The heat reflects back off the tarmac and your skin starts to prickle under your haptic layer. You look around the various members of your platoon that are in sight. The display on your goggles shows their core temperatures are all rising slightly.

You speak into your helmet mic. “Florence, could you give me a status check of the platoon please.”

“Heart rates and BP within normal ranges. Hydration levels seem fine.” The refined voice of your personal assistant always seems soothing in some way. “Private Addair may be getting sunburnt though.”

You make a note to speak to your lieutenant, to ensure he schedules some shade breaks for everyone during the morning. You spot him ahead, standing at a crossroads. The high buildings on either cast him in shade, but there is something about his posture - stiff, alert - that warns you something is wrong.

“Florence, can you zoom please.”

Your lieutenant is magnified. He’s having a conversation over the comms system. You watch his lips moving and try to work out what he’s saying. It’s no good, at this magnification any slight movement of your head moves the image too much.

Suddenly your earpiece crackles with his voice. “Private Okoro, we have a serious CASEVAC about a kilometre away. I need you to get over there and provide medical supervision. The situation is still hostile.”

“Yes, Sir.” Your mouth goes dry, making it difficult to swallow. You take a sip from your flask. “What kind of injury do we have?”

“Not sure, but I think they’ve been shot by a sniper,” he says. “A perimeter has been established, so get yourself over there. There’s an APC on site, with all the medical kit. Just follow your arrows.”

A small green flashing arrow in the top right of your goggle display directs you straight ahead. You notice the rest of the platoon is starting to rush off in different directions.

You start jogging, and suddenly notice the weight of your pack. You hear a sharp burst of automatic gunfire erupt in the distance.

“Florence...” you pause, struggling for breath. “Have I got everything?”

“Yes, fully stocked this morning. No medical supplies used since then.”

The arrows instruct you to turn left at the next junction. As you round the corner, you can see an armoured personnel carrier ahead. The grills covering its exterior cast a stark, patterned shadow against the bright sunlight.

The silhouette of a soldier pokes out of the vehicle’s top hatch, the figure waves you over. You recognise her outline as the platoon sergeant. She ducks inside the vehicle and opens up the back hatch. Just then two more gunshots ring out.

“Where’s the casualty?” you yell as you run towards her.

“Just there.” Your sergeant points.

You squint against the glare. “Florence, zoom please, and cut the light.”

Through a tinted view, you see two soldiers together. One is crouched against the wall of a building, the other is lying down aiming his weapon upwards. You look to the other side of the street. Huddled in a doorway, two soldiers are stooping over a third who is lying still. Other soldiers are dotted around behind cover, firing towards a building. You hear the intermittent cracks of their rifles slightly after you see them jolt.

You look back to your sergeant, her face magnified momentarily before the zoom adjusts automatically. “What’s the plan?”

“We have to get the casualty over here and onto the APC. There’s a helicopter setting down in the market square. We need to get them there safely.” She walks you round swiftly to the rear of the APC. “Can you use the stretcher to transport them back here? We need to be quick.”

You step in through the back hatch of the APC, your eyes taking a few seconds to adjust to the gloom. The small space is crammed with consoles and different mechanical equipment. You search for what you need and see a thick rectangular tablet stuffed into its pouch on the inside wall of the APC. As you snatch it out of the pouch, its screen flickers to life.

You are presented with a small suite of control options. You select the robotic stretcher icon, tapping on it with your gloved finger. A sudden whirring noise issues from a low, tracked device lying on the floor of the APC. Its cushioned stretcher bed is surrounded by heavily armoured panels, all adjustable via a complex set of pneumatic cylinders.

You step to one side and use your thumbs to operate the controls on the tablet, backing the stretcher down the ramp and outside the APC.

“Florence, show me the stretcher view.”

Your goggles present you with a front camera view from the robotic stretcher. You rapidly manoeuvre the stretcher across the open space between here and the doorway where the casualty lies. You hear a number of shots ring out, unsure whether this is covering fire from your platoon or the enemy aiming at the stretcher.

Through your goggles you see the casualty straight ahead, lying on the ground. You arc the stretcher round, and then move it back and forth until it is right alongside them. The soldiers tending the casualty move to one side.

“Florence, Side view.”

The view on your goggles changes. You can now see the casualty lying down. You inspect his face, his skin has a grey tinge and his eyes are closed. Another soldier appears to be applying a dressing to the casualty, pressing it just inside the Kevlar vest by the armpit.

“Florence, can you link me up to those guys please.”

“Done.” Your personal assistant patches you through to the soldiers in the vicinity.

“Okay, I’m going to need your help in a minute, when I slide the stretcher in place, you’re going to have to gently support the movement. Who’s applying the dressing?”

“That’s me,” a strained voice comes back. “I think the bleeding is stopping, but Mack is making a weird noise.”

You can hear a metronomic rasping in the background. “Okay, don’t worry about that now. I’m going to secure his neck first, then we’re going to slide the stretcher in. Last of all, I’m going to take over applying pressure on the wound. Got it?”

“Think so,” says the soldier.

You kill the goggle view and look at the tablet display and tap the control to lower the stretcher components to the ground. You tell Florence to provide the view for positioning the neck brace on the screen. The display highlights the casualty’s neck area, you tap to confirm it has located the correct area, and you watch as the small arms begin moving to apply the neck brace. As the series of intricate movements unfolds on your screen, you occasionally rotate around the three dimensional display to check everything is in the right place, poised to override in case something goes wrong. After what seems like an age, but is probably only 30 seconds, the brace is secured around the casualty’s neck.

Getting the stretcher in place is more straightforward. You instruct the soldiers to help gently rock the casualty to assist as the stretcher’s two halves come together from either side and click into a single piece underneath the patient. Last is the bit you’ve been fearing, taking over from the soldier applying pressure on the casualty’s wound.

“Okay,” you say to the soldier. “Put your fingers exactly where you think the wound is.”

Florence projects an image of his hand and the blood-soaked field dressing onto your tablet screen. You move your hand across on the screen to the location of his fingers.

“Keep applying pressure, until I’ve taken over,” you say.

The stretcher’s integral pressure pad moves into the image, on the end of its robotic arm. You press down gently onto the screen on the site of the wound.

“Steady,” you say to the soldier. “Just shift your fingers gradually out of the way.”

As the pad comes into contact with the casualty, you begin to feel pressure building through your haptic gloves. You press a bit harder on the screen and the pressure builds. That should do it.

“Right, step away now,” you instruct the soldier. You hear him exhale heavily.

You keep applying pressure and verbally ask Florence to deploy the stretcher’s armoured shell. On your screen, you watch as it closes around your patient like a sarcophagus, his face still visible through a small, hardened glass window.

Your sergeant sees you have secured the casualty and coordinates the platoon in delivering a sustained suppressing fire. “Get him out of there, now,” she shouts above the noise.

“Florence, bring him home.” You know the autonomous system will be better placed to drive the stretcher back while you have your hands full.

You step out of the back of the APC, so you can get eyes on the stretcher as it comes towards you. You gaze down at the casualty’s face through the small window in the stretcher’s armoured carapace. The stretcher jolts slightly on climbing the ramp into the back of the APC and you see the casualty’s face twitch. As you lock the stretcher into place in the back of the vehicle, you notice he opens his eyes and your hope climbs that he’s going to be alright.