A/N: I exercise major artistic license here.
XXxxXX
"CELL skinned us… skinned us all. Symbiosis killed half of us off, the guys who were dependant on the suit… they all died. Except Nomad… he still had the suit, and he was fucking shit up in Lingshan."
-Psycho
XXxxXX
ABOARD SSV NORMANDY SR-2,ENROUTE TO THE CITADEL
If Doctor Chakwas was surprised to see a superhuman clad in pristine armour, she didn't show it. The elderly doctor had already motioned for Nomad to take a seat on one of the beds, while Shepard sat down on one of the empty desk chairs.
"Name please," Chakwas ordered.
"Captain Jake Dunn," Nomad replied. His synthesised voice did little to ease her nerves.
"Please remove your armour," the Doctor ordered as she moved towards a console. Inbuilt sensors within the medbay were at the ready, though they couldn't scan through the suit because of the jammers.
Dunn slightly hesitated, and it was not lost on Shepard, she was an N7 Commander after all, graduated at the top of her class. Things like a minor hesitation, she would notice and file away for later. He unclamped the SABRMod3 and TyphoonMod3 on his back, and set them down on the bench.
"I'll have a drone carry them down to the armoury," Shepard added.
A slow rumble, the sound of tinkling crystals filled the medbay. Alice watched in fascination as the suit split in hexagonal patterns and literally fade into the man within the suit. It was scary, unnerving an a little bit creepy, watching metal turn into normal flesh. He was wearing cargo-pants in the universal camouflage pattern, complete with sewed in knee pads, a grey shirt and knee-high boots with shin pads. It was the standard off-duty outfit for Deltas on rotation.
Shepard ran her azure blue eyes along the contours of Dunn's body, assessing his physical capabilities. He was tall, had a strong build, and his muscles were well defined, particularly his bulging biceps. Alice turned her eyes to Nomad's and saw a brief flicker of cobalt before it faded into a dark navy colour.
She had never seen anything like this; sure she had heard of passive cybernetic enhancements, but this, this was something else. Something beyond human entirely. It scared her.
"Jake," Alice began; unknowingly she had used his first name. No one had ever used his first name over the past century. She was the first. And when she realised she had used his first name, she noticed that Dunn's expression had softened from neutral to slight surprise. From there it was clear to her why.
"Is that… a Nanosuit?" Shepard asked.
Dunn nodded. "Yes ma'am."
She had only heard about them in her Academy days, suits that made men beyond human. She had seen concept arts of the suits from other N7 Recruits, but none came close to the real thing. None held the same aura, the same fear, the same awe as the real thing.
Alice couldn't believe that it hadn't crossed her mind earlier that Nomad was a Nanosuit Operator, Delta Force. It just goes to show what kind of air surrounded him.
The medbay's sensors performed their scans, and displayed them onto a nearby console. Shepard and Chakwas moved their seats to get a better look at the screen. It showed a faint biological outline of a well-built human male, but laced with metal elements, nanites.
Medical scans were all done in real time, so Shepard could see the flow of nano-bots flowing throughout Nomad's systems. Upon zooming into a muscle cell, it was evident that the nanites increased density and strength. Chakwas scrolled through a myriad of cells such as nerves, blood cells, etc. Everything about Nomad was enhanced beyond imaginable.
Chakwas was lost for words as she read through the scans repeatedly.
The Doctor then rotated to face Shepard, and give her a stern look. "Now, about your sleeping patterns, Commander."
"I've been getting enough sleep," Alice protested, raising both hands.
Chakwas arched an eyebrow, clearly not buying into Shepard's lie. But seeing there was another person in the area, the Doctor relented.
"You can go, but don't think you're off the hook. I don't want you collapsing of fatigue."
"Yes mum," Alice teased. It was a hollow tease at best considering what had happened.
Shaking herself out of deep thought, Alice pulled herself up out of the chair, and turned to see that Nomad was standing at the ready. His strict adherence to military protocol and routine was something that unnerved her. Sure the on board compliment of Marines held themselves in a disciplined manner, but that was really all show just in case a superior from the outsider was on board.
Dunn, it was as if protocol was a way of life for him, a strict code to live by. Alice found that to be tragic. He was dubbed an asset, and devoid of anything but professionalism.
"We'll this way to the kitchen," Alice said, trying to return everything to normal. But everything had changed after seeing the scans. She should've known better, anything with a fearsome reputation would always have a tragic element about them.
Shepard led Nomad into the mess hall, suddenly aware of her heavy footfalls, but the lack thereof from him. The eating area was quiet because of the hour, most of the crew were asleep, and the Marines would be busy with guard duty.
"Cook's not here, I could make something for you if you want?" Alice offered, her culinary skills were mediocre at best, nothing near the level of her mother's or any chef at a decent establishment.
"MRE will be fine," Nomad reassured.
To be honest, he couldn't really remember what food tasted like. It had been so long.
"No, it's okay, I'll whip something up," Shepard said. She might as well; she wanted to distract herself for a bit.
Alice led Nomad over to the kitchen and began to rummage through the fridge. Dunn decided to help by setting out the cooking utensils. Shepard could have the machines cook something, but the food always seemed lacking somehow. She found it better if another being cooked it themselves.
Gliding up and down the pristine metal floor, Shepard began to stack the ingredients on the counter. Nomad walked up to the stove in order to help with the cooking.
"I'll just make some chilli for us, okay?"
Dunn gave a curt nod. "It's your call, ma'am."
Washing her hands, Alice wrapped an apron around her fatigues and set to prepare the food. Dunn assisted in any way he could, and found that he enjoyed the mediocre task.
Sure he had cooked before, but most of those times he was struggling in the cold or being distracted by distant gunfire… and he was preparing an MRE more or less. By the time he got back, he just rather get food from the mess hall then get some shut eye – even though he didn't need to sleep.
"I'm going to be honest with you," Alice began, stirring the contents of the stove. "I know next to nothing about you, and seeing those scans, they scared the shit out of me."
Shepard's casualness with language and mood threw Nomad off instantly. He was always used to cold professionalism and military discipline. But when it came to Shepard, it seemed like those things were thrown out the window.
"Something bothering you?" she asked, noticing his hesitation.
"Nothing at all, ma'am."
"Jake," Alice patronised, tilting her head slightly and arching an eyebrow. She was using his first name again.
"I don't know if you have clearance," was all Dunn could say. For no real reason, he felt the need to go on the defensive. No one had taken an interest in his personal life for a very long time, not that he had one anymore. It was uncomfortable for Shepard to be prying… but he was starting to warm up to the idea.
"Okay," Shepard paused; rethinking her approach, let's try it this way. Alice focused her azure blue eyes upon Nomad's dark abyss. "If get clearance, will you tell me everything?"
Dunn mulled the statement over, averting his gaze away from Shepard's. He knew she had an impressive military record, he had heard stories about her. And he knew that she was the tip of the spear on the war against the Reapers. Everything Nomad knew could be crucial towards the war effort.
"Yes," he finally answered.
When the chilli was finished, Alice had Nomad pour the contents into the bowls, before going off to the COM room to get clearance. Dunn found it a bit much, but he could understand why. Shepard meant well to the people under her command. She wanted to know their ins and outs so that she could better protect them, and make sure they live to see another day.
Jake took the two bowls out of the kitchen and set them down on the metal table in the eating area. He quickly interfaced with a terminal wirelessly to change the channel on the overhanging TV screen. Somehow he found it fitting to switch to a cooking network which was currently showcasing asari cuisine.
Shepard returned a few moments later, judging from her body language, Dunn could tell that she had been granted full clearance. It was something he was going to dread. But if any of the rumours about Alice's leadership qualities were true, then Dunn wouldn't be the first one she had a good chat with.
Nomad stood from his seat, and snapped a crisp salute. Causing Alice to wear an incredulous look on her face.
"Ma'am."
"At ease," Shepard said, still surprised.
The two resumed their seats and began to tuck into their meals. For Alice, it wasn't half bad, but it did taste better than what the machines could cook up. Maybe it was because her effort went into making it. As for Dunn on the other hand, it was the best thing he had eaten in a very long time. The flavours that assaulted him were borderline euphoric,
"So, what's with the suit… or the implants, Jake?" Alice asked with an eyebrow raised. She wondered if the suit was him, or the other way around.
Nomad gazed at the contents of his bowl, aimlessly stirring the contents. He wasn't too sure if he should tell her. He had already made a few mistakes by revealing the Nanosuit to her, but then again, there are more important things.
She already got her clearance from Hackett, but still, Dunn wasn't too comfortable about telling her everything.
Breathing in deeply, Jake turned his eyes back onto Shepard. "The suit… changes everything. At first, it's just a suit, and then you bond with it. You and it become a symbiosis. Removal of the suit can kill you if you had suffered extensive injuries in it. But you wear it long enough; you and the suit become one."
Nomad's words were cryptic, they didn't flow, but at least they gave Shepard the information all she needed.
"So, you can wear something else if you wanted to, and still have the suit?" Alice asked.
Dunn answered with a slow nod. Having the suit merged into him, embedded into him, had granted him so many options of infiltration. Of course, like all Deltas, he preferred to have the suit form a shell outside of his body. It had no real impact on suit functionality except for the synthesised voice and aesthetic appeal.
He could defy all logic and walk into the vacuum of space with only a light fatigues, and return unharmed. That was what the suit offered, that was what the suit could do. It changed the rules, it changed the human body. Because, he is the suit, and neither one could be separated.
But what shocked Shepard the most was that Nomad, wasn't the only one. There were more out there, just like him. All of them, experienced hunters.
"Commander," it was Joker of the ship's intercom, "we've reached the Citadel, but I'm having trouble raising the Alliance. It's like the whole stations gone dark."
"I'm coming up Joker," Shepard said, placing her spoon into her bowl. She turned to face Dunn. "Jake, go down into the armoury, and prep your gear. I've got a bad feeling."
"Yes, ma'am."
...
Down in the hangar bay, Cortez was prepping the Kodiak while Dunn went through the assortments of weaponry on the racks.
The SCARMod5 Family served as the mainstay weaponry for Alliance Forces. Like all human weapons, they had built in hardware locks which prevented unwanted reverse engineering. The SABRMod3 was the all-round weapon used by Delta Force. The weapon was considered to be a Nanosuit gun because of its adaptive qualities and its ability to draw energy from the surrounding environment, thought it was unnecessary since it ran on a hydrogen fuel cell. Both families were were vastly different from the conventional weapons used by other species and mercenary groups.
Conventional Galactic Weapons had a store of metal which would be shaved off and fabricated into the bullet. The bullet would then be launched by the weapon's Mass Effect fields and the heat generated from this process would be transferred into a thermal clip.
Alliance Weaponry remained true to their twenty first century concept, and optimised bullets for size, range and velocity. Some of the more specialised munitions were similar to that of miniaturised AP-W Tank rounds. The bullets would have a store of an incendiary compound far more potent than thermite. Upon impact, the compound would be shot like a stream of jet into its target, furthering the damage, whilst the biotic field would pulverise what was left. Thanks to the Alliance's powerful economy and production facilities, these rounds could be mass-produced easily with little expense. A crate of these specialised rounds would be worth two crates of thermal clips.
The TyphoonMod3 had this type of ammunition as its default. This meant that the weapon possessed insane firepower. But because of the weapons sheer weight, it was usually issued to frontline shocktroop units or Delta Force.
Shepard had a crate of them in her arsenal, but she rarely used them. There was a small section reserved for Alice's weapons. She had a fully customised SCARABMod5, optimised for stability and accuracy, and a silenced M3D Predator Sidearm. A textbook loadout for a highly skilled N7 Fury.
Alerted to the ping of the elevator, Nomad saw Shepard and Vega rush out of the platform, fully armoured, and ran towards their weapons. It was apparent that James was the one that was the most wide awake, as everyone else was probably catching some more shut eye, and coming in later.
Vega opted to go with the SCAWMod5, the LMG variant of the SCARMod5 Family. He had kitted out the weapon for range, sustained firepower and stability. His secondary was the standard issue shotgun. It was evident that he would be the one providing fire support.
Nomad went with his usual, a SABRMod3, compound bow and a TyphoonMod3 as his mains, and a silenced Hammer 3 with extended magazine as backup. Perfect for any occasion.
Alice beckoned her team onto the Kodiak, Cortez was already on board spooling up the engines. As Dunn stepped onto the shuttle, he reengaged his suit's outer shell, encasing himself in the default NS3 Delta Force image. This caused Vega to have his eyes bulge out as he saw the smooth transition of flesh to metal.
"Hey, I was just as surprised the first time," Shepard said to James, "and you're going to catch flies like that."
The Lieutenant consciously made an effort to close his mouth before talking. "So Commander, what's the situation?"
Cortez slowly eased the shuttle out of the bay, and towards the Citadel.
"Old friend named Thane is on the Citadel, he says Cerberus has launched an all-out attack. They've crippled C-Sec, were going there first so they can have a fighting chance."
"That explains everything, Lola."
…
PRESIDIUM, OUTSIDE OF C-SEC HEADQUARTERS
The Allied forces on the Citadel were being ripped apart by the more organised Cerberus forces. The unmistakable sound of Cerberus weapons clashed with array of rifles through the air. Alliance Marines struggled to hold back the tide of gold and white as they were slowly dwindling in numbers.
Cortez pulled the shuttle up onto C-Sec HQ main landing pad, where dozens of C-Sec officers were struggling to retake the building with the Cerberus garrison inside.
Nomad didn't bother waiting for Shepard's orders. This was one of those times when self-initiative kicked in to lead the charge. Dunn launched himself out of the Kodiak in a blue stream of light. A group of Cerberus soldiers he connected with were hurled back by the thunderous biotic force. Some were unfortunate enough to go off the railings, while others had their ribs crushed as they slammed against the walls.
Dunn strung his bow and unleashed the explosive tipped arrow at a Cerberus squad setting up defensive positions behind a shield generator. The missile shot forward with a hiss and founds it mark, a split second later the fuse detonated and sent a powerful shockwave through the air, ripping apart the generator and hurling the troopers into the open.
By now, Shepard and Vega had touched down, and they were fanning out to the flanks to suppress any remaining Cerberus soldiers. Their weapons chattered and spewed out rounds which tore through the troopers like a blowtorch through paper.
Nomad switched to the TyphoonMod3, deciding to go for full-blown overkill. Field testing had shown that the Typhoon could easily rip through a krogan battlemaster in a split-second, what hope did Cerberus ground forces have? None.
The gun roared like a buzz saw, spewing out five-hundred rounds a second. The bullets left the barrel at blistering speeds, igniting the air around them and creating plasma in their wake. Cerberus troops couldn't even cry out before their body was turned into bloodied shreds.
Shepard found the display of marksman ship impressive, if not disturbing. She had never seen anyone use a Typhoon like an SMG before; the thought of it had barely crossed her mind. But right in front of her eyes, was a man who wielded the heavy weapon effortlessly.
As fast as Nomad roared into the battle, the fight was over. Surviving C-Sec officers regrouped around Commander Bailey who was busy opening the front door.
"Commander Shepard, good to see you," the Chief of C-Sec said happily. "Thank you for the assist… though I might need to get my hearing checked out after this."
The heavy dual doors parted open, and the people filed in. C-Sec officers quickly took up defensive positions around the front desk as Bailey proceeded to unlock the COM systems.
"Alright, I've set up a bypass network, that should stop our people from flying blind," Bailey said aimlessly.
"I'm looking for the Council," Alice said.
Bailey furrowed his brows. "Shepard to be honest, I don't even think that they're alive. Cerberus hit the Council chambers first, and hit it hard."
Shepard closed her eyes briefly; Kaiden was a Spectre, assigned to guard the Council. She couldn't bear the thought of losing her cousin.
"But if they're alive, they would be moving to the evac zone. I'll try and see if I can track them down for you. Just get going onto the main Presidium pathway, and I'll direct you from there."
XXxxXX
"Meetin' up again in Lingshan… that was somethin'. Me, Jake and Laurence, honourin' our fallen brothers. Nomad took it the hardest, he saw a lot of good people die on that island."
-Psycho
XXxxXX
A/N: Well whaddya think? Please review.