Vindicates Chapter 10

Chapter 10 of Vindicates.

## Story

Location: Watchtower Hangar

- 2183, Aug 10

Rhodey had returned to the hangar empty handed - no new recruits to add to her roster, but she was pleased to see that the other members of her team were successful. The Shepard twins brought back three new recruits: Zaeed Massani, Mordin Solus, and Garrus Vakarian. Samus had managed to make contact with her bounty hunting associates on Omega, Rundas, and Gandrayda. She successfully recruited them to the cause, though, like Zaeed, they came at a hefty price. Garrus, though being paid like everyone, was more so happy to just be helping out his old friends. Garrus, Mordin, Rundas and Gandrayda were the also the first non-human Vindicate recruits, which was a big deal. Another small step to making the group a galaxy-wide organization.

Rhodey's first priority was to speak to the Shepards' new recruits before they set off on the Normandy again to continue recruiting. Mainly, she needed to speak with Mordin, so as the group met up on the right side control station where Commander Rupert worked, she approached the Salarian.

"Professor Mordin Solus, I've heard a lot about you, it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, I'm-"

He started jammering off in an extraordinarily quick speech pattern.

"Mrs Stark, Earth-born, billionare, inheritorofStarkIndustries, militarytrained, genius, engineer, scientist, philanthropist... heardalotaboutme? Likewise."

"Uhh... haha, yeah, I'm-"

"Operatinglargebase, training militia, goingtotakeoncollectorsdirectly? No no, forceistoosmall, andtoodiverse, unitsspecialisationandvarietysuggestsotherwise, and you're still building, yes, makingrepairs, fixingbase, smallfleet, stillbuildingthattoo? Yes, whatpurpose, morethanjustcollectors?"

"You're right Mordin, we are building a militia here, you lot are the first of what I hope to be many ET recruits. Our group is focusing on dealing with the many rising parasitic and otherwise galaxy-threatening species. We're going to neutralise any opposing factions that stand in our way as well. So far we've had unfriendly encounters with Weyland-Yutani, Cerberus and ONI."

"Hmm yes, crossed paths before -" He paused to take a deep breath, "Iunderstandyou'reseekingavaccinetocountercollectorseekerswarms?"

"Hold on, we're getting ahead of ourselves. As I'm sure the Commanders have told you, I need you to man the laboratory aboard the Normandy. I hope it meets your standards?"

"Ohyes, haven'thadadecentlabsetupsincemytimeintheSTG, almostforgottenwhatitwaslike."

"Great, the Normandy acts as a portable base on it's own, the Commanders report in to me in-between missions, from that lab you can work on upgrading the Normandy as you guys come across new technology, those upgrades will be passed onto the rest of our forces here as you uncover them. But we have three main priorities, the Collector Swarms, as you said, yes, we do need some kind of countermeasure for them. But we also need a defence against the effects of Necromorphic Markers. Have you had any experience with those?"

"No,neverencounteredsuchathing,ifIdid,probablywouldn'tbehere."

"We know that they emit an electromagnetic signal to take control of sapient life, using the data I already have I figured we could create some device or devices that would release a counter signal, it'd give our troops a fighting chance against the Necromorphs. We also need to work on whatever it is the Metroids do to kill people, and some kind of material that'll be resistant to Xenomorph blood for armour."

"Species XX121, I'veencounteredoncewithSTGtaskforce, verymessy. Difficulttoacquiresubjectsforexperiments,spreadlikewildfire,intelligentpredators,deadlyvermin."

"We have a lab here on the Watchtower, we'll be using it to store tissue samples but I'm afraid using live subjects would be too dangerous on the station."

"Ofcourse,wanttokill,notcontrol,good,unlikeCerberusorWeyland."

"We're going to share all of our data with you on the Normandy so that you're always in the loop, I would love it if you would do the same."

"Yes,canItakealookatyourarmoursometime? Remarkable."

"Ha, maybe, if you tell me about your work on the genophage. I have a degree in xenobiology, I'd love to see some of the data you used. It must have been tough figuring out how to effectively counter the Krogan's rather unique and adaptive capabilities. Their organ redundancy, backup systems, and cellular regeneration must have presented a rather difficult challenge when creating a genophage modification."

"Hmm,yes,almostforgotfellowscientist,wouldbegladto,thoughnoclassifieddetailsofcourse."

"Oh and one more thing - how'd you find out it was me?"

"Ideducedfromarmour,base,andobviousfunds.PlusitsaysStarkIndustriesontheship." Mordin pointed to the Normandy.

"Oh, yeah...that wasn't supposed to go on yet, haha... but the word on me will be coming out soon, so it doesn't matter."

"YoucanexpectEarthGovernmentwillcomeafteryourassetsandfunds."

"No, they won't, Stark Industries has secured several multi-billion credit contracts to make weapons for the UNSC, and with the war against the Covenant they can't afford and don't have time to be freezing my assets or be doing any kind of investigation. Publically, I won't be announcing my work here, privately, they will know, but they won't be able to do anything about it, not if they want to win this war. The contracts we're working on are too vital to the war effort."

"Smart."