Medivac dropship

"Ready for dust off."

- Medivac pilot

The medical evacuation dropship, officially designated as the G-226 medical transport and called the medivac for short, is a terran aerospace transport that also provides medical support for wounded troops in the battlefield.

Overview
The medivac is outfitted with a state-of-the-art medical bay (supposedly the most advanced in the Koprulu sector ) and triage station that uses auto-sutures and laser scalpels to seal wounds and repair tissue almost as fast as it’s mangled, though the accuracy and precision of these tools are questioned by marines. Soldiers are administered growth stimulators, nanomachines, and pain suppressants to keep them in the field. The machines also bond with damaged tissue, exponentially boosting its natural regenerative properties. Based on the Quantradyne dropship, the medivac is larger and heavier than its predecessor, due to the medical bay and triage station in the rear of the ship, as well as the array of stabilizers and gyroscopes housed in the airframe that maintain the vessel’s level and orientation despite heavy cargo. This ship is also designed to ferry personnel and vehicles, including the massive thor, to and from combat zones with minimal fuss. Despite the increases in size and weight, the medivac is actually faster than the old Quantradyne.

A support ship, the medivac retains the Quantradyne's rotatable engines, but unlike its predecessor, its boarding/departure ramp is at the front rather than the rear. Heavy medivac losses led engineering crews to perform unsanctioned upgrades to increase engine output, namely adding injectors that pump oxygen-rich fuel into the exhaust stream. The first attempts, while successful at getting medivacs out of fire zones, resulted in heavy stress-induced damage to the turbines and, in rare cases, to the ship’s airframe. When questioned, neither the engineering crews nor soldiers revealed who was responsible for the changes. Dominion officers determined that it was cheaper to upgrade their whole medivac fleet than to discipline an entire troop company.

The ship is also equipped with a gravity tube for rapid loading and unloading of single units.

While uncommon, some mercenaries use customized medevac dropships when missions involve important enough personnel.

History
Dropships filling the role of a medical evacuation ship and referred to as "medivacs" predate the Great War, and were utilized by the Terran Confederacy.

The modern medivac concept was first introduced as an improvised solution by the Terran Dominion's 19th Marine Division. The unit was operating in the acid storms of Thalon VII, and modifying a Quantradyne dropship to allow for remote control increased the combat life of medics by decaminutes.

The official adoption of medivacs was carried out by the Dominion Armed Forces. A Dominion post- analysis found a startling thirty-seven percent of field-deployed troops became casualties requiring evacuation to the rear. In light of these findings, Emperor Arcturus Mengsk personally ordered Quantradynes redesigned to produce the medivac transport. The redesigned dropship served as a forward triage station and kept units in the field longer, regardless of injury. However, the medivac is very expensive to deploy, and the deployment cost of a medivac is equivalent to the expenditure of a small colony town. Because of this, the Dominion still trains traditional field medics.

As part of the redesign, expedient deployment of vehicles and personnel (especially under fire) became a top priority in the dropship redesign. Due to budget constraints, Dominion engineers settled on a single gravity tube that reduced loading and unloading speeds to one tenth of a second, but could only deploy soldiers or machines individually. The tube was developed by Bellerephon, while Procyon Industries won the contract to provide the G-226's laser scalpels and auto-sutures by being the lowest bidder. By the Second Great War, a healing AI had been developed for the medivac, allowing it to acquire and heal two targets simultaneously.

The success of the medivac design caused the Umojan Protectorate and Kel-Morian Combine to adopt them as well. When the zerg attacked the main resarch campus of the Moebius Foundation on Tyrador VIII, Doctor Emil Narud gave Commander Jim Raynor control of their medivacs so that he could use them to transport his men around the city and avoid most of the zerg.

After a covert operation resulted in heavy casualties among the Dominion Special Forces, the Dominion authorized a greater use of medevac dropships for their specialists.

StarCraft II
Medivacs appear in StarCraft II, dropping units quickly one at a time. There is a delay between every dropped unit. Transports have a drop animation which doesn't affect gameplay, although it will be more vulnerable as it will not automatically move away if attacked.

The medivac dropship picks units up extremely quickly, fast enough to enable units to dodge stalker attacks. The medivac dropship can transport a thor. The thor transforms into a cube and hangs underneath. This fills up the entire capacity of the dropship.

Medivac dropships make great support to s, especially those bolstered by M98 ballistic alloy combat shields, which enables them to survive a hit from a high damage unit, after which they can be quickly healed. Against the zerg, medivacs work well with marauders as part of a "commando force."

Versus

 * Upgrades and Abilities

Wings of Liberty
Medivac dropships are unlocked by playing "The Moebius Factor" mission, available after Doctor Emil Narud gives Commander Jim Raynor control control of the Moebius Foundation medivacs.

When using medivacs, their usage should be weighed against the hercules dropship. The hercules can carry as many troops as four medivacs for a bit more than the cost of two, and is much more durable, but the medivac has a major advantage in its ability to use a reactor to build two at a time, and builds in just over half the time of the hercules. If the player needs to transport small strike teams, the medivac is preferable, but when dealing with larger armies, the hercules is preferable. The need for healing is a moot point if the player goes with an all mechanical force, in which case the hercules is universally superior to the medivac.


 * Upgrades and Abilities

Quotations

 * See: StarCraft II unit quotations

Development
The medivac dropship was designed to replace medics. Medics could not keep up with reapers, which discouraged the latter's use in favor of the medic/marine combination. The medivac dropship allowed for more flexibility. The idea for the medivac come from David Kim; in a meeting, a developer pointed out that medics could only heal in the original StarCraft, while another pointed out that dropships could only transport. Thus, Kim decided to combine the two units. After all, the original dropship was good for harassment, but players would always load marines with medics regardless. Likewise, the medivac would allow players to better read their terran opponents in multiplayer, while the medic was a more indistinct infantry unit. The medivac would also give terran players an incentive to play more aggressively.

The medivac had two upgrades that are not present in the final version of the StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty campaign but are available in the map editor; Expanded Hull and Auxiliary Med-Bots. The two upgrades increased the cargo space of the medivac and healing rate respectively.

In Heart of the Swarm, medivacs gained the Caduceus Reactor upgrade at the tech lab, which reduced healing cost. The enhanced healing beam will change color. A fusion core is required for the upgrade. The upgrade was later reverted to the Wings of Liberty version via the January 9, 2013 balance update.

In Legacy of the Void, the medivac lost its energy upgrade. A new upgrade was available that reduced its unit drop time to 0.5 seconds, but this was removed. Instead the High Capacity Fuel Tanks upgrade was added. The medivac also gained the ability to pick up siege tanks in siege mode, but this was removed in Patch 3.8.


 * Removed Upgrades

Heroes of the Storm
The medivac appears in Heroes of the Storm, as a transport summoned by Rosa Morales.

Known Medivacs

 * KTO 08

Known Pilots

 * Maria Thalasses