…
"We're made up of thousands of parts with thousands of functions all working in tandem to keep us alive. Yet if only one part of our imperfect machine fails, life fails. It makes one realize how fragile... how flawed we are..."
(Ingun Black-Briar)
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MFV Chello, June 14th, 11:49 AM, 2183
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"In other news, a Batarian terrorist plot above the human colony of Terra Nova has been averted. Led by known extremist Ka'hairal Balak, the group attempted to use a mobile asteroid to trigger an extinction-level event on the planet. Luckily, the Alliance military quickly responded to this threat, saving the colony but losing Balak in the process. More at 5, only on the Alliance News Network." I listened, laying lazily against a stack of crates.
Dimitri, Dan and I all sat silently in the cargo hold of the Chello, a Quarian supply ship that made regular runs between the Flotilla and the Klenot System. Considering we were extremely pressed for time, it made more sense to stow away on a ship that was already about to leave than fire up the Explorer. We had our standard field gear with us, mostly consisting of basic scientific tools, the light armor we stole from Cerberus, and heavily modified M-6 Carnifex pistols. The only major variation was Dimitri, who opted to bring his M-96 Mattock as well.
I looked over at Dan, who was trying to run some last minute calibrations on his Terahertz Locator. He was going to use this opportunity to test the thing in a real environment, which I couldn't really blame him for. He had been working on it for months, and lacked an effective opportunity to field test it.
Dimitri was busy cleaning his Mattock, which was a considerably older model rifle than the ones commonly used today. He apparently liked it better for its high stopping power and rugged durability. Considering its popularity among colonial militias, I couldn't argue with his rational.
I picked Dimitri and Dan because if something bad happened on that ship, I wanted people who I knew wouldn't panic and could handle themselves in a fight.
"So, why do we have to be full…fully suited up for this operation?" Dan asked, standing up and rolling his shoulders.
"The Geth are robots, genius. Their ships don't need air." I answered, letting out a slightly annoyed sigh.
"Oh... right." He acknowledged bluntly, looking at the ceiling for a few seconds before turning back to me. "Hey, do you think they'll be sending us in with an escort?"
"Da, undoubtedly." Dimitri said, still focused on his rifle. "The esteemed Admirals will not send their most valued assets into situation like this by themselves."
"Five minutes to the Rayya." The Captain of the Chello announced over the ship's intercom system, giving us brief pause.
"But yeah, I kinda expected as much." I replied, throwing on my backpack and securing the chest strap. "Seems a little overbearing at first, but I understand why."
"I j-just hope they don't get in our way." Dan added, slipping his helmet on with a small hiss. "Last thing I was is some m-moron bumping into me with his exo."
"If all goes well, we should not have to deal with them for long." Dimitri reassured, standing up and smashing his fists together a few times. "I am ready."
"Yeah, let's get this over with." I finished, standing up and throwing my helmet on with a hiss.
Once we were docked, we immediately made our way to the shuttle bay. Normally this area would be bustling with activity, but this time it was eerily absent of people or shuttlecraft. Next to the single, lone shuttle stood Rael'Zorah, Han'Gerrel and about six exo-equipped Migrant Fleet Marines, patiently waiting for us. The Marines all had tags on their exos depicting the points of three snowy mountains.
All these guys had come from Camp Dolor back on Reach.
"Glad you could finally join us, Captain." Rael'Zorah greeted with a slight tinge of barely-masked annoyance. His arms we crossed as well, further supporting my theory.
"We got here as quickly as possible." I replied in a defensive manner.
"All things considered, you three made great time." Han'Gerrel responded, shooting Rael a "cease and desist" type look. "There's been a small development over the last two hours."
"What kind of development?" Dimitri inquired, crossing his arms.
"We've scanned the ship several times, and on our last scan, we detected one single active Eezo source." Han'Gerrel explained, stopping for a second. "We're not sure, but it could be moving."
"So, what are we talking about here?" I asked, prodding further.
"Honestly, we don't know." Rael'Zorah answered, uncrossing his arms. "It could be a Geth unit, some other sort of mech, a maintenance drone, we just don't know."
"Your mission here is to enter the ship, assess its condition, and make sure it's drive core and power-generating systems are completely disconnected from the rest of the ship." Han'Gerrel laid out, looking hard at each of us. "Each of you will be accompanied by two marines who will provide protection in case there are hostile elements aboard the ship. If anything is encountered, you are to return to the shuttle while they cover you."
I sighed, nodding in confirmation. They were seriously worried about this, and I was beginning to wonder if there was something else behind all of this.
"You can contact us on secure channel 41, code 0451." Rael added as we all opened our omni-tools and linked ourselves in. "Good luck out there. Keelah se'lai."
The Admirals stepped off to the side as we all gathered into the shuttle. Considering all the marines were wearing exos, it was a little more cramped than usual. It was dead silent, aside from the hum of the shuttle engines.
About fifteen minutes later, the shuttle lurched slightly as we exited normal FTL.
"Approaching the derelict, seal suits and prepare for decompression." The pilot announced as the warning lights turned on, bathing the compartment in a sickly red glow.
I could feel it grow colder around me as the air was ejected from the compartment. It became completely silent, leaving me with only my heartbeat and my quickened breathing. The doors opened, revealing an odd-looking, bluish purple hull lined with seamless, shined plates. It was the most alien thing I had ever seen.
"Do you see that?" Dimitri asked over the comm, pointing over at a darkened portion of the hull. "That is damage from High Explosive, Armor Piercing round. This ship was attacked, either by Turians or pirates."
"Maybe it's a straggler from o-one of that former SPECTRE's cr…crazy operations out here." Dan hypothesized as the shuttle maneuvered towards it so we could get a better view.
"If that's the case, then we need to be extra careful." I remarked, motioning with my left hand towards the ship.
One of the Marines under my command hefted a large grappling gun, firing it soundlessly towards the ship. It impacted, activating the high-powered magnet and ensuring a solid connection.
"Alright, let's see what we can see." I said to myself, deactivating my magnetic boots and grabbing the line.
Slowly, all of us made our way across the line and up the hull, finally stopping at the mass accelerator damage. It was even worse up close. The jagged metal was twisted and burned to a crisp, and what little of the inside we could see wasn't much better from this angle.
"Well, that saves us the trouble of cutting our way in." One of the Marines quipped, looking over at me.
"Dan, you're up." I ordered, as he walked over and hefted the Terahertz Locator.
"Good thing w-we're in a vacuum, because… you know." He gestured with one of his hands, looking right into my visor. "Vomiting and stuff."
"I'm sure our escort appreciates it." I replied in a deadpan as Dan switched on the device.
A hologram appeared above the device as bursts of terahertz radiation bounced off of every surface, showing what looked comparable to a thick book that had shot with a large-caliber rifle. The opening where we were was completely wide open and torn to shreds, some of which were still floating in there. Farther down, it got smaller and smaller until it ended about three decks below.
"These ships must be well made to survive round like this." Dimitri observed, pointing to where the remains of the round stopped and got lodged in the floor of the farthest deck.
"See anything unusual?" I refocused, looking back to Dan.
"I don't see anything obvious, if t-that's what you mean." He shot back, shaking his head dismissively. "This ship is Geth, I'm a-already having a hard e…enough t-time understanding what I was seeing."
"Well, I suppose we will soon find out." I finished, grabbing a piece of the jagged metal and pushing myself into the darkness. My headlight clicked on, casting a ghostly glow over the odd interior.
I landed on the bottom floor with my two escorts, Privates Ven and Rinno, following suit. Dan took the deck closest to the hull breach, and Dimitri took one of the two decks in between. With an even spread like this, we'd be able to search the ship twice as fast.
"Something here doesn't feel right." Ven said in our squad channel as I accessed the closest door, running a diagnostic.
"Normally I'd poke fun at you, Private, but honestly… I can't help but agree." I remarked in a quieted tone, looking back at him. "Keep an eye out, but just don't do anything irrational."
"Yes sir." He acknowledged with a nod as I finally got a green light on the door.
Ven covered the left side of the doorway, while Rinno and I covered the right. I opened the door, revealing nothing but a small, cramped hallway lined with inactive machinery.
"Don't bunch up in here, tight spaces like this are a deathtrap." Rinno warned as he took the lead. "Three meter spread."
"Affirmative." I obeyed as I followed Rinno at a distance and Ven covered my back.
The single door on the other side of the hallway was much larger than the last one, even having its own dedicated console. I quickly opened it the same way I had done before, revealing a large room lined with what looked like mini fighter craft. Not only did they have that, but they also had a large series of docking and launching ports parallel to the crafts.
"Any idea what class of ship this is?" I asked on the mission channel as we walked through the large area.
"Based on the size, we're unsure." Han'Gerrel replied, his end filled with static as the other side of the room came into view. "It could be a simple frigate, but taking into account the Geth and their compartmentalization, it could be a destroyer or possibly even a cruiser."
"It must be bigger than a frigate, because we have some kind of drone squadron docked inside of the ship." I informed, running up to the door as best I could with mag boots and beginning my bypass.
"If th.t's the case, then y.. need to make su.. that core …. is disc.…cted as soon as p…ible." Gerrel replied, barely getting his message through before the signal completely went dead.
This ship wasn't built for standard communication. Being inside of this ship was equivalent to being near a comms jammer.
"I don't think the Admirals are going to be accompanying us any further on this mission." I said to Ven and Rinno as we stacked up on the door. "Keep your guard up, we aren't getting any help fast if something goes wrong down here."
From there, we slowly progressed further into the ship, room by room. I was getting more confused each room, mostly because there seemed to be a complete lack of actual Geth aboard this ship. I would have expected to see some corpses, maybe some disabled units, but there wasn't a single one in here. Even the hub stations that they normally would have used for exchanging information and charging their power cells were devoid of activity.
For a species of sentient machines that thrived off of their group consciousness, this didn't fit the bill.
The three of us eventually made it to the room where the lone power source was last seen on scans. This door in particular seemed much thicker than all the other ones, featuring mag-bolts and its own dedicated piston system.
"Now… what are they hiding in there?" I said quietly to myself, hooking into the door as usual. But, unlike before, I received a ping back. The moment I noticed this, the door opened, practically blinding the three of us due to the presence of light inside the room.
As my vision cleared up, I began to walk forward, albeit cautiously and with my Carnifex held at the ready. In the center of the room was what looked like a standard Alliance medical prefab, specifically the kind that would normally be airdropped into a combat zone. Its floodlights were on full blast, illuminating the walls and revealing their purplish hue.
"Keelah… why is there a human prefab inside a Geth ship?" Ven asked to no one in particular as he checked behind a stack of crates before flipping right back to the odd sight.
"Maybe we'll find out inside." I replied as I walked over to the door, finding that it was unlocked. I cocked my head to the side, signaling for the two of them to stack up on the sides of the doorway.
I took a deep breath, opening the door and ducking off to the side. No movement.
"It's clear, sir." Rinno announced as I stood back up and entered the prefab.
The inside was a mess. Anything that hadn't been bolted down or magnetically secured was strewn on the floor. Emphasis on floor. The unit's artificial gravity was enabled, which especially churned my stomach when entering the prefab itself. There was a standard suite of medical supplies, beds, operating tables, and automated ICUs. Pretty standard for the Alliance.
That was, except for the cryogenic pod in the back of the room.
I slowly walked over, rubbing the thin layer of frost off the glass shield to reveal Richard Karpyshyn inside.
"Holy shit!" I yelped in surprise, standing up and grabbing the wall to support myself. Before I could do anything else, the prefab's door violently slammed shut, locking the three of us inside.
"What just happened?!" Ven yelled, sounding slightly panicked as he pointed his rifle at the door.
"It's some sort of trap!" Rinno announced, running over to the door and attempting a bypass.
I didn't say anything as I looked back at Richard's cryogenic pod.
"No… this isn't just a coincidence, is it?" I said to myself as white jets of oxygen could be seen shooting up from the floor. "Everyone just calm down! Stay where you are."
Ven and Rinno stopped, staring at me as if I was crazed or something.
"Just wait a moment." I ordered, waiting for the atmosphere to pressurize. I then took off my helmet, taking in the heavily recycled air. I then looked at the security camera in the far left corner, staring hard at it. "Powell… is Richard OK?"
There were a few seconds of silence before I received a response.
"Yes, Doctor Karpyshyn is stable, Doctor Michaels." A familiar disembodied voice replied. "Though… he is not quite the same as he used to be."
"What do you mean?" I prodded further, setting my helmet down on a nearby table.
"I believe it would be easier for him to tell you." He finished as a loud hiss came from the cryogenic pod.
The lid popped open, letting the cold air escape in a big puff of exhaust. A few seconds later, I could hear Richard hacking as if his lungs had been lit on fire. He pulled himself forward, trying to get out of the pod only to fall back in.
I walked over, grabbing his hand and helping him out of the cold pod. That's when I noticed one of his arms were gone, replaced with some sort of robotic prosthetic. I sat him down, finally getting a better look at him. Not only had one of his arms been replaced, but so had one of his eyes. As opposed to his old set of brown eyes, one of them now glowed blue, emitting a fair amount of light.
"Jesus Christ…" I exclaimed, unable to think of anything else to say. He looked at Ven and Rinno before looking up at me with his mismatched eyes and smiling.
"Wow… so I guess… you guys are still working… for these troglodytes." He said weakly, holding the elbow of his prosthetic arm with his good arm.
"It's been two months, Richard. What happened to you out there?" I asked, suppressing my urge to demand why he had left.
"You know those sentient robots with the… big flashlights for heads?" He replied with a sarcastic smirk, looking over at Ven and Rinno again. "I've spent the last few months making friends with them."
"That's impossible. Completely impossible." Rinno immediately denied, walking over and looking down at Richard. "No organic has ever made contact with the Geth, let alone returned from the Perseus Veil in one piece."
"Who's to say I returned in one piece?" Richard replied bluntly and with obvious sarcasm, looking at his new arm.
"You two, sound off until further notice!" I yelled in annoyance before turning back to Richard.
"Yes sir." Rinno agreed with venom in his voice, obviously not happy about this.
"What happened out there? We were worried sick about out." I asked softly, trying to keep my heart rate from jumping any more than it had already.
He looked hard at me for a few seconds before inhaling and letting out a deep sigh.
"After we left the Fleet, we immediately set out for the Veil, looking to make contact with the Geth. Things went well for a few days, and we had almost reached the Veil until our shuttle was attacked by pirates. Powell managed to get us out of there, but I had been badly injured when they fired on the craft." He began, staring down at the ground for most of the time. "Barely alive, I managed to patch myself up as best I could. We limped into the Veil, and I sat there in fear, bleeding out and near death. It was then I heard them speaking in their electronic tones over the communication system."
"I managed to establish contact with the Geth via a custom handshake, receiving enough information to decode their language and open up formal conversation." Powell picked up, his hologram appearing on the nearest projector. "By this point, Dr. Karpyshyn had passed out from the stress of his injuries. I had to quickly negotiate with the Geth if I was going to save his life."
Powell then snapped his fingers, and a new audio recording started playing.
"Can you understand me?" Powell's voice could be heard through the room's intercom system, sounding a little tensed.
An odd, stuttering sound replied back, conveying god knows what.
"Please, you have you help me. My Human friend…he's near death. I need to save him." Powell pleaded to the Geth, sounding desperate.
"We have been monitoring your communications. Direct digital communication over analog. Understanding our speech. You are… not organic." A strange new voice asked, sounding heavily labored and robotic. "We are curious. You speak as one program, unlike Nazara, but possess a singular will. What are you?"
"Listen, I'll answer all your questions, but you have to save my friend." Powell refocused, getting a little emotional from the sound of his voice. "Unlike me, he is organic. If he doesn't receive proper medical treatment soon, he will die."
There was a long pause after that, which I assumed was silent deliberation.
"Consensus reached." The voice replied back in its long monotone. "We will provide medical assistance for your organic companion. We anticipate the exchange of data."
With that, there was a burst of static and the recording ended.
"After this conversation, a Geth ship pulled our shuttle in and took us aboard. It was there I physically made contact with the Geth." Powell explained with a smile on his face. "It was beautiful."
"Beautiful?" I repeated, confused.
"Imagine, if you will, a city that went on forever in all directions, but it moved and pulsated depending on the thoughts of those inside of it." Richard began, before stopping in his tracks. "It's… really quite hard to explain organically."
I shook my head in confusion, finding all of this hard to take in.
"So, what ended up happening to you, Richard?" I prodded further, trying to get a sense of how he was doing. "From what I know, the Geth don't exactly have medical bays on their ships for treating organics."
"That, and they lack a nitrogen/oxygen atmosphere." He replied back with a small smile on his face before letting out another sigh. "They ferried me as fast as they could to an old space station above a planet called Haestrom, where they had the necessary accommodations for an organic such has myself. There was no chance of saving my left arm, it had basically been hanging on by threads at that point. My eye had to go too, it had been destroyed by a small piece of shrapnel."
His face then suddenly changed as he stared harder at the Quarian marines, looking confused.
"Where… where are we, exactly?" He inquired with a worried look on his face.
"You were found drifting in Sigurd's Cradle by a Quarian mining ship." I corrected, causing him to nod silently to himself as he looked off to the side and pinched his bottom lip. I remembered this was one of his nervous gestures.
"What happened before then, Powell?" I asked, knowing Richard was likely going to ask the same thing soon.
"The ship was detected by a mercenary group known as the Blue Suns on our way through the relay. They attempted to cripple the ship, presumably to pick it over for valuableb salvage. Following your orders, I did not engage and sustained critical damage during the escape." Powell explained, Richard nodding as he spoke. "Running on emergency power, I shut down all non-vital systems until further notice."
"For how long?" Richard quickly cut in on the coattails of Powell's words.
"Two weeks, three hours, nine minutes, seventeen seconds." Powell answered bluntly, focusing exclusively on Richard.
He just sat there and nodded in acknowledgement, breathing heavily.
"Listen, there's a lot more going on in the galaxy than you, the Quarians, or anyone for that matter knows about." Richard started, getting a very serious look on his face. One I had only seen him use one before, when discussing Dan's sister. "We are in grave danger."
"What are you talking about?" I inquired, genuinely confused.
He then waved at me to come closer as he took a deep breath.
"Have you ever heard of the Reapers?" He asked softly, as even Ven and Rinno leaned forward to listen. "These… ancient machines that supposedly wiped out the Protheans?"
"I think. Wasn't that Alliance big shot Commander Shepard talking about them at some point?" I replied, thinking back to all the Alliance News Reports that I had watched.
"Yes, though he seems to be getting absolutely nowhere from what I have heard." Richard brushed off, looking hard at me. "The Reapers are real, completely real, and they were indeed responsible for the extinction of the Protheans. They are machines of unspeakable power, able to indoctrinate organics such as us, the Quarians, and all races into following their will."
"I don't know, Richard. That sound extreme, even coming from you." I said out loud, weighing all of this in my head. "Why did they wipe out the Protheans?"
Powell and Richard just looked at each other before looking back to me.
"No one knows, at least no one who hasn't interacted with Nazara or its thrall, Saren." Richard answered, shaking his head slightly.
"Wait, what do you mean? What does that rogue SPECTRE have to do with anything?" I questioned as I found myself confused once again.
"There is one Reaper roaming the galaxy as of right now known as Nazara, and it, along with that rogue SPECTRE Saren, managed to convince a large chunk of the Geth to join them on their quest." Richard explained quickly, giving specific sarcastic emphasis to "quest."
"So… you guys sought out the Geth that had opposed this Reaper." I put together, trying to piece all of this information together.
"Yes. The "true" Geth denied Nazara's offer, wishing to build their own future." Richard confirmed, looking briefly at Powell. "They branded the Geth that left "heretics", and they are now the ones spreading death, destruction, and mayhem across the galaxy."
"Alright, you left, found these "true" Geth, learned from them… what happened after that? What caused you two to leave and come all the way out here?" I questioned further, standing up and beginning to pace.
"Well, that's a little more… complicated." Richard replied, seizing up and pinching his bottom lip again. "When the Geth were speaking to Nazara, they managed to gleam a lot of information from it without its knowledge. Piecing together what they knew from it, organic radio transmissions, and other factors, they determined that Nazara had spent a significant amount of time in region, around Sigurd's Cradle. From what me, Powell, and the Geth could deduce, It was either dormant here or looking for something further away from the systems with Relays."
"So you two left to investigate." I finished, nodding at them both.
"We were all curious. If there is something out here that could be used to fight the Reapers, we thought it would benefit the galaxy as a whole." Richard explained, moving a strand of hair out of his eye.
"Well… this is just twenty different kinds of complicated." I remarked, rubbing my temples in deep thought.
"I'm already aware that the Admirals will likely want to "ask be a few questions" once I'm off this ship." Richard said, mimicking my thoughts on the matter as he looked once again at his arm. "This probably isn't going to help, either."
"There's gotta be something we can do." I said out loud, shaking my head.
"Sir, permission to speak?" Rinno asked, causing me to flip towards him.
"Permission granted." I granted as he stood up and walked towards me.
"Listen, me and Ven hate the Geth as much as the next person, but… it sounds like these Reaper things are the real threat." Rinno admitted, actually making me feel a little better. "If you need any help with anything, you have our support."
"Well, I appreciate your open-mindedness. Both of you." I nodded to each of them, mind racing as to what would happen next. "Maybe if we go to the Admirals an-"
Then, without warning, a powerful shockwave vibrated through the ship, sending all of us falling to the floor. My head hit the edge of a table, filling my vision with stars for a few brief seconds until I shook it off.
"Jo'der! What was that?!" Ven exclaimed out loud, pulling himself up as another shockwave could be felt going through the ship.
"Oh no... damn it!" Powell said, looking off into space. "It looks like the Blue Suns found us again."
"Man, are you fucking kidding me?" I blurted out, throwing my helmet back on. "Alright, new plan! Richard, throw on that pressure suit and get Powell out of there, we're getting off this ship!"
Richard silently obeyed my orders, throwing on his suit as I looked back to Powell.
"Is there any way you can get us back in touch with Dan and Dimitri's teams?" I quickly asked, making sure my helmet was pressurized.
"Yeah, let me see what I can do…" He agreed, looking off to the side for a few seconds before a loud screech blared in my helmet speakers. "Try in now."
"This is Captain Michaels, can anyone hear me?" I asked into our comm channel, quickly getting a response.
"My friend! I thought something had happened to you!" Dimitri's grandiose voice replied, sounding relieved. "What happened? Was there an explosion on ship?"
"No, it turns out that the Blue Suns were the ones that shot up this vessel, and they've returned to finish what they started." I replied back as a smaller vibration rocked the ship. "Where's Dan?"
"Last I heard from him, he was near top of ship, attempting to retrieve data from ship systems." Dimitri answered bluntly. "Shall we regroup on last known position?"
"Yeah, we'll be there. Good luck, Dimi." I agreed, nodding my head reflexively.
"Same to you, my friend." He finished as the line went dead.
"There is… one last thing I should tell you about." Richard chimed in, wearing a standard Alliance EVA suit. "Powell doesn't just have the card reader anymore, he got a little gift from the Geth before we left."
"What kind of gift?" I asked as the medical prefab depressurized, unlocking the door we had come through originally. It slid open, revealing a humanoid figure. A Geth.
I had to admit, I almost pulled my gun on the thing like Ven and Rinno, considering I had never even seen one in person before. Like most people described, it had what looked like a flashlight for a head, but was painted an odd, desert-camo color with a digitized theme, looking like an almost exact copy of MARPAT.
"Woah, WOAH, put your weapons down!" Richard ordered, running in between us and the Geth unit. His new, glowing eye could be seen shining through his polarized visor, giving him a vaguely Quarian appearance in a way. "This is Powell, the Geth gave him a platform for his own personal use."
Ven and Rinno hesitantly lowered their weapons as I heard another squad member enter our channel.
"The Geth provided me this platform so I could better interact with the environments around me." He said, gesturing with his odd, three-fingered hands. "Don't worry, I'm the only one in here."
"Glad to have you with us, Powell." I accepted, holding out my hand for him to shake. He accepted the gesture, grasping it and shaking vigorously.
"It feels good, knowing I can help you on the battlefield now, doctor." He said, nodding to me with his flashlight head.
"Alright, we need to link up with Dr. Vsevolod, find Dr. Nemo and the others, and get the hell off of this ship." I recapped, taking out my handgun and extending it. "Let's get to it."
…
A/N: Once again, I'd like to reiterate how sorry I am about the massive delay on the story. I've had many problems over the months, but I'm finally to ta point where I can work on my story again. Production may be a little slow, but that's just a combination of me getting back into the groove of things and quality control.
In the next chapter, the team will need to get off the Geth ship, but getting past the Blue Suns will be a large challenge to overcome. How will they get off the derelict ship? How will the Admirals react to Richard and Powell? Tune in next time and find out!
I'd love to read any reviews, I'm always up for suggestions or constructive criticism. Stay tuned!