Main Foundry
The head foundrybot backfired in amazement when he saw troops bringing in a very specific type of machinery. Instantly, he was mentally taken back to his very first memories...memories of that same machinery, new and cranking at full speed, making brother after brother as he stood there at the end of the production line as a not-yet-sapient bot. There had been only one sapient person in the entire building, and he was busy rushing from station to station ensuring that everything was running properly. The newly-built bot, his systems had told him, was Number 596,000 of 1,000,000; Production Run Number 98. He had been coded by Pseudorandom Code Generation Machine #1 of the First High-Speed Factory.
This specific machine was the one that the troops were now signaling him to send his crane's hook to.
The foundrybot stood there for several moments considering this. It meant so many things! First, it meant that the government was likely going to be reactivating that factory - the one that was his original home. Second, he recognized the machine as his Coder, but yet also recognized that it was completely nonsapient and therefore truly unable to even know what it had done, let alone that a living bot had some connection to it at all. Still, he was immediately nostalgic for the device that, by its very operation and purpose, was responsible for the Base Code that would later blossom into his existence.
Instead of melting it, he came down from his elevated position next to the pit and approached the troops. "That machine is the one that coded ME!" He told them. "I have a request. If you can, take it to the National Museum, rather than here. It may never be able to know me, but I still would hate to melt the one that was so instrumental in my creation."
After several moments of confusion, the troops realized what was up. They called their commander, and once the matter was discussed, they agreed. The PCGM machine would go to the Museum, and the wing-assembler that had first been delivered there would take its place in the Main Pit.
"I thought that pro-Coder scripting was supposed to shut off upon gaining sapience." One troop said to the other.
"Funny, I thought the factory-builts didn't have that Code at all!" Said one of the others.
When the foundrybot asked them point-blank if a new run of factory-builts was on its way - looking quite eager about the idea - the soldiers couldn't answer. These troops truly didn't know - they had been ordered to take the machines to the foundry and given no further information. Their commanders, they said, likely knew more - but they were just average troops with a labor order to carry out.
~~~~~~~~~~
Later, the troops would learn that the very first runs of factory-builts didn't have any Coder-recognition scripting since their "coders" were automated pieces of equipment, but later, it was added to keep the millions of not-yet-sapient children from looting the factories in accordance with the pro-raiding part of their Base Codes. Having it eventually turn off would come much later, after those who gained sapience first had started to use it as an exploit against the younger ones. It would be a few more generations before the Coder/Coded scripting began to take its current form. All in all, this meant that the foundrybot's Base Code was, in a nutshell, a step above beta - at least when it came to how he thought of his nonsapient, but recognizable, coding machine. He apparently didn't have much of a drive to upgrade, either, considering his contentedness with being what amounted to the Foundry's operations manager.
The troops had hid another reaction they'd had about the foundrybot's request. To have been coded by that machine, they realized, he had to be about 300 years old. Yet, rather than becoming a fairly skilled raider or conniver by now, he had ended up as an employee. "This is what factory-builts end up as," one of them said once they were too far away for the foundrybot to hear. "He doesn't seem like too fast of a chip, either," noted another. They clearly weren't impressed, and puffed themselves up for a while about their status as individually-built bots.
Little did they know that before long, there would be 10 million new factory-builts coming off of lines that had been dormant for centuries.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bureau of Impossible Physics
General Shockwave was in his element as he produced the blueprints for hundreds of new, completely-modern, Decepticon-building machines. He drew them out by hand with exacting precision, and not one bolt was out of place in the designs. He also produced the specs for each and every part that went into them, many of which would have to be made from scratch using new, unique dies and molds.
The assembly machines were fairly simple to design, and were much like those already in use by the giant Decepticon Parts Company. What made them unique was how many parts they were supposed to produce before they'd need maintenance. They also had minimal or even no computerized elements in them. These machines would NOT be going sapient on their owners.
Next, he began work on the key equipment to this type of operation: the Code Generators. To ensure that the resulting bots would be able to develop individual personalities, the Base Code created by the generators had to be individualized. Yet to keep the speed up, it had to be automatically generated with no need for sapient input. Shockwave decided to modify the methods of centuries past so that modern best coding practices could be incorporated as much as possible - with, of course, the exception that it would not be a hand-coding job (which was considered the platinum level). It also would not include any Coder-recognition scripting - he'd already heard of how the foundrybot had basically recognized a non-sapient machine as daddy, and decided he didn't want any more of that. It would, however, include code needed to make sure that if the factory-builts became Coders of their own, they would recognize their offspring and be able to code said offspring with the current Coder/Coded relationship scripting that was used by non-factory-builts. Otherwise, there would be trouble when it came time for them to Code the next generation.
While he was very protective of the project and didn't let any of the other scientists in on it - at least not at this point - everyone in the Bureau couldn't miss that for the first time in years, Shockwave wasn't his usual totally-emotionless self. Instead, he clearly felt good. He had a spring in his step and some of the excitement of a much younger bot. Whatever the top-secret project was, he obviously believed it to be both important and challenging enough to be exciting to work on.
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Iacon City
As Loyal Star finished his first battle, he frantically radioed Fire Eater for advice. To his utmost dismay, however, he received nothing but static in return. Iacon's field of odd phenomena interfered with radio transmissions, making it all but impossible to communicate with the outside.
While he was fiddling with his radio and trying desperately to get a signal, he heard something that - anywhere else - would be an almost welcome sound. Here, however, the stomp of well-built, heavy feet and the hums of perfectly-tuned engines meant just one thing: Scroungers.
"Well WELL!" The thickly-armored gang leader said when Loyal Star turned around to face the threat. "It ain't often that we get to take in metal that hasn't lost half of its value to rust!" He grinned sadistically as he continued: "Make it easy on yerself, New Bum - come and get into our cart!" The cart he referred to contained about 3 other bots, two of whom were groaning. The other one appeared to be dead. Some random, disembodied parts were also sticking out over the sides of the cart in a rather creepy and grotesque fashion.
The others in the Scrounger gang advanced menacingly as they began to raise their blasters. "You heard the boss, hop on in!" One said, apparently unaware of how ridiculous it was to expect such an order to be obeyed. Perhaps his many trips into Iacon had cost him a bit of sanity.
"You'll be glad you did." Another one added. "You ex-rich never take it well when you lose everything and end up here. You'd only lose your mind within days once you realize that you've hit a bottom you don't climb up from. Come with us peacefully. In just one quick splash, your pain will be over..."
These Scroungers obviously assumed that Loyal Star was there because he'd once been rich but somehow lost it all. The assumption of wealth came from the condition of most of his body, which was clearly not the cheapest. His very presence in Iacon as something other than a Scrounger made them sure that he had recently suffered a massive downfall - either financial or social - incorrect as that assumption was. Because of their presupposed ideas, they thought that perhaps he would not see suicide-by-Scrounger as all that bad of an idea - but they fully intended to immobilize or kill him right there, whether or not he agreed.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Pony Afterlife
The spies quickly sent in reports about the latest order from Cadence, but they didn't stop their actions. They simply were more subtle and careful about how they went about things. Saboteurs made sure that all of their actions could be ascribed to innocent bumbling or genuine misunderstandings, while psyops personnel simply "happened to" remark about how awfully tiring it must be for the pegusi who had to keep it cloudy for such a long time, and how hard it must be on Cadence to have to give an order that was so against Harmonism. Very few ended up muzzled, at least for now - Decepticon Psyops agents had quite a bit of practice at appearing to be simple Debbie Downers rather than active promoters of specific ideologies. These agents simply moaned about how horribly dark and humid it was with the war clouds up there and how their vegetables would die if it wasn't sunny enough. They also moaned about anything else like that as it came up, seeming like nothing more than depressed ponies with no particular agenda, yet sowing seeds of discontent just through their "natural" personalities. When the ponies tried to sing cheer into them, they'd sadly shake their heads and say they just couldn't get into it with all of the dull weather.
Those who had been obvious before, such as the pacifism-preachers, switched to looking very sad and misunderstood rather than talking - causing any soft, empathetic types to feel sorry for them instead of turning against them. A few of these - and the war-is-unHarmonious types - had been pointed out by big-mouths who had managed to overhear some of their anti-war propaganda, and in response, muzzles had been applied. These outright shed tears (possible thanks to a saltwater reservoir inside their heads) and otherwise laid the "poor innocent me" act on as thick as possible without it looking totally phony. Some even went on "hunger strikes" - causing the media to haplessly spread their message just by reporting on the strikes - while still-unmuzzled Decepticon agents marked with the expected big mouth symbol made absolutely sure the media knew all about the "poor, misunderstood ponies who are starving themselves because they don't want to live in a world where talking about peace is a bad thing." Obviously, hunger-striking wouldn't really hurt the agents, who were actually running on electric engines powered by extremely-long-life batteries. Their exteriors, however, began to show ribs as if they were actually starving - a capability that had been built into these hyper-realistic faux-biological bodies.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Military Bases All Over Cybertron
There was no missing the fact that this operation was expected to be huge. Special reinforced landing strips had been put in to allow 10 cargo-bots per base to land in shuttle mode, and these bots had their holds filled with Energon. Unique drills had been assigned and repeated over and over. High Generals had come to oversee some of the practicing and had given special orders when a deficiency was detected.
Not every soldier was in on this part of the action. Instead, some were busy in the military factories producing spare wings, engines, and other parts that were often damaged in wars. Still others were being brought fully up to speed on their battlefield repair skills so they could serve as field mechanics. A few were busy in a printing plant, where they were producing millions of propaganda leaflets that would be dropped just before the initial wave of attacks. These leaflets urged the pony civilians to surrender immediately or even join the Decepticons - those who did neither, they warned, would almost surely be killed. They also promised that anyone who got killed would not go to some other afterlife, but instead, would be used as a mere power source for "the great new Decepticon society they could have chosen to be a part of."
~~~~~~~~~~~
Eternia
Upon reaching the outer regions of Eternian space, the Fists were greeted with a warning to go away as soon as those on the planet saw their Decepticon Seals through telescopes. When the warning was met with guffaws from Buzz and Haula, the group was instantly fired on by the orbital weapons platforms.
As Ultimate had promised, his shield easily absorbed the force of the rail-gun bullets and exploding missiles that hit the group. They instantly felt invincible as it became clear just how useless Eternia's orbital defenses really were. Meanwhile, the cargo-bots hung back, far out of range of any of this. If they were to even attempt to get through, the Fists would have to completely eliminate Eternia's ability to fire anything along the intended flight path. Otherwise, the big, unmodified transports would be quickly blown to bits.
As the gang engaged the weapons platforms in the initial battle, Buzz made use of his scout-body to become invisible to electronic detection systems and flew closer to the planet. There, he planned to make a scouting run to ensure that there were no surprises that hadn't been visible from higher up.
After a quick check, he reported back that there were some long-range missiles coming online, and that these would likely be fired when the gang got closer. "They look to be able to reach the middle part of the atmosphere," he said as he checked them out. "There are also some guys with shoulder-fired and truck-mounted rocket launchers rushing to the refinery site - obviously they know what we're after. Oh, and...what the heck is that?! Okayyy...there's the weirdest-looking castle ever. Looks like a skull. It might as well have 'blast me' written all over it..."
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