A/N: This was at the request of a guest.

Also with the Normandy, I'm just going to say it now, it's been combined with Ceph technology… artistic license spans on from there.

XXxxXX

"The suit, it evolves, it adapts, but most of all, it changes you."
-Prophet to Delta Force Operatives

XXxxXX

ARCTURUS STATION

Everyone but him was dead. The Reapers had moved on, and all that remained were the floating dead, silent Reapers and molten debris of the station. His COMs were working, his suit's systems were up and running, but no one was in range. There wasn't even a distress beacon around, and even if there was, he wouldn't risk deploying.

Captain Jake "Nomad" Dunn was in the deep end of the gut pool, and he knew it. He wondered how long it would be until he died. At this rate, until Arcturus goes supernova. So long as the suit had a source of power, he would live. He didn't mind dying; he had lived more than long enough to not mind the idea of dying.

What are we? Dead men walking, or post-human soldiers?

The Nanosuit, it was a gift and a curse. He remembered when it was classified as NS1, now it was along the lines of NS3. The suit had gained schematics of all kinds of battle-armour, and upgraded itself. That was the beauty of nanotechnology, anyone still wearing a nanosuit would've evolved and adapted.

Dunn remembered how it all happened. He remembered how his body was torn to bloodied shreds on the shores of Lingshang. He remembered how he was dragged home, inside the suit, inside the bodybag.

He remembered the Ceph War, and how it made humanity all the more efficient at warfare. But still, to this day, so many files remained classified. Delta Force and their Nanosuits remained as an unconfirmed legend amongst the armed forces.

Humanity as whole was so advanced, even before the discovery of the Prothean Archives on Mars. And when the Shanxi Incident began, so many turians were slaughtered by Deltas. Nomad should know, because he was there.

Although vastly outnumbered, the small garrison at Shanxi managed to hold out, and send an SOS over Quantum Entanglement Communicators. Dunn and his team were the first to respond, and devastated the turians in every theatre of ground warfare.

Human-Turian relationship had been cold and frosty since then. Neither side had forgiven each other for what had happened. But Dunn had made his piece a long time ago. He had to be above these grudges, or else he wouldn't survive very long.

He remembered watching humanity enter the galactic stage, already other species were in fear of the race that managed to devastate the "best: fighting force in the galaxy.

Contingency plans by the human government were put into action; blank checks were issued to every Research and Development Division to improve technology. And in just a few short years, Humanity's economy rivalled the asari.

Dunn remembered it all, humanity's ascension to greatness. But for all that, for all their technological, scientific and military prowess, they lacked the strength to fight the Reapers. Sure humans had the higher Reaper kill count than any other species, but they couldn't play attrition against a faction that had spent millions of years gathering up strength.

Nomad breathed, and felt the systems cycle through. He no longer needed a Heads-Up-Display, he no longer needed Augmented Reality, why? Because he was one with the suit, all the information was fed directly into his brain. Enemy positions and point of interests, he could all see them, but they weren't displayed on his HUD.

The suit did wonders, but at a cost. That was why it was never put into mass production. The cost was just too great.

His sensors began to ping; a ship was coming out of FTL, designated as friendly.

…

ABOARD SSV NORMANDY SR-2, EN ROUTE TO ARCTURUS

Commander Alice Shepard sat at her command seat and gazed at the star map. It provided real-time information on the Reaper's advance. Humanity was holding steady, but they were being slowly pushed back on every front. N7 Teams could only do so much, but the Reapers don't rely on logistics. They assimilate their enemies to do the fighting.

Alice held out her lightly tanned hand and casted an orb of biotic energy. It helped her keep calm, and not lose herself in her own sea of thoughts. She tucked a stray lock of her hair behind an ear as she turned her ocean blue eyes away from the console.

Admiral Steven Hackett had ordered her to go to Acturus station and retrieve someone invaluable to the war effort. Shepard was slightly sceptical. Arcturus had been destroyed by the Reapers; everyone aboard the station would've been killed. She doubted if anyone was still alive.

"Commander, we've arrived at Arcturus," Joker said, "looks like everything was torn to hell here."

Shepard pulled up the external view cameras and saw the once majestic station now in utter ruins. Barely any of the debris was unidentifiable.

"No offense to Hackett or anything, but I think he overestimated his guy," Joker added.

"I think so too," Alice pondered. "EDI, see if you can run a quick scan."

"Scanning," the AI complied, "I have detected one anomaly. Bringing up schematics now."

Shepard watched as a full colour holographic image appeared over the star map. The figure was humanoid, clad in moderate to heavy armour which also gave the notion of agility and speed. It looked like a cross between N7 Heavy Armour and a muscle suit of some kind. Surprisingly, it was devoid of any battle scars.

"Incoming hail," EDI said.

"Patch it through," Alice ordered.

The COM channels switched.

"This is Nomad, to Normandy, requesting extraction," a male voice said, he sounded young, maybe early thirties or late twenties. The holographic image on the display moved.

…

Alice watched Nomad used his biotics abilities to propel himself onto the Normandy's main ramp. He stepped through the phase generator as the main hatch seal shut with a resounding thud. He was much larger than she thought he would be, standing at least a head taller than her. His walk also exuded military discipline and precision.

She couldn't help but be in awe and slightly afraid of him. She had a gut feeling that he was a hush-hush pet project by the Alliance. She'd never seen his armour model before; it followed the contours of the human muscular system, and was clad in armour plates. Shepard gazed at the blood red visor which seemed to be devoid of human emotion. She'd never seen anything like it, but her fast mind managed to come up with a rough conclusion that this was one of the Hunters of Shanxi. Alice had heard about them during her Academy days, men who tore across the battlefield without notice, before disappearing without a trace.

She had even come across their handy work during her early years as an N7 Operative. The heavily wounded batarian was rambling on about ghosts who could not be stopped, hunters who slayed dozens of krogans in mere seconds. What she remembered about the situation the batarian the most, was the arrow that pinned him to the metal bulkhead.

Feats like that impressed her, but to have someone ramble on in fear, that was something that scared her.

A cold prickly sensation ran down her spine and across her bare arms as Nomad came closer. She could hear the dull thud of his boots and the taught sound of his suit; it made an icy hand grip her heart.

Shepard was still a human, she could still feel fear, but she had never felt fear like this in a very long time. The first time she felt it was thousands of batarians were gunning for her. Nomad was a hunter, he struck fear into the hearts of others.

"Ma'am," he saluted.

"At ease," Alice said, glad that her voice didn't betray her. "Identify."

Nomad let his arms drop by his sides. Shepard didn't fail to notice the menacing weapons that were clamped onto his back.

"Captain Jake Dunn, callsign Nomad," he said.

"Unit?"

"Classified, ma'am."

Alice frowned and tilted her head as she leaned against the requisition console.

"Are you in N7?"

"No ma'am," he answered, his tone unchanging.

Shepard could see Vega, Cortez and a few other Marines become slightly jumpy at the superhuman figure in front of them.

"What happened here?" she asked.

"Reaper overwhelmed us," Nomad said, "I tried to get people off the station, but there was just to many, the escape pods just got shot up the moment they launched."

Shepard was about to say something when the nearby console pinged.

"Commander," said EDI over the ship's COMs, "I have Admiral Hackett wishing to speak to you about our guest."

"Patch it through," Shepard ordered, moving around the bench to face the panel. Dunn followed her, and noticed her casual professionalism; it was most widespread amongst senior Naval and Air Force Officers.

"Commander Shepard," it was Hackett, praying for some good news, "Have you located the asset?"

Asset? Since when do we call our people that? Alice wondered.

"Yes sir."

"Can I talk to him?"

Shepard waved Nomad over. As soon as he was within view, Hackett smiled in relief.

"Captain Dunn, good to see you're alive," the Admiral said genuinely.

"You too, sir," Nomad replied. "How are we doing?"

"Not good," Hackett said, shaking his head. "With every Reaper we kill, three more takes its place. We're being pushed back on all fronts."

"Deltas?" Dunn asked.

Deltas… as in Delta Force? The Hunters are Deltas? Alice pondered. Weren't all Special Forces merged into the N program, and all Tier Ones became N7s eventually?

"Few casualties," Hackett answered, "I'm sending them to support faltering lines. Reapers have no logistics, no point trying to jump behind their lines."

Nomad gave a quick nod of acknowledgement. "Orders sir?"

Hackett looked at Shepard.

"Commander, I'm assigning Captain Dunn to you. Having a Delta may help even things out for you."

"Thank you sir."

"Hackett out."

The link was cut from the other end, and Shepard turned to face the blood red visor.

"Hungry?"

That was usually the prelude or forewarning that a superior officer would give to a subordinate when they were about to be interviewed.

"A bit, ma'am," Dunn answered. In truth, he was never really hungry, he could eat, but he rarely ate. The suit supported his body and made sure that it was in peak physical condition.

"Alright, we'll get something to eat after you get a quick check-up."

"Yes ma'am."

Alice led Nomad towards the elevators and entered the commands to get to deck 3. She noticed that Dunn was unnervingly quiet and still. He was the epitome of military professionalism. Shepard respected that, but knew that it could get in the way, she preferred it if her team could talk to her freely and without restriction. She respected Vega because he was forthcoming with what his thoughts were; even from day one he treated her like an equal, like a living breathing human.

Dunn's silence, it was hard to gauge him. Hell, she hadn't even seen his face yet.

XXxxXX

A/N: I'll leave it there for now, but please review.

This takes place somewhere before the attack on the Citadel.