To all the MS Readers out there... Thank you.

And so, we have arrived at the 20th episode of the Marauder Shields comic. I hope you've been enjoying yourselves so far, I know I have. The support I've been receiving from you is tremendous – fluffy, creamy love has been pouring into my heart from all over the globe ever since we've begun our little fanfic journey, intensifying greatly around the time of episode 9 ("The Thin Blue Line"), and then becoming just batshit insane around episode 14 ("United We Stand, Alone We Fall") – hundreds of comments, messages, PM's have been coming in faster than I could even reply to, and I'm loving every single one of them.

You have no idea what a revelation it was for me to see people as immersed in Mass Effect's universe as I am. Along with my better half we're an island of nerdism and geekiness in an otherwise ungeeky surrounding, where people tend to smirk when they learn about my figurine collection (including none other but Grunt - I'm hunting for a Normandy model now). And since I never really was big on social networking (I lurked around the BSN forums for months without posting even a single reply!), I'd never would have met you all if it wasn't for this lil' comic... So let me just say this and move on: you're seriously awesome and I love you all. Somewhere along the way my mind switched from doing these comics solely for myself to doing them for both me and you. I'll try my best not to let you down.

TWO QUESTIONS, TWO ANSWERS

A lot of you have been asking me two questions repeatedly ever since this whole shabang began. One: is there a way you can support my work by buying prints, sending donations and the likes of such in return for me continuing with this series. Two: do I have any of my previous works on display anywhere, a portfolio or a different comic in the works.

As I've already posted in the comment sections here and at Reddit, with everything EA has become over the years (at least in the public eye - I have absolutely no idea how it looks behind the overall nerdrage) I'm not brave enough to take even a cent out of this comic, even by enabling prints. I've created it because of my love for BioWare and the universe they have created, but – as you probably know by now – my dislike for ME3's ending and the whole process that led to its approval makes this comic not only an alternative ending, but sometimes also a more or less tongue-in-cheek critique of the whole mess that we know as the "Ol' Green, Red and Blue" (and no, I have nothing against if you liked the endings - I'm just saying I didn't). So no, no chance for any prints, unfortunately, unless you make them on your own printers - not gonna' risk closing up the shop before we're done here, before the story is told. No worries, though, this series will continue until the very last episode. And if everything goes according to plan – the end will be friggin' glorious.

As far as the second topic is concerned – I've never created any artistic graphical works in my life. Well, truth be told, I did make some Photoshop corrections here and there, did draw a couple of characters to visualize a concept, even created a few platform game tilesets, but I've never done anything that was publishable or even displayed to the general public with my (nick)name on it. This is my first attempt at making comics and I'm still stumbling a bit in the dark every now and then...  But let me just tell you that it is a helluva' exciting ride and I'm actually satisfied with the progress I'm having, with current episodes looking and feeling way better than the initial ones. Who knows, maybe an original comic series awaits us after all is wrapped up on this front? I've got my own sci-fi universe planned out to the point where the navy-issued jell-o already has a name, so it may be fun to explore it a bit... Or not. Time will tell.

STARSIGNAL: A GALAXY BEYOND

About that... I did work on something I'm still proud of, even though it ended up in a freezer. Ever since I started working as a game designer, an idea of a sci-fi space RPG has been circling around my gingerish head... Something indie, low-budget, but stylish, with gameplay elements and complexity considered "too old-fashioned" for today's shooter crowd. Something paying homages to Mass Effect (especially the first one, with its feeling of awe and exploration - as the Mass Effect games remain one of the best gaming experiences I ever had), Starflight, Star Control 2, UFO: Enemy Unknown (a.k.a. X-Com: UFO Defense) and my favorite space operas, while still maintaining a fairly original plot, filled with awesome moments, twists and turns (though not of the Starchild variety) and flesh-and-bone characters that you would be forced to like, love or hate.

And so, out of a short story I once wrote, Starsignal was born. It was my own pet project with which I toyed with over the weekends and after work (much like I do with the MS comics right now), centered around the commander of HFS Prometheia, the first Human Federation starship to achieve FTL (or, at least, that was one of two concepts I played with). During its test flight, things go awry - a seemingly random signal coming from deep space interferes with Prometheia's FTL engines and the ship is forced to make a blind jump... Far beyond the Milky Way.

Now, trapped in an alien and unforgiving galaxy on the other side of the universe, players scramble to save their ship and crew, averting one crisis after another, building relationships and even alliances with some of the encountered species and doing their best to find a way back home. Prometheia is the true alien in this universe, the ambassador for humanity in a place where humans never have been seen before, having to explore, discover and make use of a cobweb of alien deals and hostilities, quickly becoming the true maverick in a galaxy-wide game of pawns and queens... Only to discover that a terrible shift is coming, announced by an indecipherable signal from beyond the stars.

The game was meant to be pretty simple in presentation (a 2d view in a style similar to what you know from my comics), but it would hopefully make up for it by being a true labor of love, written, developed and programmed all by myself (I got the skills, or so I believe), with music and sound covered by a friend of mine, Kaneda. It was ambitious, but doable... Until the gears of life shifted and the project was left in a coma, with hundreds of pages of concepts, notes, dialogues and gameplay mechanics all written down, bunch of code already in place and 23 music tracks (out of planned 32) already recorded and mastered... Everything done by two dudes who wanted a cool gaming experience for themselves.

Hopefully, it will be reborn someday... Reignited, as Malukah would probably say. I love my little Starsignal story – and I hope that one day you'll be able to love it too. If my life ever gets steady enough to just take (or get) some money and pump into this – this game will be made with a dedication to all of you, to the readers of Marauder Shields, fans of Mass Effect, the ultimate sci-fi game... of this Cycle.

HOW TO SUPPORT YOUR FAVORITE FANFIC MAKER

I'm mentioning my adventures with Starsignal because I've decided to publish its unfinished soundtrack online. You can treat this as a musical journey, an audio story of sorts, with your own imagination filling in the gaps (be sure to read the dialogue excerpts in each track's description), or you can just become the most hipsterish game soundtrack collector of all time, having an OST from a game that not only was developed by two people from a country where they barely speak English, but also wasn't finished or released AT ALL. That's 0 (Zero! Nada!) players, 0 copies sold on a 2 buck budget (we bought ourselves a can of Dr Pepper). Seriously, you've probably never heard about it.

The base price is set to 7 bucks, as suggested by Bandcamp – but you can throw in as much as you want. 50% of everything this lil' thing earns will go to the composer – before we even became friends I've hired him from my own home budget to create these, but was never able to pay him the full market price for his services (good thing I have a devilishly convincing roguish smile). The second half of each purchase will go into my project piggy bank and will be used as startup cash for reigniting this someday (or - alternatively - for starting up my own webcomic series). And after everything is done and support is lent you'll still have a 23-track awesome soundtrack to listen to, inspired by Mass Effect, Stargate Universe and a lot of games from the early 90's... Yeah, should be a fair deal.

Get it here: koobismo.bandcamp.com/album/st… (and please remember: it has nothing to do with the Marauder Shields series, nada).

If you really want this soundtrack, but you're afraid of basecamp for whatever reason, drop me a note, we'll do something about that.

If you have any questions, want to pat me on the back or just issue a military grade hug or a krogan brofist – sound off in the comments. If you already tried to communicate with me and didn't yet receive a reply – I will get back to you ASAP, I was trying to buy some time on the more specific questions, so to not jump at anything without being properly prepared and knowing where this is going.

Once again – thank you. I am proud to be here, on the line, with all of you - crafting our own little ending to the story we all love, for the characters we all care for. Thank you BSN, thank you Retake, thank you Reddit, Digg, GameSpot, GameFront, Tropers and all other communities that have become an awesome part of this creative process. And thank you Bombeletta, my love, for being so understanding when I grab another cup of coffee at 3 in the morning on Saturday, mumbling something about the lens flares not looking like they should.

I'm surrounded by awesome people.