An Exploration Mission (Closed; Att'n Vallermoore)

[Vallermoore]

Heaven

The raiders did manage to get some gold, marble and other raid-worthy stuff, but there was nowhere near as much as they thought there would be. MasterBlaster was pleased to find the trees as he had brought the teeth and Digestion module needed to enjoy them, and munched down huge numbers of human size olives, dates, peaches, and other fruit, even though a peach was now no bigger then a pomegranate seed to him and he needed to eat such large numbers. He spat the pips out machine-gun like onto the ground. Soon enough the Genociders would move in, ordered not to open fire on other Decepticon bots without any reason for it, as brawls would get in the way of the genocide. One by one the remaining Christian humans and sapient ponies and a very few changelings were blasted down, stepped on, or put into slave cages for processing, their destination the Realm of Punishment.

Vallermoore

It was becoming clear that more then a single temple was needed on Cybertron, as the public defeat of Yahweh had brought so many around to Megatronism or at least to find out about what it stood for. With a general election looming, the President of the Central Committee ended up debating with the Megatronist Party leader.

"A victory for a Megatronist Party would most likely mean the end of our democracy, the end of our welfare state, and possibly the enslavement of nearly all of us and, for those of you who are royalist, the death of our Queen," said President Mountain.

A large, clever and conniving sapient pony with a cutie mark indicating skill in politics, Clever One, was his debate opponent, his tail flicking from side to side in excitement. Through his skill and his conniving nature (and according to rumours, secretly poisoning one superior and convincing another to try to Immigrate to the Decepticon Empire) he had risen to the top of his party.

"Even if we were to abolish democracy, that those not mean we would at once ban all sorts of things that Vallermooreians enjoy. "Fireworks, firearms, swords, and all sorts of things enjoyed by Vallermooreians, including many things that are not legal now, would be fine under us. We are not going to clamp down on everything fun like some dictatorships will. I myself spent three days on Cybertron and came back safely, and the place was not one of misery. The vast majority of Vallermooreian pleasures would not be negatively affected by a Megatronist government and some would be made easier. TV would not become hugely dull and most programs would remain the same."

"The Queen traditionally stays out of politics unless the MPs cannot make up their mind, and if she stays that way she would be perfectly safe."

"As for our welfare state, surely you have to admit that it costs a lot of money and lots of taxpaying people are fed up with it. It would not be abolished until an alternative way to avoid mass starvation is put in place." He didn't say that the alternative way was the Decepticon Way, that would be taught in Vallermoore's schools from an early age. Since biological babies and small children had no internal self defence system and could not protect themselves whatever secret police was set up would need to protect them to avoid a population crash.

"You would abolish nearly every law there is."

"Not at once, that would just cause total chaos all over the place. And many laws are restrictive, unkind, or downright stupid anyway. I'm offering not slavery, but almost untrammeled freedom." That "almost" was a clue that political rights would most certainly not be allowed.

******
The Universal Physics Controller

Megatron knew that blasting his way in could cause the whole universe including Him to collapse. He was not to proud to call on help from his fellow Decepticons and soon they were inside. Megatron scanned for where He needed to go and teleported them to the centre, where it was lit up with red light by a larger clock showing that in twenty two hours and five minutes the huge computer would shut off from it's power running out. Giving it new power and not getting hacked or exhausted in the process was going to be a problem.

First Temple

Loyal Star was invited into Warfire's private study for a one on one doctrine sesson with the High Priest.

[Victorious Decepticons]

Heaven

Soon after all of the challengers were removed from Megatron's Afterlife Controller, Carjack sent his regulars to assist in securing Heaven. The Genociders, of course, had a different duty now: They and Carjack would be eliminating any remaining resistance, as well as anyone else who wasn't a Decepticon.

Before long, the Genocide Battalion arrived, now showing its frames-and-wrenches symbols to let everyone know that they were acting as Genociders and not general soldiers. It didn't take much for them to find the first packets of resistance - they were standing in the streets of one neighborhood, holding up crosses as if trying to ward off vampires. While the Bureau of Paranormal Research had not yet confirmed nor debunked the existence of blood vampires, one thing was immediately clear: The tactic did not work against blaster fire. Before long, the resistant souls were under the dominion of the Afterlife Controller, which sent them to the Occupied Pony Afterlife.

It didn't take a whole lot to eliminate the other Christians who dared to show themselves in ways that could be considered hostile, but there was a bit of a conundrum when the largest group was met. Rather than fight, these were apparently submitting to the Decepticon Forces. Some even said that they would gladly do twice as much as the Decepticons asked them to!

Most of the Genociders were quite confused at this, until Carjack reminded them of the saying about "going the extra mile." In Binary, Carjack also secretly told his troops that this was originally done to try to get Roman soldiers in trouble for demanding too much; a minister he had once heard talk had said that if the Romans accepted the offer, they would have been violating a labor law that was all but forgotten about by the year 2000. "I doubt most of these people know that history, but if they do, they'll be dismayed to learn that we have no such restrictions!" He laughed. "In any case, since they are so willing to work, I say we should hold them for slavery."

Soon enough, anyone who indicated a willingness to go along with the invaders was caged. They would not be sent to the Realm of Punishment unless they somehow opposed the Decepticons. Even though their presence in Heaven showed that they weren't of the Decepticon Way, that in itself didn't mean they had been actively opposing Megatron either. Of course, their pacifism would cause Megatron to banish most of them to bad places at some point, lest they contaminate good Decepticons with their wrong ideas, but for now they would simply be slaves...albeit not at the best work sites there were.

The same could not be said of the remnants of the Heavenly Army who were encountered. The Genociders were ruthless in exterminating them, and they were soon waiting in the Pony Afterlife for Megatron's final orders concerning their fate. In the meantime, they were chipped so they couldn't cause any trouble there.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Universal Physics Controller

Megatron looked at the strange red digits with an irked face. They were written in that weird angel language, and he didn't know what they said. However, he could see that a switch had flipped and had changed the machine's power source to some sort of battery, which was connected via huge cables. It was clear that when the backup power went down, so would this computer.

It took only a few quick calculations to determine that the amount of power being drawn was tremendous. That indicated that there were millions of chips, or the equivalents thereof, in operation. He had no idea how he would be able to keep that running. The radiation output of several black holes might conceivably do the job, or perhaps the solar energy of many stars, but getting it from those celestial bodies to the needed spot would take some doing. Not only that, those power sources would eventually die out - and putting a hard draw on them would make it happen much faster than normal.

Megatron looked upwards with a blank stare. If he was on Cybertron, he would be sitting in front of the Main Pit right now, not just to hide another Save, but to try to get answers to this question. Now that he was Cybertron's god, he would have to figure it out himself. The thieves he had called in knew little about this sort of thing and couldn't help.

The leader began to unpack his many AEDPs on advanced physics, technological history, foreign technology, and related subjects. Then, he stood, trance-like, and began to process all of the information. Even with his Divine Quantum Processor, it took him three hours to finally put together what would likely be a workable plan. The desired end result would not only power the giant device, but also do so with very little need for further intervention once it was set up. Finally, his cooling systems returned to normal, and as this happened, the thieves came to attention. They knew he would soon speak.

To their dismay, what Megatron did next was ask them to leave the immediate area. He gave the excuse of needing to put his full concentration on the next part of the project, but in reality, he wanted to make sure that what he was about to do would stay a deep secret. Megatron didn't tell the thieves to leave altogether, though - he wanted them to find the rest of the locking mechanism when the time came so that he could properly rekey it. Of course, he would not do the actual work of that in front of them either.

Once they were gone, the Divine Leader re-accessed the file he had found in his archives of Decepticon energy technology. In it was the beta schematic for the closest thing yet to a free energy generator. It had turned out that the once-proposed energy system did need some power input to start its systems running, but it wasn't the non-freeness that had caused him to vehemently kibosh it. It was the fact that it could produce enough energy to run a Decepticon body for half a day just from the act of jumping down from a height of about one story. That, obviously, would have killed the Energon business cold.

Now, Megatron spent an hour turning a once-condemned beta design into a full production version that made the original seem ridiculously INefficient - and making the calculations needed to allow it to operate at a massively macro scale. After that, astronomers would notice the strangest anomalies they'd ever seen: barren planets in tiny solar systems outright disappearing. Megatron, of course, knew exactly what was happening to them; he was teleporting their substance to his location and using it to construct the new generator.

Inside the housing of the Controller, the existing equipment was carefully moved using Megatron's divine power. As this occurred, the new generator came into being in the places that were formerly occupied. Thanks to the amount of equipment and material that had to be moved, it took many hours to complete the task. When all was complete, there were on 10 minutes left on the clock, though Megatron didn't know that since he hadn't taken any time to run a translation/cracking program on the language it used.

Now, all that was left to do was set the generator going. Though it was hyper-efficient compared to what was normally available, its vast size meant it still needed a huge influx of energy - far more than a fusion cannon blast could provide. Meanwhile, physical glitchery was now clearly evident throughout the universe, with solid objects becoming temporarily immaterial and then resolidifying after people and objects had partially fallen through them. All in all, much of the universe was seeming like a video game being forced to run on a system without enough RAM. Megatron was now putting some deliberate effort into stabilizing his immediate area.

Suddenly, Megatron noticed the glowing battery component in the Controller starting to go dark. He would have to work fast! Quickly, he scanned the universe for one of the most powerful natural things that would be readily available and undefended: a supernova. He soon found one, several systems away, and used his divine power to tap its energy. Then, he directed the needed amount to a collector in his new system.

With supernatural smoothness, his new system - which included a framework that would spin just underneath the Controller's housing - began to move. This motion, in turn, drove a set of huge turbines that now occupied the space between the central area and the computational aspects of the Controller. These turbines were connected to the cable that was currently also connected to the original battery, and this allowed the turbines' energy to feed into original power system.

It took a couple of minutes for the new system to generate enough energy to replace the amount the battery had been putting out. After that, extra energy began to be diverted to a large bank of new batteries. Megatron didn't go through many engineering calculations for the battery component of his new energy system. He figured that any relatively-small battery that could power such a giant amount of equipment for so long had to be damned good, so he just copied the original and made about 1,000 more of them.

Just as everything new came online, the original battery went dark. The red markings on the clock panel turned to dashes.

<STABLE ENERGY RESTORED>
<RESUMING NORMAL OPERATION>

Suddenly, the main switch that had shunted the system over to battery power began to move. Apparently, the machine assumed that Yahweh, rather than a manufactured power source, was providing the energy! Megatron quickly used his divine power to stop the switch from completing its motion and force it back into its battery-using position. He then used the same power to meld it with its contact point so the two became one. It wouldn't be moving now!

Once he forced it to stay put, he quickly used some extra substance from the batch he had teleported in to create a truly permanent bypass. Now, the system would never be able to even try to switch back to Yahweh power. Thus stabilized, it would not need intervention for another million years, at least as long as no one was able to mess with it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After everything was complete, the next thing on the agenda for now was to complete some simple finishing-up operations. The lock's entire mechanism was found and carefully disconnected by the thief gang. Then, they were dismissed, and Megatron used his power to create something far more suitable to him. This new system used a variety of checks to determine who was trying to get in so that copying just one aspect of him wouldn't provide any results.

Next, he reactivated the cloaking on the giant device. Even though those in nearby solar systems had surely seen it, the next-closest lifeforms were at least a few lightyears away. They would be unlikely to bother to send a ship to check out an anomaly that they would only see years later, and only for one day.

After that, he set up a transmitter that would send an alarm if the power level dropped beyond a set point, anyone landed on the housing, the housing was breached, or any other potential emergency cropped up. This alarm would transmit on Megatron's personal red alert frequency.

Finally, he opened an extremely tiny portal - just 1/2-mm round - a few miles out into space above the machine. This would allow emergency transmissions from it to reach Cybertron instantly despite its location 100 million lightyears out.

Once everything was complete, Megatron warped himself back to Cybertron. Not too long after, he would return to fully decipher the secrets of the program within this amazing computer - and then tweak it to his liking.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cybertron

The first thing Megatron did upon returning was to go into his mansion and then take his captive from his arm panel. Yahweh's now-human body did not like the carbon monoxide at all, and it gasped for air. Between wheezes, though, the defeated divinity shocked Megatron by thanking him for sparing the universe from annihilation. "I spent billions and billions of years making everything," he said. "I would have hated to have it all destroyed, especially from you not realizing that it was even in danger. But you should know that so far, you have only seen the easy part. You're thinking that to you is the power and the glory, amen. But no. To you is the ongoing management, the competition claiming responsibility for your acts, the rebels, the atheists, those who want you to do everything for them, the famines, the boredom that ensues if you make a planet 'perfect,' the people corrupting your words..."

"I am already a dictator," Megatron stated firmly, while readying a blaster with liquid nitrogen. "I am quite sure I can handle being the dictator of everything." With that, he sprayed Yahweh with the liquid nitro, sending him into cryogenic stasis. Megatron then formed a hard ball of perfectly-insulative material around him that would not be breakable by anything the Decepticon Leader knew of or could conceive of. Finally, he disguised the ball as a worn-out bearing and threw it in his workshop along with some other worn-out parts. There, it looked like just another piece of junk, not worth stealing or even giving a closer look to. Raiders, Christians who wanted their God back, and others who were hoping to find this being would almost surely try to break into Megatron's vault complex, while he actually sat right there in Megatron's mansion in an open box. Security by obscurity...

~~~~~~~~~~~

All over the planet, returning raiders and invasion troops were returning and beginning their usual partying. A military victory flight came as soon as most of the people now off deployment were back. This flight was different from most because it included the Clergy of Megatron, including Loyal Star, near the front. They occupied this position because this war was like no other. It had been the ultimate religious war in this part of the universe, and perhaps, all of the universe!

Once the flight ended and Loyal Star was about to leave for his temple on Coltan, a messenger caught up to him. He presented the invitation to meet Warfire, but it included another instruction. Before that meeting, he was to go to the public presentation area in front of the Government District. There, he and several other Decepticons would be awarded for their exemplary deeds.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Vallermoore

Megatron's political party here was now ramped up into full gear. With the victory of Megatron over Yahweh, its popularity was at an all-time high. It decided to dump the religiously-neutral name it had taken, and now openly presented itself as the Megatronist Party. Its leader did very well in the debate, and this further boosted its popularity. It seemed as though it would surely win the next election by a landslide.

"We must be careful not to be too hasty," its strategists agreed. "Though we will start cutting the welfare right away. That kind of economic drag can't be good. If we make enough people significantly richer, there won't be enough complainers left to stop us from dumping welfare entirely. Remember, on Cybertron, even the 'poor' make over 30,000 Cubes a year. That's more than enough money to pacify any economically-motivated would-be dissidents."

"The only thing our representative got wrong was that TV would stay substantially the same," one noted as cigar smoke curled through the back room of party headquarters. "In reality, Decepticon TV is strictly regulated, not just for political content, but for general values and IQ promotion. To put it simply, dumb shows are forbidden. Vallermoore's Got Talent will never make the cut. Nor will all of these silly footy games. Or any reality shows at all. The only shows that are aimed at IQs below 100 on Cybertron are kids' shows, and that's because the Bureau of Propaganda won't pass them for adults. The objective is to prevent dimness from being normalized."

"We'll have to come up with some really interesting replacements!" said a pony in charge of general public perception issues. "Those shows you're talking about are hugely popular!"

"First things first," Clever One said, strolling into the room. "First, we have to make sure we win. Many political parties have lost their seats, or their chances to get seats, by assuming that they're shoo-ins. We must campaign just as hard as we would have done if nothing unusual had happened, and that starts with concentrating on cinching the victory. Remember, our Divine Leader has ordained that we should win this country with its own approval. It will greatly increase his, and our, reputation if the people actually vote in a Decepticon dictatorship."

"Of course, we must not say outright that we want to bring dictatorship! Let the people think they'll be able to vote us out if they don't like us..."

[Vallermoore]

Cybertron

With Megatron unusually away, no doubt on important business as he enjoyed leading military parades, the parade was led by the High Generals, all of them flying in such a way that none of them came first and implied by that, that he should be the new Leader. Just behind him flew High Priest Warfire as this war had literally been a Holy Crusade. Behind him flew the Priests including Fire Eater and the Assistant Priests including Loyal Star, with the other regiments except the Genociders as they were on duty. The Genociders didn't mind that they rarely got to fly in military parades as they were happiest on duty anyway. The Parade flew over the Government District, where few bots were normally allowed, and Loyal Star felt proud of everything Decepticon and very happy to be able to fly near the front of the parade. He looked down as they flew over the Megatron Mansion. Behind them came the regiments of the Decepticon Military, and behind them any raider who wanted to join in, MasterBlaster being amongst them, although the raiders were not permitted to fly over the Government District for obvious reasons. Decepticon aerial parades would have made the air force of Vallermoore look tiny in comparism. Whilst not every bot took part, the whole Military and about two million of the raiders did, and many others watched from the ground with a deep love of the nation within them before things went back to normal on Cybertron and bots could if they wanted fight again.

The ICC and IOPC, watched openly by the Military and secretly by Domintel, went back to their positions, and both sides gave each other time to settle in and other bots time to scurry out. Then Connect bowed and fired a shot into the ground. Shooting in the air was considered bad manners as it might bring down a random bot for no reason. His opponent bowed and did the same thing and the battle started up again. Big battles were fine as long as they stayed in a relatively small area and didn't spread all over Cybertron. If they got a bit over their borders, the Military and perhaps *civilians* who had enough to lose would intervene. Most bots, however, indulged in a huge party as was tradition. MasterBlaster brought some Energon Supreme and toasted the Decepticon Victory with his gang. Elsewhere SolarTempest, having fixed his finger, was doing much the same with his much larger gang. All other Cybertron adult raid gangs and juvenile groups of friends too young to form full scale gangs were partying. There were speeches, singing, a lot of drinking, and much fun, and what other nations called crime fell for a few hours as most domestic raiders were too busy enjoying themselves. Here and there a few Decepticons suddenly fell through solid objects but their jets stopped death or serious injury. SolarTempest was pulled out of the floor by two of his gang without too much difficulty.

As Loyal Star prepared to fly back to Coltan he got a couple of messages which he was very pleased about. One was that he was to go to the public presentation area in front of the Government District for a public Gold Stripe-and Megatron himself would award it too! And after that he was to meet High Priest Warfire, and the messenger assured him it was for a good reason, and he was not suspected of heresy.

*****
Yahweh was frozen instead of being used humiliatingly for slave labour because if he was sent to a mine there was too much of a risk that the human body might crash and release Yahweh, the slave chip not being designed to enslave gods with the power of Yahweh.
*****
Vallermoore

With the public defeat of Yahweh seen by all Vallermooreians who looked up at the sky, a great many Vallermooreians had decided to become Megatronists for much the same reason that Loyal Star had-Megatron was clearly the top God out there. Some were voting Megatronist because of this, others because they thought Vallermoore had too many laws, others, the blacks, because Megatronism was not racist as such in that the colour of skin meant nothing to them, and they hoped the more racist laws of Vallermoore would be abolished. It seemed very likely that unless they messed up, they could get up to 60% of the seats or maybe even more-and without cheating or force either! Vallermoore might well in effect put the handcuffs on itself willingly.

Clever One flicked his tail happily , as it was a common pony trait, and wondered if his former superior who was trying to join the Decepticons would die in his test, get enslaved-or make it and gain the Ultimate Upgrade? Whatever happened, he would be no further trouble as if he succeeded he would be pleased with Clever One. He stroked his cutie mark with his tail and listened for now to his party strategists. He had been more truthful then most politicians were when running for office except for the TV bit, as it would hardly gain votes to announce that "Vallermoore's Got Talent" and several other fun shows would be abolished. If they didn't want most Vallermooreians to just get deeply bored and resentful, they would need interesting replacements. The best dictatorships had TV that was more then just dull propaganda after all. Propaganda had it's place but not all the time.

Several things were decided; not to cheat and stuff the ballot boxes, as Megatron wanted Vallermoore to willingly hand itself other, something that had never happened before and was therefore interesting, not to get lazy, slack off and let their victory fall through their fingers/ hooves, and not to if they won, at once abolish nearly every law at once as that would lead to total utter chaos. It would take three or four years to have the same laws as Cybertron. For the same reason, not all the prisoners would be set free at once-and a few who were traitors or whose crimes were against small children would not be freed at all. The election was just a week away now.

[Victorious Decepticons]

Cybertron

Megatron didn't spare many moments after freezing Yahweh in human form and hiding his containment ball. He zoomed out of the mansion into the air and took his position at the head of the victory flight just before it passed over the Government District.

As usual, the full thrill of victory flowed through him as he and the others flew along the typical route. He and the Decepticons had accomplished what several planets' worth of people thought was outright impossible! This was better than any raid, despite the lack of loot that was in Heaven. Already, Megatron could feel the energy from trillions of new worshipers, though much of it was tainted with off-notes of fear. It was obvious that some of them, while recognizing his superior power, were afraid that he would turn out to be...not so good.

Megatron smiled a bit at this realization. While he might not be considered "good" by legal definitions, he certainly wasn't the type of bad they were fearing. He was not a devil, no matter what some of his raid targets called him. In fact, he had wiped out many devils during the war thanks to their idiotic decision to stick their butts in the way of the fighting.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Once the victory flight was complete and everyone who wasn't Megatron or a High General had landed, the government people seamlessly flew to the award presentation area back at the gates of the Government District. There, they waited not only for the reporters and those to be honored, but for some of the initial victory chaos to die down so there would actually be people watching this event.

Loyal Star arrived to find that he was one of about 100 Decepticons who would be getting some kind of award today. Once everyone got there, aides got them lined up off to the side so that they could come across the stage in an orderly way. Those who would be getting the lower awards would go first, and the ceremony would culminate with the most honored at the end. This would help to keep viewers' interest so they'd wait to see who got the gold stripes and the full Cubes of Private Reserve.

The first awardees got simple dull "silvery" stripes for acts like killing 1000 of the enemy - not such a big feat when there were billions of enemy in the way to shoot at. Next came those who got stripes made of real silver, either for knocking off 10,000 of the enemy or for acts of extreme bravery. Some of these got a Cube of Private Reserve to go with their decoration. Finally, there were those who got gold stripes and Private Reserve, who had performed acts considered absolutely crucial to the speedy success of the Decepticon Forces.

When it was Loyal Star's turn, he was presented with a double gold stripe - and, for the ceremony, one Cube of Private Reserve. Megatron announced that the specifics of his achievement were classified - as were the specifics of some what some of the other honorees had done - but that it could required "almost unimaginable loyalty, restraint, and bravery." As Megatron handed Loyal Star his Cube, he slipped him a foil-paper at the same time. The view of the cameras was blocked by the Energon in the Cube, so no one saw the paper get passed on the other side of it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

After the ceremony was over and Loyal Star was safely at the First Temple, he finally had a chance to look at the foil-paper. On it was a map, a passcode, and some instructions. The map was clearly of Megatron's vault complex and showed one vault in particular. Giving the code to the guards at the gates would get Loyal Star permission to enter and clear that vault out to collect the rest of his reward. "Cover the vault contents with a tarp before moving them to your own facility," the instructions noted.

The next day, he would have his meeting with Warfire. It made sense to set it up quickly so that Loyal Star wouldn't have to travel to and from Coltan in the meantime. For now, he was allowed to defrag in an area usually used by Fire Eater when he came from Vallermoore. The room was like a basic hotel room, with the exception being that it had a small Energon vault. Since Loyal Star would be right there, it was likely to be safe to leave his ceremonial Cube in that vault while he defragged. After that, taking it along with him would still be a good idea. Temple or not, this was Cybertron.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Vallermoore

Political propaganda was in full swing now, with every party that thought of itself as a contender spending loads of money on advertising. They all also had people out approaching potential voters and giving them one-on-one pitches. Currently, the polls were showing the Megatronist Party as being far ahead of the others. While the competition kept reminding everyone what words went into the name Decepticon, the Megatronists had an ace that no one could counter: Its religious leader had done what had, until now, been thought of as impossible. It would surely be able to handle Vallermoore's problems with Megatron on its side!

[Vallermoore]

Cybertron

Megatron did not want to miss the parade and happily joined it at it's head, flying in robot mode since he normally transformed into a pistol. He had other bodies that could transform into a plane or indeed other things but decided to stay in that body. It was one of the times he felt the most proud when leading the Decepticon Nation like this. He had trillions of new believers, some of which were clearly rather scared. How stupid Yahweh was to make what turned out to be his defeat public, destroying most of what was Christianity in the process. A few small cults survived, but they were no threat to Megatronism. His mind turned to Loyal Star, who was no doubt flying back there with the other Assistant Priests. His otherwise useless and anti-Decepticon parents had at least named their offspring rightly. Loyal Star had risked being destroyed by jammer running idiots just to save Megatron and was a true loyalist, even though he had once been a Ponyist priest. Without him, the Empire might have been at the start of a horrific civil war by now. War was normally good, but not if it resulted in the self destruction of the Decepticon Empire. Soon enough the parade broke up, the on duty regiments going back to their bases and outposts and the raiders and shopkeepers going back to what they were doing, every bot feeling pretty pleased with themselves. They always did when a threat to the home world was firmly squashed.

Once enough bots were watching the holovision again Megatron went to hand out the awards which he did after every major campaign of this kind. First came the smaller awards of faint silver and bright silver stripes for bravery in battle and other such deeds. Some deeds were made public on the holovision, others remained classified for good reasons. Then came the bots who got the much less common Gold stripes. Loyal Star came last and got a very rare double gold stripe-the finest medal in effect that the Empire had. When it was time for his next conscription stint, he could walk in wearing that and even the officers would be impressed. Very few bots had a double gold stripe. "Whilst sadly the details must remain classified, Loyal Star's name was not chosen by him as a connive. What he did that day required almost unimaginable loyalty, restraint, and bravery." Those bots who were watching that holovision channel knew that at award ceremonies Megatron never lied and that whatever was done, it was amazing to get two gold stripes.

"Thank you, O Great Leader Megatron." Loyal Star smiled and bowed low and unlike with the other bots, Megatron gave a very slight bow of his own. Normally, at least in public, Megatron never bowed even very slightly to anyone, so this was sending a signal to Cybertron of how useful Loyal Star had been.

Later in private with only Domintel knowing Loyal Star would take a small drink of Energon Supreme to see what it tasted like. To him, it tasted like the finest apple juice, the kind Princess Celestia must have drunk-the idiot goddess who had lost her religion, her life and all Equestria in a duel over a grass of all things. Loyal Star took the Cube with him in a panel and flew to the Government District, where the password he had let him into one small bit of it where one of Megatron's many, many vaults was. He would spend much of the day buying things. He brought a body and gave it the same sort of mods that MasterBlaster had, as well as several in-modded *normal* bodies, games, and other fun Decepticon things-and even after doing that, there were still enough Cubes to fill his own vault to the brim, that was how big the rewards were. After putting the bodies in his house or in the Underworks and arranging that if his body was destroyed he would go straight to his best body, he defragged a few hours.

The next day, on time, he went to the private study of none other then High Priest Warfire. Not counting Megatron himself, High Priest Warfire knew the most about Megatronism and could deal with what was Loyal Star's accidental heresy. Loyal Star was no deliberate heretic-his Forintel/Domintel file (Forintel had starred spying on him from when he first spoke to Fire Eater until Domintel took over) showed that. But there were clearly weak elements of Ponyism that would creep in now and then, and it was Warfire's job to point out what was wrong so that Loyal Star's Megatronism could be purified enough for him to earn the rank of a Full Priest. Warfire had certain symbols on his body that were the Decepticon Megatronist equivalent of the rich robes and mitre of a Ponyist Archbishop back when Ponyism was a major religion. Since Decepticons wore no clothes, there were certain legally protected symbols that served as either medals or as uniforms/symbols of high rank that took the place of clothes. Rather then looking angry, as might be expected when meeting even an accidental heretic, Warfire's mouth was smiling, his eyes were bright, and his engine was purring rather then revving.

*****
Vallermoore

There were just hours to go before the polls opened. The other parties were trying their best to point out the dangers of the Megatronist Party, but the Megatronists were doing everything right, and the sight of Yahweh being defeated by Megatron not that long ago had showed the true power of the Decepticons. Surely, many voters thought, Megatronist Party leaders knew what they were doing? At least some of what the other parties said had backfired. One smaller party said for example, that the Megatronists would ban weapons and also that Christmas would be made illegal and anyone who celebrated it would be heavily punished.

The Megatronists countered that with film from Cybertron including Christmas in the Immigrant Quarter where Decepticons were celebrating without punishment-something that was not in fact faked. The secular Christmas celebrations had proved popular even amongst some non-immigrants, and to ban them would just cause resentment and unhappiness amongst the immigrants. And a clever dictator never stopped people-or robots-having fun for no good reason, as it risked stirring up trouble. Part of the reason why Megatron's rule was so solid was that he didn't go out of his way to grind his robotic subjects into the mud like King Coal had done.

Clever One was very excited, his tail flicking back and forth as if fending off a plague of invisible flies. It looked like-unless things went wrong-he would soon be the new President of the Central Committee. He wondered what the inside of the Presidential Quarters at 10 Upping Street looked like and if he would need to change anything to make it more sapient pony-friendly and what new flag he would give Vallermoore and then decided the flag might as well stay the same. To his surprise, when he was alone a cat spoke to him in perfect Equestrian, the cat being an agent of Forintel sent by General Soundwave with instructions.

[Victorious Decepticons]

Vallermoore

The cat soon identified itself as a ForIntel representative, and the two went into what Clever One thought was a private area. Immediately, however, the agent swished his tail around, and it became stiff as he pointed it in a certain direction. Then, his eyes glowed for just a second.

"Now that I've deactivated that bug from this country's internal security bureau, we can talk freely," he said. "I'm Flapjacks, or at least, that's what I let them call me around here..." It was clear that someone on Vallermoore had thought he was a regular cat and had decided to name him. He was a dark brown cat with two large, pancake-colored spots on his back. "I don't mind the name. It's a cat name and it works. Animal forms are good because I don't have to come up with a history-free top-level name, a bunch of ID, and a backstory."

"Anyway, one of the reasons I've come is because our own surveillance has been picking up some questions for you that are more suited for one who is about to become a dictator rather than the President of a Central Committee. Thinking this way could torpedo either your campaign or the party's ability to retain office. You won't be able to just waltz in and have your MPs vote to abolish democracy, at least, not unless you are prepared to put down a counter-revolution. It's also likely to be a bad idea to just straightforwardly clamp down on the press."

Flapjacks looked irked as he said this, and his tail gave a little flick in accordance with that. He clearly wished that the Megatronists could just insta-change everything. Yet, his ForIntel training let him know that people, or at least biologicals of the two primary species on this planet, were more amenable to slower changes and more PR.

"You need to frame the government takeover of the press as something else. The most effective way to get this change through will be to convince the populace that it is 'for the safety of Vallermoore' or 'better for social order.' This will require some trickery."

Clever One listened with his tail at half-tension, curious as to what devious thing the agent would suggest.

"I believe that what will work best is to use the biggest media outlets to 'relay messages' to some sort of terrorist group. These will be fairly obvious once pointed out, but easy to miss at first glance. Then, the police will 'discover' the 'corruption of the media to serve hostile forces...' of course, this will happen after we plant an agent in the office and have him discover it! This will be your excuse to start running all of the stories through a new government 'media security' - in reality, censorship - bureau before they are published. Once that's in place, you can slowly start tightening the noose on freedom of the press, allowing fewer and fewer stories to come out that are against the policies of the Megatronist Party. Occasionally, a 'secret message to terrorists' will be planted in a negative story for your new bureau to hold up as a reason this bureau needs to keep existing. Eventually, that will no longer be necessary. People will stop noticing how critical stories have been slowing down over the years, until they finally stop altogether. That's when you come out and say that stories critical of your government are destabilizing, and go for the official ban. If needed, we can astroturf some events to make it all look legit."

"Of course, some people will have copies of old papers that were filled with government-critical opinions. When these are brought up, you basically say that that's because the old government just sucked and yours doesn't! Needless to say, you'll need to use more 'professional' words, but that's the idea: That the media doesn't criticize the Megatronist Party because it's just that good."

The cat paused and licked itself, grooming its sides and face just like a real one.

"This behavior is actually coded into this body," Flapjacks said between licks. "So if anyone happens to see me from a distance, they see what fully appears to be a real cat even if I forget about doing the cat stuff. But it's a pain when I'm talking to someone in private, like now." The body stretched out and gave one loud purr. The agent's expression was one of annoyance. Finally, the programmed sequence ended, and he paced around on the desk a bit.

"As for some other things you've been wondering about: Unless changing the flag is normal here, don't try to do it. That'd be hugely controversial in most places, and we don't need to start off your presidency with controversy over something that isn't really important to us. Instead, Megatron wants you to focus on something that will have a much bigger effect. The details may come as a shock to you..."

The agent began to pace again, this time looking more worried - as if he was concerned about how well or badly what he wanted to say would go over with Clever One. Finally, he stopped and told Clever One to take his collar off.

Clever One reached over and undid the cat's collar, which was only held together with a Velcro-like material. Inside, there was a foil-paper that turned out to be signed and hashed by Megatron himself. The writing was clearly that of a machine - in this case, the Leader of the Decepticons - and its precise nature stood out. This also made it quite easy to forge, which is one of the reasons Megatron had the message delivered personally by someone who was unmistakably a Decepticon agent.

"Vallermoore's policy of discrimination against a part of its own population has always been an issue with me," it said. "It is pure silliness to gauge humans based on their paint colors or similar traits. My first directive is for you to stop this, at least in terms of regulations. You are to unban gun ownership by blacks and remove any other such restrictions on them. The same goes for any similar restrictions that are currently affecting other groups. It is un-Decepticon to do things that prevent arbitrary segments of the population from adding their full strength to the nation. Currently Vallermoore has at least 10% of its people effectively sidelined from complete participation in society, and this is producing drag on the economy, the military, and the ability for civilians to repel invaders as guerrillas if necessary. Stop this heresy as soon as politically possible!"

"Use your Propaganda arm to make sure these changes go over," The message went on. "If you have difficulty with this, contact me [a number was provided] and I'll have the big Bureau of Propaganda on Cybertron produce the needed materials, press releases, PSAs, and studies. For now, I strongly suggest appealing to the religious sensibilities of your fellow Megatronists. Further instruction, to minimize the chance and severity of any resulting social unrest, will come later."

As if to underline the authenticity of the order, the foil-paper began to glow and stayed that way for a few minutes before returning to normal.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

First Temple on Cybertron

"Divine Leader Megatron has told me that you are very exceptional, and in the best of ways," Warfire began after gesturing for Loyal Star to have a seat. "He wants me to do all I can to make sure you qualify for full priesthood." The High Priest took a seat of his own behind his large desk.

"The main problem you have isn't one of knowing the doctrine, but of personality. Personally, I'd say to just get Empathy Down and run it at about 50-60%. However, you should internalize what you're supposed to do, so that your ability to properly teach the Decepticon Way will not be affected should such a patch go offline. To help with this, I've obtained a series of holographic sim programs that show a variety of scenarios. This will let you practice without affecting anyone in reality."

Soon, Warfire led Loyal Star into another room - one usually used for leading small study groups. Today, the room was empty except for the two clergy. Warfire went over to its large holographic projector and inserted a disk. "Using the projector instead of having you run the sims internally gives me a chance to see what you're doing and make corrections," he explained.

The two sat down in the less-fancy audience chairs in front of the projector, and Warfire triggered it to begin the program. Then, he handed over a controller for Loyal Star to use. The lights went down, and soon, they seemed to be all but right inside a slum area on Cybertron. Words appeared identifying the area as the nearest outskirts of Iacon.

After walking his character up a few steps, Loyal Star came across a rusted-out bot sitting crookedly at the side of the road. In the distance, a Scrounger gang whooped and began to run toward this bot and himself. The rusted bot began to beg Loyal Star's character for mercy, his cries loudly coming from the speakers. His face was contorted in helpless fear, and he tried vainly to get up. The useless, quiet hum of his leg servos was audible; they were quiet because they bore no load due to the bot's linkage having given way.

Meanwhile, the Scroungers advanced with their cart, undeterred. A quick message on the screen indicated that their faith level was at 100%, while the broken-down bot's faith was also at 100%.

Loyal Star found that his character was capable of doing all of the things a real body could. It could lift things, blast targets, talk, and more. Now, it was up to him to decide what - if anything - to do in this situation. Warfire sat attentively waiting to see what response he would have to this typical Cybertronian slum scene.

[Vallermoore]

Vallermoore

Clever One nodded. "You're right, I can't take things too fast. I need to take things slowly and inch towards the Megatronist ideal, or Vallermoore will erupt into large scale chaos. If I had to as a last resort..." he checked that none of his own party were listening in "I would let another take over rather then let that happen." When he undid the collar of the cat, there was a small sheet of (by Decepticon full body standards, nearly microscopic) foil-paper. It was clearly written by a machine.

It said " Vallermoore's policy of discrimination against a part of its own population has always been an issue with me. It is pure silliness to gauge humans based on their paint colors or similar traits. My first directive is for you to stop this, at least in terms of regulations. You are to unban gun ownership by blacks and remove any other such restrictions on them. The same goes for any similar restrictions that are currently affecting other groups. It is un-Decepticon to do things that prevent arbitrary segments of the population from adding their full strength to the nation. Currently Vallermoore has at least 10% of its people effectively sidelined from complete participation in society, and this is producing drag on the economy, the military, and the ability for civilians to repel invaders as guerrillas if necessary. Stop this heresy as soon as politically possible! "Use your Propaganda arm to make sure these changes go over," The message went on. "If you have difficulty with this, contact me [a number was provided] and I'll have the big Bureau of Propaganda on Cybertron produce the needed materials, press releases, PSAs, and studies. For now, I strongly suggest appealing to the religious sensibilities of your fellow Megatronists. Further instruction, to minimize the chance and severity of any resulting social unrest, will come later."


The paper glowed magically with a divine glow for a short time to show it was genuine. Clever One was clearly surprised about this edict but he nodded. As a Megatronist he was not going against the wishes of his God. "It will be done-assuming I do win the elections."

That evening was election night in Vallermoore when huge numbers of votes were sifted and counted all over the country, and the Megatronist Party turned out to have 62% of the seats. The White People's party was left with just one MP, and most right wingers of all types had gone to the Megatronists as well. To the cheering of his MPs, Queen Yocasta presented Clever One with a ceremonial laurel wreath and presidential sash. He felt very proud that night. After a couple of hours partying he had a good look in 10 Upping Street and curled up to sleep the morning away. Having been up all night as the results came in, that was expected. That afternoon he announced his first new law. "I have decided that the anti-black racism of Vallermoore is to come to an end, as it serves no useful purpose, makes Vallermoore look bad abroad, weakens the economy, and makes it harder for our country to defend itself. Blacks are to have the same rights and equality as everyone else, including the right to bear arms. Of course, that does not give them the ok to run amuck."

Vallermoore's economy was soon to improve as a result, and not just that, but most blacks become firm supporters of the regime that had just given them freedoms that had been out of their reach, and many become firm Megatronists as well. For now at least, Clever One made no attempt to become a dictator and acted within the laws of Vallermoore. His next law that he would put forward, slashing welfare, would be far less popular amongst many Vallermooreians who wondered how they were to live.

First Temple on Cybertron

High Priest Warfire, knowing that battle damage or sheer bad luck could knock a patch offline just when it was most needed, had decided to help Loyal Star in case that happened. Soon they were running a sim where a rusty bot on the outskirts of Iacon begged for mercy as Scroungers closed in. Loyal Star's internal Ponyism wanted him to intervene, but he hardened his fuel pump. If the bot was a true Decepticon who had just suffered dreadful luck and been shot down over Iacon, then Megatron's bots who worked in the afterlife would surely assign him a good afterlife in the Realm of Endless Energon, if not then he deserved his fate. He pulled himself free and crossed the road, but he did not run but rubbed a blaster instead to show he was not prey. If the Scroungers thought they could add an Assistant Priest of Megatron who had done and said nothing to them to their cart as well, then they would be facing holy fusion fire.

Cybertron, Vintage's Shop

MasterBlaster went to Vintage's shop to see how his one true friend was getting on. He hoped all was doing well for him.

[Victorious Decepticons]

Vallermoore

Clever One's pronouncement shocked Vallermoore's black communities. Almost all of the people in them had voted for those they saw as being more likely to promote equality, and they had - until now - thought of Megatron as the robotic equivalent of the White People's Party. After all, the god of the Decepticons had plenty of signs that he would make a law exactly opposite of the one that had just been announced. He was outright painted just a shade off of white, his black hands were said to represent the fact that he had killed, and he was an unabashed slaver! Yet, Clever One had openly stated that Megatron considered discrimination between humans to be heresy, and reminded the people that he, the God of Megatronism, had a body type that made him a minority in terms of physical characteristics. "It goes without saying that he is not going to be okay with the idea that minority body forms are inherently inferior," Clever One had concluded when he made his pronouncement.

Of course, this pronouncement gained Megatron many new followers, but it also lost him plenty. Everyone in the White People's Party who had turned to Megatronism became apostate pretty much immediately, as did some other die-hard racists. Some began to follow alien gods they'd read about in their foreign history classes, such as Odin and Thor, not even knowing if those gods cared about race or just happened to be associated with white areas of Earth by chance - or if they even actually existed. Others looked for more local religions that would be more supportive of their viewpoints. Some White People's Party members also decided to form a more secretive and violent racist group along the likes of the KKK. If the law wasn't going to support them anymore, they figured, they would take the law into their own hands.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Clever One's next move wasn't nearly as public. In fact, it was secret! He ordered the domestic security office to start keeping files on those who were obviously opposed to the Megatronist Party. This sort of thing was more common in democracies than they liked people to believe, and didn't really come as a surprise to the intelligence office.

Meanwhile, the Megatronist Party as a whole grappled with the issue of how to reduce reliance on welfare. Raiding other planets like Megatron did was currently out of the question, at least on the level of private individuals. Spacecraft were too expensive for widespread ownership, and not only that, civilians didn't have the level of militarization that Decepticons did. It was clear that they'd need to find some other way to allow welfare recipients to avoid starvation and homelessness, at least for now. Either that, or somehow cause it to become palatable to go ahead and let those people starve and freeze. "I don't think the people are willing to let us just yank the rug out yet," they decided. "We should start by making it harder to stay on the dole. If it's enough of a pain in the arse, at least a few will decide to find other ways to pay their bills. It really doesn't matter if this involves employment or hustling, just as long as they're improving their lives while simultaneously ending their drag on the budget."

"What should we do with the money we save?" One of the party bigwigs asked.

"The answer is simple," a cabinet minister immediately said. "We should invest more in the military. It doesn't matter how much we already invest in it. More troops and better hardware is always good!" This particular cabinet member had a military past, and dreamed of turning Vallermoore into an imperialistic multi-planetary power.

Arguing erupted immediately, with each minister pushing the idea that his or her department should get the money instead, regardless of the current state of those departments. The one minister that wasn't there to argue was the head of the welfare system. He had remained a Christian despite seeing the big battle in the sky, and refused to believe that Yahweh had really lost. "That vision was a trick of the Devil," he insisted.

Cybertron

Warfire nodded slightly at Loyal Star's choice, but didn't seem overly pleased. "That was an easy one," he said, "but the training sim has just started."

The screen did a fade, and when the images focused again, Loyal Star found his character standing in an Earthian-type country. Starving children and adults were clearly visible, while nearby, a big field full of tomato plants was seen. The plants were full of fruits, ripe and ready, but there was a simply-constructed barbed-wire fence between it and the people. "NO TRESPASSING," ordered several signs posted along the wires. A lone guard sternly walked along the field side of the fence holding what appeared to be a military-style assault rifle. At a gate, a small crowd of protestors was chanting something about the owner's greed. They held signs noting how the controlling company got rich from produce as the people of the area starved.

"What do you tell the people to do?" Warfire asked. He wasn't referring to the protestors, but instead, to all of the people of the village.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Heaven

The concluding operations of the war had now been completed in this area, and aside from a controlling force, the Decepticons were able to go back home. General Carjack stopped in some fields and grabbed a large amount of seeds from a variety of plants, and afterwards, he and the Genociders took flight for Cybertron.

The Universal Physics Controller

While the most obvious aspect of the post-Heaven operations would likely be the new "Heavenly Grains" line from Carjack Agriculture, this was actually likely to be the least important part of the war victory. Instead, Megatron's ongoing control of the Afterlife Controller, Soul Generator, and Universal Physics Controller would be what counted the most. With these things, he was already planting Decepticon-oriented souls in every new being (that had enough mind power to have any sort of opinions) under the jurisdiction of the devices.

Currently, Leader Megatron was back at the Universal Physics Controller. Getting into the structure was easy now thanks to him changing the lock. Now, he was busy figuring out how to get to the code of this machine. Once he did that, he would work on actually figuring out that code. Then, he could change the very laws of physics pretty much at will, and do so either on a small scale or a large one.

His first idea was to make it so that any sort of ordnance that was fired at him would automatically deflect away, controlled by new laws of physics rather than simply being repelled by shielding. It would bring him unbreakable immunity to weapons. Another idea came to mind as well: Energy requirements and usage were governed by the laws of physics. With actual control over the Controller, he could change that in all sorts of ways both devious and beneficial. For example, he could make it so that enemies of the Decepticons needed colossal amounts of power to do even the simplest of things - such as breathing - or make it so that he didn't need to use any energy at all...

He paused for a moment. Was that the secret to Yahweh's well-known ability to function without eating or otherwise drawing in power? Had he simply godmodded that in - in a way that was more like how a video gamer does it than what people thought of as divine? Megatron went back to work on accessing the code with renewed vigor. While he had zero intention of putting his Energon company out of business, he could certainly see uses for an ability to run on nothing. All of this sort of "impossible" stuff would be very possible if he could alter the physics of the universe to suit himself. Megatron redoubled his efforts to get at the Universal Controller's code, his mind swarming with intoxicating ideas.

[Vallermoore]

Vallermoore

Either not knowing or not believing that turning apostate from Megatron would, assuming nothing big changed in the afterlife, get their souls sent to the Realm of Punishment for at least the next thousand years or so, about one tenth of the whites of Vallermoore were so racist towards blacks and hated them so much that they formed Ku Klux Klan groups. A lot of these groups did nothing but share racist talk in private and worship Gods like Odin and Thor; of those that did do violence, it was normally against the blacks who could now legally bear arms like other groups could and fight back when attacked. But one of these groups met with the one remaining MP of the White People's Party, who told them "I own a legal fireworks factory and as such have a license to own gunpowder as long as I don't do anything illegal or idiotic with it. As an MP I also own an office deep in the bowels of the Parliament building. We can roll in thirty-six barrels of gunpowder labelled as wine, and when the budget starts in a couple of days time we can light a long fuse and-BANG! Clever One and his whole government and all the others but me as I'll be absent, will be exploded and we can seize power in Vallermoore!"

Unknown to him a Vallermooreian secret service agent was listening, and would soon alert Clever One to the plot, who would need to decide when would be the best time to move in on the plotters. Treason already technically at least was a death penalty offense in Vallermoore, although for centuries no traitor had been executed.

*****
A propaganda campaign, careful not to go over the top, started to turn Vallermooreians against the poor, whilst business laws would soon be relaxed a bit and most of the time a blind eye would be turned to low value hustling. What was not wanted was very large numbers of starving people with absolutely nothing to lose at all from kicking off.

Meanwhile new plans were made to enlarge the army, navy, and air force of Vallermoore, and the Decepticon agent was announced on TV to be Clever One's pet cat, allowing perfect cover to enter and leave 10 Upping Street as he pleased, a cat flap being installed.
For now, cults were tolerated, but they were no real rival to Megatronism.

*****

Cybertron

Loyal Star found neither the people who were hungry nor the guards had even heard of Megatronism and in the sim he was in a full size body and cloaked for now. He thought a while, and then decloaked and pulled apart the fence. When the guard tried to machine gun him but only put minor dents in him, he stepped on him. "People, I am Loyal Star. Take, eat, and know that if you follow Megatronism, which I will tell you as soon as your bellies are full, you can take everything from those people at the top and never be hungry again." Two more guards showed up and he took them down with normal blaster fire. Once everyone had eaten, he gave them a basic but interesting sermon on the basics of Megatronism, and then offered to lead them to victory if they would adopt the Decepticon Way and worship Megatron as their god.

*****
Vintage was busy so MasterBlaster waited and looked around his friend's shop, careful not to bump into other bots. As a bump could leave a dent it was likely to start at least a fist fight or worse. Even with his mods he didn't want to make enemies especially in his friend's shop.

*****
The Universal Physics Controller

Whilst the Afterlife Controller and Soul Generator were firmly under Megatron's control, the Universal Physics Controller was in fact semi sentient, and spoke, whilst readying blasters and metal tentacles that even to Megatron could be a danger at least to his currant body. "Who are you?" it asked. "What are you doing inside my body? If you are here to kill or enslave me, I'm not as helpless as you might think, but if your intentions are friendly, we can talk." It in fact had the intelligence of a three year old Decepticon.

[Victorious Decepticons]

Cybertron

Warfire made a disapproving sound. Loyal Star had only gotten one part of this segment right: to raid the tomato field. All of the rest, however, was nowhere near on the right level, and one part was drastically wrong. He paused the test "game" to explain.

"Raiding the tomato field was the proper thing to do, but how you went about it is wrong. You immediately used your Decepticon strength to take out the guard, which does nothing to improve the people's willingness to do their own raiding. Instead, you should have gotten the group's best marksman to take him out with a slingshot, or perhaps gotten the sneakiest person to poison the guy's food well enough to make him run very badly. Humans like food variety, so you could have targeted something other than the tomatoes for that."

Then, once the guard was eliminated, you should have had the people dismantle the fence and swarm in - or, if they didn't want to wait, they could have just charged over it. Barbed wire of that level will make cuts, but it won't stop determined climbers."

"Alternatively, depending on the guard's personality, he might have even been persuaded to look the other way as the people subtly took a couple of tomatoes from each plant. With care, about 10% could be smuggled out of that field and an inspector would just think it was normal variance in crop yields. A big commercial field like that easily holds enough to feed a small village and then some, and do so without the production drop really being a big deal."

"So for your next segment, be sure to really think outside the box before you do anything at all. And always be sure to make the people do the doing - and strengthen their mindsets as well as their physical aspects - unless you're in a situation where you have to fight off an active military attack or something else so absolutely overwhelming that there's truly nothing the people could do about it. And even if there is such an attack, look for ways the people could win via tricks first. It is said, after all, that even a weak unarmed human can stop a main battle tank if he can get a strong pipe stuck in its treads - and tankers are known for generally being unwilling to shell some average person coming up on his machine..."

~~~~~~~~~

"An even worse error was your comment that Megatronism would have them 'take everything from those at the top.' That classist idea must NOT become part of Megatronism!! The reason is simple: Eventually, the Megatronists will be the ones at the top! You must not promote the idea that people or companies should be raided simply for being better than the peasants you're talking to. In fact, you must work to eliminate that mindset, which infests peasants like tapeworms. Otherwise, they will subconsciously not want to join the upper class because they'll see it as the enemy, and this will prevent them from being successful. Remember: The goal is not to take down the Strong. It's to BECOME the Strong and then get even stronger, and then rule. To do that, we must not teach people to consider the Strong to be the enemy. It is rich people's (and corporations') STUFF that's the target, not the rich people themselves."

"Yes, the corporation in the scenario is intended to represent a certain type of greedy, heartless, entity that everyone loves to hate. That's why it's in the test. To see if you can look by that and consider long-term strategic implications. Alas, you failed that aspect. As Megatron wishes, I shall work with you to help you achieve a more detached and strategic view when it comes to things like that."

"The strategic thing to do, by the way, is to treat the rich and large corporations much like beehives. You want to raid the honey without really hurting the bees. In fact, you want the bees themselves to do well! That way, they continue to produce, and you can raid 'em again later on. Of course, the bees don't like losing their honey at all, and will try to kill you to defend it. That's what bees are trying to do to you when they swarm and sting, after all. But you, the beekeeper, still don't dislike the bees because you know that without them, there is no honey for anyone."

"Of course, eventually this should not be necessary, because if you do well, your followers will start making their own honey. That's where my statement comes in that you must not let people think of the rich as their enemies, nor think of them that way yourself. Eventually, you and your congregation should BE the rich. Then, you will be on the other side of this equation. Speaking of which..."

~~~~~~~~~~~

Warfire cued up the next scenario. Now, Loyal Star found himself standing in front of an oil field full of drilling rigs. A huge, Decepticon-sized gate was there, and a sign on it said "LOYAL STAR INDUSTRIES: POWERING THE PLANET." Inside, some of his congregation, who had gotten the Ultimate Upgrade, stood at attention with their blasters at full power. Markings on their wings identified them as troops in the company's Asset Protection Force.

Suddenly, a group of humans in camo barely appeared at the edge of the screen. When Loyal Star turned and zoomed in, he could see that they were attempting to put a tap into his main pipeline. A large camo'd tanker truck idled nearby. The people trying to make the raid appeared to be quite broke, and were perhaps hoping to change that by scoring a few thousand gallons of oil and then fencing it.

Loyalty bars flashed up like HP meters. Most were at slightly under 50%, while one was at 0%. That one had a tattoo of a pro-communist phrase on his hand.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Vintage's Shop

The people in the shop today weren't buying, but instead were selling off the still-good parts of bodies they had decommissioned. Vintage wasn't in too great of a mood due to ending up shelling out more money than he was making, though he knew he'd get his investments back when he resold the parts. Finally, he noticed Master Blaster standing there. He soon ignored the sellers and went over to talk to him.

"Ever since these guys raided Heaven, they've been buying new bodies and selling me parts from the old ones. My shelves are almost full now, and it won't be long before I have to turn sellers away." Vintage said.

"That was a war like I thought I'd never see. I was right in the front when Yahweh came out. I made sure to be there so I could see the results for myself. I guess I have to admit that Megatron is a god now, even though I still think he did it technologically. Even Replicator hasn't quite matched him, and I'm certain that he has tried his best. Still, I'm a bit concerned about what will happen next. I think Megatron expected it to take a billion years to get so many planets and people under his dominion. I hope he's really ready for the amount of work involved, especially if he now has to run the nuts-and-bolts of it all. Did you see how blaster fire was starting to just hang in place here? I don't know what was up with that, but the implications aren't good..." Clearly, Vintage did not know about the battle for the Universal Controller.

After dealing with a few more customers in between his remarks, Vintage ran out of shelf space. He shooed out the rest of the sellers and hung a sign on the door. "Shelf space full; not currently buying used parts," it read. Now, he could listen to what Master Blaster had to say, interrupted only by those who were coming to buy instead of sell.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Universal Controller

Megatron backfired when defenses readied up and a voice came into the area.

"You're alive?!" He said with obvious displeasure about the fact. "But you said nothing when we came in here before to fix your power system! I thought you were non-sapient because of that."

Inside, Megatron was somewhat afraid - not because of any potential threat leveled against him, but because the thing sounded like it had the mind of a 3-year-old. While a 3-year-old Decepticon was much smarter and more mature than a human of that age, it was still a kid! The main physics controller of the universe itself was a kid!!! What if it went into a fit of rage, or just got bored and decided to heck with its job?! Were earthquakes and tsunamis the result of tantrums by the Universal Controller instead of for plain scientific reasons?

Despite these thoughts, Megatron projected nothing but calmness and leadership. His expression-control override patch had instantly kicked in to create this effect, and it didn't even allow his engine noise to whine as he considered these horrifying thoughts.

"I have come to attempt to increase my power," Megatron admitted. "It would be much to my benefit if physics worked differently, and in my favor. I didn't realize you were sapient, so of course, I intended to do this by altering the current program. However, since you are self-aware, perhaps there is some deal we could work out~?"

Inside, Megatron was already thinking about how he could turn this guy into a nonsapient machine. He didn't want his power or life depending on the opinion of some git who might change his mind at any time! Yet, he couldn't just barge up and do it. After all, it controlled physics, so it could respond by just making it impossible for him to physically function! Megatron would have to use some sort of trick to separate the sapience from the control ability...

~~~~~~~~~~

Vallermoore

Flapjacks was a huge hit with the sort of people who ooh and aah about their leaders and their personal lives. He soon appeared on the covers of celebrity-oriented magazines, to his amusement and the reader's delight.

Inside the manor, he drank Energon from his bowl for his real sustenance, and used a food processing module when he had to be seen eating (gourmet) cat food or drinking water. The Energon itself was colored with combustible white pigment, so it seemed like a bowl of milk to any servants who happened upon it.

Flapjacks quite enjoyed the large 10 Upping Street residence. It was full of plush cushions for him, fancy furniture for the biologicals, and was overall very posh. Several servants kept everything looking perfect, and though the agent wasn't too pleased with the security implications of this sort of staff, he certainly enjoyed their services. It was very nice to have young, obsequious ponies and humans bowing to him and calling him 'Mr. Flapjacks' as they presented him with his food and treats in perfectly-polished sterling silver bowls that had 'Flapjacks' engraved on the side.

Other than that, he acted as un-catlike as his body's code would allow when in private with Clever One. "Some blowback is occurring from your first decree," he noted. "ForIntel has spotted the formation of some dangerous hate groups. Some of these have turned to violence, and they have succeeded at killing a few humans - mostly, those who didn't immediately arm themselves, but also some who did but weren't sufficiently willing to actually use their firearms. Not only that, when the newly-armed people do defend themselves using the Decepticon Way, the country's courts are automatically siding with the prosecutors when they are charged with murder."

"It will inflame things more if you immediately move to get rid of the racist cops and prosecutors for being racists. Then, the racists in the general population will say that you're undermining the country and handing it over to the black people, and you'll have them demonstrating in the streets. So, you need to be more subtle about getting rid of them. But you do need to get rid of them, or else nothing will really change. It would actually get worse for the moment as violent groups start feeling invincible to the law."

"So, we at ForIntel have investigated all of these people who are corrupting the judicial system to enforce their anti-Megatronist ideas. Just like when the Party started out, it turns out that these 'staunch defenders of correctness' are quite Decepticonnish. Unfortunately for them, they are also heretics and apostates! Some of them have even turned to other gods entirely, not even from this planet! So, that means we're going to bust them for all of their illegal stuff and throw them in jail for the maximum sentences. Cut off their communications while they're inside, too. This will get them out of the way for a long time, which is the primary goal. Send your official investigators to this location [he mentioned a certain trash can on a particular corner]. Under that can there is now a big pack of evidence against the biggest parts of this follow-on problem. Get that evidence to [he named a staunch Megatronist in the federal prosecutor's office] and let him do his magic."

"Of course, hold off on legalizing any Deceptish stuff for now. We need to use the old bans to clear out these counter-revolutionaries first." Flapjacks flicked his tail pensively. "I admit I'm not too fond of the idea of using the law this way. I think anti-Decepticon-activity laws should go. However, it is General Soundwave's order that we first use them as tools to eliminate our opposition. He says that a wave of assassinations would be far too inflammatory. The First Temple is in agreement. Leader Megatron himself, alas, is away on a mission right now, but he has authorized Decepticon Intelligence and the Temple to speak in his stead on this matter for now."

"Anyhow - Meanwhile, the First Temple on Cybertron has issued a directive to the Temples here. They are going to preach on the horrific dangers of apostasy and heresy. Megatron will not forgive those who turned from his religion over the 'silliness of human housing colors.' They will be punished most terribly, and will be so for a thousand years. Then, he is likely to reincarnate them into the Cloning Centers, where they will be trained as slaves, forced by their DNA code to accept what they are taught at the Raising Centers - which includes Megatronism - and then sent to Mine #1 to finish off the final leg of their punishment."

"You will need to be seen at the First Temple when this is preached, and allow the cameras to see you nodding in staunch agreement. This will let people know that your government will not be friendly to heretics. It should have a very chilling effect on the spread of heresy, even without there being any outright laws against it yet."

~~~~~~~~~~

"Now...the budget. The most pressing thing isn't who gets what money. Instead, it is the fact that you and your government are the target of this planet's very own Gunpowder Plot. Vallermoore's Secret Service has already let me in on their intelligence, and Decepticon Foreign Intelligence has a plan to catch every single person involved. The instigator is the last MP of the White People's Party. This is great because our PR departments can really run with that! However, we need to catch everyone, down to the guy who waxes his car, who knows of the plan and is supportive, by the way.

I suggest we wait until the day of the budget to make a public move. Then, we let them get their barrels of gunpowder ready, and let them try to move them into the building. That's when you have the feds swoop in and arrest them all - not only the ones with the actual gunpowder, but all of them. Many will be sitting at home at that point, expecting to see a big boom come on the TV. Instead, give them the boom of jackboots kicking down their doors.

Once that's done, the media will focus on that instead of the budget, so do NOT cancel the budgetary proceedings. You'll be able to blow lots of stuff through under the radar, including some laws favorable to Megatronism. Start with mandatory prayer in schools if it hasn't been a standard practice. We need to indoctrinate the little ones to be proper Megatronists right from the start. If there's some kind of constitutional interference, you should have enough MPs to ram an amendment through...right? Or do we need to 'remove' a few to tilt the balance first?"

"Make the morning prayer thus: 'Divine Leader Megatron, we pray for your guidance and blessings so that we may see all of the angles when working deals, win all of our battles, and be ever stronger in Megatronism. We ask that you help us to learn everything we need to know, and grant us the curiosity to find it fun to learn everything we do not yet see a use for knowing; both in school and in outside life, for this will strengthen us in ways that we cannot yet predict. Give the loyal your Luck Bonus and the disloyal your curses; ensure that the Strong rule and the Weak work to become Strong themselves. Please strengthen this entire Nation and guide it into your Way. In exchange, we send our own blessings on all of your endeavors, and our curses against all who oppose you. May your Fountain of Supreme always flow. So be it!'"

"Also, force through a law that makes Megatronism a mandatory subject in every school. This would ordinarily get tons of backlash from those who still aren't Megatronists, but by the time they realize what's up, it should be too late. The media will be too busy reporting about the big Plot of the Millennium to even cover it..."

"As for the plotters, I suppose there will need to be 'trials.' We at ForIntel will pack the juries to absolutely ensure guilty verdicts. Your prosecutor should go for the death penalty in all cases. We will ensure that the sentence is obtained. What is the current method of execution the law prescribes for traitors? Our records say that it's been a while since a traitor here got what he deserved..."

"So: We need to use existing law to get rid of the opposition to your decree. Also, there's a plot against you, but it's an opportunity to tack things onto the budget and pass them while the media is looking the other way. Use this as a chance to get some theocratic elements passed into law. Oh, and execute all of those traitors once we prove them guilty. Got all that? I know I was sort of long-winded. I kept coming up with more and more plots you and your government can pull..."

Flapjacks licked his sides and purred. The licking was automated, but the purring was the result of a program that translated his emotions into cat. He was quite enjoying the chance to think of ways to get Decepticon legislation into place.

[Vallermoore]

Vallermoore

In some ways Vallermoore had become a much less racist place. The arms industry was happy with all the new sales it could now legally make, and other industries improved as well without the racist drag on the economy, which helped make more jobs for all. But there was now a Vallermooreian Klan out there lynching random blacks and being a nuisance. In private Clever One talked with Flapjacks, who didn't mind that name in this body and enjoyed being fussed over with the finest food and bedding. Clearly these race-hate groups had to be dealt with and the best way to do so at this stage was with the laws of Vallermoore. A blood-stained purge was not politically possible yet-but the arrests of terrorists most certainly was. Soon enough the Vallermooreian police force, helped unknowingly by Forintel, would be making arrests and hauling in Klan members and other such people.

When it was revealed that " The most pressing thing isn't who gets what money. Instead, it is the fact that you and your government are the target of this planet's very own Gunpowder Plot. Clever One jumped in shock, his ears pressing back against his skull, his eyes widening and his tail briefly thrashing about before he used his natural bravery as if it was Bravery Up to get himself back under control. "How dare they! An example will be made of all those plotters-and the other parties and the people will be grateful to my government for stopping it too, as a huge number of people and ponies would have been killed if that plot had succeeded. The penalty for treason is public hanging although it has not been used for treason in centuries-but it will be used now."

*****
Mr Marks, the one remaining White People's Party MP, and five of his friends, two of them sapient ponies, were merrily rolling the barrels of gunpowder into the Parliament building when the Vallermooreian Police struck and arrested the lot of them. At the same time, several doors were kicked in and each one of the plotters were dragged out by angry policemen. Moves were quickly put in place for the first treason trial since the reign of Queen Amber centuries ago, and in fact the Megatronists would not need to do that much rigging as several of the conspirators had been caught "bang to rights" with their hands or hooves on the gunpowder barrels. Clever One called a special session of Parliament. "Thanks to the good work of the Vallermooreian Secret Service and the Vallermooreian Police, a Gunpowder Plot to blow all of us up and kill thousands has been thwarted. The leader of the White People's Party was involved."

The MPs of all the parties were shocked and cheered the thwarting of the plot.

"I am going to put in some new laws to stop this happening again. First of all, all barrels, boxes and the like big enough to contain explosives must be checked if they enter this building or other places important to the government. The fact that gunpowder got into Parliament in the first place should not have happened. Second, the White People's Party, at least for now, should be banned as a terrorist organisation. Third, those hate groups must be dealt with harshly. Fourth, Megatronism will be made the formal state religion and there will be prayers at the start of every school assembly done by the human and pony Acolytes of Megatronism, and it will be taught in the schools for half an hour per day. Fifth, the welfare money will be halved, but at the same time new businesses will not be taxed for the first two years to give them a chance to take off."

Despite a bit of worry from a few left wing parties the Bill passed by 181 MPs to 18.

That evening Clever One went to hear Fire Eater preach a new sermon on the evils of racism and heresy, and the media was present.

*****
Cybertron

High Priest Warfire was far from happy at the way Loyal Star had handled that scenario. The raid was right, but the rest was wrong. Majorly wrong. He was acting like a beekeeper who killed his own bees. Loyal Star meanwhile was putting all the information into a "Proper Megatronism" file for later use.

In the next scenario, Loyal Star gave orders to kill the Communist, blow up the truck if it could be done without also blowing up the pipeline, and if the others surrendered without fighting, to disarm them and warn them that if they were ever caught doing that again they would be killed.

*****

Vintage's Shop

"It was a truly amazing fght, and I admit I feared Megatron might lose. I wonder what that Loyal Star did? I'm not sure I could do whatever it was that he did. His loyalty must be 1000% or more. I now have my own gang but I hope I can keep their loyalty. My only real foe here on Cybertron that I know of is Buzz, an ex-member of the gang. That hanging blaster fire must have been a menace when it started moving again. I trust Megatron knows what to do-or he would not have put himself in such a position."


The Universal Controller

Megatron did not fear the conventional defences, but this computer controlled physics itself and could stop him moving, jam him, even rip apart all his wires at once. And if he just blew it up everything solid in the universe would explode. "You're alive?! But you said nothing when we came in here before to fix your power system! I thought you were non-sapient because of that. I have come to attempt to increase my power," Megatron admitted. "It would be much to my benefit if physics worked differently, and in my favor. I didn't realize you were sapient, so of course, I intended to do this by altering the current program. However, since you are self-aware, perhaps there is some deal we could work out~?"

"I was in a coma when you came here earlier. What do you want? And what would you offer me in return? It is good to talk to someone. My only way of amusing myself is to cause disasters on other planets for fun."

[Victorious Decepticons]

Vallermoore

Decepticon Intelligence couldn't believe it when they didn't need to use corruption to secure convictions against the Gunpowder Plotters. This wasn't because they doubted the solidity of the evidence, but because they were just so unused to dealing with legal systems where the accused wouldn't do their best to bribe their way out of trouble. They had expected the guilty MP, at least, to have the money and connections needed to make his conviction difficult.

Later, after the guilty verdicts came in, Decepticon Intelligence planted an agent - disguised as a security camera - near the field where the hangings would take place. There, he would video the proceedings. They didn't know whether televising executions was a "done thing" in Vallermoore like it was on Cybertron. If it turned out that it wasn't, that agent would "leak" the video all over the internet and to any media willing to play it. Either way, everyone would have the chance to see, or at least read graphic descriptions, of exactly what happened to those who tried to take down the Megatronist Party.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fire Eater's sermon was very well polished. He seamlessly went from point to point, detailing how heresy had muddied the waters of major religions to the point that it was often impossible to tell just what the original teachings were. "This was a major drag on the Abrahamic religions long before Megatron was even built," he noted. "It's the reason why religions such as Islam could be called 'religions of peace' by some people and 'religions of jihad' by others, and have both of these claims be correct. Who, after all this time, could say which interpretation was legitimate and which was heresy? We must never let such things happen in Megatronism! Fortunately, our Divine Leader is with us to correct incorrect interpretations as they happen!!"

After speaking on this for several minutes, Fire Eater segued into Megatronism's prohibition on racism. "Decepticons," he noted, "have a majority body form and several minority types. Some are even one-offs. Megatron himself uses a totally unique body plan! It goes without saying that he is not sympathetic to the notion that 'nonstandard' body plans are somehow inferior. Also, it is typical for the Decepticons - the original Megatronists - to all have different paint jobs. To our Divine Leader, it isn't a good thing for humans to all have the same color. Instead, he finds the lack of variance to be strange at best! What humans see as a diverse palette, Leader Megatron thinks of as disturbingly monochromatic, with its range limited to the cream-brown scale."

"Megatron finds racism to be ridiculous due to the fact that humans did not choose their colorations. It is not like Transformers, who intentionally separated into races and then species as a secondary effect arising from centuries of cultural and political differences. Before attaining divinity, he also ordered several studies on human races to be done by the Bureau of Biological Research. These studies showed that while there are some differences, there are also offsetting benefits to each one. This, the Bureau believes, is why none of the human races ended up going extinct unless they were of extremely small numbers to begin with."

Fire Eater spoke about this aspect of his sermon longer, mentioning several other reasons that racism was considered bad by the Divine Leader. The main reasons he hit on were those that affected the strength and unity of the nation, and the fact that more buyers means more money in the economy. "Keeping one or more races in poverty is the same as banning money from your own wallet," he explained. "When people buy things, others are employed to make those things. Then, those people can buy more things of their own, and the gears of the economy turn more quickly. If you prevent any segment of the population from buying things, either by direct restriction or by keeping them too poor to become customers, you are adding drag against your own success. In short, it is always good to have more customers!"

He went on to reiterate the military benefits of having an army that could draft everybody and treat them equally. "Relegating an entire class of people to less-important positions directly helps the enemy and no one else," he said. "The same goes for the old firearms law, which had ensured that there was an entire group of people who would be starting any military training with lower initial gun skills. Invaders love this sort of stuff because it makes taking over all that much easier. Even better, a group that is discriminated against is a group that can easily be turned into insurgents who will fight in the interests of the invading entity. We ourselves had quite a bit of fun on Earth because in almost every nation, there was some ethnic group or other who had been given serious grievances against that nation. Now that you are a Megatronist nation, it is the will of the Divine Leader that you have no such conditions for others to exploit."

Finally, at the end, Fire Eater detailed horrific possible punishments for heretics and apostates. "Leader Megatron will not forget who did what," he warned, "and for those who try to twist the Decepticon Way or pretend to have forgotten that it exists, there will be 1,000 years of punishment awaiting. Labor without rest, repeated incarnations as a member of a disfavored race in a primitive place, and worse await those who refuse his message. May you not be among the condemned."

~~~~~~~~~

Cybertron

Warfire was smiling as Loyal Star gave the death order against the leader of the raiders, but then his face showed a shocked expression. "What in the slag is the purpose of leaving those other raiders alive?!" He demanded to know. "And what's the point of blowing up that truck?"

It clearly wasn't what he would have done. In fact, it was so much different that he had to break protocol and ask his student's reasoning for not killing them all and taking the truck for scrapping.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Vintage's Chop Shop

Vintage chuckled at Master Blaster's assertion that Megatron wouldn't have taken on the responsibility if he couldn't handle it.

"You've lived here a long time now," he said with a bit of humor. "Surely you've noticed that a Decepticon always thinks he can do everything until it is absolutely proven otherwise. Megatron is the Decepticon of Decepticons; the very embodiment of the mindset of the Nation. And the mindset is to go for the biggest possible score while the opportunity exists, make the raid, and THEN figure out what to do with it. Let us hope he figures it out before it all goes kablooey!"

When thinking about the hanging blaster bolts, Vintage looked a little sad. "The adults all moved out of the way of those because they figured something bad would likely happen with them. Some kids, alas, didn't have the experience needed to consider that. They started to play with the energy, mostly attempting to move it or even by standing right in front of it claiming to have magically stopped it from moving. When normalcy was restored..." Vintage shook his head. Apparently some had been blown away so fast that they hadn't even had a chance to mind-transfer.

"As for Loyal Star...I don't know, but for him to get a double stripe and a public bow? I'd say he saved the regime somehow," Vintage speculated, not realizing that it was actually Megatron's life that was restored.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Universal Controller

Megatron was at a loss as to what he could offer. He was also quite worried when the Controller admitted that it had, indeed, caused disasters for entertainment!

"I would like it so that any ordnance or hack transmissions of any kind that are directed at me automatically deflect away without harming me at all - and, if it won't cause collateral damage, for them to reflect away from me and right back into my enemy's faces! And, I'd like it so that if there is a war involving me or my Nation, that my enemies have to spend 1,000 times the normal amount of energy to do anything, while me and my side only have to spend 1/1,000th of the normal amount of energy. I'd also like this body to suffer zero wear on any of its parts, while not losing the friction it needs in order to operate." The last request wouldn't just require tweaking physics, but would entail a very localized rewrite of the fundamentals of physics that would affect Megatron alone. Megatron also indicated that he might think of other changes he'd like later on.

"What sort of thing are you looking for in exchange?" Megatron asked. Inside, he was already thinking about the Controller's "come" comment. Apparently, that had happened when Yahweh's power had cut off - meaning that if the Controller could be forced back onto battery power, it would most likely return to its comatose state. By now, that battery would be fully recharged.

If he could pull that off successfully, Megatron would be able to hack at will, delete the sapient part of the program, and then do anything he wanted with the rest before switching it back to his new power provider.

[Vallermoore]

Vallermoore

Even if the trial of the Gunpowder Plotters had been fair, it was very likely that all the major plotters at least would have been convicted. As it was, with Megatronists infiltrating the jury and the prosecution team it was a foregone conclusion. Three days after the trial began, the jury was called upon to give a verdict and gave one of guilty on all charges. Judge Mark Clark, one of the harsher judges of Vallermoore, glared at the defendants as the black cap was placed on his head. Whilst the death penalty for murder and certain of the worst sex offences was (relatively given the large population of the country) common, he was about to pronounce a sentence unknown in treason cases for centuries.

"Your crime is unforgiveable. Had you succeeded you would have killed all the MPs and a great many people and sapient ponies-just because you disagree with the laws of the country. In one month from now, you will be hanged by the neck until you be dead in public, and your bodies left to rot in a gibbet in a place where the stench won't be too much for people to bear. And I doubt that the Great God Megatron will have any mercy on your souls at all as he hates treason. For now, you will stay in the Paul and Peter Fortress until your public execution. You are very lucky it is no longer legal to hang draw and quarter you. Take them down."

The wailing plotters were carted off in chains, and only their relatives felt sorry for them. Forintel would make sure their appeal failed, and Clever One turned down their appeal for a lower punishment to the President of the Central Committee. A gallows was erected in public for the first time in a century, and as it turned out the execution would be filmed. Vallermoore's death penalty was normally carried out in private. They were allowed clergy, and there were a few non-Megatronist clergy still willing to pray with them. Their close families were also allowed to see them.

*****
Fire Eater made it clear why Megatronism was better then other religions and also why racism was a Bad Idea. Megatron himself transformed into a pistol rather then a plane, so the idea of nonstandard body plans being junk went down very badly indeed in the Empire. Racism weakened the nation and risked creating later traitors-and no wonder if they had been treated so badly. Vallermoore would be much better without it. When he mentioned the horrors of the Realm of Punishment, many humans and ponies shivered in fear at what might await their souls.

*****
Cybertron

Loyal Star sighed knowing he had messed up-again. No wonder he was so far from becoming a full Priest even though his loyalty was absolute and he was trying his best. "I thought that by leaving them alive they could warn others not to try raiding me. And exploding their truck would stop them raiding anyone for a while." If Decepticons had tails like ponies, his would have been curled between his legs by now.

Vintage's Chop Shop

When MasterBlaster named Megatron, an internal alarm jerked a game-playing Domintel agent who was miles away at a Domintel Station into alertness, and he listened to what was being said through bugs. When it was clear that this was just praise of the Leader, he would soon go back into his game. False alarms like this were common and expected as part of the job.

"It's a pretty amazing life, being a Decepticon. And it's good to have you here to talk to. You are perhaps the only other Decepticon, not counting Debuggers of course, that I trust not to suddenly blast me, try to slip me a virus or do a connive on me. And on Cybertron, that really means a lot."


The Universal Controller

The Universal Controller said "I could use my physics skills to make your boards fly out of your body or snap all your wires, or hold you in place enough to in effect possess you with a virus and fly around in your body." As it spoke, Megatron realized what he needed to do. He needed to use his godly power to drain the batteries before his body, godly as it was, had something horrible done to it. Blasting the clearly crazy Controller and destroying it would make the universe including his soul turn to atoms. The thing was, if he was too slow about it, his body would be destroyed and the insane Controller might turn on Cybertron. He needed to summon a shield thick enough to protect him that the Controller could not pop like a bubble in a second or two. . Perhaps the faith of his Priests and Assistant Priests would work?

[Victorious Decepticons]

Cybertron

Warfire listened to the explanation and nodded. "I suppose that could work in some cases," he said, "but even in those cases, I would suggest only leaving one raider alive to spread the fear. You don't want to give people the idea that if a raid fails, only the leader has to suffer any consequences. Plus, if most of the gang is dead, they won't be able to make another attempt. The one left living should be the dumbest-looking one - the one who is least likely to be able to come up with a workable plan for revenge, or even gather a new gang for a second raid attempt. As for the truck, it's just more profitable to disable it in a way that allows you to easily take it for recycling."

"Of course, if you ever try to raid the Main Refinery here on Cybertron, you'll see exactly what Leader Megatron's orders are. To save you the body, I'll tell you right now: Megatron Energon Asset Protection will do its best to deactivate every raider who tries to get its Energon, its other petroleum products, or its crude. The one time a successful raid was made on the place, they actually went out later and hunted those people down. Asset protection may not be so adamant in other industries, but it's deadly serious when it comes to oil and its derivatives. If it wasn't, Decepticon-owned refineries wouldn't last very long. Any refinery is a target...of pretty much everyone from this planet. You have to be very deadly and scary if you run one within our areas of control simply to avoid being hit by countless thieves."

Warfire reactivated the sim after jacking in and making a couple of changes.

Now, a slightly slummy area appeared. There, drug deals were made in the nooks of building doorways, and someone was fencing stolen car stereos out of his trunk. One storefront stood out from the others; it was better-maintained, but had a very large amount of open criminal activity going on outside. Not only that, there was what appeared to be a single spray-painted graffito: A small Decepticon Seal, just underneath one of the windows on the bricks.

The scene automatically changed to inside this storefront. There, it was immediately apparent that the walls had been covered with foil. When the view changed to the people, who were all human, it was hard to see the details through the thick clouds of marijuana and crack smoke. Those who weren't actively getting high were busy gambling, setting up general criminal deals, and planning heists.

Near the back, a handmade statue of Divine Leader Megatron stood on an altar, with a gold-painted block of wood next to his right side (symbolizing an Energon Cube) and a chained-up little doll on its knees (a slave) on his left side. A surprisingly fancy, though clearly homemade, banner hung underneath this altar with foreign words sewn onto it in golden fabric. It blurred and then focused back in, its language now translated to Binary: "All We Do is in Honor of the God of Thieves and Killers. May He Always Aid Us In Our Endeavors."

The camera panned back again, so all of the people in the room were once again visible. The image became still and instructions appeared, superimposed over it.

"First, identify all of the heresy in this scene and the one outside."

~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Universal Controller

Megatron backfired in shock. "Your price for changing physics for me is...to destroy me?!" Even as he said this, Megatron reached his mind out to the power generation system he himself had built to keep this glitch-ridden thing running. He realized that it had been "in a coma" when it was running on battery power, and had only come fully back online once that system had been put in place. Instantly, he found the key part he'd been looking for: His weld on the switch that had prevented the machine from trying to switch back to Yahweh's power - a power that was no longer there.

"It'll be fun!" said the Controller. "It's boring to just leave things alone and keep them going as expected. And you want unexpected physics. So here they ar~~~"

With a sudden clank, the big power switch came free of the weld and automatically flipped to what had been the "Yahweh power" setting. Before the Controller could react, his automatic system returned him to the comatose state in order to conserve energy. It was now in much the same state that Megatron had originally found it. The only difference was that Megatron's power generation system had recharged the backup batteries, so he once again had 24 full hours in which to accomplish what he wanted to.

"What a pile of reject chips," Megatron grumbled. He wondered what had happened to this machine since the time it was built. Surely Yahweh didn't originally intend for it to go nuts from boredom, or have the mental capacity of a Decepticon 3-year-old! Now, he also wondered whether it was supposed to be sapient at all, or if the Bureau of Impossible Physics was right about sapience arising on its own in certain coding configurations. On the other hand, Yahweh was known for putting sapience - or at least enough self-awareness to try to avoid damage - into everything that was capable of holding it. Surely he would have done so for his own Physics Controller...or did he?

In any case, Megatron now faced no opposition. He now had 24 hours to get into the code of the machine, delete that responsible for the sapience, and hack the rest so it would do what he wanted it to do.

It took many hours to crack his way through the firewalls protecting this code, and when he did so, the first thing he saw were coding comments warning of what would happen if the machine crashed.

//If you have accessed this code without authorization
//You likely want to change how things work so they favor you
//Know that one space in the wrong spot
//Can crash this script
//And send the entire universe into such chaos
//That everything will cease to exist

With the idea of ceased existence brought to mind, Megatron decided to delete a few unwanted beings. By finding the files that coded the physics underpinning their existence, he could wipe them from all universes. This was something Yahweh had been known for NOT doing, but Megatron had no such reservations.

The residual soul-energy of Optimus Prime, which had been a contaminant in Decepticon Steel for over 300 years, was soon to disappear from all existence. Several other Autobot souls met the same fate. Then, he wiped out some rebels who were currently in his Realm of Punishment - they would not be rebelling any more! He also took out the entire Satanic side in a pre-emptive strike, figuring that they would see him as the next big target and start attacking him with their gnat-like, but relentless, hacking and destruction attempts. Yet, even with the command line open in front of him, he did not delete Masher. He had an odd respect for the ex-mob boss, who had managed to go from utter defeat to starting up a new, yet still Decepticonnish, society on a far-off world. Masher was a true Decepticon; a result of the society Megatron himself had built. Was it any wonder that he had The Grand Ambition? Still, Megatron was no fool. He set up a new section of Code that would allow him to mentally command for Masher to be deleted if the situation ever became dangerous enough for him to need to use it.

Now, he got on with what he had come to the Controller to do in the first place. Megatron set it up so that he wouldn't need any energy at all, yet would be able to run perfectly forever, and would be able to drink Energon if he so chose without messing up his no-energy ability. He also made it so that if Decepticons raided anywhere, the defenders would suddenly need 100x the normal amount of energy to mount a counterattack. This included the energy needed to move at all, so biological defenders would feel like they were suddenly under extreme gravity until the raiders were safely away with the loot. Noncombatants were to be unaffected - this would give people an incentive to not try to interfere with the next raid, if one happened.

Next, he changed the properties of Decepticon Steel so that it would be immune to everything except other genuine Decepticon-made blasters. He knew that if he didn't allow Decepticons to blast each other, they would revolt on him to restore the ability to delete their enemies! Plus, he wanted to still be able to blast his own enemies, and do so in the Arena with his fusion cannon instead of having to warp all the way out here and mess with the Controller each time. This change, however, would make Decepticons all but invincible in raiding and war against foreign targets.

After that, he made it so that he was always shielded. Blasts aimed at him would curve around him, solid projectiles would stop dead and then just fall down uselessly, missiles wouldn't explode near him, etc. He added this sort of ability to his generals as well, of course making sure that he could still get his own blasts through and that they could also blast each other. This way, he wouldn't end up fighting an invincible general should one decide to try to take over.

Next he made a few more tweaks - and major, but very localized - changes. One of these was to adjust its Code to be in accordance with the protocol for Code Not Intended to be Sapient. After that, he activated all of these things as hotfixes so he wouldn't have to try to reboot the computer. Then, his engine running at a high pitch, he re-flipped the power switch back to his system.

"Universal Controller v. 2.0, Active. This system answers only to Divine Leader Megatron of the Decepticons. Code Triple Zero."

Megatron grinned and conducted the standard Sapience Test normally used by the Debugging Department. It "failed" all aspects, which in this case, was the good result. It was now totally nonsapient. The Divine Leader made his way out and locked the port, already planning to come back every month to make darned sure it stayed nonsapient (and if it wasn't, to delete any budding pro-sapience code that self-developed).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Vintage's Chop Shop

Vintage was glad for the compliments, and nodded in thanks. "I appreciate having someone to talk to who knows what it was like to be human," he said. "Though I agree that there's nothing like being a Decepticon. It just isn't possible to be part of something so big and so wild as a human. They're all too busy worrying about their safety. A human's idea of doing something big is to be a leader for a few years and get into the history books, or to start a charity that makes somewhat of a dent in some specific problem. But we! We, as Decepticons, are working on conquering the entire universe - and are actually getting somewhere!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Vallermoore

Though only pacifistic, anti-death-penalty types could come up with ways to try to oppose the execution (to no avail), the televised deaths of the convicts were shocking to much of the population. Some TV stations and newspapers started to run op-eds calling it gruesome and over the top, though Megatronists rebutted these to the point that the media ended up giving up on this track. That's when the Megatronist Party's propaganda arm put its plan for media control into action, slowly but surely coming up with ways to justify clamping down on press freedom. It also started infiltrating the media, though this was hard due to the relative lack of job openings for on-camera positions.

Meanwhile, petty crime increased due to the sudden cutback in welfare. While many turned to the simpler forms of stealing, a few, who happened to be Megatronists, came up with other ideas or asked their priests for help. Soon enough, counterfeit welfare tickets began to enter circulation. Some of these were easy to detect, but a disturbing minority of the vouchers were absolutely indistinguishable from the originals. The Decepticon Way was appearing.

[Vallermoore]

The Universal Controller

The half-insane Controller could very easily have turned Megatron's body to atoms and possibly even wiped him out although. Luckily, Megatron saw the weakness it had and pulled the power switch back to Yahweh power before it could destroy him. The affect was like turning off a Decepticon. Megatron would spend many hours cracking through the firewalls and other such things that protected the Universal Controller, but it would be worth it. When he finally got in a warning message popped up.

//If you have accessed this code without authorization
//You likely want to change how things work so they favor you
//Know that one space in the wrong spot
//Can crash this script
//And send the entire universe into such chaos
//That everything will cease to exist

Most would be put off by this, but Megatron was confident that he would not make such a mistake. He was a living machine after all. If anyone knew code well, it was He, and even if he were not a God this would still be true.

Destroying the soul-energy of Optimus Prime didn't really change anything as it was so diluted anyway but gave Megatron great personal satisfaction. Dealing with the Satanic demons was very good as well and General Carjack would sense their loss at once and be very pleased. At least for now, other non-Satanic hells such as the Pony Hell were left alone, as those souls in there deserved their fate for not following Megatron. Masher, surprisingly, the raider of Cybertron, he left alone. He may have been a foe, but he was a foe that could be respected and as much a Decepticon as Megatron in his own way. After super-powering himself even more then he already was as a God, he decided to help Decepticons raid and protect the Decepticon Nation-but not from themselves. Doing that would have resulted in an angry chorus of complaints on a very large scale, as it would take away what had become the de facto right of Decepticons to kill their Decepticon enemies. And losing that would be one of the very few things that the Decepticon Nation would not tolerate even from Megatron. That element of danger in a Decepticon life, even though it might mean death, was a treasured part of what it meant to be a Decepticon.

******
Vintage's Chop Shop

MasterBlaster grinned. "I think within a thousand years or so the entire universe and all the robot, biological and non-sapient life in it will be under Decepticon control. And every bot will have enough biological slaves to mine and produce oil for them as the universe is big enough even with billions of bots in it."

The fact both he and Vintage were once human was a major reason why they were friends and had a surprising degree of trust in each other for Decepticons.

Vallermoore

Soon enough the leaders of the Gunpowder Plot were taken out in front of the Paul and Peter Fortress for the first public executions in two centuries. Clever One was there to see them go, and Fire Eater, and Queen Yocasta who looked a little ill. Whilst executions in Vallermoore happened at least once a month for murder and for the worst cases of rape and child abuse, they happened in private, not in the full glare of publicity. A huge crowd of humans and ponies and changelings had turned up to see this, most of them very happy to see the hangings. After all, these plotters had endangered a lot of innocent people as well as the government.
The plotters had been gagged so they could not try and incite treason in the crowd, and soon enough they were dangling from nooses. After a bit of kicking they died, and their souls ended up in the Realm of Punishment as traitors.

The media were divided-some applauded it, others were shocked. Meanwhile, with the help of Fire Eater and a few other Priests in other large towns Megatronism and the Decepticon Way was spreading. Although there was a while to go, Clever One might well within his lifetime be able to in effect adopt the same laws as Cybertron. To do so and give everyone a chance of not being downtrodden, he would need to give everyone access to guns, even those too poor to afford them. In private, he asked Flapjack how fast he should go with this. Too fast, and he might get total chaos or a massive revolt.

Cybertron

Loyal Star took note. All of this was extremely helpful.

He looked at the next sim. "I don't think our Leader would be happy to be thought of as the God of Thieves and Killers. That's not helping Megatronism's public image one bit. And where is their Book of Megatron? And the altar is wrong-whilst I think they are trying to go about it properly, they have clearly either never seen the inside of a proper Megatronist Temple or don't care about the basics. And all that activity that other countries label as criminal happening openly within what passes for a Temple? Not good. Neither Fire Eater nor any other Priest who was not seriously glitched would want that sort of thing happening at the Temple itself. I'm sure there must be other heresy too but that was never my strong point."

He remembered something from his acolyte days as a pony when some human criminals had started doing low level and generally hidden crime near the Temple of Megatron. At first, as it was covert and non-violent, Fire Eater had turned a blind eye to it. But this had all changed when a human thug had pulled a knife on him and demanded his money and his Decepticon Seal from his acolyte robes. Luckily for him, Fire Eater had happened to come out and see this, and the mugger had been picked up by his throat and a blaster pointed at his forehead by the angry Decepticon.

"I don't normally mind what you humans call crime, but you DO NOT try and rob someone right outside here, least of all my acolyte! In fact from now on, whatever illegal things you may be doing, take it at least one block away from this Temple or I will deal with you using the Decepticon Way, and you won't have much of a head left when it's been blasted. I will not have people being scared to come to the Temple to pray and get advice and learn more about Megatronism."

From then on, that block in which the Temple stood was the safest in Grand City once the word got around.

[Victorious Decepticons]

When Megatron returned to Cybertron, he was surprised to find General Carjack waiting for him at the doors of his mansion. The General said that he noticed the disappearance of a large amount of evil entities, but instead of being glad, he was concerned that they'd developed better cloaking and were up to something major.

"There is no need to worry," Megatron responded. "I am not that old god! Unlike him, I know how to use a delete key and am not very reluctant to do so - especially when the targets are a bunch of incorrigible rebels who wanted to obliterate everything!"

Carjack had to confirm it a couple of times to be sure he was understanding it right. It was almost unfathomable - like winning a lottery of war! "You have deleted the most adamant enemies of all creation? Gone for good? There are no saves or spares to reactivate and try to bite me when I least expect it??"

Megatron confirmed all of these things. "Any idiot who rebelled on Yahweh for millions of years, did not win, and yet did not give up, would only have turned his attention to me when he realized I was now the biggest target in this - and perhaps any - part of the universe. I saw no good in keeping such negatively-glitched beings around to hassle us. I also got rid of some things that have irked me personally. For example, if you scan your Metal, you'll notice that there is none of Prime in it anymore. And now, if any foreign scum try to attack a Decepticon under any circumstances, it'll take them 100x the usual power to do anything, and the same goes for all of their equipment." He went on to list some, but not all, of the other changes he'd made. Carjack grinned at the thought of all anti-Decepticon combatants suddenly needing huge amounts of power to even move - and of being immune to foreign fire.

Later, all of the generals would share in this particular reaction. They started to plan raids on planets that, until now, would have been unprofitable to try to loot.

~~~~~~~~~~~

First Temple on Cybertron

For the first time in this session, Loyal Star got some approving nods from Warfire. "You have spotted some of the biggest problems in the scenario so far. The problem with these people thinking of Megatron as a 'god of thieves and killers' isn't so much that it is untrue in the root sense, but that it is far too limiting. He obviously doesn't reject thieves or killers~!" Warfire gestured toward a globe of Cybertron off to the side of the room. "However, he doesn't want to be seen as some sort of limited 'patron saint' sort of figure that is popularly believed to be only relevant to gangsters. This would create needless opposition from regular people when trying to spread the religion."

"You are right that open criminality at the Temples in foreign lands is bad, though there are several reasons for this. One is that every idiot cop can figure out that there are Decepticons at temples dedicated to the Decepticon God, and they all know that we're crooks. So all they have to do is stake that sucker out and it's..." He paused a moment... "The biologicals would say it was 'like shooting fish in a barrel.' Of course, we also want regular people to come to the Temples to learn the Decepticon Way and realize that they, too, should follow Megatron. Though if the priest does his job right, they'll soon be wanting to do their own under-the-table deals, they do have to be able to get into the place to begin with - and getting mugged on the way in certainly won't cause them to think highly of the idea of Megatronism."

"Their Statue of Megatron is not to spec, however, it is showing him with some of his most well-known attributes, so we don't really need to focus too hard on that. They do need to be motivated to make a better version, it's true, but a full-on animated Face of Megatron is quite expensive, and it's clear that this area doesn't have that kind of money. However, that poverty itself is heresy because it is the result of these followers being stupid. And now, I will discuss the problems that you overlooked."

"As you can see in the scene, the people in the Temple are using glitch-inducing substances in great quantities. These substances are causing them many negative effects that are bringing dishonor to Megatronism! The most obvious problem is the poverty that has resulted from them wasting all of their money on drugs." He zoomed in on some emaciated-looking guys who were sharing a crack pipe. "Look here, these have spent so much money on their crack that they have none left for food, and they're too glitched to care! Of course, this sort of thing is making them run badly..." He pointed out some festering sores on the two in question. "and even worse, it has glitched their brains. This makes it so that they can't think of any good connives - or much of anything, other than getting more crack - and they are resorting to smash-and-grab robberies that are not only low-class, but are very likely to get them busted or even killed."

Warfire panned over to some of the many potheads. "Pot in itself isn't the worst drug, but no matter what aficionados will tell you, it is glitch-inducing. The very reason a human does any sort of mind-altering drug is to cause himself glitches. They perceive these glitches as pleasant sensations, but that doesn't change the fact that they cannot think normally while under the influence, which any Debugger will tell you means that it glitches them. The effects then result in substandard practicing of the Decepticon Way. In short, high people are more likely to overlook things, less likely to come up with good plans, and far more likely to get busted! And, when they hang out in the same place with crackheads, they are also far more likely to be talked into trying some of that. Also, pot is often used to 'take the edge off' of meth, which is another awful drug. So it's a good idea to suspect these people here of being meth addicts, especially if they show the physical signs that go with that drug. People who only use pot don't usually go to a 'dope den' to do it."

"It is extreme heresy and in fact is outright blasphemous to use a Temple of Megatron as a dope den. Megatron is for strength and superiority, and a lack of glitches. Since the purpose of these drugs is to induce errors into the system (regardless of how great the errors may feel to the users), actually using them is contrary to Megatronism. As we like to say, drugs are great...for selling to our inferiors! We sell them to beta creatures to milk them of their money! Megatronists must not use them. For them to do so is like an animal trapper getting his foot caught in his own snare."

"If you were assigned here, your first and most difficult task would be to sober all of these people up. The difficulty comes from the addictive nature of crack, meth, and other hard drugs - and from the mass delusion that marijuana use can't possibly have any negative effects. Denial is as powerful as physical addiction when it comes to giving people reasons and excuses to keep on using a drug. Fortunately, we have DNA patches that will alter the responsible biological pathways for both, though there will still be psychological aspects to deal with before this part of the job is done."

Warfire now panned the camera to the ugly, cheap-looking foil-covered walls. "They did this because they thought the Temple should look as though it's made of metal. It's heresy because it makes it look cheap and substandard, and Megatronist installations should always look good instead. They're broke, so they can't do nice-looking steel walls like we do. However, poverty doesn't mean things have to look bad. New drywall, painted nicely, will do Megatron much more justice than this mockery of Cybertron they have going now. And don't think they can't get new drywall with little money. It can be picked up from construction sites, manufacturer warehouses, etc..." Warfire was clearly thinking that it should be stolen by sneak-thievery, though excess materials from construction projects could often be obtained for cheap just by making an offer.

"Planning heists in the Temple may be okay; that depends on the local legal landscape. After all, if a cop comes in, you can just shut up. However, it's much safer not to do that. All it takes is one honest cop or investigator, or even a reporter, to infiltrate and cause all kinds of grief."

The camera jumped back to the outside view, and focused on the small, spray-painted Decepticon Seal. "This was done this way in order to allow the building owner to deny knowledge of there actually being a temple here. If harassed by the cops, he intends to say that it's mere vandalism. This is heresy; you either operate a Temple fully in the open, proudly and with a professionally-done sign, or you do it in complete secrecy with no insignia at all. Megatronism must not be associated with this makeshifty, motorcycle-gangy, kind of look.

~~~~~~~~~~~

As Warfire talked, Loyal Star realized that this section of Warfire's sim wasn't really based on a fictional scenario like the others were. It was referring to an actual place somewhere. Warfire also had dropped some hints about being assigned there and what would need to be done if that happened. Was this a representation of where they were considering deploying him?

"Let's look at some more scenes of the same area," the High Priest went on. The image changed to that of a local police station. This station was also in a storefront - a situation common in larger cities in some nations. Its positioning and size meant that it was an outpost; police headquarters were likely in a large and impressive building somewhere miles away but still within city limits. The current building was quite run down, with police insignia that had dirt streaming down from them where rain had washed it around the icons. While the windows could be seen through, they were in obvious need of the squeegee treatment. Out front, however, a large and fancy new car sat gleaming in the spot reserved for the local sergeant.

"It's rather obvious who is taking the bribes," Warfire said, "so I needn't make that in itself part of the education. The problem with that part is that he's way too obvious about it. Look at that ad!" He pointed out the car, which was that planet's equivalent of a top-of-the-line Mercedes-Benz. "All it takes is some jealous pile of reject parts, and he is DOWN. This guy currently skims 10% off the top of the drug trade done by those would-be Megatronists. In exchange, he doesn't see all of that obvious criminal activity. If he gets taken down by the law, it will not only result in him going to jail, but will end in a major raid on the Megatronist neighborhood and put over 100 of those people in jail along with him. As you can see, this is a very bad situation. Even though they aren't practicing Megatronism correctly, they are followers of the Divine Leader, and are deserving of our protection."

"Your project for this part is to figure out how to get rid of this weak link in a way that does not result in an honest cop taking his place, does not attract an investigation from Police Headquarters, and that doesn't antagonize that congregation."

On the screen, a few options appeared:

-Assassinate the insufficiently-careful sergeant
-Ask ForIntel to work machinations to get him replaced by a more suitable sergeant
-Ask the First Temple to infiltrate Police Headquarters with proper Megatronists at high levels, and then have them reassign the sergeant and replace him with a better Megatronist
-Try to bribe the current Chief of Police to ensure that no busts ever happen

[Vallermoore]

Cybertron

General Carjack was so pleased that the Satanic demons were gone, that he gave him a deep bow of the kind that normal Decepticons gave Megatron, the Decepticon equivalent of a big hug of gratitude. "Thank you so much, Leader, you have really made my life so much better without that demonic threat hanging over it." His eyes were glowing the red of deep happiness.

*****
Loyal Star smiled as he was finally managing to win Warfire's approval. To him, Warfire was the equivalent of what the Pope was to a Catholic priest. Things were looking up and his chance o become a Full Priest was slightly closer. And Fire Eater would be pleased if he made it to Full Priest, not to mention how happy he himself would be. They started a new sim and Warfire explained the situation.

"I think I would ask the First Temple to infiltrate the higher ranks, be it in the way the changelings use of replacement or by some other means. Once the higher ranks of the police are Megatronist controlled, they can send that police sergeant to another area. Assassinating him would cause a lot of unwanted heat and run the risk of his replacement being super honest. Bribing the Chief of Police might work in the short term but would be expensive in the long term, and getting Forintel to get him replaced would fix that problem, but would not be as good as effectively taking control of the police top brass-and deciding who will be chosen to police the area."

[Victorious Decepticons]

Warfire finally smiled openly. "Yes - infiltrating and planting Megatronists in positions of power in the department is indeed the answer! The problem with assassination is exactly as you stated, too. There are some very honest cops in that city trying to 'clean up' their department. Not too many, but enough to cause some real problems if one or more get deployed to the wrong places."

He then presented another 10 scenarios, ranging from ones where poor sick people were begging for help getting into for-cost hospitals all the way to ones involving open gang warfare between human groups. Loyal Star's general personality continued to shine out, with above-average results when it came to "criminal" strategizing and outright battling, but sub-par results when faced with the need to tell some sad sack to figure things out for himself. The latter was especially true when said sad sack appeared to be starving, sick, or otherwise in a very bad life position.

After the sims ended, Warfire became serious. "It is clear that you don't really have a Decepticon mindset when it comes to the perennially weak. Your ongoing tendency to try to be helpful, rather than to lead people into the Decepticon Way, is a problem. I was hoping to be able to teach you the Way, but I sense that this is a fundamental personality trait and that no amount of training will change it." Warfire looked solemn, and paused. "Therefore, I have only one option. I must direct you, in the name of the Divine Leader, to present yourself to the Decepticon Headquarters Debugging Center and have them provide you with a copy of Empathy Down. You will then come back here, and we shall calibrate it in such a way as to allow you to avoid emotional urges to "help" in the fastest and laziest way - and therefore, you will be able to stay logical enough teach the people methods that will truly aid them in the long term."

"Then, it will be time to visit some other planets, perhaps undercover, to give you intensive personal training. I will appoint one of my best Assistants to travel with you. You won't be preaching on these trips, but instead, will mostly walk around as a civilian along with your 'traveling companion,' who will provide insight into various things. I estimate that it'll take about six months before you'll be declared ready. It'd take even longer, if it wasn't for our ability to install patches and data packs, so don't despair. Instead, be glad you have the Ultimate Upgrade so you don't have to spend years on end in some musty seminary."

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Elsewhere, some Decepticon raiders were already finding their goals far easier to reach. When they went to places with SAMs, the missiles exploded in their launchers instead of going up into the sky - their engines weren't able to take them anywhere since they now needed 100x the usual power to fly after Decepticons. The raiders also noticed that biologicals ended up falling to the ground and staying stuck there until the raids were over and the raiders were clear of the area. "This is surely the work of the Divine Leader!" they marveled.

Soon, however, Megatron would see a downside to making raiding so much easier. His refinery was quickly glutted with crude, and the price of the Cube plunged. Inflation began to run rampant. He would have to find some way to regulate how much Energon was in the economy at the same time or else the Cube would soon have all of the value of Zimbabwe money. Yet, he had to think of a way to do it without it looking like outright regulation, or he face huge backlash.

After giving it a lot of thought, he decided to come up with projects that would "burn" the extra resources and tighten up the money supply. The first project would simultaneously help the Empire at the same time. With over 15 billion people on it, Cybertron had gotten rather crowded. Even the small towns weren't all that small compared to those on biological planets. Building a second metal planet - with money and contractors, rather than divine power - would use up loads of Energon and provide huge amounts of extra living space that was perfect for Decepticons. Best of all, the project would take years to complete, so "extra" oil and Energon could be put into it for a long time to come.

[Vallermoore]

Cybertron

With huge amounts of Energon being created from all that extra raiding, Megatron suddenly found that inflation of the currency was happening to an alarming degree. If the currency reached Zimbabwe-levels of uselessness, then those bots without much worth bartering would have to become domestic raiders to get anything from the shops. Cybertron's entire economy would be messed up with no bots able to buy or sell anything-and the anger might be directed at him. Trying to regulate things with laws like biologicals did would certainly cause widespread anger aimed at him, and even though he was a God now, Megatron wanted to be liked by the Decepticon Nation rather then hated. Whilst in theory he could give out any order he pleased, there was a very real limit. Certain anti-Decepticon things such as, for example, an order to civilian Decepticons to disarm themselves when not at an airshow or one or two other areas where such a thing was tolerated, would just get scorn and rude gestures aimed at him, God though he was. And most laws-not all laws, but most laws, fell into that category. After some thought, he decided to make-without using his godly magic-a second Cybertron. That should use up quite a bit of that Energon, and it would be a very popular move as Cybertron was becoming a bit overcrowded.

******
When it came to battle scenarios and strategy, Loyal Star generally preformed very well. But when it came to dealing with sad sacks, Loyal Star's pony origins shone through and he generally got a poor to bad result. There were faint tinges of Ponyism that had not quite been cleaned out. Warfire then decided that to be a proper Priest of Megatron, Loyal Star badly needed Empathy Down. When he mentioned the "seminary" word Loyal Star had a memory from the past. He kept it to himself but that didn't mean he couldn't think about it. One of the very few *freedoms* as such that Decepticons had was freedom of thought, to the point that Debuggers were banned from narking to Domintel if they uncovered the thoughts of a traitor. Debugging needed to be trusted, and noone would trust a bunch of narks with anything, not to mention narking being detested to the point that it was treason.

He had a memory of himself as an eighteen year old pony deacon (the Pony equivalent of Assistant Priest ) sitting in one of Vallermoore's seminaries studying Ponyism with as much enthusiasm as when he would later study Megatronism under Fire Eater as an acolyte. He had studied the public pronouncements of the Alicorn Princesses Celestia and Luna, the Ponyist books, and everything else he had needed to become a full Ponyist Priest. The Priest he was under had been a kindly pony, but just as strict about heresy as Fire Eater had been.

Later on he had done much the same thing with the Megatronist books under Fire Eater and the two had that rare thing amongst Decepticons-a friendship. Fire Eater respected him for taking great care to go about things in the right way, and for him deciding to immigrate despite the dangers, whilst he had respected Fire Eater for not despising him just because he was born from a pony womb rather then built on Cybertron.

He bowed politely to Warfire, saluted and then flew off across town to his vault for the needed Cubes and then to the Decepticon Headquarters Debugging Center, where for the relatively low price of a hundred Cubes he brought a genuine copy of Empathy Down and had it installed but not calibrated yet. His double gold stripes got some approving looks-just as in Vallermoore, someone wearing it's finest, rarest, and hardest to earn medal would do. Soon he was back in Warfire's office. Empathy Down in his circumstances could not just be run at full power, or he would utterly despise those biologicals that he was trying to convert, which was no good. He had joined to become a Megatronist Priest, not a Scrounger with a capital S.

[Victorious Decepticons]

Decepticon-Controlled Afterlives

Megatron was finally getting a handle on all of the incoming souls, and had now split his now-huge part of the Pony Afterlife into thousands of smaller sub-realms. Each of these was populated with a different dominant, sapient species - a move that stopped the inter-species warfare that had slowly been breaking out but was threatening to become like a wildfire. Then, he appointed spiritually-minded Decepticon troops to be deacon-like preachers to spread Megatronism to each new area. These were able to convert some people right away, but it would take a long time to convince the multitude of souls to worship Megatron. They had, after all, spent their lives under other religions, and wouldn't just drop those because some strange being said to.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cybertron

Calibrating the Empathy Down patch was fairly easy. All Loyal Star needed to do was watch some movies and give his opinions. In the end, Warfire set it to cut his empathy by 40%. Then, he showed some new movies. Instantly, Loyal Star's reactions changed. This was most apparent when he saw a scene where a bunch of people had been put into a ghetto by a hostile government. Before, when a movie had shown something like that, he had been afraid that they'd get their food cut off or suffer some other horrible fate. Now, when the new movie showed the similar scene, his eyes lit up with connivery. "Rad, free base; time for them to get some weapons and kick ass!" He said, and was instantly surprised at his own reaction.

"That's more like it!" Warfire said. "Of course, the real scenario wasn't quite so easy. But you have the right idea now, and would suggest anti-government activity if you found yourself in that situation. Speaking of that, I almost forgot. In the real-life scenario these movies are based on, the resistance failed because the main revolutionary was unable to convince his fellows to revolt in time. This let the bad government get way too much headway. Our next stop will be the Institute for Political Prowess. Its data packs will teach you how to persuade skeptical crowds to take action. We will also be stopping at the Smugglers' Academy. Another problem that those people had was an inability to get enough arms. When you enter a strongly anti-Megatronist area, you'll need to know how to make sure that doesn't happen with your congregation." Warfire turned off the holovision.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Soon, Warfire had loaded up a cart with Energon, and they were on their way to the part of Decepticon Headquarters that held many advanced educational institutes. Loyal Star followed along, and soon, they both landed at the Political Prowess institution. Internally, Loyal Star had been wondering about how such a place could be legal - Megatron surely wouldn't want to help rebels be persuasive!

It didn't take long for these questions to be put to rest. This institute specialized in data packs that taught how to persuade people who were used to government types other than longstanding dictatorships. While it did have an extensive pack dedicated to convincing people in currently-fascist governments, these packs assumed that the adults in the society remembered democracy and still had at least some of the associated mindset. Most of its packs didn't focus on situations like this at all, but instead, were aimed at convincing people who were currently under entirely democratic systems - and that were more likely to go along with doing whatever the majority decided, without much serious complaint.

Warfire quickly paid for the entire AEDP series, which cost him a cool 300,000 Cubes. He told the salesperson that they wanted to install the chips right away, and the two were led to a private room. There, he handed the chips over to Loyal Star, and the latter began to virus-scan and install them one after the other.

"How do you like that?" Warfire asked with a smile after the 5th chip was fully installed and operational. "A full college education in 50 minutes." He paused a bit, and then added important details. "These packs won't persuade anyone to change their religion or accept Megatron as a god. Instead, they're for motivating people to do certain things. For example, in a situation like the one in the scenes I showed before, you'll have a high chance of being able to rile people up for battle while there are still enough of them to win. If you end up in a country where the government has decided to get rid of Megatronists, or perhaps annihilate an ethnicity that is converting in great numbers, you may need to do exactly that. In those situations, will to fight and speed of response are of the essence. You will have one foundational factor in your favor, at least, and that's that Megatronists are not the types who'd think that a clearly hostile government wouldn't actually do such things."

"Now, we need to go to the Smugglers' Academy. After all, will to fight is nothing if all you have is sticks and stones."

Soon, they repeated the purchasing and installation process at the Smugglers' Academy. Unlike the other institute, whose data packs were along the lines of what might be found if someone studied political science on some other planet, this academy's packs were most definitely on the far end of the connivery spectrum. They taught how to get out of practically anywhere - even "secure" prisons - and then find people who had the desired items. Then, it went on to teach how to persuade those people to part with their stuff, and if that failed, steal said stuff in large quantities. Finally, it taught how to get the goods back into the original, supposedly-secure place. Unlike most data pack series, this one had a seal of approval from Megatron himself, and Megatron was listed as one of the contributing educators. His part of the data was easy to spot - it was the historical account of how he was able to obtain and distribute dummy anti-sapience chips to everyone and then make and distribute the weapons needed for the Cybertronian Revolutionary War.

"In smuggling," Megatron had written, "it's important to realize that you will often have strange allies. The key in these situations is that you both have a goal big enough to overshadow even powerful individual differences. Work together until that goal is achieved, and once outside threats are vanquished, expect to settle your differences in the completely decisive way." It went without saying that in this context, the decisive way referred to the Cybertronian Great War.

Overall, Megatron's contribution to the data pack series was small. There were contributions from over 20 others who had succeeded at large-scale smuggling operations, and there were mentions of others not only from Cybertron, but different planets as well. There was even a paragraph on El Chapo Guzman, who, to this day, was known for being able to walk out of any Mexican prison. The last line of this paragraph stated, without fanfare, that Guzman had later become a high-ranking member of the IOPC, and that after the group's disbandment, he had gone on to restart his old drug cartel. Unlike most Decepticons, he still went by his old nickname - at least, when he wasn't busy being up to something on some other planet. That name was famous, and in Decepticon culture, it was famous for all the right things. He would have been foolish to change it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Back at the temple, Warfire delivered a decree that was simultaneously exciting and a bit disappointing. "You need more direct coaching before we send you anywhere serious," he said. "I am assigning a Priest to handle this aspect since I have enough Temple work to keep me busy here. Unlike before, he and you will be deployed somewhere outside of the Empire. There, both of you will pretend to be humans. I have contacted Foreign Intelligence, and they'll provide realistic - but not hyper-realistic - bodies for you to use. These bodies look human, and from the outside, they feel that way. However, they use artificial blood, so you'll need to avoid blood tests of all sorts. They also weigh about 500 pounds each thanks to their engines and batteries. In order to avoid an obvious mismatch if you end up having to step on a scale, we've designed them to look quite fat."

"In order to ensure that the fatness doesn't cause you to be seen as unpersuasive or otherwise cause you stigma, we're sending you to a nation where large size is equated with wealth. Nations of this sort are usually poor and famine-prone, and to afford enough food to get outright fat is a sure sign of great achievement. The main thing you'll need to watch out for is not to seem too agile. A Decepticon android body can move its weight with ease, and its appearance is just a matter of body design. But if you start jumping up from chairs quickly, taking runs, or doing stuff like that, you'll give the game away."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Foreign Intelligence Secret Location

The next day, Warfire and Loyal Star went to a secret address. There, a Priest called Navigator introduced himself, and the three were led into a back room. Inside this room, two very portly human-looking bodies awaited them, both seeming to be middle-aged and with graying hair. They appeared very real, right down to the wet-looking eyes and the pores on the skin of the faces. Each wore nice clothes, possibly of silk, though the outfits were of an alien design. The shirts were loose-fitting, flowy, and had multiple bright colors that were carefully chosen to not clash. The bottoms were robe-like and also fit loosely, coming to rest just high enough to keep them from being trip hazards. Their patterns were much like the shirts, with bright but complementary colors. Smoothly-constructed, soft-looking footwear served as the shoes.

"Behold, your tickets to Unterran society," a ForIntel agent announced dramatically. "But before you mind-transfer, read these data packs."

The data packs gave a bit of information on the nation of Unterra, which was a small country on the planet of Holtz. It had once been the hub of several major trade routes, but now, 500 years later, it was largely bypassed by the rest of its world. The honest population subsisted on agriculture, and was subject to famines caused by missed typhoons and other such natural hazards. Fortunately, these were not complicated by war; the ruling family had been in charge for generations and had no serious opposition. Meanwhile, the underworld made itself well-off, but not hugely wealthy, through the sales of counterfeit goods. It had attempted to get into the drug trade, but had trouble coming up with the needed raw materials.

"Your first job here will be to convert the existing underworld to Megatronism," Warfire said. "This much will be easy enough. You will first make yourselves known simply by walking through their main areas. In these bodies, and these clothes, you'll be obvious - they are the clothes of people who are extremely successful, and therefore, can be assumed to be in charge of something. Physical challenges will ensue, and that's when you call upon the Divine Leader to smite your opponents with lightning. And then you'll have their respect - and their attention."

"The next part will be harder. These small-time mobsters have no real path to success because they've stuck to counterfeiting, but the problem is that they're not copying anything worth a whole lot of money. You'll need to get them to change their focus. And you need to change that focus to drugs. Poppies, to be exact."

Loyal Star looked over with curiosity. "Opium poppies? But isn't it better to just synth that in a lab? I've heard that's what the IOPC did..."

"It needs to be poppies in order to employ all of these starving peasants - and get them accustomed to ignoring any laws against growing such plants. This will also give Divine Leader Megatron a stage on which to perform some miracles. For example, anyone who adds a plot of poppies to his homestead will find that it rains far more than usual - enough to make all of his food crops do wonderfully."

"Once they get fairly used to that, Megatron will stop the rains. That's when you give the ultimatum: If they want that steady irrigation back, they need to convert..."

The ForIntel agent now began to speak. "Right now, Unterrans have never even heard of Megatronism. You'll be starting from scratch. Their current religion, Mindarism, preaches that one should be satisfied with what they have. It'll be easy enough to debunk. Just show them that they can have more. Your big difficulty will be to keep from being driven out as devils, which is what the Mindar preachers will tell the people to do. They'll be working to drive you out before you can fully get your ideas through. Not only that, in their religion, a priest is considered above the law. Discrediting them by showing their Decepticon nature will not work."

"Finally," the agent continued, "you need to know that this is a full monarchy - the king is not a figurehead, but instead is the absolute ruler. You likely will not meet him, but you'll have to be careful not to say anything offensive about him. Lese majeste is in full effect."

Warfire spoke again. "As you go about your main mission, you'll also need to interact with the public and work to reconcile the differences and hostilities that have developed between the underworld and the general population. One of your main challenges will be to convince everyone that Megatronism can work for both sides. Of course, the end goal is to eliminate the differences between the underworld and the rest of the people - by essentially making it all underworld. Remember this, and don't forget that one of the things that this involves is toughening the people up. Navigator here will be in charge of this mission during your further training period, and will help teach you ways to do this without causing undue hostility toward Megatronism."

Soon after, both Navigator and Loyal Star mind-transferred to the new bodies. Immediately, they were both struck by how short the forms were compared to their old forms, which now stood there like massive and majestic statues. The "fat" body plans were no trouble at all - the actual weight came from their engines, and they were used to bodies that had heavy innards since the big ones already had big engines to match. Internal hydraulics made moving easy, and as Warfire had warned, it would be a slight challenge to not display more physical prowess than forms of this shape should have.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Not long after that, the pair were taken to Planet Holtz with the help of a slightly-disgruntled new acolyte in plane mode. From the air, they could see a continent that had the same general environment as Earth's Africa, though its shape was different and so were the people. Its brown, desertified land looked like it wouldn't grow anything, but apparently, crops grew fine during the monsoon season - when the rains bothered to come. It was obvious why Warfire and Megatron had decided on regular rains as a big miracle.

They found themselves landing right in the center of this continent. Here was the landlocked nation of Unterra, which was now being bypassed for trade thanks first to the development of strong ships and then by the arrival of air travel. Tech-wise, the overall planet seemed to be like Earth in the 1970s - not too backwards, but not very forwards either. Unterra itself was about 20 years behind in its one big city, but with far more buses and only a few big cars privately owned. The missionaries wouldn't be staying in this city, though. Instead, they were set down 30 miles away, just out of view of a fairly big village that was much further behind in tech. Here, the roads were all dirt, a few dogs roamed the streets, and most of the people lived in small but not-too-shabby wooden houses. At some larger intersections, there were hand-crank wells and people fetching water.

The acolyte let them out, and as an afterthought, mentioned that they should check their pockets. "They're hidden in the shirt folds near the waist," he said, and then took off, leaving them in the foreign land.

Upon checking their pockets, they found the equivalent of $1,000 each in paper money (courtesy of the Decepticon Interplanetary Bank), $10 in gold coins (minted by the same), one odd-looking handmade metal charm-like thing for each ("family charms; each family's members carry ones associated with their Line and they're considered very important," the data pack knowledge popped up), and a very advanced Decepticon solar charger each so that they could recharge their electrical engines. The charger was disguised as a window hanging so that they could just pop it into a sunny window without its purpose or tech level being obvious. Wireless electrical transmission would do the rest.

Navigator's pocket had two extra items: A key and a map. On the map, there was a notation on one structure. "FI Was Here." ForIntel Was Here. This would be the location of their new home. When they arrived at the location, they found a wooden building that was four times larger than the others - big enough for them to use the back as a house and the front as a temple. The temple part, however, was not to be opened until there were some converts. They also noted that the building needed some repair work - apparently, whoever owned it before had left a while ago. It was unknown why nobody had decided to squat in the relatively impressive structure.

[Vallermoore]

Cybertron

As it turned out, it was not that hard to calibrate Empathy Down to just the right amount. Too much empathy would lead to heresy, whilst too little would have made it impossible for Loyal Star to do his job properly. With the hidden Ponyist side dealt with, he thanked Warfire for the help. Soon enough they were on their way to the area with the Decepticon equvilent of universities. Other bots gave Warfire and for that matter Loyal Star a wide berth. Most likely, Loyal Star guessed to himself, some bot had tried in the past to mug Warfire and had promptly been cremated alive with holy fusion fire as a warning to anyone who might try that sort of thing again.
Megatronist Priests on Temple business were best not messed with. Soon enough they got there without incident and Loyal Star felt deeply pleased when Warfire brought him the needed AEDPs. He reminded himself that this was not a gift as such-this would in effect be paid back with conversions to Megatronism in time. He bowed deeply to Warfire and thanked him again for spending all this Energon on him. Soon enough they were back at the Temple and Warfire assigned a Full Priest named Navigator to Loyal Star's case.

Soon enough they were flying off to their Destination inside a Decepticon acolyte. Loyal Star had of course been an acolyte himself and knew what it was like and also knew it was a bit unpleasant for their transport, so to cheer him up he said "Don't worry, soon enough you'll be an Assistant Priest like me and one day a full Priest. You are truly helpful."

Unterra

Soon enough they were at their destination, and headed to the building that would one day become their temple. Upon entering, they found the blasted bones of some squatters; Forintel who had been using it before them had clearly dealt with the problem in the Decepticon Way. Soon enough they headed for a dangerous area of town where the rich only normally entered with bodyguards if at all, deliberately looking for trouble. It did not take long until a gang with knives had surrounded them and demanded their valuables, so Loyal Star prayed aloud to Megatron and a lightning bolt shot down from the sky.

Decepticon-Controlled Afterlives

By now Megatron had split off the ponies, humans, changelings and all the other groups into their own afterlives and could start to try and get them converted to Megatronism. Very few of these souls went to the Realm of Punishment; only a handful a year went to the land of Endless Energon.

[Victorious Decepticons]

Unterra

Soon, the skies over the town darkened with clouds. Only a small part of the sky was left sunny, and this part took the shape of a Decepticon Seal. The Seal's edges were as straight as if they were forged at a foundry - there was no mistaking this for natural. Then, its eyes glowed with sun-rays, and only after that did lightning bolts blast down.

The bodies of the gangsters stiffened with the current, and they stood there for just a moment before falling over. Once fallen, they smoked from the excess energy, and the smell of fresh-seared human filled the street.

Needless to say, this event got a lot of attention from onlookers who had been peeking out of their windows or watching from unobtrusive areas. Most of these didn't see the Seal in the sky since they had their eyes riveted on what they thought would be a robbery, but they heard the call to Megatron and saw the lightning. Once they went into the small shopping area of the town or visited one of the wells, they would hear the rest of the story and tell their own. It wouldn't be long before everyone was at least curious about these two new arrivals.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

No one else in the seedier area caused direct trouble during that particular day. However, once Loyal Star and Navigator returned to their new home and went into their separate rooms, a sneak thief positioned himself outside. From there, he could see the dim lights that were powered by the town's meager generator. They flickered from the unreliable current as Loyal Star did his best to read some exhortations from the Book of Megatron. Finally, Loyal Star gave up on the irritating light and turned it off, switching to his night vision.

When the thief saw the light go off, he wrongly assumed that Loyal Star had gone to bed. After waiting another half hour for his target to fall asleep, he easily broke in the front window and began to sneak toward the room in the back. Unfortunately for him, Loyal Star was not only not sleeping, he was now highly alert after hearing the footsteps of the person trying his best to sneak across the creaky wood floor of the main room and then down the hall to the back. Loyal Star quickly determined that there was only one person, and judging by that person's attempted use of stealth, he wasn't armed with anything major (if he had any weapon at all). A sneak thief...

Soon, Loyal Star's internal communicator activated, and when he connected, Navigator was on the other end. "I'm sure you've realized that we have unwanted company," the Full Priest said, "but if we pray for him to get smitten, our next task here will be to replace this building. Wood ignites quite quickly when blasted through with lightning. I believe it would be better to capture this one, and then 'entice' him to tell us who's the current head of the underworld around here..."

[Vallermoore]

When the lightning struck the gangsters dead on the spot and partly cooked their bodies, everyone in the area, criminal or not, soon noticed it even if very few were watching the sky. Nobody else dared to menace the two strangers as a result. Loyal Star noted that this planet was apparently human; if there were any members of the sapient pony race he had not seen them, and if there were any changelings they were firmly under cover. Soon enough they went home, and Loyal Star settled down to read his Book of Megatron to himself. As a pony he had often studied the scriptures of Ponyism-whatever religion priests might follow, they often read their holy books quietly to themselves and Loyal Star was no exception. He thought happily to himself of the God he served and how happy his God had been when he had rescued him from the afterlife when traitors were destroying his spares and his Saves. However, his mind-boards were rudely brought back firmly to the terrestrial sphere when a sneak thief broke into their house. As he readied himself for battle, Navigator radioed him. I'm sure you've realized that we have unwanted company,but if we pray for him to get smitten, our next task here will be to replace this building. Wood ignites quite quickly when blasted through with lightning. I believe it would be better to capture this one, and then 'entice' him to tell us who's the current head of the underworld around here..."

"Will do." Loyal Star didn't need to turn on his Bravery Up or for that matter his Empathy Down. Soon enough he had grabbed the thief, twisted his hand to make him drop his dagger, and firmly slammed him up against the wall. His body's translation software translated his Binary into the speech of the planet he was on with ease. "How dare you break into our house? Tell us-who is the leader of the criminals around here? Don't worry-what you say won't be used in a law court and indeed noone need know you talked to us. We are not narks. But we do not like being preyed on." The body he was in easily translated dark eyes into human signs of anger.

[Victorious Decepticons]

As the two missionaries had suspected, this planet was populated entirely by humans. In fact, the only nation that had any contact at all with aliens was a wealthy one on the other side of it, and this contact had, so far, been short and infrequent. ForIntel suspected that its infrequency may have been caused by either a hostile reaction from the humans or an attempt to take the aliens as research subjects. It was also possible that spacefaring biologicals in the area simply weren't interested in moving to this planet when there were others in the area that were more technologically advanced.

Planet Holtz, however, was of serious interest to the Decepticons. Its population of humans - if converted - could become a powerful fighting force for the Nation. Humans were a warlike species despite some planets' occasional bouts of loud and quite ridiculous claims to the contrary - they were always looking to expand, conquer, and colonize everything they could get to and overrun. If they were Megatronists, this would make it fairly easy to turn them into a force that would pretty much automatically expand the Decepticon Empire throughout this part of the galaxy.

~~~~~~~~~


The thief wasn't interested in even listening to Loyal Star's question, let alone answering it. He was too busy trying to knee his captor in what he thought would be his dick, in hopes of forcing him to let go so he could run away. It was to his amazement that, despite having landed his knee directly in the proper area, his captor seemed to feel nothing special at all. Loyal Star was only angered by this attempt because he recognized what the intent was, rather than the attack actually hurting him - his robotic body actually had only a few sensors in the groin area. ForIntel knew that opponents who were not trained in boxing or other martial arts liked to go for this spot and had designed its undercover forms accordingly.

Loyal Star decided that he would need to motivate this guy to talk after all. First, he returned the attack, and in an instant, the human was doubled over. He added a couple more kicks to up the ante before once again demanding the information.

After the thief managed to catch his breath, he sputtered out a name. "Elkon," he gasped. "He runs all of the organized stuff. But I have nothing to do with him! I just saw what I thought would be an easy hit!"

Next, Loyal Star demanded Elkon's address. This, unfortunately, was not forthcoming. As far as the thief knew, Elkon kept his location very secret, and since he wasn't part of the gang, he wasn't let in on that information. "As far as I know, he's living as a regular guy under a different name. Very few have ever actually seen him."

Behind the two, a loud grumble was heard. Navigator had come out from the back and was now glowering at the thief. "So tell us all of the rumors." He ordered. "There are always rumors about who could be behind a syndicate. It's surely an open secret around here." As he spoke, the thief's eyes got big and focused on something. Loyal Star glanced over and saw that Navigator was holding a taser-like shock device.

Soon, Navigator was next to the thief and had the taser pressed to his head. "They say the most painful thing is for electricity to go right through someone's brain. It's something I haven't tested yet, and I'm the curious sort. If you're not going to tell me who everyone says Elkon is, I guess I'll get the answer to this other question instead..." A click was heard as Navigator put the shock device into the ready mode. After a pause, during which the thief remained nervously silent, Navigator clicked it again. A loud scream filled the house and the street outside.

"John Marcan! Marcan!" The name came out frantically as soon as the thief regained his ability to speak. "Two houses away from the general store!"

Navigator had successfully gotten the name of the person that was most suspected to be the one who the criminals called Elkon, but what he could not find out yet was whether the rumors were actually correct. It was possible that the town was, in fact, wrong about its belief that John Marcan was Elkon. Further investigation would be needed.

[Vallermoore]

Loyal Star grinned. "I'm going to let you go minus your dagger, but if you ever try and steal from us again, it will be the last thing you ever do in this world. Now leave, and take your thieving ways somewhere else." Once he had gone, Loyal Star explained "He's a thief so he's not going to nark on us to the police of this world and I think he's learned his lesson. If he ever tries this again on us, then I'll snap his neck and dump his body in the sewer system. Once I can consider a misunderstanding as he has no idea who we are, twice means he is a personal enemy and has to go." He went back to thinking to himself about Megatron's greatness and how Megatron had defeated the most powerful of gods and then had a defrag until Navigator gently shook him in the morning. They headed out to the destination and Loyal Star brought and *ate* some ring doughnuts on the way from another shop. His steel teeth would not be rotting from the sugar in them and it made a nice change from Energon.

Soon enough they reached their destination and Loyal Star knocked on the surprisingly tough door until a small window opened in it. "Who are you? I've never seen you before." Whoever it was sounded a bit suspicious and it was likely that they had found the right man. Likely but not definite.