“Sawbones’ Emergency Medicine Battloid (Medical IMU)

[taalismn]

“Sawbones’ Emergency Medicine Battloid (Medical IMU)
(aka ‘McCoyMech’)

Components:
*MBR-07 Spartan Legs and Torso
*VF Arms
*SDR-04 Headlight Unit
*Heavy Duty X-Ray Scanner, medical sensors, and various retasked tools

The ‘Sawbones’ was a limited-run early-generation IMU that first saw service among UEG units after the Rain of Death, when the surviving UEDF and Breetai’s Zentraedi forces were working to integrate their recovery efforts. Apalled by what based for emergency medical care amongst the Zentraedi, which basically amounted to slapping bandages on the walking wounded, and euthanizing almost all those who couldn’t muster the strength to make their own way in and out of the infirmary, UEDF doctors, starting with those stationed aboard the SDF-1, sought to train up and re-equip the (to human standards) criminally-mistitled ‘medical technicians’ of the Zentraedi, and in the interim treated casualties directly themselves. The problem was one of scale; the size difference between a micronian physician and his or her Zentraedi patients could prove a major barrier to effective treatment.
In order to facilitate both medical treatment and training of Zentraedi medics, UEG engineers whipped up a emergency medical battloid, using as the basis battle-damaged MBR-07 Spartan destroids(some ADR- and SDR-chassises were occasionally used) with most of the armor and all the armament stripped off. Veritech arms were installed, and the retractable utility arms were fitted with various retasked tools that could be used in large-scale surgery. The shoulder missile launchers were replaced with compartments for medical supplies and the central weapons bay was replaced with an expanded cockpit to carry two crewmen(typically a doctor and a paramedic-trained pilot), and the forward part mounted with additional medical gear(such as portable x-ray scanners and powered hypodermic injectors). Medical sensors were added, as best the engineers could rig them up. The tri-headlight unit from an SDR-Phalanx unit was added in place of the head, and mounted on extendable jacks, allowing greater arc of movement to illuminate surgical sites. Most of the new mecha were unarmed, aside from a cutting laser or aerosol chemical sprayer that could be pressed into use as self-defense weaponry. Most ‘Sawbones’ finally received an overall coat of white paint, often with red or blue hghlights.
The sheer speed with which the specialized mecha had been whipped up, and the purpose to which it was put astonished the allied Zentraedi, who saw micronian medical teams so equipped work, to the Zentraedi, tangible miracles in saving the lives of many warriors thought hopeless terminal cases. With a growing number of Zentraedi being enraptured with the idea that there was existance beyond the imposed regimentation they’d been created to serve, the idea that many who would have otherwise died before they could sample the new life openning up before them would indeed survive to experience it, was a thrilling one. Despite some mistrust among the more conservative Zentraedi, the ‘Sawbones’ crews were generally very well received, and accorded much the same respect as talented technicians and engineers(perhaps even more so, since biology and medicine were even more mysterious and unfathomable than engineering to the Zentraedi), and both regular emergency medical procedues and teaching sessions were well-attended by Zentraedi observers eager to learn the micronian arts of healing.
The conversion of Sawbone medical’roids was hampered by a number of factors; the first being a shortage of medical workers with the disposition and skill to pilot mecha, and growing dissatifaction in the UEG at the diversion of medical personnel and supplies urgently needed elsewhere during the Reconstruction. Despite the positive reception among the Zentraedi, the Sawbones program would be soon curtailed, what with the growing pressure to micronize the Zentraedi and assimilate them into the human social infrastructure, where their size would not be an issue. The rise of the Malcontent Movement would finally nix any further Sawbone conversion/construction, and those few units not finally retired from service and recycled for parts were stationed at the increasingly smaller handful of sites that hosted medical facilities for full-sized Zentraedi, such as the Factory Satellites. As by then there were a good number of Zentraedi occupational retreads who were fairly proficient in emergency medicine, even the remaining Sawbones were used mainly as SAR and EMT mecha on the Factory decks.
By the time the Pioneer missions were launching, the last in-service Sawbones were posted aboard, almost last minute by an incredibly forward-thinking decision, in the event that the UEEF should encounter surviving Zentraedi who could be persuaded to come over to the side of the Terrans. Ironically, there WOULD be a need for such mecha in several encounters with isolated pockets of Zentraedi holdouts, but often the few Sawbones were unavailable, and the emergencies handled by (by now) competent and experienced certified Zentraedi doctors with the proper equipment.
The last few Sawbones EMBs in service with the UEEF were finally retired by the time of the Invid invasion of Earth; at least one graces the campus of the new University Galactica in New Tiresia, and stands in a place of honor outside the Medical School.

[ShadowLogan]

Support Mecha, thumbs up.

[taalismn]

Support Mecha, thumbs up.

Thanks. I was reading GVincent's Robotech: Ashes of Empire fanfiction on Fanfiction.net and was inspired by it. He tells a rather different story of the fall of Tirol from the Sentinels animation, but he's also telling a bang-on multi-level story of the Zentraedi fleets-in-the-field that were cut off by the 1st Robotech War and forced to survive amidst the fall of the RM empire. He really gets into the Zentraedi mindset, especially the modes of operation and thoughts of soldiers who are sentient cannonfodder, including what passes for 'medical treatment' among the Zentraedi(basically it's survival of the fittest; you either are a functional soldier or you're offed as a waste of resources and a drag on your comrades).

Terrans wouldn't see it that way, and would want to train up their allies in less pragmatically draconian medical practices. Of course, what with the massive triage efforts of the post Rain of Death and Reconstruction, such efforts to educate those many Terrans cannot distinguish from the enemy responsible would be highly controversial and would meet with opposition.