Hermes and Prometheus

When Tali, Legion, Kasumi and I arrived back on the Normandy, we were greeted by an enthusiastic crowd. The crew had watched from the bridge and the observation room when the station had suddenly burst into a fireball,

"Nice fireworks, Commander," Miranda said when I assembled my team in the tidied comm room, "so we won't be having any more problems with "Heretics" now?"

"Heretic bases still exist in isolated systems," Legion said, "but rebuilding the strength to pose a threat to organics again will take many years."

"Good," Jacob said.

"Just a shame I missed the fight," Grunt said.

"There's more to come," I told the mighty Krogan, "from where we are, the planet of Aite isn't too far. This is where Cerberus lost contact with one of their cells a while ago now. Project Overlord involved experiments with Geth, so naturally this could be dangerous. This mission was originally sent to me by Cerberus Command, but I think we can all agree that this is too important to ignore."

The team was in agreement and I had Joker set us on a course for Aite.

When I looked up the planet on the computer in my cabin, I was actually quite blown away by the apparent natural beauty of the world. It was a gorgeous garden world, but had remained uncolonized because its largest moon was due to smash into the planet in approximately two centuries. As a result, the ecosystem was strong, the atmosphere unpolluted, the oceans and lakes crystal clear. I thought I was looking at pictures and videos of a fertile, green and blue heaven. If it was not for that damned moon, this planet would be the perfect world for any species to colonise, though I imagined the Krogan would find it too "soft".

Where we were headed was in a mountain range where an active volcano resided. The Cerberus facility was tucked away safely away from the river of molten lava that streamed down the side of the volcano to where it fell away back under the surface of the planet, and sat at the top of a cliff overlooking a huge, stunningly beautiful vale, a sparkling blue river weaving its way gently down the middle of it. Once my entire ground team was geared up for any potential combat and onboard our two shuttles, we flew down to the gleaming white facility.

Overshadowing the small building was an enormous communications array, a huge satellite dish sat pointing towards the sky. Before we even landed, however, my shuttle began to receive a garbled transmission from the facility below us.

"EDI, can you stop the interference?" I asked.

"The cause of the interference is unlike anything I have encountered before," EDI replied, "there is a VI that has infected all four of the Cerberus facilities in the area, it is putting up a great deal of resistance."

"A VI?" Garrus asked, "you're an AI, surely you can kick its ass."

"As I said, this VI is unlike anything I have previously encountered. Its actions are… unpredictable. Erratic even. However, I have cleared the interference enough that you may be able to comprehend the incoming transmission."

Feeling a little worried about EDI's description of this highly capable VI, I pressed the receiver and spoke to whoever was on the other end,

"This is Commander Scott Gardner of the Normandy, we couldn't understand your last transmission, repeat your last."

The man's voice was still fuzzy but I was able to hear him well enough,

"Commander Gardner?" the voice said, "what are you... never mind. We have bigger concerns right now. You need to take out the communications array immediately! The VI is trying to upload itself off-world and our satellites will soon be in range. It's disabled the controls to retract the dish, you'll need to do it with ordnance."

"I'll do this for you, but you owe us an explanation as to exactly what's going on here."

"Of course, Commander," the man said, "please hurry!"

I made Joker's day when I radioed him and told him to drop some missiles on the communications dish. He had greatly enjoyed telling the crew the tale of how he out-flew and out-fought the Collector ship to destruction, but he relished any opportunity to use the Normandy's weapons, even if it was just a huge satellite dish. Our shuttles had barely touched down when I saw the Normandy soar overhead and two missiles zip down and turn the dish into a massive heap of scrap metal. The explosion from the missiles rocked the entire construct and I heard the supports for the dish struggle and strain.

"This could be good," I said with anticipation.

"Don't often say that about our missions," Garrus quipped. In the next instant the supports for the communications dish gave way and we all stood and watched as the whole structure crashed down into the massive empty basin below it, sending up clouds of dust and chunks of metal along with a deafening noise of grinding steel.

"I take it back," Garrus said, "that was good."

"Ok, let's go and see who we're dealing with here," I told everyone as I led them to the main entrance of the Cerberus base, wondering what else was waiting for us on this planet.

The main doors opened and revealed a disconcerting scene, bodies of Cerberus personal lay scattered around with burn marks all over them. Blood was splattered on the floor and walls and the metallic smell of it stung the back of my throat. It was clear that Geth had been responsible for the deaths of these men and women, but there was no sign of any synthetics. However, as we walked through the death-stricken corridors, I noticed a slow movement out the corner of my eye and when I looked up, I found myself staring straight at a security camera.

At first, I thought little of it, but when we continued to move the camera followed every step we took. Then I began to spot more and more cameras as we entered the main foyer of the facility, complete with café and lounge area, and every one of them was focused on us. I sensed that the others were unsettled by the constant vigilance of our unknown enemy, and when a door suddenly opened to our side thirteen weapons whirled around to scope down the poor man that now stood there shaking,

"Don't shoot," he pleaded, "I'm Doctor Gavin Archer, we spoke over the radio."

I lowered my rifle and my team followed suite,

"What's going on here?" I asked. Dr Archer looked around at all of us, Humans, a Turian, a Krogan, an Asari, a Drell, a Quarian and a Salarian. However, when his eyes came to rest on Legion he appeared extremely concerned. Finally, he beckoned us into his office and told me,

"Man's reach exceeded his grasp."

Dr Archer locked the door behind us and as we arrayed ourselves around the man, he slumped down into a luxurious chair at his desk,

"I'm the Head Researcher here," he told us, "and probably the only one left."

"I know that you're head of Project Overlord and that it involves the Geth, but that's about it," I said.

"Yes. We all know that a war with the Geth will be bloody and costly. We were assigned the task of finding a way to control the Geth to stop a war ever happening."

"While Cerberus gains an army of Geth soldiers," I said, knowing only too well that this would have been the Illusive Man's end-goal.

"Not to mention their fleet," Tali added.

"I did not concern myself with anything other than what I was ordered to do," Gavin said in his well-spoken, well-mannered way, "when we saw the Geth following Saren we realised that the Geths' religious impulse, as displayed by their worship of Sovereign, could be used to control them. If we gave them some form of figurehead, a virus with a face if you will, then they would become ours and there need never be another death from fighting against the Geth."

"And you've created some kind of advanced VI to be your "virus with a face"?" Miranda stated.

"Not just a VI," Gavin looked away at a picture that he had on his desk, "a VI-Human hybrid."

"Dangerous," Mordin muttered quickly as we all stood silently around Dr Archer.

"Indeed," Gavin said, "a VI with an organic consciousness. My brother David volunteered to be merged with the Geth network."

"That's something that should never have even been tried," I said.

"And if you had never tried to find the Reapers? Where would we be then Commander?" Gavin said calmly and assuredly.

"What went wrong then?" I asked.

"The Geth network… overloaded his mind. It was too much to handle and Dav… the VI went berserk. If you hadn't destroyed the satellite dish it would have uploaded itself off-world."

"What's the worst-case scenario if that had happened?"

Gavin sat thoughtfully in his chair, as if haunted by the idea,

"A technological apocalypse. Imagine the damage it could inflict if it got onto the extranet. The consequences would affect every species in the galaxy. Everything, Commander, everything electrical would come under its power, weapons included."

"Everything we rely on in our day-to-day lives would turn against us, Sir," Jacob said, "we have to shut this thing down!"

The situation with this project was even more dangerous than I could have ever believed. Knowing there was only one way to destroy this threat, I looked at Dr Archer,

"How to we shut this VI down?"

Gavin managed to tear his eyes away from the picture of him and his younger looking brother, both of them smiling happily in front of the picturesque scenery of Aite. Gavin went over to a control terminal and activated a security override,

"The VI has locked itself down at Atlas Station. It's where we did all of our main research. To override the lock down, the Heads of our other three stations can activate their own overrides together, but seeing as I am the only one left I will need to ask your assistance to activate the other two."

"What are the other two bases?" I asked.

"Vulcan Station is our geothermal plant, located deeper in the volcano. The other is Prometheus Station, a crashed Geth ship where we did research on the Geth and retrieved platforms for Atlas Station. I need you to go and activate the overrides at both of these bases, otherwise there's no way to get into Atlas and stop this nightmare."

"What happened to the Geth that were here?" Garrus asked. Gavin was distraught at the memories of seeing his colleagues decimated before his eyes,

"They… slaughtered everyone. Then they went to guard the satellite dish."

"Ahh," I realised that we would not have to worry about these Geth, "so they're not a problem anymore."

"No, but they were only a fraction of the Geth that are here. I'm sorry, but I can't tell you what will be waiting for you at the other stations."

I looked at the picture of Gavin and his younger brother David, the poor man who had volunteered for and had his mind destroyed by this project. Outside of Gavin's office, the security cameras still focused on us through the windows, the VI was watching everything we were doing, it would know we were going to try and stop it. However, I had my team of elite soldiers and specialists with unmatched experience in fighting against dangerous unknowns.

"My team can handle it, Doctor," I told him, "We'll split up and hit both of the stations simultaneously."

"I appreciate your help, Commander," Gavin said, "but I admit I'm surprised, I got wind that Lazarus Cell had… gone rogue."

"Hell yeah we did," Jack said immediately with great pleasure.

"Cerberus never owned me," I told him, "we needed the resources that the Illusive Man was throwing at us to save the Human colonies from the Collectors. We achieved what we set out to do and then we ditched the cunt. But, like you said, this VI could affect the entire galaxy, and I wasn't about to ignore it just because it's a Cerberus operation."

"Very well," Gavin saw reason in what I had said, "but I also have another question for you."

He looked again at Legion with a disapproving glare,

"Will your… friend here be a problem?"

"We wish to provide assistance," Legion answered defensively, "Gardner-Commander has placed trust in us, we follow him."

"If there's one Geth in the galaxy that's incorruptible, it's Legion."

Dr Archer did not know what to say,

"It speaks and has a name… Interesting. I can see why so much of Cerberus' resources were focused on bringing you back, you have a way of rallying everyone around you into a tight, cohesive unit. A Quarian and a Geth…"

"The Reapers are a threat to both of our species," Tali informed him, "we all have to work together."

Dr Archer wished us luck and we left him to man Hermes Station. We gathered at our two shuttles and I organised them into two teams,

"Miranda, you'll lead Vulcan Team and hit the geothermal plant. Take Jacob, Zaeed, Jack, Grunt and Kasumi with you and hit the override."

"Will do, Commander," the Australian said, "we'll make it quick. I don't want to spend too long inside an active volcano."

"Yeah, you might singe your precious hair," Jack put in, but Miranda just chuckled and shrugged the comment off. The two biotics had learned to be around each other despite their mutual disliking. After the experience of the Collector base the whole team knew to rely on each other, no matter who they were.

"I'll take the rest, Prometheus Team, to the Geth ship and do the same," I continued, "we do not enter Atlas Station until both teams have joined back up at the entrance. Understood?"

"Yes Sir," was the reply I got from everyone. Vulcan and Prometheus Teams boarded their own shuttles and flew off in opposite directions. Neither station was too far away and within a couple of minutes our shuttle touched down beside a small river, flowing past us towards the edge of the cliff where it then fell gracefully down well over a kilometre to the splash pool below.

"Anyone fancy a dive?" I joked as we walked past it towards the ruinous Geth ship. Tali scanned the vessel with her Omni tool,

"It's a Destroyer class ship. But it's strange, I'm detecting no active platforms or programs inside."

"Dr Archer said this is where they got the Geth units for their experiments," I said.

"Maybe…"

Tali was suddenly cut off as we all spotted movement above the entrance to the ship. I looked on in horror as I realised that I was looking up the barrel of one of the ship's main batteries and I screamed at my squad,

"Cover! Find cover now!"

As I retreated back to where the ground would hide us from view, and a direct shot, I heard the weapon charge up. When it fired, I could have sworn that I had gone deaf for a moment, my ears ringing loudly after the huge cannon sent a shot straight at our parked shuttle. The cannon was designed for ship-to-ship battles out in space against opponents of similar size, so when the shot hit our little shuttle the entire thing literally vapourised as quickly as I could blink. Only a smouldering hole was left in the ground where our reliable and faithful little shuttle had been.

I activated my comm unit and tried to raise the Normandy, hoping to give Joker another excuse to fire off some of our frigate's ordnance. However, all I got was static and nothing I tried would break through the interference,

"Shit. Radio's down," I told my team, "we're on our own with this one."

"It's a huge gun with no obvious operator to take out," Garrus said, "what we gonna do?"

"Only a single gun," Mordin said, "can only aim at one target at a time."

"Precisely," I said, "we spread out and get it to focus on one group or individual while the rest move towards the ship and out of the gun's firing arc. I'll get the gun's attention, the rest of you get inside the ship as quickly as possible and try to disable it."

"Be careful… please," Tali said, her glittering eyes shining through her mask at me. I gave her a reassuring smile, stroked the side of her hood and nodded to the rest of the team. It was time to go.

I ran out of our cover and sprinted across the gun's line of sight, the massive weapon tracking me as I fired a few harmless shots at it. When I jumped down into the shallow river and crouched down behind the embankment the opposite side of the river was violently blown to bits, showering me with water and dirt as the cannon tried to annihilate me. Wiping my visor clean, I signalled my squad to high-tail it to the Geth ship and I made another dash over open terrain and drew the immense firepower of the turret on to me.

I ducked behind a boulder for cover, but the turret fired at the ground not far to my side and blasted me onto my backside, half buried in mud and grass. I shrugged off the shock and charged along the ground once more, feeling the enormous cannon following me. A glance over my shoulder showed me that my team was safely approaching the ship, entering Prometheus Station right underneath the cannon. Then a ground-shaking blast went off right ahead of me as the VI figured where I was heading and fired at my intended path.

I was flat on my back in less than a second with the wind knocked right out of me. When I opened my eyes again, I was staring blankly into Aite's clear blue sky. My comm crackled into life and a voice shouted in my ear, but it took a few attempts to comprehend what was going on,

"Scott!" Garrus' voice screamed through my headset, "get up!"

"The turret's almost on you," Tali warned. I looked around and saw the barrel of the heavy weapon traverse directly towards me. I scrambled to get to my feet, but I was still shaky from the previous explosion and I fell over again, and I knew that I was very possibly looking at the last few seconds of my life… again. The gun was fixed on me and I was not near enough to any cover to crawl behind.

The seconds ticked by and I could do little more than drag myself across the grass to the nearest little mound of earth to try and hide behind, but the kill-shot never came.

"Gardner-Commander," Legion's voice said, "we have disabled the gun and cleared the way to the Heretic ship for you."

I sighed with relief and lay down for just a moment to catch my breath,

"Thank you!" I said. Once I had managed to get to my feet, I entered the ship and rejoined my team. I went straight up to my Geth friend and gave him a manly hug,

"I owe you big for that Legion. Thanks."

"Acknowledged," the synthetic answered.

"So, what have we got here?" I asked.

"There are dormant Geth units lying all around," Thane said, "and you may wish to see this."

The Drell was pointing towards the centre of the hanger bay that we found ourselves in where a Geth Prime was being held in a containment field. Whereas all the other Geth in the room were inactive and lay strewn around the floor, probably where they had fallen when the ship crashed, the Prime was active and its headlight was focused on us.

"Creepy," Tali said.

"I do not feel good about entering such a place," Samara said, "but I know that we must."

"Yeah," I agreed, "we need to find the override console, no doubt it's deeper in the ship. Everyone keep a mental note of where there are dormant Geth platforms, just in case they reactivate."

"When they reactivate," Tali added.

With weapons drawn, we progressed past the idle Geth platforms and the corpses of the Cerberus personnel assigned to Prometheus Station. I felt tense and expected trouble with every corner that we turned, but all remained quiet and uneasily calm. The ship was largely intact with the exception of a few small hull breaches. Water had flowed in through the gaps in the under-section of the Destroyer, and there was still power running through it. We exited the hanger and headed for where the bridge would be. Legion had informed us that that was where the control terminal would be. Taking the advice of a Geth on the layout of a Geth ship seemed like the right idea.

"This reminds me of nightmares that I used to have as a child," Tali said as we walked past the disabled Geth corpses and through the silent halls of the ship, "Geth would come and drag me away in my sleep. I'd be kept prisoner on a ship just like this one and experimented on."

"Sounds terrible. And I used to think my nightmares about being paralysed with spiders scuttling around me were bad," I said to her. I barely blinked as we progressed, keeping my eyes on every synthetic body we came across, including the ones in rooms that were barred to us by kinetic barriers.

As I peered inside one of the rooms at the bodies inside, the kinetic barrier right in front of me suddenly changed and there was a loud, synthetic screaming noise. A green, pixelated face appeared before my eyes on not just the kinetic window in front of me but on all of them. The face stared out at us from over a dozen windows and continued shouting at us, but none of us could understand what was being said. Together we stood surrounded by the VI's face, glaring at us from every direction,

"What does it want?" Thane said aloud. Focusing on getting our job done, I marched off at the head of the team,

"It doesn't matter, we likely won't know until we get into Atlas Station."

Together we navigated our way through the ship, noticing several times that passages were suddenly being closed off to us while others were inexplicably being opened.

"It's like the VI's sheparding us," Garrus said, "making us go straight to where it wants us."

"Perhaps it wishes to speak with us," Samara said thoughtfully, "it has already tried to communicate, maybe there is a place where we will be able to make sense of its words."

"Well we destroyed the satellite dish," I said, "we've taken away its only means of getting off planet. Samara could be right."

"But what would a VI want?" Tali said.

"You heard Dr Archer," I told her, "his brother became crazed when they sent his mind into the Geth network. He… it might not know what it wants any more than we do. Perhaps the Human and VI parts of his mind are in conflict? Would that be possible?"

"I certainly wouldn't want a VI getting hooked into my brain," Garrus said matter-of-factly. Eventually, after I had begun to wonder where the hell we were being led, a door was opened off to our side and inside I saw what had to be a control centre. Part of the floor was under water, but on a platform on the other side I could see the main Cerberus research terminals and override switch. I looked around for Geth but could see only one inactive corpse lying beside the main computer.

"If there's one thing that's going to cause these Geth to reactivate, it's hitting the override," I told everyone, my gut telling me that I was right, "we get out of here as quickly as physically possible."

We sloshed our way through knee-high water and climbed up onto the platform where the override was situated. I was all set to activate it while Garrus rested the muzzle of his rifle on the inactive Geth's head. I turned the switched and recoiled in shock when the computer screen in front of me flickered and flashed, the face of the VI shouting hysterically at me with words unfathomable. A gunshot went off behind me and I turned to Garrus,

"Did it activate?"

My Turian friend nodded,

"The headlight came on… that's enough for me."

"Let's go!" I ordered. The team splashed back down into the water and we waded our way back to the way we had come in. Just then there appeared a few Geth platforms, armed and ready to gun us down. Their lights twinkled with the same eerie green as the VI, and as we shot back from our very limited cover, the door behind them closed and was sealed against us.

"Legion, is there another way you can take us to get out of here?" I asked, taking out a Geth as I did so.

"The VI has complete control over this vessel's systems," my Geth responded, "any route we take can be blocked with a single thought."

"Well, we have to start somewhere," I told it, "head through the open route and if we get blocked off we'll improvise. Go!"

Time and again the VI cut off our escape route, all the while its Geth slaves hunted us and we found ourselves playing a very dangerous game of cat and mouse. The kinetic barriers that had served as windows for all the rooms where the Geth bodies had lain had now disappeared and their inhabitants were now unleashed against us. There was no face to be seen but we could all still hear the VI screaming in anger at us, unintelligible words of hate shouting out from every direction. We were able to use the lack of kinetic barriers access passages that the VI closed off, but more often than not we were led straight into a trap or bumped headlong into a patrol of Geth soldiers.

I was sweating, anxious and burdened with trying to get all of my friends out of here alive. We were fighting in even tighter quarters than we had on the Collector Base, and it was nothing but a miracle that everyone had made it out then. Now I started to feel that casualties were going to be unavoidable. As if we were not in a disastrous enough situation, I fought my way past two Geth with my Mattock and led the way through an open doorway, only to find that we were back in the main control room again.

"VI clever, fooled us," Mordin said.

"What do we do now, Sir?" Garrus yelled as he covered our backs, gunning down a Geth with his customary accuracy.

"We have to keep moving, no matter what," I said, "we can't let the Geth pin us down in one location or we're as good as dead. We will find a way out."

More Geth appeared ahead and behind us, my heavy hitting Mattock put down a couple before I told the team to move while Garrus and I covered them.

No sooner had we began to fight our way through to the next open corridor than a huge explosion suddenly ripped open the side of the main control room. The surprise had a bigger effect on us than the actual blast and we all instinctively ducked down to hide. Samara shot one Geth with her rifle before blasting another back up a corridor and into the rest of its group, knocking them all down. Thane seemed to disappear during particularly heavy fire fights, but we all knew that he was still around us somewhere, one with the shadows, and was actively engaging as many of our enemies as possible.

I looked over to check where the blast had gone off and saw that the hull of the ship had been breached and the outside world was waiting on us. When I saw what had caused the blast my heart was lifted even more as I watched Miranda lead Vulcan team into what I had thought was going to end up being our terrible, Geth infested tomb.

"Prometheus Team," I called out, "we have our way out! Tali, Mordin, Thane, you head for Vulcan Team first. Garrus, Legion and Samara, we're covering them and then it's our turn. Open fire!"

Samara, Legion, Garrus and I bunkered down and gave the VI-controlled Geth everything we had, focusing our fire on the multiple access routes that had suddenly opened up and spilled even more Geth units out at us. The VI had obviously realised that it could no longer contain us and was throwing everything that it could into trying to kill us.

Vulcan Team were helping us greatly from the other side of the room and soon Tali, Mordin and Thane had reached them and safely been extracted.

"Miranda," I shouted over to her, "we're coming now, hit these bastards hard!"

Shots hurtled past us from the Geth infantry while bullets from Vulcan Team tore through the air in the other direction. I was pretty sure that if I raised my head even a little more it would be shredded to pieces in seconds. At the rear of Prometheus Team, I splashed into the water and moved as fast as I could towards the gaping hole in the hull, daylight streaming in to welcome us. Water spouted up all around me as phasers struck it, clouds of steam emerging from the heat of the shots. Finally, to my great relief, we made it to Vulcan and when my entire ground team was reunited, we made a run back out into the peaceful countryside of Aite.

However, the lovely setting was soon witness to a vicious fire fight between my squad and the pursuing Geth. As we all hunkered down and shot the hell out of the synthetics while they were being funnelled through the hull breach, Miranda moved carefully over to me,

"Commander, we have to move. EDI and Joker are going to bring the Normandy in to destroy this place."

"Ok, let's get to your shuttle immediately," I responded, "it'll be a tight squeeze with all of us."

"Better than dying here," the former Cerberus officer said. In small teams we covered each other across the short, but exposed, distance to our single remaining shuttle. It was a tight fit to get everyone aboard, and when Grunt jumped aboard Jacob was almost pushed out of the opposite door. The Krogan grabbed Jacob and yanked him back in as the shuttle lifted off and got out of the target zone. Looking back, we all bore witness to the glorious sight of the Geth Destroyer being annihilated by a beautiful salvo of missiles and cannons from the Normandy.

"Out by the skin of our teeth again," Garrus laughed, "they could make a movie about us. Explosions everywhere, a group of heroes against impossible odds. The material's all there!"

The team humoured Garrus, but I wanted to talk with Miranda,

"What happened at Vulcan Station? Run into any Geth?"

"Negative Commander," she replied, "the only resistance was from standard security mechs which the VI had taken control of. When we activated the override, our communications were no longer blocked and EDI told us your shuttle had been destroyed and that you were in trouble. Just as well we came."

"Definitely," I agreed, "the VI activated every Geth on the ship once our override was initialised. It kept opening and closing off passages to us while we were trying to escape, leading us in circles so the Geth could get us. Thanks for the save!"

"My pleasure, Scott."

I then remembered the face of the VI that had appeared to us, roaring at us,

"Miranda, did the VI itself try to contact you? Did it… appear anywhere, like on a monitor or something?"

Miranda nodded, her face grim,

"It did, I didn't know what to make of it. It just kept yelling but we couldn't understand it."

"Same here," I said, "we have to get to Atlas Station ASAP and get to the bottom of this."

Just then I received a slightly fuzzy call from Dr Archer,

"Commander… are you there?"

"This is Gardner, we've hit both Vulcan and Prometheus stations, has the override worked?"

"Affirmative," the Doctor said, "as soon as Atlas Station was unlocked, I started to make my way there, I won't be long."

"We're on the shuttle heading to Atlas now, it might be safer if you didn't come with us. You should stay back until we've cleared the way," I told him. Gavin Archer paused for a moment before responding,

"Commander… I…" he stuttered.

"What is it?" I asked, my suspicions aroused.

"It doesn't matter," Archer finally said, "I'll wait until your team has done its job."

"And what comes after that?"

"Then we decide the fate of this project."