#cw dreadnaught entombment

[sleepyfan-blog]

Surgery

author's note: part two of cedric's saga. First. Next.

tagged: @egrets-not-regrets

Summary: Cedric is able to save an older brother… At a cost

If Cedric and his squad had been on their own, they would have been able to run to the extraction point within a handful of minutes under ideal circumstances. Being shot at and shooting xenos and their foul bewitched bug-monstrosities and having to keep nearly a dozen injured civilians together had slowed them down considerably.

Still, the sounds of additional bolter fire, and the righteous shouting of their older brothers were indeed blessed to hear as the six young Astartes and their civilian charges finally made it to the extraction point several tense hours later. Dovos was the one to call out to the older brother via Vox, and several older brothers broke off from the main fighting force to aid them in escorting the exhausted and injured civilians to the make-shift fortification. 

The brother-captain leading the group of elder brothers focused immediately on Cedric "Good, you've got an apothecary with you. Have you been cleared for surgical procedures yet?"

Oh no. That's... Not the best thing to be asked, upon immediately reporting with injured civilians he'd barely been able to patch up "Yes sir. I wouldn't have the full apothecary gear on if I wasn't fully qualified."

"Good. Several of our Interceptors took shrapnel damage that pierced through their armor, and we need all the skilled hands we can find to fish out the shrapnel and stitch them back together. Amadeus, take the kid to the triage area. Buske, lead the civilians to the waiting point for pick-up." The Brother-captain ordered before turning on his heel and heading into the make-shift fortification.

Cedric obediently followed behind the brother captain, trying to shake off the growing worry in his hearts. God-Emperor willing, he will prove that the qualifications he's recently earned are well-placed.

~

He was shown to the surgery area. Cedric couldn't guess what the large room had once been used for, but he moved swiftly over to the hand-washing station and scrubbed up thoroughly, as he had been taught. Hours of running civilians through blasted to bits landscape and shooting at filthy xenos had gotten him covered in mud, plant matter and god-emperor knew what all else. The last thing he wanted to do was to expose an injured brother to something he'd unintentionally picked up on this world. 

After he had scrubbed up, he donned the gloves, gown and mask before being directed to where he was needed most. Cedric's eyes widened in shock as the Black Templar Interceptor he'd been directed to perform surgery on was Brother-Captain Detrich - who had led the Black Templar Interceptors for the past four-hundred years in glorious combat against the enemies of the God-Emperor. He mentally shoved any emotions he was feeling deep down inside of him. It would not do to have trembling fingers while working on such an illustrious brother. 

Brother-Captain Detrich had been taken out of his armor and placed on one of the surgical tables. He was fighting the anesthetist, swatting half-heartedly at him with a growl "I am not going to be unconscious during this procedure. Stitch me up as best you can so I can return to the fight! Those knife-eared bastards killed my apprentice and I will avenge him before the day is done, you hear me?!" 

"... As you say, brother captain. But I must insist that you take some morpha at least, to take the edge of the pain away." Cedric offered as he looked the interceptor captain over, doing his best to keep his face neutral. The venerable captain had dozens of deep wounds all over his torso, and was bleeding steadily, despite his high healing factor. The fact that he had no exit wounds on his back meant that the shrapnel pieces were still inside the older Black Templar's body, likely causing more damage. "We will need to re-open several of these wounds in order to remove the shrapnel, sir."

"... You're the one who's going to be operating on me? Haha, very funny you giant toddler. Where's the real apothecary?" Detrich huffed, glowering up at Cedric.

Part of the Primaris Marine bristled at the implication that he wasn't a *true* apothecary... Though another part of him was nervous about operating on such a well-known - and irritable - older brother. But he had been ordered to operate on this brother, so that is what Cedric would do, barring being reassigned. "I have completed all of the qualifications necessary to become a full apothecary, sir. The others are currently working on other injured brothers, and it's likely that you will bleed out before another apothecary is ready to operate on you. Sir."

Detrich stared up at him from the table, a surly expression on the much-older brother's face before he gave Cedric a wry smile "You're a mouthy and stubborn little shit. Those are good qualities for an apothecary. It means you're less likely to allow your brothers into bullying you. Alright, I'll let you operate on me... But if I die on your table, I'm going to haunt you until you're embraced by the Emperor's light, you hear me, boy?"

Cedric wasn't a child, and he bristled a little at being called boy, but at least the cantankerous captain wasn't trying to fight treatment any longer "Understood, sir. Will you allow us to give you the correct dose of morpha, please? You will be able to seek holy vengeance once I have finished patching you up, but the pain reliever is used to help myself and the others tending to you properly work on your injuries, as it is to aid you in bearing the pain of your wounds."

"... Uuugh, fine." Captain Detrich grumbled, nodding reluctantly. The anesthetist breathed out a silent sigh of relief and mouthed a *thank you* to Cedric as they injected the pain-reliever into the still grumbling captain.

~

Cedric had successfully suppressed any emotions he felt about performing surgery on such a well-known older brother, his hands stone steady as he pulled out dozens of pieces of shrapnel. Most of the shrapnel were pieces of the captains' own ceramite armor, but some were from a xenos frag-grenade. While it had been so far a fairly tedious surgery (that required quite a bit of replacement blood to be dripped into the captain's veins via IV drip), there had been nothing too surprising or distressing... Up until the scanner that Cedric had been using to scan for pieces of shrapnel beeped again. Cedric set down the scanner and used several surgical instruments to peel back the layers of skin, fat and muscle, sucking in a breath, dismay breaking through his iron-clad grip over his hearts as they sunk down to his boots. "Fuck." Left his lips before he could stop himself. 

Nestled against the descending abdominal aorta was a very sharp piece of shrapnel. It had cut into the wall of the major artery, and the pressure was currently keeping Detrich from bleeding out. While the high healing factor granted to Astartes would normally make removal of such a piece somewhat risky but feasible under normal circumstances...  Cedric had been operating on captain Detrich for hours now, and the good captain was a rare blood type among Black Templars, and they were running low on compatible blood to transfuse into him. To make matters worse, the captain was known to be dangerously allergic to synthetic blood. Removing the piece of shrapnel would put the captain at risk for volumetric blood loss as he stitched the puncture of the aorta closed... Technically he could cauterize the wound, but Cedric would rather not resort to such blunt methods in such an area.

One of the other medical staff assisting him leaned over, asking "Why did - oh. I'll get brother-captain Amicus. I think you should work on getting the rest of the shrapnel out of captain Detrich's body."

Cedric nodded and did as he was told, monitoring that troublesome piece of shrapnel, as there was a chance it could suddenly shift, causing more problems.

~

Hours of surgery later found Cedric watching as the tech marines brought in an empty dreadnaught shell, his hearts once again beating from the bottom of his boots. Cedric had done the best that he could, but several of the pieces of shrapnel had pierced through the spine of captain Detrich, paralyzing the well-known and loved Brother-captain. There was much that the enhanced healing of a space marine could do to repair the damage done to their body, but the damned xenos had  coated their frag grenades in some insidious poison that had slowed his healing factor - which Cedric had not caught onto, busily removing dozens of pieces of shrapnel from his body. Given the captain's illustrious career, and the fact that they had a dreadnaught on hand that wasn't in use, the centuries old Astartes was to be entombed in the dreadnaught in order to continue serving the Imperium.

He had also sworn an oath of vengeance against the drukhari who had slain his apprentice as well, and no one wanted to try and stop brother-captain Detrich when he awoke from finding his most righteous of vengeance. Cedric took a couple of steps back as several older and much more experienced apothecaries prepared the Interceptor Brother-captain for Dreadnaught entombment. One of the medical serfs came up to him, saying quietly "Please follow me, my lord. There are other lords in need of medical aid, you are being diverted."

Cedric nodded, gathering up the emotions he could not allow himself to feel and once again shove them into a mental box. As confidently as he could manage, Cedric nodded and said "Show me to them."

"At once, my lord." The medical serf responded, doing as he'd asked. Cedric followed the serf to his next patient, changing his gloves and washing his hands, before working on this injured Brother - who's scarred face he didn't recognize, but he did know how to clean and debride the wounds inflicted upon this brother, wrapping his injuries before going to the next brother, and the next, and the next after that. He worked on injured Brothers - and the occasional civilian - until exhaustion made the young primaris marine stumble a step or two to the next brother. 

The stumble had been spotted by one of the other apothecaries, and he'd been ordered sternly to eat something and rest. He blinked, a dry ration bar in one hand, a bottle of water in the other. Mechanically he ate before falling asleep where he stood.

~

Waking up to the sound of the furious roaring of a dreadnaught was a deeply unpleasant experience. Cedric woke up with a startle, standing up and blinking as a blanket slid off of his body. Automatically he grabbed the blanket before it fell to the ground, folding it and setting it down neatly on the stack of boxes he'd been napping against. He headed into the surgical area, finding the furiously yelling dreadnaught.

It was brother-captain Detrich. 

*Fuck*.

"-ND I TOLD YOU FUCKERS THAT I NEVER WANTED TO GO INSIDE ONE OF THESE SHITTY METAL BOXES! WHERE IS THAT LITTLE FUCKER WHO PUT ME INSIDE OF THIS THING? I AM GOING TO KILL HIM FOR-" Brother-captain Detrich roared.

He was cut off by the Apothecary brother-captain "I was the one who led the team in entombing you in the contemptor dreadnaught, Detrich. The young apothecary who worked on your body until I made the decision to entomb you made no mistakes. It wasn't his fault that the shrapnel inside your body paralyzed you." 

"THE LITTLE SHIT SHOULD HAVE LET ME DIE ON THE TABLE! I DON'T WANT TO BE TRAPPED AND FEELING NOTHING FOR ALL ETERNITY!" Detrich bellowed back, still yelling.

"And leave your apprentice un-avenged?" One of the convalescing Interceptors asked, sitting up a little from the cot he was laying on "I heard you tell the kid that you'd haunt him forever if he let you die."

"..." Detrich didn't verbally respond, though he stopped resisting the tech marines as they checked over his new systems "Fine. I won't murder the little fucker for not letting me die gloriously. But don't expect me to thank any of you fuckers for this."

"None of us expected you to do that, Detrich. However, your systems are fully functional. Are you ready to spread His light and fury to the foul xenos who threaten this world?"

"Always! FOR THE EMPEROR!" And with that, the new dreadnaught charged off into battle.