All over the lands of the living, people were glad when the zombies keeled over and seemed to finally fall to rest. Little did they know that the souls of the dead were now in what amounted to the biggest traffic jam in the entire universe or that they were, at least nominally, under the dominion of a god that most beings had never even heard of, let alone followed. Still, their worlds returned to normalcy, and soon enough, the event would be the subject of myths, religious proclamations, and even scientific studies. Soon enough though, it would fade into history - at least, if nothing else that strange happened.
Coltan
To Loyal Star's surprise, his mention of the name "Silvertown" got everyone's sudden attention. Engines revved in both anger and eagerness.
"We will be glad to eradicate those lousy traitors from the face of Coltan!" A voice yelled out.
"It's about time we got the go-ahead to grind them up!" Said another.
"Just give us the battle plan and we shall cleanse Coltan of their glitchery!!" With this comment, a cheering roar went up within the Temple.
Loyal Star was pleasantly amazed, and quickly devised a raiding plan. First, everyone needed to fill up with Energon, grease their joints, and clean their weapons. This, he explained, was standard Decepticon battle preparation and important for ensuring a smooth victory. Then, he went on to explain a simple Decepticon Military battle formation - one that could easily be done by raw recruits. "As long as the opposition has no serious military skills, this will be enough," he said.
The raiding force was to use this formation to enter Silvertown, and then proceed directly to the parts factory, killing all opposition and claiming its souls for Megatron. Then they were to take all of the parts and all of the machinery needed to make new ones. If they could stay in the area after that, they could take whatever else they could get. "Don't use your jammers, though," Loyal Star warned. "Instead, try to catch them by surprise so that they don't have time to transfer. If they do transfer, they'll either have to stay away or risk losing another body."
As the congregation was leaving, Loyal Star asked one of the ones who had been the least hostile to him just why everyone seemed to hate Silvertown.
"Those lousy no-good piles of reject parts!!" Said Steady Delivery, the one who had been asked. "They actually pine for the days when we served biologicals! They actually pray to some biological 'god' to send a cell-based species to 'guide us all!' Needless to say, we want rid of them and their self-hating oil sludge. If they had their way, we'd all be slaves again! Your god couldn't have made a better PR move than to order a raid on the place." As he spoke, Steady Delivery's wings, which had obviously once been new and shiny, glinted slightly. His name, along with some faded business tagline, was still visible.
"A...a biological god?" Loyal Star stammered with a bit of shock. "So what's this guy called?"
"He has many names, but recently, they'd been calling him Intrica Perfectus. It refers to their crazy notion that biological bodies are both intricate and perfect, rather than overengineered and crashful! Some have even taken to refusing to maintain themselves! They claim that malfunctions are a natural part of aging and the universe, as seen by the way biological bodies start out healthy and then sicken - and that these effects should be embraced rather than driven away." Steady's expression was one of shock and cringe, as if he might catch their glitchery just by talking about it.
"I see." Loyal Star said with a curled lip, now completely understanding of why Megatron hated the place. Silvertown's belief system was not only cultural corrosion of the highest order, but so error-ridden that it resulted in immediate detriment to its followers! He gave a slight bow in thanks for the information. "Rest assured, these rustbuckets shall be purged from the Empire, and therefore, from Coltan itself. We shall raid and take all we can. Then, if Megatron is willing, we shall watch as the Empire's fighting forces cleanse the land, and reclaim these beings' steel for use by proper Coltani Megatronists." The Steel of the heathens was never the Decepticon version, but instead, the kind used on Coltan. Therefore, it would be dispersed to loyal Coltanis. (Loyal Star didn't mention that this was because the standard Coltani Steel alloy was considered inferior and therefore unfit for actual Decepticons.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Before long, almost all of the inhabitants of Riverside had gotten themselves into the best condition they could manage, and had somewhat sloppily gotten into the formation Loyal Star had told them about. The Assistant Priest went around and straightened them out, amazed at how they didn't have to be blasted into military obedience. Of course, whether he realized it or not, the fact that Jackboots had already gotten rid of the most disobedient ones did make this part easier.
Soon, they flew to Silvertown in formation. From the outskirts, they could see a decent-sized, but not huge, factory sticking up from the skyline. "That has to be it!" he announced over his radio. "Attack!!"
For the first time, the people of Riverside worked together on something other than basic survival or patching up the infrastructure. Little-used blasters swiveled into position, some on squeaky mountings, and they began to descend toward their targets. Soon enough, a contingent of 10 forest-green bots came up to meet them with their blasters firing. "You shall not stop us from getting the leaders we were meant to have!" They shouted over the radio. As they got closer, Loyal Star could see that they had fairly large rust spots - and tree-shaped symbols instead of either IOPC or Decepticon ones. They were also running poorly, as if their engines were trying to burn some sort of weak fuel. Leader Megatron's Enforcers had put the place under siege to soften it up, and apparently, full-strength Energon was not available.
Despite their weakness, they would present a valiant defense of the one thing they still had: A parts factory and ready access to the parts needed to handle their non-fuel mechanical needs. Unfortunately for them, 100 Riversiders were incoming. The 10 uniform-painted defenders would have no chance, though they might take out a few attackers before being overwhelmed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Cybertron
Megatron's work in the Pony Afterlife was cut short by an alarm signifying enemy divine activity, and he soon arrived high over where this living tidal wave was rolling along. He wasn't very bothered by it - he figured that since the water was the being substance, it wouldn't be too keen to leave said water in the streets or in the bots it encountered. Sure enough, he soon saw that the street behind the wave dried quickly as the entity reclaimed its bodily material.
The leader flew over the thing in slow circles, thinking of all of the things that could be done with a bunch of water that had, apparently, come from one of Cybertron's own reservoirs. It could be mixed with pure coolant to make the perfect dilution ratio, mixed with soap and sold on biological worlds as bottles of cleansing product...heck, it could even be bottled up and sold to some other planet as designer water! Megatron's eyes lit up and he grinned at the thought of selling off some enemy as a mere product and lining his vaults in the process. He did not, however, trust that it would stay contained long enough to actually do that.
Soon, Megatron clanged down a fair distance from the advancing wave. "As the Divine Leader of Cybertron, I reclaim this water as MINE!" He shouted out, using a large amount of willpower on it at the same time. Suddenly, the water goddess found that gravity was starting to take hold of the water once more and was trying to drag it back down into the deep Underworks through Cybertron's emergency drainage system. She was quickly losing her hold on the water which did, indeed, belong to Megatron via his government.
As this happened, Megatron used another piece of willpower to prepare blasts of super-cooled air. If the water did not return to the reservoirs - now sans goddess - he would try to freeze it into a solid.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Heaven
"We must not plague them yet," Yahweh reminded the angel. "I always send at least one prophet first, to give the people a chance to repent of their erroneous ways." He waved a hand, and the image on the screen-like projector changed. At first, a gleaming Cybertronian appeared in view, but the 'camera' soon panned over to the left and it appeared as if it was traveling down several blocks. It finally came to rest on a scrounger - not the hunter type, but a fairly poor-looking bot with a cart full of scrap.
"Go to this bot and tell him that he has been ordained to spread the message of the One True God to Cybertron. He will not want to do it. Preaching for anyone but Megatron is a death penalty offense. It is up to you to convince him to be my first Cybertronian martyr."
Gabriel stood tall, like a soldier who had just been given orders. "And when they drag this guy into Debugging, and then execute him?"
"He will be assured a place in the true Heaven," Yahweh said. "And, he'll be able to use his last words to spread My message."
For the first time in eons, Gabriel seemed to think a plan might not work. "But what about Megatron's control of the Afterlife, and Cybertron's culture of considering everything a condemned bot says to be discredited merely because he lost his battle to avoid being arrested?"
"It shall be no different than the other times nations didn't listen to my warning," Yahweh said. "The end result is inevitable: Cybertron shall be the target of plagues, and when even that doesn't sway them, the land of the infidels shall be laid to waste. But this way, no one can say I did not give several warnings. As for Megatron having control of the Afterlife? I shall override it directly to claim the soul of my new prophet and bring it to a land of gleaming metal and slaves, and Energon that makes Megatron's Private Reserve look like 50-octane garbage."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Main Military Base
Genocider Barracks, Top Floor
Carjack's On-Base Residence
General Carjack's ability to detect energy was, like super-sensitive biological hearing, not something that could be turned off. It ran constantly, and as a result, he was always unconsciously scanning everything within range whether he wanted to or not. Debugging had tried to make him a patch to turn down that extreme sensitivity and the RAM-eating that sometimes went with it - one that he had been willing to pay 100,000 Cubes for after several nights of picking up "all sorts of garbage" - but they had found that they'd have to alter so many automatically-developed intertwined subroutines that it could risk altering his personality to a large and negative extent. "You will be forever paranoid at best if you end up feeling like you're wearing a psychic blindfold," they warned. "Remember, your system got so sensitive because enemies of the paranormal variety kept trying to hack you and otherwise attack you. You'll still expect them, yet not be able to detect as many, and will end up being far more hypervigilant than you are now to compensate for it." They had gone on with more details, and in the end, he had decided to just leave that code alone.
Now, that super-sensitive detection picked up something so strong, unique, recognizable, and un-Cybertronian that even a 10% detection capability would have spotted it.
Carjack's willed his engine to be quiet as he put 100% of his awareness to the new energy pattern. In just a moment, he had confirmed it. There was a strong, purely-honest energy signal of a noncomputerized being - on Cybertron. He reached a hand out from his bed and semi-clumsily grabbed his military communicator from the nearby table. Before long, he had hit the Red Alert button for Megatron's private military frequency.
"The Main Competition's vanguard has just arrived," he informed the leader, who was still using most of his concentration on his watery enemy. "I detect an Angel of Yahweh in the border zone between the lower-middle and slum areas surrounding Iacon City. The significance of this: The angel is probably here as part of a mission to generate a prophet, who will work to give a warning to the people. And after a prophet comes, the WAR comes. There could be plagues, or it could involve an attempt to wipe Cybertron right out of the intergalactic map."
"War! And are there any known ways to prevent this?" Megatron asked, already planning on fighting but wanting to know his options just for good measure.
"The only way I know to prevent the War is to bow down and repent," Carjack said. "Tribute may also be requi..."
"War then. Fine." Megatron snapped, completely unwilling to consider the stated alternative. "Prepare~~"
"One other thing," Carjack said, butting in uncharacteristically. "A prophet will surely use any venue to spread his message - even if that means he does his prophesying while hanging from the suspension chain in the Main Foundry. It will be a good idea to have the mic cut when the execution squad meets him. Also, at least one prophet of Yahweh is said to have withstood the fires of a furnace. It would be great PR for the him if you try to melt the guy down and he turns out to be able to literally swim in the slag, live on the holovision for all to see."
"I'll be sure to put a Propaganda lag on the broadcast in case of such rot, then! Thank you. Now: Be prepared to mobilize!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~
A Lower-Lower-Middle Class Area Near Iacon
At first, a look of amazement came from the bot when he was shown a vision of a glowing angel and told that he was to be the first Prophet of the One True God on Cybertron. This angel wasn't one of Megatron's! He quickly called the being out on this.
"Oh, no, I don't work for him. Megatron is a lesser power," the angel said. "The One True God is the one you most likely know as the Coder of the Biologicals."
Peals of laughter roared out of the small, but intact, house the chosen bot was residing in. "Ha ha ha, get outta here, Megatron is going to raid the whole universe right out from under him!" He laughed. "He's already got the whole afterlife according to the news, and you know it won't be long before he gets the rest if he can get that much!"
It was clear that Gabriel's task was not going to be easy.
) - structures are built and abandoned fairly regularly. Once abandoned, anyone who thinks it's a cool place can move on in. And in this particular spot, the abandoned corridor had been taken over by Evil.