What do you do after you build the armor for Marcus Fenix and Delta Squad, drive more than 500 miles to surprise the creators of Gears of War with it in person, hand-deliver a chainsaw bayonet to CliffyB, get a five-page feature in the July 2007 issue of OXM, and return home a hero? If you’re the team at Nightmare Armor Studios, you get to work on gear for the squad’s newest recruit. And she’s female!

Don’t overreact, though. “We wanted a look that was still very military-inspired and not so much ‘Oh, look at me, I’m a girl,’” says Sid Garrand, founder and leader of NAS. “I mean, it had to have that badass look to it. We made new sculpts and molds for some parts, and others we just molded to fit a woman’s smaller frame.”

The armor was crafted for and by NAS artist Christina Johnson, who modeled the outfit with the rest of Delta Squad at DragonCon in Atlanta this past August. NAS created the “Girl of War” suit to “be somewhat lighter, like a scout or a runner’s armor would be.”

And, of course, they’ve thought about the role female Cogs play in the Gears universe: “The military found that out of every 10 male Cog soldiers that were sent on a solo mission, only four returned, whereas out of every 10 female Cog soldiers, eight returned,” explains Sid. “Research showed that where male soldiers seemed to always engage in conflict, the female Cog would tend to be more stealthy and elusive, thus making them a great asset in delivering strategic plans, weapons, and supplies to other outposts.”

Unfortunately, Sid’s mum on Nightmare Armor’s next project...

You're next! We love celebrating the superfans of Xbox, but it takes more than a cool tattoo or a custom license plate to make it into the Nerd Corps. If you think you have what it takes, send us an email and tell us why you deserve some extraordinary love.