As the Thunderhawk Gunship touched down in the Indomitable's hangar bay, Ousen hastily lifted Hubert's body and rushed toward the Apothecarion.
Though emergency field dressings had been applied, Hubert's wounds were too severe. Even in the grip of the Dormant State, a near-death stasis, his life signs were still slowly deteriorating. Through the tears in his flesh, the secondary heart could be seen beating with desperate effort. Yet, the massive shards of shrapnel embedded in his wounds were preventing any self-healing response.
Upon entering the Apothecarion, Ousen immediately procured a set of cutting tools. The biggest obstacle to treating Hubert's wounds was the shattered yet still interconnected Power Armour.
As an Apothecary, Ousen was not proficient in mechanical maintenance, but the location of all connection points on the armour was mandatory knowledge. In emergencies, they would use a plasma cutter to sever all connections, allowing the wounded Astartes to be liberated from the Ceramite suit.
More than sixty percent of the armour covering Hubert's torso was fragmented, which significantly sped up Ousen's removal process. With the hiss and blue smoke of the plasma cutter, the chest plate was swiftly detached. Though his legs and arms suffered fractures, these were not immediately life-threatening and could be addressed later.
Once the armour was removed, the remaining work became meticulous.
Using a specialized, oversized pair of forceps, Ousen began removing the Ceramite fragments embedded in the flesh and muscle tissue. However, as the first shard was extracted, blood instantly spurted out.
Observing the fresh, uncongealed blood, Ousen used the magnified view on his Power Armour helmet's scanner. The blood flowed steadily from the wound where the shard had been, and twenty seconds passed with no sign of coagulation.
"Damn it, the self-healing capability is nullified."
"My brother, you can only pray to the God-Emperor now."
Ousen quickly and anxiously finished the task at hand. While clearing the copious fragments, he instructed a Servitor to retrieve a specialized sealed casket and simultaneously summoned two Magos Biologis and several Tech-Priests.
These caskets contained new equipment they had only recently received during their last resupply halt. Ousen, as an Apothecary, had been required to undergo nearly a week of training for their use.
As the wound cleaning was completed, more blood began to pool in Hubert's chest cavity. Ousen was forced to attach an autologous circulation pump to Hubert's vasculature, extracting the pooling blood and continually pumping it back into his circulatory system. To control the bleeding, he even used a high-temperature plasma scalpel to cauterize all visible bleeders.
As a strange, scorched smell of meat wafted through the air, Ousen, attempting to relieve his tension before the next steps, jokingly addressed the unconscious Hubert:
"Brother, you truly smell delectable right now."
As if sensing the remark, Hubert's unresponsive face gave a subtle twitch.
After confirming Hubert's condition was stable, Ousen stepped away from the medical table and approached the sealed casket that the Servitor had delivered.
The casket was equipped with a scanner, requiring authentication from authorized personnel to unlock. After the scanner on the box verified the identifier on Ousen's Power Armour, he reached out and pushed open the automatically unlocked lid.
The box itself was small but partitioned into three bio-preserved layers. The contents were simple: an oddly-shaped fleshy nodule, several crimson, slightly twitching masses of specialized tissue, and a small, cyst-like gland.
"Though I have seen these three new organs before, this is the first time I have performed this surgery."
Ousen felt a knot of nerves looking at the contents. Hubert's wounds were too severe; his existing enhanced organs were struggling to maintain life. The probability of saving Hubert was extremely low.
The only course Ousen could attempt was the Primaris Upgrade surgery.
This was a new technology, access to which had just been granted during their recent rest period. The technology originated directly from the Archmagos of the Adeptus Mechanicus, Belisarius Cawl.
These modifications would grant the Astartes greater combat effectiveness and survivability, enabling them to better resist psychic corruption from the Immaterium.
However, the technology carried an unavoidable, significant flaw.
The death rate for the Primaris Upgrade was alarmingly high. Unless under specific emergency circumstances, the procedure was generally not permitted for regular Astartes.
Hubert's condition, however, clearly left no other choice.
The presence of the two Magos and the assisting Tech-Priests represented the maximum effort Ousen could muster.
Ousen carefully retrieved the nodule from the box. This organ was called the Belisarian Furnace. Once implanted, it could vastly increase the body's self-healing capabilities. Given the current crisis, it was the organ Hubert most urgently needed.
As the new organ was placed in an organizational nutrient solution for biological arousal, Ousen instructed a nearby Servitor to remove the remaining Power Armour parts from Hubert's limbs.
Once the armour was fully stripped, the extent of the limb damage was obvious. His left arm had two fractures, and his right leg had one. The massive musculature could not hide the clearly misaligned bones, but thanks to the Black Carapace and the armour, the bones had not pierced the skin. They were simply clean breaks caused by massive concussive force.
The Magos from the Cult Mechanicus carefully removed the now-aroused organ and immediately began the implantation procedure on Hubert.
The Belisarian Furnace was implanted into the chest cavity, while the strangely shaped masses of tissue, known as superhuman Sinew Coils, were implanted to enhance muscular strength, making the Astartes faster and stronger.
While Ousen repaired Hubert's limb damage, several Tech-Priests simultaneously completed the implantation of the Superhuman Tendon Coils.
The final, cyst-like gland, the Magnificat, required a long, laryngoscope-like probing device for implantation beneath the brain. According to the data, this organ enhanced psychic resistance and boosted combat willpower.
With all new organs successfully implanted, Ousen meticulously sutured all the wounds on Hubert's body.
Ousen looked at his unconscious battle-brother, praying earnestly for his recovery.
"May the light of the God-Emperor guide you, my brother. You are a son of glorious Dorn, and you have prevailed against the enemy in the Emperor's name."
Perhaps it was a trick of perception, but Ousen felt a faint, peculiar energy flowing across Hubert's body. Yet, when he quickly tore off his helmet for a closer look, nothing seemed to have happened.
Within seventy-two hours, if the newly implanted organs functioned normally, Hubert would recover. If any rejection or abnormal organ operation occurred, Ousen's final duty would be to extract his Gene-Seed.
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