Sarah had expected that she would be fighting along side her fellow soldiers as they secured the deck, but instead found herself setting up a very makeshift infirmary in a ship officer’s quarters due to three casualties needing attention in rapid succession. First the occupant of the quarters himself, who had taken an arrow to the leg. As she had treated his wound, a young tech was brought in with a concussion and broken leg acquired when she fell while fleeing from the invaders. Finally, a private from her platoon arrived with a long but thankfully not deep cut on his chest caused by “the biggest fucking sword in the entire universe,” or so claimed her patient.<br/><br/>The medic was still treating her most recent arrival when she heard gunfire and screaming from the corridor outside the quarters. She barely had time to grab her rifle before the door opened and the young soldier saw her first orc face to face. The giant humanoid was as ugly as he was enraged, and judging by his vicious war cry he was plenty enraged. As he readied an arrow she fired at him on full auto in a near panic. Her aim was relatively poor, but thankfully one bullet struck a vulnerable point in the armor near his midsection. This caused his aim to shift, and the arrow that would have gone through Sarah’s throat instead passed over her right shoulder and hit the wall of the quarters so forcefully it stuck there.<br/><br/>Her next burst went better, taking the intruder right in his face and dropping him like a stone. A second orc tried to enter the room, but before he could even take a step inside he was shot repeatedly by soldiers out in the hallway. Sarah was left panting for breath and near hysterical from her brush with death. She thought the sheer adrenalin would make her heart explode.<em>I’m amazed I didn’t pee myself just now.</em>She could hardly believe she had taken a life—hideously ugly or not, that orc had still been a thinking being.<em>The whole ‘him or me’ thing is less comfort than I would have hoped.</em>she thought, very unsettled by the evidence of her handiwork.<br/><br/>Her saviors turned out to be two soldiers bringing in yet another casualty, the young man with the ruined legs who had been barely saved by the LT not a minute earlier. “The two out there who were guarding the room...well, it’s not pretty but it’s enough to say they’re beyond your help,” one of the soldiers, an NCO, told Sarah grimly. “But you can save this one at least, and we’ll make sure the fighting doesn’t reach you again.” Sarah had to take a few seconds to calm herself enough to steady her shaking hands, and then she was back to work as the dead orc was dragged outside to join his fellow.