, either monetarily or when it came to feeling like Saunders was making an actually difference, as had been the case in the military.
Well-trained with pistols, Saunders was reinvented again, this time as a Shadowrunner, committed to keeping teammates from needing the services of a street doc in the first place.
