For documentation purposes, I figured the issue out. The issue was that the potentiometer was rotated 180 degrees. Had some back and forth emails with Idris @Precision Piezo and he confirms that it's a super hard thing to diagnose. I just got lucky and gave it a shot.
The Orion is working flawlessly now.
@droftarts I do have crimpers. I used to do a lot of network cables back in the day. I have the tools/skills, I just hate those connectors. Home-Made, Pre-Made, or otherwise. I also don't want to have to unsheath a pre-made cable if I don't have to. Plus, a pre-made cable will end up costing almost as much as a big bag of connectors and won't end up lost in my bin-o-cables to be thrown away in 15 years when I finally dig through them. 