Vindicates Chapter 2

Chapter 2 of Vindicates.

## Story

**AGE OF VINDICATION

Location: Earth's Orbit, Federation Research/Embassy Station.**

**- 2183, June 19**

**STATION LOG**

Super Soldier programs date as far back as the 1940s for the human timeline. Now we have Spartans, surgically and chemically augmented super-soldiers, biotics, which are essentially combat deployed telepaths who manipulate mass effect fields using dozens of element zero nodules within their nervous system via bio-amps, CELL has its Nanosuits, and DARPA has the ARS. The Federation, the third largest super power in the galaxy who have adopted humans into their ranks, has a lone bounty hunter augmented by the Chozo, and she's quite different from anything else out there.

Samus was augmented by the Chozo, an ancient species that predates any of the super-powers in the galaxy today, the same species responsible for creating the Federation. They augmented her abilities beyond capable of any other super-soldier today...

**AGE OF VINDICATION**

**Location: Earth's Orbit, Federation Research/Embassy Station.

- 2183, June 21**

The bald man with thick glasses, dressed boringly in a white lab coat, looks up from his blood and tissue samples to admire the naked body suspended before him in a stasis tube.

*We need to figure out what they did to her. It's the key to giving the Federation the edge we need. An army of humanoids like her will more than compete with all of the special forces projects the UEGA has. All we need to do is isolate the gene sequences that did this to her, it can't be that hard, can it?*

The man looked back to his samples and sighed.

*This DNA is complicated, a chimaera, some sort of incomprehensible amalgamation. We may need to kill her to extract what we need; brain tissue samples, and parts of her nervous system. It's like... we don't have all of the pieces that we need yet, and without a Chozo carcass, I don't think we ever will.*

"Call the on-duty Colonel, we need to start prepping her for transport."

Samus awoke, confused and naked, inside a stasis tank which was obviously malfunctioning. She punched a fracture into the "unbreakable" glass, and kicked it free, falling onto the floor and standing up, sparks flying around her as alarm bells were ringing. She activated her armour, and it formed around her. She then heard an unfamiliar voice come through the comms of her helmet.

*Samus Aran, of K2-L, my name's Rhodey Stark of Earth. I shorted out the stasis tube so you could regain consciousness, I'm also responsible for the system failures you're seeing here; it should be enough for you to make it ouside where I can assist in your escape.*

Samus shook her head in confusion "Stark? As in Stark Enterprises? Escape? From where... this is... a Federation Facility?"

It's Stark Industries, glad you've heard of us. It's a long story, but you need to trust me, the Federation is not on your side at the moment.

"The last thing I-"

Samus was interupted as Rhodey shouted: *Two marines are entering the room!*

As soon as the last word reached Samus's ear, the door slid open, the familiar site of the marines blue armour still caught her off guard as they opened fire. She fired back with her arm cannon, trying not to kill them. As soon as they were incapacitated, she knelt down and pinned one of the men to the wall.

"What's going on here, marine?! Why did you attack me?"

"Orders, Samus... you were to be transferred to Daiban!"

"Why Daiban? I would of went willingly if they needed me, I-"

The marine coughed. "I'm just a grunt, Samus, that kind of information is above my pay-grade. All I know is that they needed you unconscious for some reason, and if you weren't, we needed to put you down again. I didn't want to, but..."

She nodded. "Orders are orders," she said, just before knocking the marine out.

The now familiar voice came through her speaker comms again.

*Are you finished? More are coming, and you really don't have time for this. You're still on the Embassy Station above Earth, the UEGA will intervene soon if the Federation can't contain you. You're officially a "rogue enhanced". The Federation is in breach of the Sokovia Accords in UEGA space. You need to make it outside so I can extract you. I've uploaded the path your HUD.*

"How the hell do you have access to my systems?! What'd they do to my armour?! Those did more damage than it should have, my systems are compromised..."

*They tried to sabotage your bio-suit, it went on lockdown and reset itself so you're operating at lowest performance. We can fix it later.*

"We?" Samus thought, as she began making her way towards the exit. When she made it to the door the voice on her comms tried to warn her,

*Samus, there's a large number of soldiers outside.*

"I usually work alone, whoever you are, but thanks."

Samus opened the door and was greeted by a small army of Federation Troopers positioned in cordon, 20 metres around the door, with several automatic turrets and unmanned drones being used to bolster the garrison.

"Well... this could be a problem for me, maybe. If my armour hadn't been sabotaged..."

*Well, I guess you need help then?*

"If you could provide a distraction, maybe..."

*Yeah, like that won't be helpful.*

Out of nowhere, a sleek black and blue ship began to decloak at the other end of the station. The craft fired a concussive blast into the middle of the garrison of troopers. Samus made her move, and began sprinting and leapt into the air, landing in the middle of the platform to get closer to the ship. As she did, the ship turned around, still floating several metres above the surface, and from the landing ramp emerged someone wearing black and blue Iron Man Armour. Samus scanned it, and could tell it was... was the MK7, the same model used by Tony Stark in the Battle of New York, but it was different, obviously having been tampered with. The figure landed besides Samus and the two exchanged glances before backing up to each other.

Rhodey spoke first "You're not going to mind if I hurt your friends?"

"They're not really my friends anymore are they?" Samus responded.

The two warriors quickly dispatched what was left standing of the garrison with ease, and the decloaked ship landed automatically for them to board.

The interior was that of a dropship. Samus remained standing as she turned to Rhodey "Why did you do that? And where's my ship?"

The dropship had already taken off and was entering a slipspace portal as they spoke. "The Feds have it impounded, but I'm sure you can retrieve it easily. I have intel on where it's being kept. Now, I know you're about to ask, why did I do this? I'm recruiting, and I couldn't let the Federation butcher such a valuable asset with high moral standards."

"... Explain."

"I'm putting together a team, I'm calling it the Vindicates Inititative."

"You're breaking the Accords..."

"Yes, but at this stage, desperate times call for desperate measures. I know you. Well, I've studied you, your history, it's extensive. What you did on Zebes three years ago... that was magnificent. Your service with the Federation before that was also impressive, despite though it was short."

"You want to hire me?"

"That's one way of putting it, I'll be paying you for sure, as well as giving you intelligence on what targets to hit. I may need your help on certain high risk missions too, seeing as you and I are the only members so far."

Samus visibly turned away "Huh, some group you have, but I already said, I work alone."

Rhodey shook her head. "You haven't always. You had a squad back in the Federation, and I've seen you work alongside other hunters when the circumstances needed it. You've saved the galaxy before, but I guarantee you others have as well, and you can't be everywhere at once, Samus. I'm asking you become a part of something that will have a greater impact on the galaxy than one mere person can, even you. If you work for me, you'll have access to resources and information you can't get anywhere else, eventually we'll have our own fleet, backup whenever we need it, a constant influx of supplies."

"You're still asking me to break the law."

"You know, for somebody so concerned about the law, you're not very concerned about how others are treating it. What the Federation was going to do to you, that was wrong."

"The Council has Spectres, the Federation uses Bounty Hunters like me, the UEGA has its supersoldiers and spec ops groups, why do you think the galaxy needs a group of heroes working outside of the law?"

Rhodey stared at Samus for a long moment before responding, contemplating what she was about to say. "I think you know why Samus. You've seen a lot of the same things I've seen, maybe more. There are several galaxy destroying threats lurking out there in the depths of the unknown. I want the galaxy's greatest heroes to work side by side, to be able to respond when we need them to most, and be not divided by diplomacy and borders."

"Hmm, so you're not doing this just to relive your great-grandfathers glory days. By the way, where are you taking me, Rhodey?"

"To our base, our new home." She pointed out of the window as the dropship came out of slipspace, the old Watchtower present in the distance."

"You... that's..."

"Yeah."

"You're serious about this? You want to bring about another age of heroes?"

"Not an age of heroes, an age of... vindicating the need for heroes."

Samus stared intently at the space station, than turned back to Rhodey.

"Who else are you getting for this team?"