An Exploration Mission (Closed; Att'n Vallermoore)

[Victorious Decepticons]

Exercise Yard
Foalsom Prison

It didn't take long for Loyal Star to spot some of the current inmate big shots after "exercise" time began. They were strutting around the best areas of the yard along with their groups of bullies, and the other inmates tried to stay away from them. Occasionally, one of these groups would approach either an individual or pair of inmates, who would shrink back and deferentially agree to whatever was being demanded. So far, Loyal Star was too far away to hear what the demands were, or if they were for anything special or just done as shows of social intimidation.

Despite these prominent, if small, pods of tough guys, most of the inmates were just standing around bored. Some were smoking cigarettes - the prison officials here weren't so barbaric as to condemn inmates to the cruel and unusual punishment of enforced nicotine fits. A few played some sort of checkers-like game that made use of the small pebbles that were on the ground.

Before Loyal Star could do much besides take in the scene, a group of tough ponies spotted him and began to stalk pointedly towards him from about 1/4 of the way across the field. His cellmate was among them. There was no doubt that they intended to pound him into the sand. Other inmates instantly caught onto this and, subtly but very quickly, moved a decent distance away. They didn't want to be mistaken as part of the trouble by the guards, who would impose solitary confinement on anyone who fought. For whatever reason, the group of ponies clearly did not care about this "punishment."

Loyal Star took on a fight-ready stance, and for a moment, noticed his electrical engine's auxiliary power plant automatically come online. Immediately, he felt as powerful and alive as a prizefighter who just stepped into a ring. Now would be his first chance to show his prowess at the Decepticon Way - this time, the part of the Way where authority was established by pure brute force. The one thing he had in common with his upcoming foes was that he also didn't care about a relatively short stint in solitary.

Off to the sides, guards looked on with only slight interest. They would do their jobs only after the results seemed to be decisive and they needed to keep one side from killing the other. With there being 5 ponies to 1 human, the guards figured the end result was as good as done, so they didn't find the prospect of this fight entertaining. Of course, they didn't realize that deep within the "muscles" of that human, there were two mechanized ramrods now at full power - and that externally, these ended in the fists that were about to do their work. If they had known about that, they would have watched avidly.

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

Immigration Office

"Ah!" Both Gatekeeper and Scope lit up with big smiles and clear eyes. "You know how to work connections!! And subvert the guards - and when not to! And you were all raiders. On top of that, you took the first opportunity to blast the cops when our troops were giving them our own message. It sounds like you are a Decepticon in all but body already! We certainly hope you pass all of the tests. So far, what you describe makes you a perfect fit for our nation." The two nodded enthusiastically.

After many hours, Venables completed his written tests. About the only problematic thing was his answer as to preferred government types. He had argued in favor of anarchy - not the communal, peaceful kind (thankfully) - but the more colloquial type that involved a total lack of any sort of authority. In truth, this, too, was a secret ideal of most Decepticons, though no one went and spouted that off for obvious reasons. What kept the Decepticons willing to tolerate a government, and a dictatorial one no less, was mostly the need for a strong and well-directed military force. Under true anarchy, it wouldn't take long for all of those space-capable planets they'd raided to show up and try to make it payback time. Decepticons also believed that the best raider and warrior should be the boss over his lessers, and since the one who fit that description was Megatron, it worked out well for the leader.

Soon, Scope and Gatekeeper were explaining this to Venables, expounding on both the philosophies behind how the Decepticons saw the Megatron regime and the practical benefits thereof. It didn't take much to convince him since it was already clear that the Decepticon Nation and its government offered what he had wanted all along anyway. Here, he would be part of an entire nation of gangsters! Venables occasionally had to look around to make sure that he wasn't dreaming, or that he hadn't actually died and gone to a Criminal's Heaven of some sort.

"Your test scores, overall, are extremely high," Scope informed him. Both agents were clearly thrilled. "The only stage left is to prove you can really survive in an environment that is truly lawless. This typically involves remaining both free and alive on Decepticon Earth for a period of three months." He went on to describe the planet as well as its major ecological niches. Then, he produced a globe of Earth so Venables could see where each one of these niches was located. The globe also had some of the most notable artificial features marked, such as the biggest mines, Carjack Ag's biggest fields and its offices, and the Carjack Biofuels Refinery. A few small towns - actually Decepticon outposts where overseers and other paid mine personnel lived - were noted as well.

"Is there any particular place here where you'd like to go for your challenge?"

[Vallermoore]

Exercise Yard
Foalsom Prison

As it turned out, the sapient pony that Loyal Star had beaten up and badly bruised belonged to a gang named the Iron Hooves. On the outside it's members wore motorcycles that had been adapted for sapient pony use and wore three-piece patches with a grinning pony skull with two crossed wrenches below it. On the inside they were one of the strongest and most dangerous of the sapient pony prison gangs. Their cutie marks, generally earned as foals, indicated extreme violence, and they were not going to let anyone cross them even in private. Loyal Star silently prepared for battle. His hidden cameras went on-whilst he didn't have a 360 degree view with them, they did let him see behind him, and his electrical engine's auxiliary power plant came online. He turned up his Bravery Up to 90% and his pain level down to 15%. Some pain was good as it let one know one had been wounded and 100% Bravery Up normally got one a Darwin Award.

Without a sound the ponies, four earth ponies and a unicorn (pegasui had prisons designed just for them) leapt to the attack. Loyal Star knelt to let one sail over him and punched the second in the forehead, knocking him out, then backed against the wall so they could not come from two directions at once. His fists and feet broke ribs, winded, and battered his foes and although he did take minor damage from hooves and teeth his robot body was tougher then a biological one. With the earth ponies lying senseless or in agony on the ground, the unicorn had been piloting a short but sharp prison-made shank like a drone and now tried to stab Loyal Star fatally with it. With his camera-vision Loyal Star saw it coming and grabbed the shank, then reached out with his own pony magic. There was a loud snap and the horn of the unicorn fell to the ground and the unicorn first screamed in pain and then started crying like a little foal.

Every unicorn who saw this, even those with their own reasons to fear and hate the Iron Hooves, looked horrified and sympathetic. For a unicorn, apart from death or being paralysed or brain damaged, losing the horn was the worst thing that could happen. For years the unicorn would be without it's magic and would have to clumsily use it's hooves and mouth. Earth pony and pegasui had suckers in their hooves-whilst not the strongest suckers around they could pick things up with them, but unicorns had no suckers as they picked things up with their magic. Even when the horn had partly grown back, it would cause headaches when used for more then a short time, and it would be 25 years before the horn fully grew back and healed. Loyal Star had done the pony equivalent of hacking off a human's hands and that was why the unicorn was crying like a foal. That unicorn's leadership of the Iron Hooves within this prison and possibly even his membership of the Iron Hooves on the outside when he got out was over. He would be dependent on other ponies even to clean his teeth.

The guards drew their batons and said to Loyal Star "You need to go to the infirmary for treatment and you'll have to serve a day in solitary, but no longer then that as it's clear these ponies started the fight. When they heal they'll be looking at three months in solitary as we saw the whole thing." They were nervous, but Loyal Star did what they said. The next day he was let back on the yard and several convicts, both human and pony ones, came to congratulate him, as the Iron Hooves had made plenty of enemies in their time. They asked him how he could fight so well and other such things, and he now had a power-base to make his first converts if he did it in the right way.

Immigration Office

The more they got to know about this human the more Scope and Gatekeeper liked him as there was clearly a Decepticon in that soft weak tiny human body. Decepticons in spirit could exist in humans, sapient ponies, and outright alien creatures. He still needed to undergo the second test though to see if he had the needed skills, even though his attitude was right. It was June on Earth, and the human chose Yellowstone as there would be lots of game for him to go after with his gun, knife and his lighter for making fire. Soon an FNG from Forintel was flying him there, grumbling a little at having to give a ride to a human. Both Scope and Gatekeeper hoped he would come back alive.

[Victorious Decepticons]

Foalsome Prison

Loyal Star took the golden opportunity to extol the power of his god, Divine Leader Megatron, and his religion as soon as he got the chance. Even so, he didn't yet go for the hardest possible sell and demand their conversion. He simply stated that as long as Megatron was with him, he surely would not lose.

This caused several of the inmates to walk away - they wrongly assumed that the next part of the pitch would be some sort of call for repentance or other such method of "getting right with the Lord," despite the strange name this one gave to his god. Others, however, stayed put and tentatively asked for more information about this odd religion.

Loyal Star prepared to speak further when a few of the convicts spoke up first. "Leader Megatron - the Leader of the Decepticons?!" They were both shocked and impressed. Since the nation wasn't one that had followed Yahweh before, they hadn't seen the projection of the huge battle between the two. "The Decepticons are THE uber-pirates of the universe!" These inmates went on to tell the others. "And Megatron is their leader. If he's really a god, joining him will be like getting the keys to every vault. Who could fail with the Decepticon Leader on their side?"

One inmate, a unicorn pony, was more skeptical. "This guy isn't even being straight with us. How can you be so eager to listen to him! Didn't you see how he broke the horn off of that other guy?! He didn't touch him at all. He used magic - pony magic. Yet here he is, presenting as a human. I say that he's really a pony, using magic to disguise himself right now - and that he's a lousy mole for the feds!!"

With that, the others became prickly in their attitudes. They waited to hear what this new tough guy would say about that accusation...

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

Yellowstone, Earth

At first, this seemed like the greatest spot he could have chosen for his survival test. There were rivers full of fish, plenty of deer, and lots of other game to hunt. Berries and such were also available in abundance. Hunting was easy since the animals hadn't encountered a human with a gun in over a couple of hundred years, making them not only plentiful, but clueless as to just how deadly a very distant man could be.

Venables soon constructed a simple lean-to out of small saplings and fallen larger branches, and at night, he would light a fire with his lighter. Dried leaves and twigs made for great tinder, and it only took a few flicks of the Bic to get them going. Only occasionally did he hear the sound of a large animal poking around his area, and when he looked, he would see nothing. The creature, surely a bear, made sure to stay outside of the fire's light.

Everything seemed to work out fine for a month or so. One night, however, his first mistake became clear. He had been relying on a lighter to start his fires, and on this night, its fuel ran out. Before long, he heard not only the likely bear, but several other sets of footsteps in the trees. Wolves, perhaps? Or maybe something else? There was no way to know. If he didn't know how to get a fire going by rubbing a stick into a pile of leaves, he was likely to find out the hard way.

[Vallermoore]

Yellowstone, Earth

Hunting was easy in Yellowstone, and he found eggs to boil in the geyser pools and could even wash where the hot geyser runoff met cold rivers. Sleeping was harder as he didn't have bedding, but he found a skeleton with a pillow in a backpack it was wearing and he was used to unpleasant beds from his stint in juvenile jail. When his fuel in his lighter ran out two-thirds into his time and he heard the noise of a bear, he lit a pile of leaves by firing his gun into it, and readied himself to shoot what the flames would reveal if need be.

Foalsom Prison

Having identified himself as tough by taking on single handedly and defeating several of the Iron Hooves, Loyal Star could now try and win at least some of them over to Megatronism. "The Great God Megatron was on my side and He gave me victory. He can be a harsh God at times, but believe in him and in yourself and He will help you too." About a third of the inmates listening walked away, thinking he was a religious loony, but many more were interested. One, a unicorn pony who had been loosely allied with the Iron Hooves and was unhappy to see them defeated and humbled, said "This guy isn't even being straight with us. How can you be so eager to listen to him! Didn't you see how he broke the horn off of that other guy?! He didn't touch him at all. He used magic - pony magic. Yet here he is, presenting as a human. I say that he's really a pony, using magic to disguise himself right now - and that he's a lousy mole for the feds!!"

"Any pony can rear up, but only circus ponies can walk on two legs constantly." Some inmates agreed, as walking on two legs for ponies was like humans crawling on their hands and knees-no problem in the short term, but very uncomfortable in the long term. By no means all were convinced. "Many of us, most of us, are serving very long sentences and some will never see the outside of a prison again. What if I was to try and arrange a miracle to take place in three months from now and give you at least a chance to escape? The opening of every cell door in which Megatronists are locked up in this prison at the same time? Some of you might fail to escape and be beaten or even killed by the guards, but the stronger amongst you will perhaps get out of here. But first, you need to learn what Megatronism is and is not and learn the Way and as with any religion, it takes time to learn what is the proper way."

At first, only about twenty convicts decided to listen to him, and he told them, quietly to avoid the guard's attention and with all his sermon skills, about Megatronism and the Decepticon Way, and also a little about Cybertron , the Metal Planet, and the Decepticon People themselves. He told them about the Land of Endless Energon and it's human/pony equivalent for the very best Megatronists, the Neutral Zone, and, for traitors and deliberate heretics, the terrors of the Realm of Punishment. He told them of the chances of becoming a Decepticon and the tests that needed to be passed and how they were not easy. As time went by, more convicts, both human and pony, become interested until most of the prisoners wanted to know what he was speaking about.

More then two months later, he said "But if you become a Decepticon and avoid falling in battle and much worse, being executed for treason, you have a good chance of staying alive indefinitely-a true immortality. It's not for everyone though and you don't have to become a Decepticon robot to be a good Megatronist, unless you are aiming for the Priesthood above the rank of acolyte in which case..."

He realized he had said a bit too much. "What rank are you? You're obviously a priest, but are you an acolyte or do you have a higher rank? Are you a full priest?"

"No, I'm not there yet, although it is my ambition to reach that rank."

"Are you an acolyte or higher in rank then that? Are we really talking to a bot?"

"Yes, and I will move the great escape to tomorrow evening. Tonight, all of you who are willing to convert must go to sleep thinking of Leader Megatron and swear allegiance to him and at midnight tomorrow night if your faith is true your cell door along with the doors to the outside will unlock, and then it's us up against the guards, but if you don't convert your door will remain locked." He made a prayer to Megatron asking him to unlock the cell doors of the true Megatronists at that time, wondering to himself how many of the thousands locked up in this prison would convert.

[Victorious Decepticons]

Foalsom Prison

Back in his cell, Loyal Star sent up his prayer for a jailbreak. To his utmost shock, he was instantly filled with an excruciating, electrical pain!

"How dare you commit me to an action without setting it up with me first!!" Megatron's voice roared in his head, unheard by the other prisoners. "Do I look like a valet service!? Or maybe you mistook me for a pizza guy!" Several more zaps followed, until some smoke came from Loyal Star's joints. "You are to deliver MY messages! Not claim that I'll do special stuff without consulting me first, and then act like you can get it on demand as if you're the boss!"

Immediately, Loyal Star was on his knees pleading not only for forgiveness, but for his very life. It seemed as though Megatron might overload him to death at any moment. He, and those in the cells around him, could feel the paranormal hostility in the air. The scent of Loyal Star's burnt wiring accompanied it, putting an explanation point onto the fact that Leader Megatron was very, very angry at this reversal of protocol. Megatron was also furious because if he did the most natural reaction - not performing the miracle - then the new converts would be lost. He hated feeling like he was over a barrel.

Suddenly, the smoke alarms went off, and guards came running to Loyal Star's cell with a fire extinguisher. They were quite shocked to find that the smoking thing wasn't a cigarette, some papers, or even the prisoner's cot, but the knees of the prisoner! With very confused looks on their faces, they came in and bustled Loyal Star off to the infirmary. Something was clearly wrong, but they weren't about to try to figure out what it was themselves.

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

In the infirmary, the young doctors couldn't figure out how his knee joints had started to smoke. Minor exploratory surgery revealed nothing but what seemed to be scorched flesh followed by what appeared to be charred bones. Their x-rays revealed that the bones appeared to be actual bones, though denser than normal, though there appeared to be some sort of implants within the knee structures. Loyal Star made up a story about them being "experimental strength boosters," but in reality, they were servos needed to allow motion at all.

To the clueless doctors, there was a simple solution to the problem of Loyal Star's burnt knees: Remove the obviously-failed "experimental boosters." As a prisoner - and therefore, a ward of the state - Loyal Star had no legal right to refuse the surgery. Still, he knew that if they did that, he'd be paralyzed from the knees down. He began to fight to prevent the removal, but the doctors called in a horde of huge orderlies. After 12 orderlies all attacked at once, he was finally subdued.

That's when they tried to knock him out with general anesthetic only to find that it didn't work. They ended up having to keep him held down after delivering local anesthetic (which also didn't work, but Loyal Star had turned his pain detection down, so it didn't matter). Finally, the doctors cut in and took out what they were sure were failed experimental implants, cutting off the wires where they went deeper into the "flesh" - and sure enough, Loyal Star could no longer control his legs below the knees.

At that moment, Megatron went ahead and opened the cell doors of his new loyalists, simultaneously locking the doors that would allow guards to rush out and do anything about the jailbreak. Just 10 minutes later, Loyal Star was the only Megatronist still under lockdown in Foalsome Prison.

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

Just as Loyal Star had promised, those who had converted now had Megatron's blessings of improved success, and this allowed them to rampage their way to the main exit doors without all that much trouble. Only the most physically-skilled guards were able to put up a decent fight, and there were enough Megatronists to overpower them with their raw numbers. This was made especially true by the fact that most of the doors from the guards' areas were locked against the guards so that they couldn't get any reinforcements in time.

When all was said and done, only about 250 prisoners made it out into the night. Twenty five more were left behind, sufficiently damaged by the guards to keep them from reaching the main doors. Thousands of other prisoners now regretted thinking that Loyal Star was some kind of a nutjob, or that it just wouldn't be worth it to convert. Now the entire prison was on lockdown, and it would be days before anyone would be allowed outside.

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

Yellowstone

Finding the pillow seemed like a good thing until he got it out. It stank with the force of a thousand suns due to once having been covered with the decayed liquid from the corpse. Its foamy interior had absorbed that completely, and though now dry, it would likely stink until it, itself, degraded into nothing. He threw it away with great haste, choosing instead to make himself a bed out of branches and leaves.

When his lighter ran out, he somehow managed to ignite some leaves just by shooting them. He was lucky since a bullet usually would go through them before they'd get hot enough to light. He didn't have much time to be glad about this, though - when the flames rose, they revealed two sets of beady bear eyes. One of the bears took a step closer, baring its fangs. It had been watching this spot for a long time now, and tonight, it planned to eat the large chunk of meat that was sitting at the fire.

The other bear held back, more wary than its mate. It didn't want to show itself in the light of the fire, but would gladly attack if that fire went out.

[Vallermoore]

Foalsom Prison

Loyal Star's idea was in fact a pretty good one, but it was the way he had gone about it that Megatron didn't like, made much, much worse by the fact that in effect, he had Megatron over a barrel. He was about to discover what happened to Megatronist clerics who angered their God. Megatron was a lot less forgiving then Jehovah had been. His Godly voice roared in his head. Far away on Cybertron the body Megatron inhabited suddenly revved angrily causing the nearby High Generals that he happened to be in a meeting with to briefly feel worried in case this was somehow aimed at them for some reason.

A bolt of unseen divine lightning zapped through Loyal Star's circuits partly overloading his Faraday cage. "How dare you commit me to an action without setting it up with me first!! Do I look like a valet service!? Or maybe you mistook me for a pizza guy! You are to deliver MY messages! Not claim that I'll do special stuff without consulting me first, and then act like you can get it on demand as if you're the boss!" Every sentence brought more unseen divine lightning and Loyal Star got on his knees begging for mercy. Suddenly he had a vision that was in some ways like the dream he had once had as a pony, but it was terrifying.

He was a sapient pony once more, although he had a Decepticon Seal as a cutie mark, and he was on the palm of Megatron's cool metal hand. But where in the dream Megatron's eyes had been bright and warm, and his engine had been purring, things were very different. The eyes of his God were very dim to the point where one could not have used that light to read a book, and the engine of his god was revving with great annoyance. Normally this amount of anger from any Decepticon with working blasters meant that those blasters would be used very soon. The palm tipped a few degrees and Loyal Star fell to the edge of it. Below, an individual Hell within the Realm of Punishment waited, custom built for Loyal Star. There were pits of horseflies and ticks, avatars of Celestia and Luna waiting to hurt him, and much more, all of it nasty. On top of all of that as if it was not hellish enough, was the knowledge that if he ended up there the Priesthood would forever be out of his reach and he would be excommunicated and stricken from the files of Megatronism, remembered only as an example to be avoided.

"Both as a non-divine bot, and as a God, I have slain Decepticons for far less then you have done. The reason why you are not dead and in the Realm of Punishment for the next thousand years at least, is because I have not forgotten how you faced down that gang of jammer-running fools and risked death to bring me back to the realm of the living. Such loyalty is rare and should not be wasted.
However, consider this to be a final warning, in sports terms a yellow card. If you ever, ever do something like this again, even as a Full Priest, I will not show mercy again." Megatron glared down at the pony in his palm, and then the vision ended and Loyal Star was back in his badly damaged body, injured but alive. After he later had his legs damaged, Megatron opened the gates, and 250 Megatronists busted out in the biggest prison break in recent history. 25 failed, and another 25 would later quickly be recaptured and would end up back inside, but 225 would stay free for long periods of time or indeed forever. Through them Megatronism would reach the outside world and spread beyond prison walls.

The 25 who were soon recaptured would in effect become the injured Loyal Star's bodyguards, as they were happy he had helped them escape through his God. He told them that for now at least, he dared not request his God's help directly, but that though injured, he might be able to help them escape again in other ways once he got a little stronger.

*****
Yellowstone

When Venables found the pillow he cursed and threw it away as it stank like a badly rotted body, full of corpse goo. Later he would find himself facing two bears and he fired a shot at the head of one of them, hoping to slay it outright.

[Victorious Decepticons]

Foalsom Prison

The entire facility was abuzz with tales of the Megatronist break-out, and even some of the guards were impressed. Cultish beliefs were common among inmates, but none of them had ever come to anything before. Now, there was no doubt that somehow, something had actually happened.

Science-minded guards and other officials, however, weren't about to just attribute the jailbreak to some kind of divine intervention. They began a heavy-handed investigation, accusing anyone who had been convicted of cyber-crime of hacking into their systems. Deep in the basement, some inmates were even tortured for the information the administration was sure existed. Alas, all this did was get the torture victims to name their enemies as perps or make up stuff whole cloth. The truth, after all, was indeed that Megatron did it - but since the guards refused to believe, lying was the only hope of stopping the torturous interrogations.

Despite the futile investigations of the prison administration, over 1,000 of those still in the prison now believed in Megatronism. Unfortunately for them, there would be no new mass jailbreaks coming soon unless they arranged them in the regular way. The prison came out from under lockdown in fairly short order, but that didn't give the inmates any more opportunities for escape than they normally had.

Meanwhile, two groups were more concerned with Loyal Star than they were with lofty plans of regaining freedom. One was the group of Megatronists who became his in-prison gang and bodyguards, and the other was the Iron Hooves. Word of Loyal Star's disablement spread to them as soon as they got out of their punitive solitary sentences, and they quickly made plans to try to "disable" him right out of the realm. Rumors of these plans didn't stay secret either, so Loyal Star's gang was extra-vigilant. They also had plans.

Knowing that the missionary was a robot gave Loyal Star's group a direction to go in that the prison guards didn't think of. Soon, some got themselves assigned to work in a small prison factory that made cheap electronic parts for private companies. "Give us the plans for those knee parts," they said, "and we'll use the equipment here to make you some new ones. We do assume that you can't get infections, so we shouldn't have to worry about the lack of sterility."

They were correct that Loyal Star's body couldn't get infected, but that wasn't just because it was a machine at its core. Its outer aspect, which the prison doctors had seen, actually included blood and even grew cells in non-vital places. However, these attributes came from what amounted to a very limited and miniaturized cloning system, and this system produced its cells based on the Approved DNA Codec for the Human Body - a Codec that included immunity to every known human pathogen.

Either way, if his gang was able to make him a set of proper new knee parts, he would be good to go as soon as he installed them and spliced their control wires to the ones left in his body. The trick would be installing them without just ending up back in the infirmary for "cutting his knees open."

~~~~~~~~~~

Yellowstone

Venables' gun would have had a hard time producing an immediate takedown if the bear had been hit center mass (thanks to residual oxygen in the system), but since it was close enough for him to get a good headshot, it instantly fell to the ground dead. Its companion let out a surprised yelp-roar at seeing this and ran off into the dark of the trees.

This gave Venables a thrill of victory, but that's not all he got. He now had a few hundred pounds of fresh bear meat. If he was able to gut the bear before it rotted, he could preserve the extra meat by smoking it in a pit in chunks. He could also have himself a bear steak right away if he so chose. All of that, however, assumed that nothing else would successfully take it from him. It wouldn't be long before at least one wolf pack smelled blood if he started to cut it up. Wolves, however, weren't nearly as big as bears and would likely be easier to defend against despite their pack tactics.

[Vallermoore]

Foalsom Prison

Rare was there any interesting news within the confines of a maximum security prison, but the Megatronist escape had been amazing. Luckily for Loyal Star he was not fingered as the cause of it or he would have faced solitary confinement. Given that he very nearly ended up not just killed but dammed, he made up his mind only to call for Megatron's help if true death was a possibility and he really had nothing to lose. If it were not for his rescue of Megatron earlier, he would be dead and undergoing the pains of the Realm of Punishment. The breakout had however gained him many converts amongst the prisoners left behind, and some of them became in effect his new gang, the Loyal Stars.

One of them, a young pony that reminded him of himself at that age, with a baker's cutie mark, there for poisoning an ex-girlfriend, told him he wanted to follow in Loyal Star's footsteps. Loyal Star tried to put him off. The religious life, he pointed out, was not easy, and many would consider it boring. It would involve a lot of hard study, and if he wanted to rise above the rank of acolyte, it would mean passing some very strict Cybertronian immigration tests, transferring to a robot body, and a stint of military service. If he messed up, Megatron if angry enough could kill a cleric who displeased him just as easily as a secular Decepticon if not more so .Most of all it would mean leaving the pony life behind. Megatronism and Ponyism did not mix. If he was not put off and if they escaped from prison, Loyal Star would put the pony, whose name was Tasty Goods, in contact with Fire Eater. For now he told him the very basics of Megatronism just as Fire Eater had done for him, and made plans to covertly fix his legs as soon as he got the chance to do so without the guards seeing it.

******

In a cell on the other side of the prison, Tirek Hooves, the leader of the Iron Hooves in the prison, was talking with his leading ponies. "We used to be the leading prison gang in this prison and indeed the whole country and now more then half the prisoners ridicule us because of this one human that beats up five of us all by himself.Surely now he is in a wheelchair we can kill him?"

"It's not easy as he has his own gang, the Loyal Stars, that worship that demonic robot who brought death and enslavement to all of Equestria. Some are ponies-how can they worship a bot that sees them as mine slaves? How can a bot be a God anyway?"

"We didn't become so powerful through muscle and bone and our cutie marks alone. Get the Thinkers of the gang onto the problem." The Thinkers did far less violence than the rest of the gang. Instead they came up with all manner of plots and plans both on the outside and behind bars. Surely they could come up with something?

Yellowstone

Venables pulled out his knife and cut out a big bit of meat that he cooked and ate, cutting out and smoking quite a bit more of the meat, piling wood on his fire in case wolves or other nasties showed up. He was determined not end up as animal food.

[Victorious Decepticons]

Foalsome Prison

After a couple of weeks, the lockdown was lifted and one of Loyal Star's gang members was finally able to see him in the disabled wing. He brought along what appeared to be a present of some food that had been given from the outside. The food did indeed come outside, and had passed the metal detection and other measures that ensured it didn't contain breakout tools. What the guards didn't expect was that the contraband would be put into the cake only after it was inside the prison.

"I call it 'Servo Cake,'" the presenter said proudly. "Be careful chewing, or you might CHIP your teeth."

Soon enough, another member arrived, this one a pony. "I hear your school didn't teach you much about physiology," he said as if to talk about something he had just learned. "Did you know that all it takes to stop blood from coming to a limb is to tie it off?" He tossed over a couple of towels. "You just put that on around your thigh, for example, and no blood will get to your knees. The only catch is that you can't leave it on too long, or your leg dies and rots off!"

And, with that, Loyal Star had his new knee servos and instruction on how to keep from bleeding out or getting busted when installing them. What he didn't have yet were any tools for the surgery. He would either have to wait for some to be delivered, or perhaps, use magic to get the job done. No matter which way he went about it, he would have to be very careful so the guards didn't see him do it.

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

The end of the lockdown also meant that the Iron Hooves were once again more free to roam, though their troublemaking nature made it so that at least some of them were in solitary for various random things. Soon enough, they were talking to each other about how to get rid of Loyal Star.

When one of them made comments about Loyal Star following a "demonic" robot, the others had to laugh at him a bit. They were following a guy who called himself Tirek! Surely he was just as demonic as Megatron. Of course, they didn't know that the Tirek their leader had named himself after was in the Decepticon Realm of Punishment - being ridden as a show-beast by various Punishing Angels when not forced to perform in a circus ring or worse.

Once the chatter died down, they finally did come up with a plan. Instead of going after Loyal Star right away, they would try to pick off some of the regular members of the gang. Once the gang's size was sufficiently reduced, they could go after its leader.

"We'll stomp their heads in," Tirek promised, "so they can't come back later to try to even up."

Of course, what the Iron Hooves didn't know was that Loyal Star and all of his gang members still had their blessings for better performance in the Decepticon Way...and that fights for dominance were a covered aspect. It would take some seriously-good fighters to stand a chance, and once the word got around and the Loyal Stars responded with a full gang-vs-gang brawl, things were not likely to go well for the all-pony side.

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

Main Military Headquarters, Cybertron
A Few Days Ago

Megatron had been talking to his generals when he was rudely distracted by the upstart priest wannabe, and he had taken a couple of minutes to harshly remind the "man" of just who gave the orders. Once that was done, his attention returned to the map of the Galactipol-Aligned Planets that they had been discussing.

"Taking out their interdiction force was a great win for us, but it is only the start," Megatron said. "We must now show them that we aren't only good at defense, but masters of offense. We must show this group that if it's us doing something, they had better agree with our position on its legality." That position, all knew, was that anything Decepticons did was legal unless a superior force could insist otherwise and make it stick. Galactipol, through the defeat of its fleet, had been shown to be an inferior force. Therefore, as far as Decepticon law was concerned, it was legal for the winners to do whatever they wanted to the planets in their alliance.

What Megatron wanted to do today was show them what "theft" really was.

"On the day they call their New Year," Megatron proclaimed, "We shall steal their flagship planet and make it our own."

Megatron waved his hand in a specific gesture, and the map zoomed in on Arcturus. It was a live view, made possible by an orbiting camera so tiny that the target's defenses couldn't detect it. A ForIntel agent had dropped it off just a while ago.

"Here you can see 10 orbital defense platforms, all with energy cannons that have been fine-tuned to destroy beings such as ourselves - beings that can easily evade the big cannons meant for typical military spacecraft. This, however, has been done at the expense of their cannons' power. Now, a well-armored large craft can fly right up, and their agile-but-weak cannons won't be able to do much to it...at least, not at first. If such a craft were to stay in the way long enough - about three hours by our most cautious estimation - their cannons would eventually get through the armor. However, I believe that our forces can take out their cannons in that long of time, don't you?"

The High Generals enthusiastically agreed without reservation. With a big capital ship to use as cover, such an operation would be simple for even a division of new conscripts.

"Quite a while ago, we obtained a large ship from Vallermoore as a tribute. It has since been converted to military use. Its outer hull is lined with cannons of its own, as well as several hidden doors that cloaked soldiers can pour out of to surprise an enemy. Other than that, it has several layers of armor that are so strong and thick that they'd be too heavy for a typical Decepticon body. I believe that we can fly this right up to Arcturus' space territory without opposition."

"Once we get there, its presence, combined with the giant Decepticon Seals that will be on all of its surfaces, will trigger their orbital platforms. When they see that we're winning against the first ones with this, the platforms on the other side of the planet will begin to fire their rockets to adjust their normal positions to some that are within firing range. It should take them an hour to complete that maneuver and bring their weapons to bear."

"Needless to say, once they do that, the other side of their planet will have no orbital defense. I believe you all have the RAM to figure out what we're going to do then..."

All of the generals grinned and nodded, knowing exactly what the plan was: Send in a huge invasionary force of shipless flying soldiers in as soon as the orbital platforms were out of the way.

"The one difference about this upcoming war is that we will not be sending in raiders first," Megatron went on. "They have enough of a defense that the raiders would be blown to pieces if they just attacked head on. Instead, we will only announce the war after we've gotten rid of those platforms and severely damaged the next layer of defense - which is land-based energy cannons."

"Once that's done, I'll have Propaganda cut into Cybertronian broadcasts with my prepared statement, which will give the coordinates as well as instructions to wipe out all industrial facilities that get in the way. We, the troops, will also be attacking those facilities, but we will focus on ones that MilIntel has identified as being essential military-industrial factories. The raider attack will target everything industrial - and in the process, destroy any hidden military-industrial assets that we don't already know about."

"Now, it still won't be easy for the raiders. As soon as Arcturus starts losing their orbital platforms, or at the latest, when we hit their big ground defenses, it'll send out an SOS to its worthless allies. Their ships should start to show up right about the time the first 10 million raiders are coming within sighting distance of Arcturus. The raiders should see them first thanks to their telescopic vision, which they'll be using just to find this place. Then, they'll have to blast their way in right through the Galactipol Emergency Defense Fleet."

"That fleet should be utterly massacred. General Soundwave, you will make sure that everyone on Arcturus who is listening to a radio, TV, or other broadcast receiver will hear the screams of those on the defeated ships - and, of course, you'll censor any Decepticon screams from your rebroadcast. This will spread terror, and even those with access to serious defensive weaponry will be more likely to do something stupid and be robbed of their full strength as a result."

"Once all of the real defenses are out and the raiders have joined in with us, we'll smash that planet's advanced assets rampage-style and in small groups. This will keep what's left of their military from being able to destroy many of us at once. They'll either have to spread out - weakening themselves - or they group up and only try to protect whatever key assets they have left. If they do the first, our natural size and strength will assure us an easy victory. If they do the second, our bomber troops will be the ones to easily destroy their big groups - and we'll still have the victory."

"Now, to recap:

- We take out the orbital platforms
- We then go lower and attack further Arcturan defensive assets
- As this happens, I summon the raiders
- The raiders go in through the undefended side of the planet
- We all take out industrial installations
- We all engage any military that shows up to interfere
- We trash any other advanced assets we see
- We then win, take full control of the planet, and their population and other raw resources are at our disposal

"Any questions?"

"We shall attack when it is midnight in their capital city - it will truly be a 'happy New Year' in Arcturus. The catch is that it will be happy for US."

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

Vallermoore
Right Now

Clever One stood behind the viewer of a large telescope - the kind found in planetariums. Arcturus was nowhere near his planet, though he had heard about it and its leadership position in a group that called itself 'Galactipol - the Galactic Police.' By the short secret message he had gotten, it was clear that it had angered the Decepticons. Perhaps it was behind that fleet of police-marked ships that Vallermoore's space agency had seen the Decepticon Military destroy close to Cybertron?

For a long time, he saw nothing at all. Then, he saw a huge area of space light up with blue swirls. Once they faded and his eyes re-adjusted, he saw something he never thought he'd lay eyes on again: A ship that was once a Vallermoorian tanker. It was now bristling with weapons and bore giant Decepticon Seals. Now out of FTL, it almost moseyed toward its target planet, seeming almost as if it wanted to be obvious.

What was not seen through the telescope were the several million other troops, who were flying under full cloaking. They wouldn't be part of the initial attack, but needed to be in position so they could move in as soon as the time was right.

Yellowstone, Earth

Venebles did well with his bear-butchering operation, losing only a bit of the meat to the rot that set in within hours. Now, he had lots of parcels of meat tied up and placed high in the air - and away from his tent - so as not to attract more bears to his location. He also didn't want other bears to take and eat it. Now that it was butchered and smoked, they probably wouldn't recognize it as ursine.

The other bear wasn't as dumb as he feared, and it decided to stay far away. Once the meat was up in the air, the area's wolves didn't try too hard to get it either. What he did hear within a couple of nights, though, was the unmistakable sound of human footsteps.

Soon enough, a rough-looking man covered in animal skins appeared in the clearing with a big spear, but he held the spear in a vertical position as if it was a walking stick. The hand-wrought metal end was pointed upward to keep it from getting damaged by the dirt. He gave a tentative grin, showing some rotten teeth that were stained by chewing some sort of plant. His non-rotten teeth were worn down almost to nubs thanks to using a very-old fashioned leather preparation method that involved chewing on the skins.

After staring at Venables for a while, assessing him, he used the dull end of the spear to draw a crude Decepticon Seal on the ground. He pointed it at and then at Venables as if to ask if there was some connection.

[Vallermoore]

Foalsom Prison

The Iron Hooves could have been an even bigger and more dangerous gang both inside and outside prison if they had agreed to allow humans into their ranks, but unlike the Decepticons who would allow anyone to immigrate who could pass all the strict tests, or Loyal Star's gang who would take in any sincere Megatronist, they were pony supremacists who considered equis sapiens to be the best possible form of life that there was. Although their "captains of the guard" laughed about their leader, they didn't do it to his face. Their leader , who had the gang rank of "Alicorn" was a unicorn who had made himself as strong as an earth pony, partly through attaching weights to his limbs when on the outside and partly through anabolic steroids. Ironically, if he had taken the tests to become a Decepticon he would have passed most of them except the vital loyalty requirement. They decided to go after individual members of the Loyal Stars on a two to one or three to one basis. They didn't know that although Loyal Star had been painfully and firmly disciplined, he had not been excommunicated and his congregation still had Megatron's blessing. To punish an entire loyal congregation for the actions of it's priest was pointless and counterproductive.

So when two earth ponies set on a lone human, expecting to pound him into a coma, it was the ponies who took enough damage to get them to break off before they lost teeth or had limbs smashed, whilst the human took a few bad bruises only. He went to Loyal Star and told him about it. "In a day or two I'm hoping to have a few simple tools smuggled in to fix my legs, and as soon as they are fixed and we get the chance without all ending up heavily punished for it, we are going to deal with the Iron Hooves as a whole, with murder if necessary. I need to know a few things like-does this country have capital punishment? If it does, that complicates things for both us and the Iron Hooves. Until I get on my feet, I suggest that the Loyal Stars stay in pairs at least. When we do have a gang v gang ruck, I will be in the front rank of course. With unicorns, if you can break their horns it cripples them. Then with the Iron Hooves forcibly disbanded, we will be the only prison gang here."

*****
Arcturus

Arcturus was on the list of planets where whilst raiding it was not banned, it was incredibly dangerous to do. Even the syndicates preferred to give it a miss. Megatron had come up with a plan however. Rather then just use his Godly powers and let the Decepticon Military grow weak and the metallic equivalent of flabby, he would use his Military to deal with Arcturus and would make almost as much an example of it has he had done of the planet once known as Beauty. The Orion, now thickly armoured and decked out in Decepticon Seals, with proper blasters, set off and was soon dueling with the orbiting platform cannons, taking them out one at a time. Regiment after regiment of (for now) camouflaged Decepticon soldiers waited for the time when they could fly in and start showing those inferior biologicals who was the boss.

Down below, not yet aware of the battle above their heads, the human and pony citizens were preparing to celebrate their New Year, which was their biggest celebration and one at which presents-if they were legal, as there was almost no black market there-were given out, with only a few seconds to go until midnight.

Vallermoore

Clever One watched the ship over a high powered telescope in Grand City's planetarium and grinned. Those cops were going to get their asses handed to them and find out that even with tech, flesh was still inferior to metal. He stroked his cutie mark, a large, beautiful Decepticon Seal, with his tail. He did have a slight fear that the Decepticon Military would turn up one day at Vallermoore and wreck the place just because it was there.

Yellowstone, Earth

Venables shook his head, and offered the man some fresh bear meat. He felt a bit sorry for the man.

[Victorious Decepticons]

Foalsom Prison

When the Iron Hooves began to lose to individual Loyal Stars even after setting up 2-1 and even 3-1 fights, the guards began to take real notice. Soon, word had spread through the backrooms and breakrooms, and from there, up to the assistant warden. This guy, a rough-looking swelled-headed git who was always throwing his weight around as if to make up for not being THE Warden, didn't like this one bit. He soon summoned Tirek Hooves to his office.

"What the hell is going on out there!?" He demanded to know. "You have to get rid of these new jerks. Otherwise our deal could come to light!"

Tirek glared back angrily. "They won't interfere with our business! One of the biggest parts of the Decepticon Way is that they are not allowed to nark. We could do business right in front of them and it wouldn't matter. But that's beside the point. YOU haven't been doing YOUR job! Your lackeys are supposed to 'stop trouble.' And those guys have been causing trouble, so why aren't they all in solitary?!"

The corrupt assistant warden didn't miss a beat. "Because YOUR guys are constantly seen ganging up on them to try to beat them up! I can't order them into solitary when it's clearly your minions who belong there - the guards would never buy it!"

"So get some of YOUR guard-lackeys on the job in the right places. Then they can blame the others for starting the trouble, and nobody who counts will be the wiser. And we can go on selling our smack in here like always. Oh, and once those idiots are in solitary, and all of my fine fighters are out, it'd be a shame if the entire solitary wing got killed from a 'carbon monoxide leak' or maybe 'food poisoning.' Such a shame..." Tirek's eyes flashed with malice and hatred.

~~~~~~~~~

Infirm Wing

"There IS the death penalty here," the human responded. "But we don't have to worry about it. The law is written so that it only applies to the killing of 'innocents' - which is to say, those who haven't been busted yet! Prison violence, while they try to at least control it, isn't given nearly as much legal attention. Secretly, I think those on the outside are glad when a prisoner gets killed because they think it's one less waste of tax money. That said, only those of us who are already lifers should really do intentional exterminations. After all, what can they do to a lifer, tell us to stay in for another lifetime?" He laughed openly, and by his use of the word "us," reveled himself as one of the lifers. It was standard practice in many nations to leave planned murders to lifers for this exact reason, and this country was not an exception.


Loyal Star was sitting there bored, surrounded by old lifers whose age had caught up to them, when he saw a welcome visitor. Tasty Goods had brought a cake!

"The knives in this wing are sharp," he hinted as he handed over the confection. "Be careful you don't cut yourself." He winked, and for just a moment, his eyes flipped down to Loyal Star's knees.

The cake itself turned out to be a spice cake made by the gangster's girlfriend on the outside, and after carefully chewing it, he did indeed cut himself a bit. Like a magician, he extracted and palmed the new scalpel-like tool that had been made in one of the prison shops. The move was flawless and went totally undetected. Now, he would need to find himself some privacy so he could do a little repair work.

~~~~~~~~~~~

In key places in the prison, guard personnel found their assignments changed up. Soon, only corrupt ones were in those areas - and they had special orders to write up any altercations between Iron Hooves and Loyal Stars as being the fault of the Loyal Star that was in the incident. They were also given permission to use "extreme force" to bring any such "troublemaker" under control and get him into solitary.

Meanwhile, two Iron Hooves tampered with the furnace down in the sub-basement. Once they were done, it would be able to feed carbon monoxide into the ducts leading to the solitary wing. All it would take, once all of the Loyal Stars were trapped in solitary, would be the flip of a switch to cause a deadly "venting accident" that would surely be chalked up to nothing worse than basic incompetence.

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

Arcturus

Precisely at midnight over the capital, two things happened. First, the planet's far-side platforms moved into position to attack the big Decepticon ship. Meanwhile, the city's fireworks show began.

During the show, the people were amazed to see what seemed like it could be a new firework. Nobody saw it get shot upward, yet glowing bits began to fall from the sky. These landed in the water, where the fireworks barges were, with loud and impressive hisses. While some did suspect that the chunks actually weren't fireworks - and worried about a failed passenger plane - nobody realized that they were coming from their planet's own orbital defense platforms. Nobody, that is, except for the Decepticons who had sent some of those platforms tumbling to the ground as glowing red bits.

Across the planet, it was exactly midday. Fortunately, this was no problem for the first wave of the Decepticon Military, which was fully equipped to remain cloaked in daytime flight. They flew into the lower atmosphere with ease; the orbital platforms had been distracted, moved, and then deactivated just as Megatron had planned. This easy period, however, was short-lived.

Soon enough, highly-advanced detection systems noted not the heat signatures of the invaders, nor their sounds, nor any visual effects - but instead, the turbulence of the air around them. The systems quickly identified not only the presence of turbulence-making bodies, but by using an algo to calculate what would make their exact turbulence patterns, were able to quickly create black-and-white CGI versions of the bodies themselves.

On the ground, alarms sounded at the big energy-cannon batteries scattered around the planet as well as those concentrated at military bases. Within two minutes of initial detection, the first million Decepticon troops were under heavy fire.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Yellowstone

The man, who had smiled yet been wary before, overcame his shyness as soon as he got the offer of free, prepared meat. He came forward with surprising agility and snatched it up as if he thought that Venables might change his mind at any moment. Smiling and nodding, he bit in and began to devour it with a totally-unexpected amount of jaw strength. All of that leather-chewing had strengthened his jaws to the point that they were as strong as those of some predatory animals.

He found a log and sat down near the fire.

"So. You sure you don't come because you want to join them?" He said in a dialect that would now be considered old English; pointing once again at the Seal he'd drawn, as if he hadn't really accepted the prior denial. Venables was shocked - how did this guy know that language?

"We have kept our language," said the semi-wild man, seeing Venables' amazed expression. "We passed it on through the generations. Along with our stories. Like our stories of how the Decepticon-allied Human always has the stuff we used to have." He pointed, very specifically, at Venables' gun leaning against a log close to the would-be immigrant. Then, he gestured more generally at the entire camp: The spare clothing, twine, the spent fire-starter, and the other manufactured goods. "We have not had these pre-made things in generations. I only know of them from the old, crumbling photos from my 7x-great-grandmother's time."

"We have pictures of the things we had, and the machines that came, and of what they did when they arrived. The images are old and cracked, but they show what happened well enough." He gave an involuntary shudder, as if perhaps the pictures were of the Genocide Battalion's work, or perhaps, of the initial aftermath of the enslavement of humanity.

He straightened up and seemed to return from his musings, but remained sitting.

"You are lucky you gave me that meat." He suddenly announced, his voice strong now, and far less depressed-seeming. "It improved my mood. Otherwise I would have run you through, because I see no way you could have those things if you are not connected to the machines somehow. You can't be totally bad if you're willing to share your food. They say that a Decepticon will take all of your food and then force you to cook it for him even as you starve." He spat on the ground. "I don't know if that's true or not. But I do know that the machines are brutal."

He waited to hear what Venables would say in response. Now that he had a belly full of smoked bear meat, he was less likely to rage-kill if Venables admitted his purpose there...but it would still be very risky for Venables to just up and say that. Instead, it would be better for him to seem at least a little less committed to the idea than he really was, at least for now.

[Vallermoore]

Foalsom Prison

"Well, with no death penalty, all those people and ponies serving such long sentences that they have nothing to loose can be out front rank attack troops. Earth ponies of ours can protect the more vulnerable unicorns, who in turn can use their magic to fight for us, but not against the guards. The reason all unicorns in here don't have inhibitor rings stuck on their horns is because they know what not to use their magic for. If our whole gang unites as one we can destroy the Iron Hooves utterly as a threat, and then I'll use my own skills to bust as many out of here as what to come and are truly Megatronist, but only when Megatronism is firmly established."

As soon as he had the time and privacy, having wheeled himself into the toilet where there were no security cameras, Loyal Star quite easily got the smuggled parts attached to his legs and could finally walk again. He sent out the word to every Loyal Star who could do so, to gather together with every illegal prison-made dart or shank or other weapon to gather in the main block and quickly set off to meet them. If he reached them with success, he would order them into battle. Lifers with nothing to lose from extra prison time would be in the front rank, then long sentence people, with the short termers as an emergency reserve. They would track down and wipe out every Iron Hoof that they could kill. Guards would only be attacked if they got in the way, and never with unicorn magic.

*****
Arcturus

The inhabitants of Arcturus were about to get the most horrifying start to their New Year ever. Around one in twenty of the Decepticons would fall victim to the cannon batteries because there were so many of them, but as no jamming was running they would merely end up as data packets in the Military Main Save Vault awaiting resurrection in new bodies. Soon enough the Decepticons started blowing up the cannon batteries and attacking the military bases, although with hover-tanks, fighters and other such weapons the humans were still able to fight back. This would be a harder task then the destruction of Equestria but would be well worth it to avenge the insults to the Decepticon Nation. Arcturus as expected put out a call for help to the other nations in it's anti-Decepticon alliance.

Yellowstone

Venables decided not to tell the truth as he didn't want to kill the man and bring the rest of the tribe after him. "One blasted my ship and I only just escaped because of the terrain that stopped the Decepticon from landing. They are brutal machines, but I'm as human as you are. Would you like me to hunt for you in exchange for shelter? With my gun I could bring down as much meat as you could eat and smoke."

[Victorious Decepticons]

Arcturus

On the dark side of the planet, the oohs and aahs of those who had seen the "new big fireworks" turned to even bigger gasps as the big energy-cannon batteries began to fire at the now-descending horde of Decepticons who had previously been inside the Orion. These gasps soon took on a dismayed sound, punctuated by early panicked screams, as the people realized that this aspect was NOT part of the show. It was, indeed, the military cannons in full action and that meant that someone was in the process of attempting to invade with some serious armamentation of their own!

Over on the light side, where most of the Decepticon Forces were making their move, the visual display wasn't nearly as special. After all, even the light of powerful energy cannons was mostly cancelled out by the light of the sun. Still, it wasn't long before those on the ground were running to avoid being pelted by white-hot shards of Decepticon Steel - the remains of those who weren't as good at dodging as they should have been. These shards managed to kill many pedestrians just by their velocity and the amount of targets, especially in the cities where people were concentrated. The shards also damaged roofs and started a few fires, causing only minor direct chaos but plenty of panic.

Soon, hover-tanks and other flying military vehicles showed up, forcing the Decepticons into dogfights against uncharacteristically well-prepared enemy troops. This slowed down the robots' descent, and it didn't take long for civilians on the ground to start staring up at the scene. The civilians were both terrified and thrilled at the same time - they recognized that it was war, and very dangerous; yet couldn't take their eyes off of a scene that was more riveting than any movie. Before long, Arcturus' propaganda machine was up and running, and radios blared about how this wasn't just a war for territory, but one of good vs. evil and lawfulness vs. chaos. The people of this nation, the nation that was the biggest seat of Galactipol, bought into their nation's narrative without reservation.

Once the first strike on an Arcturan military-industrial facility took place, Megatron sent a quick message to the Bureau of Propaganda. They immediately rushed to put his pre-made announcement chip into the override-broadcaster, and in less than one minute, his voice was on every channel in the Decepticon Empire.

"Decepticons!" Megatron's voice announced, with an authoritative excitement that everyone over age 10 recognized as the tone of voice that went with a battle alert, "You surely remember how not long ago, puny ANTS dared to try to come close to Cybertronian Space in an attempt to capture some of us! How before that, they had demanded - demanded! - that WE extradite our people to be made fools of by their little courts. I'm sure you have all anticipated that these ANTS would suffer the consequences of this insult to the Decepticon Race before too long."

"The time we fully put them in their place is NOW. I, most of my generals, and the Advance Force of the Decepticon Military are on site at planet Arcturus at this very moment. This planet, which has long been part of the 'Most Difficult' level of your Raid Lists, is now much less difficult than it used to be. Its orbital platforms are gone and most of its energy-cannon batteries are smoldering rubble. Now is the time for YOU, the People of the Empire of Victorious Decepticons, to come. Come, and take all you can, limited only by the size of your carts and tankers!"

"Of course, it is not completely safe. But by the time you get here, the level of opposition should be merely Somewhat Difficult - not a challenge to those of you who have some decent experience under your panels, and a worthwhile learning experience to those who've done between 10 and 20 raids. For those with less experience, it is a Gamble, but for those who win their battles, it should be quite worth it."

"There is but one difficulty you all should know of before you leave for your raids: This planet has called for help. This means that you will likely have to charge through some sort of enemy force in space before you can get to Arcturus. Keep that in mind, and be sure to use Military Tactic #10, #11, or a similar system to maximize your power before arrival."

"The coordinates are +877632856 -7839032 ~15125235 relative to Cybertron. This is a bare-sand raid, population included. Take all you can."

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

By the time the message ended, 100 raid gangs were already in the air. They had actually been readying up to go to other places, but they changed their plans upon hearing that there was a big war-raid already in progress. The fact that it was Arcturus was a big draw as well - not because of its Galactipol connection, but because of its notorious difficulty. Many raiders had rankled at not being able to hit it, and now that the Decepticon Military had "cracked the shell of the egg," they were hot to get in and help finish the job.

When the aspect of interfering forces was brought up, people quickly contacted each other over their secret and encrypted frequencies. It was soon decided the first 10,000,000 out would organize under Tactic 10, while those following would switch to Tactic 11. Both of these were derivatives of the Military's Massive Combined Unit Formations, adapted to work with independent squads like raid gangs.

Using these systems, the gangs could approach as if they were part of two giant armies - massacring any lesser forces in the way, much like a big row of flying army ants - and then break back off into raid-gang formations upon arrival just outside of Arcturus. The use of one tactic for the first group and another for the second would make it so that the enemy couldn't do max damage even if it figured out the first pattern. It was fully expected that any space-based enemy in the way would be gone long before the first wave finished coming through, so this was simply an insurance strategy. Once near Arcturus, it was believed that reverting to single-squad tactics would be best - the Arcturan Military would have had time to get used to the massed tactics of the real Decepticon Military and would likely get quite confused by the arrival of a large number of attackers who would then be choosing targets - and behaving - far more randomly.

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

It was a sight that was, in actuality, fairly rare: Millions, then billions, of Decepticons swarming off of Cybertron at the same time. The scene was much like that of a very angry, round, floating anthill that decided to send all of the ants out at once. Cybertron's gleaming steel was blotted out by the darker and variously-painted bodies of its inhabitants as they got between it and the sun. Soon enough, though, the deadly swarm found its direction and every member of it found a place as called for by his chosen Military Tactic number. This swarm then flew with lethal efficiency toward the coordinates Megatron had given, intent on destroying anything that got in its way.

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

Foalsom Prison

Planet Asila, being far from Arcturus and far less advanced, might never have gotten the slightest word that anything was going on there if it wasn't for one pony prisoner who happened to have been given the privilege of indulging in his star-watching hobby. Even this person didn't know exactly what was happening when he saw a big swarm of "something" headed through the sky.

As Loyal Star made his way to the agreed-upon meeting place, he happened to overhear this person mentioning it from his cell. While the names he used referred only to the stars he saw, rather than planets (which were too dim for his telescope to see), the scene sounded familiar. "Those shiny reflections can't be just asteroids! They're too reflective! It's like millions of little metal bits all flying with purpose!!!" He was very excitedly telling his bored, elderly cellmate. "Almost like...like a huge flock of birds or something!"

Loyal Star looked sad for a moment. Those were surely Decepticons, and by the sounds of it, whatever action they were taking was huge! And here he was, stuck in this prison having to fight against a bunch of stupid speciesist ponies. Within a few moments, though, he held his head high once again and now began to march towards his destination. He had become a Decepticon not just to raid, but to spread the message and beliefs of his Divine Leader - and that's exactly what he would be doing today! He would challenge the infidel Iron Hooves and show them the might of the Decepticon Way, now by force instead of by words!

Soon, Loyal Star met up with several of his gang members in the hallway leading to the main block, and together, they exited that hall and went into the more-open main area. Other Loyal Stars appeared from smaller hallways off to the side.

Meanwhile, the Iron Hooves had gotten wind of the plan. Tirek ordered that their original plan, of isolating the Loyal Stars and then killing them in solitary cells, be abandoned. "They want to fight proper, eh?" He had said to his informant. "Then we shall fight proper! We'll stomp them all into the ground with our hooves of iron!"

Thanks to Tirek deciding to take the challenge head on, Loyal Star and his followers soon saw Tirek and his lackeys appear from the other side of what would become the fighting field. Both sides were armed with whatever they could come up with, and everyone was willing to fight to the fullest. The corrupt guards who would have interfered on behalf of the Hooves, however, had all been assigned to watch the more isolated areas. Now, only those who were less-than-enthusiastic remained here, where the fight was really going to go down. It was clear that this battle was going to go all the way.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Yellowstone

"Your ship was shot down, eh?" The man chuckled and nearly winked. "Well, I must say, you do know when to keep a low profile." It was clear that he didn't believe this modern guy, who had appeared quietly and NOT after the blaze or noise of a ship crash - but he didn't push it.

"What kind of shelter are you hoping for?" He laughed. "It takes modern equipment to make the kind of houses that were in those old pictures, and we have nothing like that. Speaking of that, I think you should see those pictures I told you about. But I can't be leading you to our camp. Humans who are too nice are why our kind is so hard to find. Some 'nice guy' brings someone into his camp, and the next thing they know, they're raided. So you don't get to see where I came from."

"I'll tell you what. I'll go and get some of those pictures, and a couple of other members of my group. Then if we're all convinced enough, we'll build you a better shelter - somewhere close to here, but in a spot where it'll be hard for one of Them to land on you- in exchange for a few animals..."

[Vallermoore]

Foalsom Prison

Both the Loyal Stars and the Iron Hooves rapidly organized for battle, lifers at the front, short sentence prisoners who had a lot to lose from killing anyone and elderly prisoners at the rear. When Loyal Star found out that the Decepticon Military was attacking somewhere, he wanted to be there, but he sternly reminded himself of his orders from High Priest Warfire, and also comforted himself with thoughts of becoming a Full Priest, and how proud Fire Eater would be that his teaching of Megatronism had not been in vain. He would be here until his mission was complete. His mind went to the impending battle, and he turned his bravery up and his pain sensations down. For a minute or so the two gangs, many of them armed with prison shanks and other such weapons, stared icily at each other. Loyal Star was in the front rank as a Decepticon gang leader should be, with no weapons except his fists-which since he was facing biologicals who as far as he knew had no guns, was all that he needed. Tirek was in one of the middle ranks, not far enough away to be considered a coward, but far enough away so a foe would have to fight to get to him, and he had a baton that a corrupt guard had given him.

The fact that the Iron Hooves only accepted sapient ponies as members put them at a disadvantage in that they had no humans backing them up, whilst the Loyal Stars accepted everyone who they considered to be right for them.

Very quickly the battle broke out. Humans punched and slashed and kicked and stabbed at their pony foes. The ponies (in both gangs) fought back with hooves and teeth and prison shanks as well as magical spells from at least some of the unicorns, and they were no pushovers. Hooves could break bones if they landed in the right place, bites really hurt, and some of the spells were pretty dangerous. Both sides avoided targeting the guards, as it was not worth having them attacking both sides with firearms. Loyal Star took minor damage, but he kicked and punched his way through to Tirek, snapping at least one unicorn horn on the way, a terrible thing for the now heavily disabled unicorn. Loyal Star and a pony who had told Loyal Star he wanted to become a Megatronist Priest someday reached Tirek.

The pony Tirek was red furred and as large as a full size horse, with prison made armour protecting his horn, and a murder scene as his cutie mark, indicating that even as a foal murder had been his special talent. The pony by Loyal Star suddenly got what appeared to be a heart attack and dropped dead, and then Loyal Star felt his fuel pump being squeezed by pony magic. It was a lot tougher then a biological organ though, and Loyal Star took advantage of the confusion by popping out a concealed blaster for a second or two and blasting his foe though his own heart. With Tirek gone, the half of the Iron Hooves who were still fighting galloped away for their lives, utterly losing face and humiliating themselves and their chapter of the Iron Hooves in the process. When the news leaked out within a few days to the mother chapter of the Iron Hooves, they would not be impressed with those who fled. For those Iron Hooves who were later realised from prison, they would find they had lost their colours and their chapter had been suspended. At best, they would have to prospect again to earn their patch back. At worst, they were now ex-Iron Hooves. The Loyal Stars were now the most powerful gang in this prison-but now large numbers of guards with shotguns came in.

There were many deaths on both sides, and the souls went to different areas of the Megatron controlled afterlife. The Loyal Stars who had died, over thirty of them, found themselves in a small metal room with two screens, one showing the Biological Megatronist version of the Neutral Realm, and one showing the Biological Megatronist version of the Realm of Pleasure. Not even one of them was bound for the Realm of Punishment-they had died in a partly holy cause and none were traitors or narks.

Arcturus/Cybertron

MasterBlaster and his gang decided to fly to Arcturus, as did the ICC, the Cybertronian Business Association and many, many other gangs, as well as some lone bots. Soon enough they encountered space fleets from other nations. Some went through, others did their bit to attack their biological foes, damaging or outright destroying their spaceships,, a few lost their bodies in the fight, and one who only had one body lost his life. When they got to the still fighting Arcturus, they proceeded to destroy anyone still fighting and loot all kinds of things. By now, even the Arcturan Military was running out of missiles and tank shells and ammunition, and was on the verge of falling apart. Many Decepticons had lost their bodies, and a very few had lost their lives, but there were far more of them to contend with. The civilians, almost none of who were armed, were panicking and trying to hide or leave the planet.

Yellowstone

"Something waterproof with a bed of some kind would be nice. What animals do you want in exchange and how many? I understand that you'd rather not show me your camp," Venables said.

[Victorious Decepticons]

Foalsom Prison

When all was done, many bodies lay on the ground either dead or severely wounded. Once order was restored - by shotgun, as it turned out - the wounded were slowly taken to the infirmary. Many were stuck laying there for a couple of hours, as the guards were none too happy with the prisoners having caused so much chaos (and making it so obvious that their authority was being ignored). One guard, a corrupt one who had been working with Tirek, attempted to wipe out a few extra Loyal Stars after the fight had ended. However, another one ran and grabbed his rifle barrel under the assumption that he had just cracked under the strain, and thwarted his plan in the process.

Later, when the dead bodies were collected, it was clear that Tirek hadn't been shanked. Instead, his wound was clearly from a more-advanced weapon. A review of the tape revealed a quick flash from Loyal Star's arm just before the other gang leader went down. Immediately, the assistant warden offered to "take care of" Loyal Star.

Meanwhile, all of the non-wounded combatants had been put into solitary. Fortunately for the Loyal Stars, this didn't give the Iron Hooves-affiliated guards the chance to gas them. The reason was simple: Plenty of Iron Hooves were in the same wing, and the system hadn't been set up to work on a cell-by-cell basis. The guards just had to tolerate the Loyal Stars, though they immediately started to do things like "forget" to feed or water them as much as possible.

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

Assistant Warden's Office

Loyal Star was brought, quite roughly, to the assistant warden's office and thrown unceremoniously through the door. Inside, a stern, yet sneering, weedy man sat behind a desk that was a bit too fancy for his position. This man immediately started to berate Loyal Star, and he approached with a billy club. The guards closed the door and left, certain that the assistant would soon deliver a terrible beat-down - one they didn't want to have any official knowledge of.

As soon as the door closed, the assistant put his nightstick back into its belt loop.

"So you're the new crime boss of Genpop," he said, as if in grudging congratulations. "I had heard that, that was the Decepticon Way. When there's a monopoly and you want into the business, you just take out the current monopolist and then take over the operation."

Loyal Star didn't know what he was talking about. That was indeed the typical Decepticon way of handling the task of breaking into a monopolized market, or at least, that would be what a Cybertronian would attempt. But he didn't see what it had to do with his ascension to prison gang boss in Foalsom. He had just wanted to get rid of those pesky Iron Hooves who had been trying to beat him and his followers to death!

"Well, you succeeded." The assistant warden went on, oblivious to Loyal Star's obliviousness. "Now you'll be the distribution arm for the smack around here. Here's the deal: Your people distribute, and you get 10% of the take."

The Decepticon priest now was getting an inkling of what was going on. This assistant warden had been using the Iron Hooves to distribute heroin, and likely other drugs too. Such corruption wasn't a problem for him - he was, after all, a Decepticon and an emissary for the Decepticon Way - but he also immediately knew that 10% was a lousy deal! To his dismay, when he tried to negotiate it up to a more reasonable 60%, the assistant warden called for his "special" group of guards. These guards then came in as a big group and gave Loyal Star a beating before throwing him into a solitary cell. The assistant warden looked on with a smirk as this happened, as if he was absolutely untouchable.

~~~~~~~~~

Later, in the actual warden's office, the investigation concluded. No evidence of an advanced weapon was found despite the strange way Tirek had been killed and a thorough search of the prison, so the flash was determined to be just some sort of camera malfunction. It was, however, decided that Loyal Star and some of his gang members were too dangerous to be kept at Foalsom. A request was put in to the main correctional system to transfer him and those others to a higher-security facility.

Soon, Loyal Star would find himself on a bus with his most dangerous comrades, but there would be no "accident" to release him this time. Instead, he would be driven safely to a very foreboding facility with high, thick walls and towers that held machine guns and hardened guards.

Upon leaving the bus, the shackled prisoners would be met by bodybuilder-looking guards smacking truncheons against their own hands in a menacing way.

"This is Sing-King. You do exactly as you're told, and you stay healthy. Step out of line and you don't. It's as simple as that."

With this "welcome," the prisoners were brought inside to be booked into one of the nation's most notorious maximum-security prisons. If things went as the prison system's operators intended, the only way Loyal Star would be leaving (besides another transfer) would be to go to court to face his new charges of murder and mayhem.

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

Arcturus

Even though backup ships were already in the vicinity when the raiders came on the scene, it didn't take long for them to be engulfed by the sheer numbers of Decepticons now in the travel zone. The defenders had been prepared for up to a million more troops, but instead, they faced about 3 billion robots all using one of the Decepticon Military's mass unit formations. Both of the suggested formations were specifically chosen for their effectiveness at simply swamping an inferior force, and thanks to the universal conscription, everyone knew how to perform them at fully- or near-fully-skilled levels. To the Decepticons, the unprepared enemies were only somewhat annoying, sort of like it is when a human walks face-first into a big spiderweb.

Not long after, the Arcturans got the terrifying experience of seeing those billions of Decepticons enter their skies, blotting out the sun for several minutes, and then breaking back off into their individual raid gangs. Only a couple of minutes after that, the ground was engulfed in chaos as the invaders landed seemingly everywhere.

In the capital, Leader Megatron now marched with several High Generals along with his personal division of soldiers. It would be mere moments before he was at the presidential mansion and High General Soundwave was at the parliament house. All knew that the actual government officials had surely abandoned these places as soon as it was remotely clear that Arcturus might lose, but taking these locations would be a very important psychological blow against the populace's willingness to continue resisting.

Meanwhile, Soundwave's own special battalion of battlefield spies was busy looking for where the politicians had hidden themselves. Any who were found would be captured and held for public execution. Executions would take place after Arcturus was completely secured by the Decepticon Forces.

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

Yellowstone

"Waterproof?! Well...how about water-resistant? Waterproof means building a real house. But I can come up with a bedroll and build you a better shelter than this...basic leaf-roofed thing. As for what animals? Whatever you can get! Hunting in the woods isn't like going to the..." he thought for a long time, "supermarket. Now THAT would have been something. Just go to this building and pick out whatever, and as long as you have some papers, they just hand it over. It seems almost idiotic, frankly, but great for the person who has the paper strips."

"Anyway, enough meat to make the weight of three deer ought to do."

The man went off into the woods. A few days later, he returned, this time carrying a leather folder. A couple of VERY skeptical-looking 20-somethings followed. One of these had a spear, and the other a bow. They dragged a sledge behind them that held some wood. The wood, surprisingly enough, looked milled, though the job was done roughly.

As they waited for Venables to appear from wherever he had gone, the oldest one opened the folder. In it were very ancient, cracked snapshots of the Decepticon Invasion. One image clearly showed thousands of dead, burned-to-crisp bodies stretching off into the distance, with a rather proud-looking yellow and red robot towering over the carnage. Skulls-and-wrenches adorned both wings, and the robot was even making them glow somehow.

Another image was more typical of human anti-war propaganda. It depicted a mother crying over the broken body of her young son, who had been stepped on and crushed into the mud. More pictures like this were on the same page.

"That one I made a deal with is surely on track for joining these...things," the oldest man said. "As we all agreed back at our village, there was no sign of the spaceship crash that he claimed. Plus, who would be flying a ship here anyway, other than them? I want to make sure he really knows what type of beings these are. They will tell tales of great conquests and make everything they do seem glorious, but they never talk about what it's like to see it from this side."

"If he seems to think that what I show him is just fine...you know what to do."

In response, the younger men gripped their weapons tightly and with purpose.

A couple of hours later, Venables came crashing out of the woods carrying a deer over one shoulder and several rabbit carcasses in the other hand. He had turned out to be an excellent hunter. Now, he would have to have mastery of another skillset: Acting.

[Vallermoore]

Foalsom Prison

Although he certainly didn't mention it, a thought ran through Loyal Star's mind boards that the assistant warden might be a Decepticon in an android body.This was unlikely however, as whilst the Decepticons had many slave mines, prisons as such were not looked fondly on by Decepticons.
When the guards beat Loyal Star up, he made the needed noises whilst turning his pain down to 10% like in battle.Whilst he wished he could blast the whole lot of them it would blow his cover and stop his ordination which was something he greatly looked forward to. He was slapped with some very serious charges and moved to the toughest prison except for the nation's single supermax. Sing-King was a notorious place amongst prisoners.Here the guards had a tighter control then at Foalsom. Loyal Star would have to be careful in spreading Megatronism. He searched his Priestly Files for how to go about it in said circumstances.

Decepticon Afterlife

A junior Angel asked his superior if the fallen Loyal Stars should go to the Neutral Realm of the Realm of Pleasure since they had fallen defending Megatronism.

Arcturus

Under continual pressure, the Galactopol forces finally collapsed although individual units carried on fighting. The President of the country was captured hiding in the Parliament building of all places, whilst others were caught trying to leave the country or in places like the sewer system. Soon enough cages were brought in to hold the humans, ponies and any aliens found. Two special cages were brought in, one for Neutral and pro Decepticon diplomats and those whose countries asked for them back. The other was for anyone who before the invasion began had been a Megatronist, and the Priests of Megatron had a classified way of finding them. On the whole planet only twenty Megatronists of that type were found, people and ponies who had risked prison for their beliefs yet stayed as true loyalists. They and their children did not deserve death or slavery just because they were caught up in a Decepticon invasion. Despite being divine, Leader Megatron still valued loyalists.

Yellowstone

Venables went and hunted the needed food as payment for the help he was being given and with a gun it didn't take that long. If he was not careful he would soon be in a fight with the tribespeople.

[Victorious Decepticons]

Sing-King Maximum Security Prison

Loyal Star was attempting to access his files on Megatronism when a guard came around with a mail cart. To his surprise, he was "misdelivered" a package of books on Prisoners' Rights in the United Asilan Territories. This package, seemingly addressed to some prisoner who had previously had the same cell number, had just one hint of its actual origin: It came from Foalsom Prison. So, Navigator was there after all, and apparently expected there to be some difficulty in using the prior method of spreading the religion. The books were surely meant to provide clues that could be used to set up a different method.

Fortunately, Loyal Star's current cellmate wasn't an extraordinarily violent guy, or at least, he didn't seem to be. He allowed Loyal Star to read without any interference, and instead, stared at a tiny TV that he'd gotten as a privilege of being a model prisoner. On that man's side of the cell, Loyal Star noticed, he had a book with a smaller synopsis of the same information he was now reading.

Loyal Star turned back to his books and began to read. They contained plenty of information, but much of it covered details like allowed exercise time, visitation privileges, and payment for labor. It took quite a while to reach the part that was obviously relevant: Religious Rights.

~~~~~~~~~~~

It turned out that as long as a religion was recognized by the State, prisoners had the right to set up a ministry for it. Other prisoners would have to be allowed to attend services, which would be run by a Priest or similar representative appointed by the religion's governing body. Only as a footnote did the book mention the requirement to be recognized as a religion: At least 50 adherents who were not currently in the same facility as the one proposing the arrangement of ministerial services.

Proving this membership would involve circulating a poll over at Foalsom and on the outside and getting at least 50 people to sign it. That would be difficult, but Loyal Star soon stopped worrying about it. He knew that ForIntel had said that it had "set some things up" before he was sent to this planet, and surely, it would have known about this requirement. Perhaps they had already filed a qualifying poll? He would have to check. Such a check would surely happen automatically if he filed the paperwork to start a ministry, so he decided to roll the dice and file in hopes that it'd pass.

The next thing he'd need to do is get his religion's "governing body" to officially appoint him as a minister to Sing-King. While he was at it, he realized that it would make sense to get someone set up in Foalsom now that he was gone from there, too. This would prevent that prison from officially trying to ban Megatronism or some other such thing. He smiled at the thought of the prison system being legally forced to outright allow the intentional promotion and maintenance of the Decepticon Way within its very walls!

According to his internal files, the main Megatronist Temple had collaborated with ForIntel to provide a way to contact Cybertron via phone. He then read his books on rights to learn that as a prisoner, he had the right to a small number of short calls every month, unless said right was revoked due to a punishment.

~~~~~~~~~~~

The Sing-King guards were not amused at Loyal Star's initial demand to be able to call out right away. That wasn't how it worked, they gruffly informed him, and went away. It was his cellmate who then told him that instead, he had to wait for Calling Day - a single day per month when each prisoner would get to use a phone for a single hour. All of each prisoner's 5 allowed calls for the month had to be made during that time.

On Calling Day, he found a room packed with 100 phones and 99 people talking on them. He took the one seat he was shown to, making him the 100th, and now had to hope that his Priestly Files were up-to-date enough to still have a working number - and try to hear and talk over all of the noise of the other conversations going on. Of course, there were some people who could hear perfectly: Sing-King guards in another room, who listened closely to every conversation through headsets. The conversations were also recorded in case they would eventually be needed as evidence in a trial. There was no privacy for prisoners, who were always assumed to be up to something , and in turn, were always monitored very closely.

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

Loyal Star wouldn't know it unless he was informed, but his "model prisoner" cellmate - Brad Jones - was actually in Sing-King for a very good reason. He was a brutal serial rapist with at least 10 confirmed victims and likely many more. He was actually up for the death penalty since rape - especially of a multiple or serial nature - was a capital offense here, but here in the Asilan Territories, prisoners only went to a special Death Row wing after exhausting their final appeals. Until then, he was part of the general population, and he kept the nature of his crime very quiet to avoid potential vigilante action.

As for his general behavior, it was likely that he acted super-good in order to appear reformed enough to try to get his death sentence commuted to life in prison when his appeals were heard. Of course, the fact that all of the prisoners in the facility were male would also help to keep him calm; they were of no particular prurient interest.

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

Decepticon Afterlife

The superior angel, Judgment Master, soon arrived carrying a very official-looking Book of Megatronism in his hand. He started out with a down-the-nose expression, but this immediately changed when he saw that the new arrivals were actually very loyal new Megatronists. He did, however, give the angel who had asked for his decision that same withering look - only for him, he didn't soften it. The underling should have known how to rule, and he would be getting a demerit for not knowing his religion well enough to do so.

"Megatronism has two competing aspects that are relevant in your cases," he announced to those waiting. "First, it is ruled that loyalists are to be rewarded, or at least, avoid punishment. You are loyalists, so you shall avoid the Realm of Punishment."

"However, Megatron has also decreed that losing in battle is a sin - to use the term you are likely the most familiar with - and this is especially true when such a defeat involves the death of the Decepticon. He has also expressly stated that this is not to be a 'martyrdom religion.' Martyrdom is to be avoided as much as possible, for by definition, it involves an enemy winning against you. To send you to the Realm of Pleasure would reward you for martyrdom, and that is forbidden except by special dispensation by Megatron himself. Our Divine Leader has not come to give this dispensation, so it is sensible to assume that you do not have it."

Judgment Master pointed at a screen, and the scene changed to one of the battle in which these Megatronists had been killed. He played it in slow motion, carefully and critically watching for any idiot moves on either side. Had these people been killed by making foolish mistakes or did they fight properly? Did they miss any obvious mistakes by the other side that could have allowed them to turn the tables? Soon, he stopped the replay and zoomed the camera in on one in particular.

"You, you fought well. For you, a special place will be prepared in the Neutral Realm that is better than average."

"You didn't fight that great, but you managed to steal over 1,000,000 NSD, and the cops never found where you hid it. This gains you extra benefits."

He then repeated these sorts of comments for many of the others, assigning many to this better-than-average - but not Paradisical - area. Once he was done with those, he went on to the mediocre fighters, those who had been busted in avoidable ways, and those whose criminal achievements were simply mediocre. They went to the regular part of the Neutral Realm.

Finally, there were only two left. These had been killed due to easily-avoidable mistakes that even a first-time fighter should have been able to avoid. One allowed an enemy to easily walk right up behind him and shank him, while another - this one a pony - had made a smartass remark to a guard that ensured that he would be the first of the Loyal Stars to fall when the fire order was given. The smug look on the guard's face was momentarily left on the screen for him to cringe and be frustrated at.

"No enemy should ever get that look when managing to score a victory against a Decepticon. Instead, someone who manages to get a fluke in should still be left thanking his god for his good fortune at escaping the battle with his own life. Foreign Intelligence will probably send an agent to wipe that smirky smugness off of his face before he spreads too many anti-Decepticon boasts around."

"As for you" - he looked at the other guy, a human - "Getting stabbed that way was just pathetic. That big pony behind you had to be loud as hell! Ka-lop, ka-lop, ka-lop! Yet you stood there staring at this non-threat (the screen changed to show a potential target several feet away) as that pony came right up and nailed you through the ribs!"

"Both of you two have disappointed me. You shall go to a worse-than-average part of the Neutral Realm, saved from the Realm of Punishment only by your loyalty to Megatron."

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

For the favored group, the Biological Neutral Realm was pretty good. They were in an upscale area with no cops and plenty of mansions around where the inhabitants were conveniently gone all day - leaving them open for easy B&E fun. Most of the ATMs of the area also had only minimal fraud protection; just enough to keep the inhabitants' minds busy, but not enough to be super-frustrating. A few highly-hardened exceptions existed so that the elite hackers and thieves could also have challenges.

The ones who went to the true neutral area found that they had to do work to get their food and shelter, which sucked in their view and which they saw as a mild punishment. Like in the Decepticon Neutral Realm, the work was boring and repetitive, and would only really seem Neutral if they somehow got a look at the actual Biological Realm of Punishment. Still, like everywhere else outside of the Realms of Punishment, there were no cops, so all could try to improve their fortunes in any way they dreamed up - as long as they had the sense to remember that it was still governed by the Decepticon Way, so potential victims could fight back all the way up to lethal levels.

The worst ones soon found themselves stuck doing work like cleaning out restaurant grease traps. In this area, there were no cops, but every possible target was locked up tight or a stronger fighter. As failures, its inhabitants were not allowed to experience the glorious aspects of the Way while still in this less-than-great area.

They also got a bit of a taste of punishment despite the "neutral" designation of the realm. Ruffians kept coming, seemingly out of nowhere, and beating them up. Eventually, to keep from always losing and ending up sore as hell, they would learn to fight like respectable-level gangsters - which was the whole point of this particular arrangement. Once they did, they were moved to the True Neutral area with no need for Megatron's intervention. They now qualified to truly count themselves as Decepticons-in-Spirit rather than mere wannabes.

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

Yellowstone

The older villager gave Venables a hail and quickly put the latest deer onto the sledge the others had dragged in. Then, after making sure to get the rest of the payment - some of which was now fully smoked - he sat Venables down on a long log and began to show him his pictures.

"So," he asked after displaying a particularly poignant shot, "do you think humanity deserved this fate just because it did not do what the machines had demanded?"

Of course, the Earthian man said nothing about how absolutely insultingly the old governments had worded their refusal, or how civilians had paraded around with giant Autobot Seal shirts "in protest" as if being snotty liberals could somehow bring about anything other than exactly what had happened next when the other side included a mighty army and NO practical reasons not to use it. It was likely that he not only didn't even know about this part, but that he didn't understand just how much of a "fighting words" response all of that was to the Decepticons - whose culture considered it all unforgivably insulting and that believed that they only way to maintain its pride was to utterly destroy the offenders.

The idea of playing any sort of victim card to get their way, or just sucking it up as the defenders had seemed to expect, was (and is) so awful that it was never even subconsciously considered by any Decepticon at all. Earth had been given several chances to back down before the Invasion, and it not only didn't take them, but ramped up its offensive behavior. To the Decepticons, this response had been exactly equivalent to a declaration of war. After all, surely no one would respond that way if they didn't want to meet on the field of battle!

~~~~~~~~~

However, through the centuries, it was likely that all of these details and nuances had long been lost. Instead, the stories of the Invasion would be passed down mostly by an oral tradition - a tradition that, generation after generation, would result in the stripping of all mitigating details. The current generation of wild humans didn't even know what a movie was, let alone what THE movie was. They also had no inkling of how trollish the refusal to stop showing it was, either by their ex-governments or by the civilians of the time. By now, these villagers would think of "the machines," who they rarely even dared to name, as nothing but mindlessly-bloodthirsty killers.

With all of that in mind, Venables had to answer the question correctly. "Do you think humanity deserved this fate just because it did not do what the machines had demanded?" Even the wording of that question, with its "just because," showed the older man's lack of understanding of the full circumstances. He secretly tightened his hand around his pocketed pistol just in case he ended up having to use it, and then spoke...

[Vallermoore]

Sing-King

It turned out that even in a prison just one level below a supermax, there was a way for Loyal Star to spread Megatronism-by using the laws of the state against itself! It would take a while to do, but time was one thing that Loyal Star had a great deal of. On Calling Day, Loyal Star was able to set the wheels in motion to be able to become a legal priest according to the rules of the prison.A human or pony would have great trouble hearing properly but Loyal Star's ears, despite the attempt once made to bust them by Jackboots, worked perfectly,and he had the needed number in his Priestly File.

Once he had set things going, a pony with a crossbow cutie mark quietly congratulated him on how well, he had done in Foalsom, explaining that even here the prison grapevine reached in.
Loyal Star asked the pony what name he went by, privately a little suspicious that this pony might be an informer but careful to keep his suspicions to himself.

Decepticon Afterlife

As it turned out, in getting killed in the first place the Megatronists had committed a sin-but this was cancelled out because of the fact they were hardcore loyalists who had died fighting for their God. So they went to the Neutral Realm, neither heavenly nor a place of hellish torture. In fact it was quite like the mortal realm in some ways.

Yellowstone

Venables readied himself for combat, his hand quietly on his gun butt. "Whilst they may have overreacted a bit, you humans surely partly caused the trouble to have a huge number of angry bots bigger then any gang come and destroy your planet." He knew that if he killed these three, their tribe would surely seek revenge.

[Victorious Decepticons]

Sing-King

Loyal Star's ears certainly had no trouble understanding the cheerful and impressed-sounding voice on the other end of the phone. It was a simple matter for his audio coding, added by Immigration when he was first made into a Decepticon, to noise-cancel all of the other voices in the room. This new body retained that capability, which was simply a standard for all Decepticon-produced forms.

After getting through to the First Temple on Cybertron thanks to the Decepticons' long-distance relay network - a network of space "buoys" operated through a partnership between ForIntel and MilIntel but normally serving all who paid the rather expensive fee for a number - Loyal Star was transferred over to the administrative office. This office handled legal support for all sorts of interplanetary missions. The work usually took the form of dealing with license applications for temples, zoning considerations, and other such mundane things. When the clerk learned of Loyal Star's need, he was quite happy to help. The delicious irony involved was glorious, and Loyal Star's request was quickly put into the fast lane.

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

"Oh, I'm Bowyer," the pony said. The name was an obvious match to his mark, much like the names of many other ponies. "I sure hope that you'll teach me more about Megatronism. I've been interested since I heard that Megatron's blessing helped you defeat that other gang."

The words were pleasant, but to practiced ears, were also clearly meant to avoid being too revealing. It was very likely that this pony was some kind of a mole, but so far, there was no way to know who sent him. Was he working with law enforcement? Was he a spy for the larger Iron Hooves organization? If he did his job well and his luck held out, his affiliation would never become known. However, there were times when even the best spies ended up with their covers blown due to circumstances they couldn't control, such as someone else leaking information.

For now, if allowed, Bowyer would join the upcoming Megatronist congregation like many others, and try to just blend in.

~~~~~~~~~~

Several days later, a guard angrily tossed an official message through the bars of Loyal Star's cell. He had been granted the right to hold services once every Wednesday evening after dinner. These services could run for one hour only. Loyal Star would also be able to see individual parishioners on a more private basis for one hour per week, this time on Saturdays, but with one catch: A guard had to be present, and everything had to be discussed at volumes loud enough for the guard to hear. This restriction, the notice explained in dry language, was for security reasons. It listed a specific law number to assert its right to refuse true privacy.

"Looks like you guys really know how to run a racket!" Brad Jones chuckled. "They're really gonna hate having to just stand and listen as you tell the people here that laws and police are anathema to the Decepticon Way, and that your god will help keep them from getting busted again!" His chuckling became constant, and he grinned openly. Finally, he controlled himself enough to stop chuckling, but he still smiled approvingly. "Too bad I can't sign up now. I have a court date coming up, so I'm currently a 'born-again Christian' who has 'become convinced to uphold the teachings of Jesus Christ the Redeemer and who now wants only to atone for my sins.' " He gave a pointed wink, indicating that his Christian guise was actually complete BS. While he still hadn't given any details about his reason for being in, it was clear that repentance and atonement weren't on his agenda.

The first Megatronist Service would be jam-packed. In fact, so would most if not all of other services Loyal Star would hold. This wouldn't be because everyone in Sing-King was all that enthusiastic - in fact, unless Loyal Star was able to get them fired up enough to truly believe, the people would actually be secretly UNenthusiastic. They would just attend because they had the legal right to, and this meant that they could spend an extra hour each week outside of their cells. Many of the prisoners attended the services of every religion that held them here, just because it was more interesting or less stressful than staying caged.

Of course, Loyal Star had an advantage over all of the other approved ministers to Sing-King. Once he started to talk, the prisoners would realize that Leader Megatron was really in their corner - quite unlike all of the other gods promoted by the competition.

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

Unknown to Loyal Star, a new prisoner was booked in during this time. He had just been transferred from Foalsom after having been caught trying to hack into its computers. This new prisoner, Navigator in disguise, wouldn't make himself known but would quietly observe.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Yellowstone

"Aha, I knew it!" The older man said. "Only one who's actually with them could call these atrocities merely 'overreacting a bit.' A BIT! " He repeated the last part in incredulous outrage. "I guess that means that you won't be too bothered when we 'overreact a bit' ON YOUR ASS, you lousy traitor to humanity!" He readied his spear, and the spear-bearing warrior with him did the same. The bow-holding one began his arrow-loading sequence, but this took a bit longer since it required more than essentially pointing a stick. It was clear that they fully intended to kill Venables; their suspicions were now confirmed to their satisfaction.

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

Arcturus

Despite now being effectively overwhelmed by both the Decepticon Military and the raiders, Arcturan forces in hardened positions fought on. If they couldn't win, at least they would die gallantly - especially since these last few positions had some serious firepower and could take out several of the attackers before being brought down.

This caused some temporary consternation to the Decepticons, who faced energy-cannon fire every time they got close enough for their own blasters to be able to hit back. Usually, enemy fire was of more-limited range than their own, making it possible for the Decepticons to just stand back further and nail 'em from there. This tactic wasn't working here, and it was aggravating.

"We need to cut the fuel lines leading to those energy cannons!" Various Decepticon squad leaders realized. As long as the enemy still had some sort of fuel to convert to weaponized energy, they could keep firing. But if the source of that could be found and cut off, it would be just a matter of time before the cannons would have to fall silent.

"Either that or just siege 'em until their bio-fuel runs out," others countered, actually referring to the food supply of the enemy troops. "Or until they run out of coolant," said still more. "I heard that biologicals have to keep adding new coolant all day long because they constantly leak it out of the other end!"

At various positions, different tactics were tried. Some squads looked for hidden fuel lines, while others put the enemies in their areas under siege and settled in for a long wait.

Meanwhile, other parts of the Military, as well as raiders, took control of Arcturus' refineries, petroleum storage yards, and storage yards for as-yet-unknown fuel types. The Military quickly started to set up deals with the raiders to obtain all of the oil that they held, averting the need to bring in Energon from Cybertron. Field refineries were set up to convert the Arcturan fuel to proper Energon, and some of this was ferried to those still fighting. Overall, the Decepticons quite enjoyed using Arcturan fuel to power the continued war against Arcturus itself.

The civilians saw the cages being brought in, but thanks to Galactipol's "investigative branch" knowing about what happened on Equestria - and having used that investigation to produce and show anti-Decepticon propaganda - the people knew that getting into those cages meant a certain trip to slavery or even outright slaughter. Already, there were rumors of Genociders menacingly circling in certain areas. The rumors were false, but the people were terrified just the same. They began to hide themselves into the smallest and/or hardest-to-find areas all over the planet, and winkling them out intact would be a big job.

While some big-name officials had been captured, there were no executions yet. Megatron wanted to wait until things had calmed down enough for the population to actually watch the broadcast. These officials therefore became the first to be put into cages. Theirs were heavily guarded to prevent escapes.

So far, no diplomats were in "protective custody." Like the civilians, they were hiding. Even those from nations friendly or neutral to the Decepticons were too afraid to come out, simply because there was now a huge war going on outside!

[Vallermoore]

Sing King

Loyal Star did not ask Bowyer about himself-it was considered rude to pry into another Megatronist's life. When he got the good news that he was now legally allowed to preach Megatronism, he knew he would need to walk a tightrope. If his sermon was deemed too fiery and started a prison riot, he would be unceremoniously stripped of his priesthood and possibly sent to a supermax and High Priest Warfire would not be pleased. But if it was too dull, he would never get many believers and would also have failed. He started by telling the bored prisoners that most religions would consider them to be hell-bound sinners, but Megatronism was not like that.
The Megatronist Hell was for traitors and narks. Ponies pricked up their ears and humans took more interest. He then explained basic Megatronism to them without ever quite crossing the line into outright incitement of crime or violence, in an interesting way.

By the time he had finished he had gained at least some interest because of the novelty of Megatronism. Christinanity, Ponyism (what remained of it) and other religions existed in Sing-King but they saw the prisoners as failures who had sinned whilst Megatronism saw them as good people and good ponies. Because of this at least a few of the prisoners started taking an interest because of the novelty of not being seen negatively.

Later when he was able to see parishioners he was obviously limited by having to have a guard present, but there were things he could help with. A prisoner had a minor wound from a bug bite that had got seriously infected to the point that his leg was in jeopardy. Loyal Star suggested that he pray to Megatron to heal it. Whilst healing was not guaranteed, it was at least a possibility. That night the prisoner decided that he had nothing to lose from taking Loyal Star's advice. Knowing what happened the last time he called on Megatron's aid had very nearly got him not only killed outright but sent to the Realm of Punishment, and that only his earlier saving of Megatron had spared him that fate, Loyal Star made it very clear to the prisoner how to go about it in the right way, and in a way that would not direct Megatron's anger at Loyal Star.

YellowStone

Shooting the three of them was easy, Venables shooting the bowman first. He took a bow, arrows, a spear and a flint knife from the bodies, but realised that he would now have to run before the whole tribe caught up with him. For all he knew there might be hundreds in the tribe and if they killed or even just captured him he would have failed just as much as if a Decepticon killed him or captured him. Even if there were just a few of them, they would know the general area far better then he did and might trick him into a pit trap or into a place where a Decepticon would get him, so for now at least he would have to keep moving. He entered a geyser basin, a place of great danger, as some of these pools could boil a person down to the bones-or more, and only a very few were swimmable in.

Arcturus

The military and civilians of Arcturus fought far more then most planets that were invaded by the Decepticons, because most of them knew their fate if captured alive-either execution or slavery in mines and other such places. But most of their refineries, oil wells and other such places had been destroyed or occupied, and within hours they were reduced to firing heavy machine guns at the Decepticons. Bullets could pierce Decepticon Steel at close range, and there was always a risk of one of them breaking something important, but they were nowhere near as dangerous as energy cannons. The Genocide Battalion quietly wondered to themselves if or when they would be called in. Many were impatient, but they knew what charging in against orders could mean. Disobedience by a fully trained soldier of orders that were not in themselves treason was treason and could easily mean the death penalty, or at the very least, some time under the control of a military obedience virus. With untrained new recruits the death penalty was not used in the same way -for the simple reason that executing all the new conscripts would prevent any growth of the Military and most likely spark off a huge revolt.

[Victorious Decepticons]

Arcturus

Megatron was busy taking out the last organized defenders of the capital when he detected a prayer come in from way over on some other planet. He groaned at the timing - he was in the middle of a war! Upon examining the content, he realized that it was some guy who one of his assistant priests had told to ask for healing. Now his eyes narrowed with distaste. Biological bodies were so hard to fix! And worse, this one had a bunch of other, unauthorized, biological bodies trying to take it over. This would force him to differentiate one from the other - a task that, even for him, wasn't so simple.

Suddenly, his thoughts were cut off by the jarring sensation of someone trying to rearrange his face with a surprisingly powerful energy blaster. Fortunately, said face was made of material meant to resist a fusion cannon blast, so it wasn't damaged - but it was still quite unpleasant to be blasted right in the face, sort of like having a bee come up and sting there. Megatron looked down and around, and soon, spotted the human carrying a shoulder-mounted energy cannon. Even though the soldier had to carry it on his shoulder, it was notably smaller than the giant fusion cannon barrel that was now pointing back down at him.

"Nice toy," Megatron said evilly. "Now let me show you mine." The human dropped his weapon and turned to run, but it was too late. In an instant, the entire area where he was standing was glassed. There was nothing left of the soldier, whose body and equipment were all instantly vaporized.

As Megatron did this, he used his multithreading ability to unzip and access his file on biological hack programs. To his dismay, all his main file contained was data on how to use such programs to attack biological enemies. It took him quite a bit of searching to find an archive that was made when Earth was invaded. This file, at least, was from a place called "Harvard University" - supposedly one of the best long-form learning institutions on that planet.

By the time Megatron reached the end of this file, he realized that he could be in for a big job! If he did what it said, he either had to identify the hack-programs and then provide the right antibiotic effect; or warp some amoxicillin in and hope it worked - much what human doctors would do - and, like a human, only bother to analyze the infection if the amoxi failed. The first option sounded like a giant PITA, and the second seemed like it could produce less-than-godly results. That option would also be too slow to seem miraculous enough.

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

In the Cities of Arcturus

All of the organized defenders had been eliminated from the major cities, and the raiders soon came through to loot everything worth getting. The major gangs were all present, from the ICC down to MasterBlaster's growing, but still small, posse. It would be only a matter of a few days before these cities were nothing but a combination of sand and tiny bits of masonry deemed too insignificant to collect.

What wasn't present - or at least didn't seem to be - was any potential slave stock. Each city was an utter ghost town, and even digging in the expected places like sewers and basements revealed nothing. The raiders knew that the populace had to be hiding somewhere since there wasn't an overabundance of dead bodies or blast marks in the streets, but most weren't interested enough in slaves to bother looking for them. After all, there was plenty of free metal, and even decent amounts of refined petroleum to be had!

Soon enough, General Carjack got the message. The war - which he and his regulars had been actively fighting in - was all but over. The problem of the missing populace was explained, and soon enough, the General called for his special Battalion to get into formation. The rest of his troops would continue with mopping-up operations against the very few remaining military outposts and then help the rest of the Military maintain control over all of the still-useful refineries and oil fields.

As in many places, Arcturus' most populated city turned out to be somewhere other than the capital. It was on a seashore, though much like Earth's New York, anything resembling a beach had long been built over and destroyed. Still, Carjack saw as he made his first flight over the place, the water was clean. This planet obviously had good pollution control now, though the city had formed before it was invented. Where buildings had once stood, splotches of once-hidden, ancient chemical dumping could be seen.

After taking a pass over this city, which would be the first to be "cleared out," Carjack and the Genocide Battalion landed with intentionally-intimidating bangs. They looked around with the seriousness of proper executioners: Stern, unyielding, and clearly deadly. On their wings, the headframe-and-wrenches symbols were now showing.

It wasn't long before Carjack heard a gasp of fright.

He didn't look in the direction of the gasp, but instead, subtly retrieved an item that was tiny even by human standards. Then, he flicked it just behind the exact spot his coding told him the gasp came from. As anticipated, this was indeed where the little gasping biological was now. It was in the process of quietly running away, and it didn't even notice the tiny tracker now attached to its back. After about 10 minutes, Carjack got out a tablet and began to watch the running path of what seemed, by the high speed being reached, to be a quite athletic pony.

Soon enough, the pony had led the Genociders to a massive underground bunker system. Only narrow tunnels led to the outside, but the tracker's altimeter told the story. The flashing position light showed the pathway, while the altimeter's reading showed that this pathway was going lower and lower. By the time the light stopped moving, it read -1,000 feet.

Carjack's engine revved with frustration, and when he told his Battalion what was up, theirs joined in. There was no doubt: The best way to deal with these embedded biologicals would be to bomb the bunker system from the air. There would be no screams to listen to, no pleading for life. Just loud booms, and then that eerie silence that always reigned once they were done their work.

"Our duty is to be efficient," Carjack reminded the troops. "Not only that, if we dig, we could get faces full of fusion cannon fire as our prizes. These creatures have clearly chosen to never surrender. I shall call for the cargo-bots to bring us the right kind of WMDs, which are currently on Cybertron. Then, we shall outfit ourselves and do away with this anthill."

The "right kind of WMDs," it turned out, weren't all mere bunker-busters. First, they would drop regular explosive bombs to break the roofs and any internal sealed doors of the bunker system, but then, they would drop gas bombs. These would ensure that most if not all of the humans who were within the underground city would meet their ends, even if they had hidden themselves where explosions wouldn't reach them.

In the meantime, the order was simple: Find all locatable vents and passage openings and block them up. "These are nothing but moles in their tunnels," Carjack said. "And it is said that one of the best ways to kill moles is simply to block the exits and fill the tunnels with gas." He then added another order to make sure their mission was as complete as possible. Once the bombing was done, the Genociders were to immediately land and watch out for any humants trying to leave what would soon be an underground tomb. "Chances are good that we'll miss at least one or two exits, so be on the lookout for humants or any other biologicals streaming out of those as soon as they realize what kind of bombs we've dropped in there. Blast any that you see!"

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

Sing King

A high-pitched shriek rang through the cell block from the prisoner who had asked for his infection to be healed. His leg was now twitching on the floor of his cell, severed at the hip.

Before he even finished shrieking, a new, infection-free leg had grown in its place. Before long, tales of the "mystery leg" were known all over the prison - thanks not to Loyal Star, but to the guards who couldn't stop talking about it. Adding to the mystery was the fact that a DNA test of the severed leg showed that it certainly belonged to a prisoner who just as certainly had two fully-working legs attached to him. Upon examination, it was found that both of his legs were indeed his own. The only major difference between now and the time he had been booked in was the presence of a new, perfectly-done, Decepticon Seal on the front of the calf.

The prison, being the strict rule-bound place that it was, informed the prisoner that jailhouse tattoos were not allowed and that it would be forcibly lasered off. Later, when they tried to do this, they found the second miracle - the Seal immediately came back even as they worked, and in perfect condition. They then tried to cut it off, also to no avail. Eventually, the administration realized that it would not be able to remove this mark. The convict was ordered to wear long pants to cover it, and that was all they could do.

Needless to say, all of these stories spread quickly. Everyone began to get much more interested in Megatronism after this.

The only one who feigned a lack of interest was Loyal Star's cellmate, who continued to claim he followed the very minor religion of Christianity. It was a religion with hardly any followers on this planet - so few that the battle between Megatron and Yahweh had not been shown here. The main religion was unique to the planet, fairly peaceful, and decently popular, but Loyal Star's cellmate had thought that it'd be best for his appeal chances to claim to follow one that was even heavier on the "peace and love" angle. Secretly, though, the man was becoming convinced that Megatron would be a better leader than any of the pantheon the planet was familiar with.

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

Yellowstone

The tribe didn't take long to figure out what had happened, and it also didn't take long to come and get the cured meat along with the bodies of their comrades. Then, they began to hunt.

Soon enough, they tracked Venables' footprints, and the most sure-footed of them began to enter the thermal pool zone. Amazingly, an ancient bronze sign still identified this area as the "Paint Pots," but he didn't have much time to read it. He could hear the patter of moccasined feet coming closer, and dreaded the thought of having to engage in combat in what was, to him, an unfamiliar area. The walkway that once went through this treacherous area, alas, had rotted out over a century before.

Suddenly, he heard those pursuing feet start running - in the other direction. Even though he wasn't a woodsman, he knew that this had to mean that there was some kind of serious danger! He looked around, but saw nothing. Then, he listened for animals. Again, nothing...just the normal background noise of home.

It took him another minute or so for it to hit him. The noise of home. Chirping birds, chattering squirrels, [/i]and jet engines...[/i]

Decepticons. The ones he was hearing now were almost surely slavers, scouting for any tribesperson who had strayed too far out of the woods. And now, here he was in the open, with no trees in sight. His only hope, it seemed, was that the giant machines wouldn't have room to land here on this uneven, mud-pocked landscape. These pools were not only wet, but actively corrosive. While many of them weren't deep enough for a Decepticon to completely sink, landing in one could cause enough damage to make it not worth doing so.

Of course, there was no way for him to know whether the slavers themselves knew that landing there could be dangerous for them, so he figured it would be best to try to find a way to hide...

[Vallermoore]

Sing-King

Loyal Star remembered a time when he was a foal and still on good terms with his parents, long before he blasted them.

He was bringing a chalice up to the alter of the Ponyist Altar in the temple that his father was the priest of, when his cutie mark appeared with a light pop, a holy symbol just like that of his father and mother. He gave a loud whinny of joy. Almost all ponies were happy when they got their cutie mark, as it meant they were regarded as young adults and had a cutecenara party to look forward to. If however the cutie mark was one that would mean the pony was ridiculed, or actively persecuted by the forces of law and order, it could mean sadness and the parents being angry with their colt or filly. His father grinned. "That is a wonderful cutie mark and we will party tomorrow, but remember this-being a Priest means duty, and not all duty is fun to do. Your religious superiors will no doubt get you to do things that you don't want to do, and you will have to do them." Loyal Star thought that whilst in other ways Ponyism and Megatronism were eons apart, that was one thing that applied just as much to a would be Megatronist Priest as much as to a would be Ponyist one.

He decided that he would stay in this prison as long as it took to take to prove himself to be worthy of the Priesthood that he had been through so much for, including painfully shedding his pony form for a mighty body of Decepticon Steel, and now this smaller and weaker but still strong Decepticon Android form. Until the hopefully far away day when he finally fell in battle, he would serve his God Megatron. He heard a scream and since he was not locked in his cell for the night went to look, to find that the prisoner he had advised now had a brand new leg from Megatron, his old diseased leg twitching on the floor before the guards took it away to cremate or bury it. He wondered if he would feel the agony of electrical pain, but it did not happen. His God was not displeased with him.

*****
In the Cities of Arcturus

When General Carjack gave his Battalion the order to move in, there was much happy revving of engines and many approving comments from the Genociders. Carjack soon detected a hidden sapient pony but quietly bugged him or her rather then blasting. When the bunker system was found, the Battalion and it's General were furious at first. Rather then admit defeat and all in the bombers, their rivals, they decided to blow open the bunkers and gas the humans and ponies inside and shoot or squash any who got out. Soon enough they were doing just that. One humant managed to ask why the Genociders hated them.

Yellowstone

Soon enough Venables found himself in a muddy, dangerous place where the wrong step could find him plunged into boiling mud that would scald him to death. Hearing the sound of engines, Decepticon engines, he realized he would surely be enslaved if they caught him. Finding a nearby stream, a warm stream, of water geyser basin runoff that didn't burn to the touch, he jumped in and let the stream carry him away at great speed.

[Victorious Decepticons]

Sing King

While it would not yet be acknowledged due to the fact that Megatron was mostly concentrating on the warzone he was standing in, the miraculous replacement of the leg had already gained plenty of converts. He did groan a little, not with displeasure at the fact that Loyal Star had said to pray for repairs, but because he knew that it wouldn't be long before half of Sing King's prison population decided to try it too.

Suddenly, Loyal Star got a message from Megatron himself over his internal communicator, which was standard in all government-issued spy bodies. "A lot of people will come begging to me now," Megatron said, "but many of them won't be actual followers. You'll need to explain why only some get good miracles, while others get clear signs of refusal. Make it clear that only Megatronists should have hope for a favorable response, and even then, only for things they can't fix themselves and that won't self-repair within a reasonable period of time. Oh, and file a 'human rights' complaint on that place for refusing that guy medical services. They like the law so much - make 'em follow it! By the way, good work on that, and on NOT promising that I would do anything. Be sure that in your sermon, you don't make any promises in my name either..."

There was no word on him getting out. In fact, he had done so well in getting converts that Megatron wanted him to stay longer in hopes of collecting even more. Even now, Megatron detected more and more loyalists coming online thanks to his replacement of the leg. He was secretly glad that the prisoner wasn't overly bothered by how he did it. To Megatron, it had just been simpler to chop the old leg off and work magic to trigger the speedy growth of another one than it would have been to differentiate between the bacterial cells and the desired ones.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Arcturus

Once the first city's bunker system had been wiped out, Carjack decided to go ahead and bite the bullet. He called for the bombers, knowing that they could carry far more of that sort of ordnance than he and his fighter-configured Genociders. While the Genociders had indeed been able to bomb - they had bombed openings into the bunkers in this city - they could only carry a couple of explosive munitions each. The size of bombs they could carry was also much smaller than what could be dropped by dedicated bomber-form soldiers.

When the humant asked one of the troops why they hated the Arcturans, he was a bit surprised to get a response. Several nearby Genociders said not to bother answering at all - after all, the humant was going to be dead within a minute anyway! Even so, the one soldier took a moment to note that Arcturus had been behind the attempt to humiliate the Decepticons by demanding that its laws be followed over those of the more-powerful Planet Cybertron. It was also the most powerful member of Galactipol, which itself was considered an abomination against both the Decepticons and even nature itself. He went on to rail a bit about the attitudes of police types, who always saw themselves as morally superior when in fact, their agencies were usually full of corruption. "We will not be told to do by weaklings and hypocrites!" He made sure to note.

Finally, he said, the people of Arcturus had not been known to protest or otherwise oppose their government, but instead, accepted being ordered about by laws and strictures and had even thought that such things were good! On top of that, most of the Arcuturans had cheered when they thought that the mighty Decepticons had been 'brought to heel' by their vaunted alliance, Galactipol. On top of all of that, the people had not surrendered, but instead fought alongside their army - and when it was clear that the war was lost, hid themselves away in a continued refusal to surrender and accept Decepticon rule. "This makes you, the people of this place, our enemies just as surely as your soldiers, cops, and prosecutors were. This is why we are eager to obey the order to wipe this planet clean of your ilk and claim it as our own." With that, he aimed his right-arm blaster at the weak little humant and fired.

Yellowstone

As Venebles found himself swept along through the rapids, he heard the loud roar of the Decepticons' jet engines not far above. They did see him, and at least one in the group was going to attempt a landing before he jumped in the river, but he was taken out of the area and into woods before the bot could circle back and lose enough speed to try to come down on foot. Now, the human faced a more pressing concern: Avoiding drowning. The rapids were treacherous, with many rocks he had to avoid cracking his head on, and it was exhausting to stay afloat.

After what seemed like an eternity, the water finally became calm. He swam to the side and crawled out onto a tiny, low part of the riverbank. Once he was out just enough to be safe from sliding back in, he passed out.

In the middle of the night, he finally woke back up. There was a full moon, and it shined just enough light for him to see that he was now in a deep gully. The mountain-like, sandy rock wasn't as tall as it would have been if he'd gone down the river in the Grand Canyon, but the terrain was similar to that. Suddenly, he noticed a creature next to him - a vulture! It wasn't long, though, before he realized that he shouldn't be seeing a vulture in the middle of the night. He also shouldn't be seeing only one - though they didn't travel in flocks, per se, multiples would arrive if they thought food was around. A careful listen confirmed what he'd been suspecting: This vulture had an engine.

"Just making sure you're still functional," the DomIntel Earth Branch agent said, before taking off. Venables was once again alone, and on his own.

[Vallermoore]

Sing-King

Loyal Star heard Megatron's voice once more, but this time it was not accompanied by godly lightning bolts and a lot of pain, much to the immense relief of Loyal Star. Megatron made it clear exactly what Loyal Star needed to say in his next sermon, which happened to be only a few hours away.

When his next sermon began, Loyal Star said "At least one of you and maybe more for all I know, have been healed by Megatron, and bear his indestructible tattoo as proof, whilst others have been turned down. There are two very good reasons for a refusal of aid. First, to gain aid from Megatron you must be a Megatronist. It doesn't matter how pressing the need for aid is, or how Decepticon like you may otherwise be-if you do not take the formal oath to be a Megatronist, there will be no help whatsoever. Second, if you are a Megatronist but have been refused, either the request is too petty or the thing to be healed will heal on it's own anyway, or both. Don't bug him, or he'll either block you forever from gaining aid-or he will smite you, with anything from a sharp pain to death, depending on how angry he is. But if you have a problem that is big enough and will not heal on it's own, like severe organ failure or limbs that will never work again or are missing-then you have a real chance of gaining his aid. Even then it's not certain, as He is not only a God but a Leader of a temporal Empire-but if you are not blocked or smited, if you wait long enough you might get help later when He has the time."

He hoped he was saying the right things as he really didn't want another helping of electrical God-given agony. He considered himself very lucky to still be in the land of the living; and thought that his loyalty had been the factor that stopped Megatron from killing him earlier, just in case his help was ever needed again to free Megatron from the afterlife.

After the rest of his sermon, he filed a formal human rights complaint, much to the anger of the prison warden who had to let it go through. The warden considered just throwing Loyal Star into solitary confinement, but after reviewing his violent record, decided against it. If he sent in a squad of heavily armed guards and Loyal Star still kicked their asses, the whole prison would kick off.
He was very curious about just how Loyal Star could take down multiple foes all by himself in the last prison.

*****
Arcturus

General Carjack could see dimmed eyes around him when he called in the bombers but choose to overlook this sign of the displeasure of his regiment, as he felt the same way they did and his own eyes were somewhat dimmed down too. Part of good generalship in the Decepticon Military was to know when not to crack down on some really minor thing as that could damage the morale of the regiment under one's command. Soon enough the bombers showed up and did their work.


Yellowstone

To the annoyance of the bot who saw him but was going too fast to make a live capture, he was washed into the trees and it was no longer worth going after one tiny humant, as the trees would scratch his paint a lot. He managed to avoid drowning or serious injury,
but was very tired when he got out, so much so that a Domintel bot in a vulture body came to see if he was alive. Not to enslave him though-Domintel was not allowed to interfere with Immigration in this way as it would Weaken the Nation by shutting off the immigrant flow. He woke the next day with small biological hack-programmes in his body in the form of a bad cold.

[Victorious Decepticons]

Sing King

While the warden was curious about how Loyal Star managed to be so great at fighting, he decided not to ask. He figured that at best, Loyal Star would claim to have trained under some MMA master or other, or perhaps say he just learned on the streets. Convicts were notoriously tight-lipped about where they picked up their various skills.

Loyal Star's sermon made Megatron seem tough and unforgiving, and while this was actually true, Megatron wished he'd also pumped up the virtues of those traits. Thankfully, since Loyal Star was preaching to some of the nation's most hardened criminals, they expected a leader to be this way.

The Megatronist missionary's time in jail, however, was about to become much worse. Word got around that he'd filed a human rights complaint, and soon, outside investigators would be coming to make sure everyone was being properly taken care of. Already, the infirmary was overflowing with inmates who were being seen by hastily-hired doctors and medical assistants. There was very little time for Sing King to make everything look ship-shape on this front, and the guards knew that the inmates would be singing like canaries about how it had usually been hard just to get a couple of aspirins out of the one lazy doctor who was usually there.

Because of this, a few of the guards decided they would have to show Loyal Star his "place" in the prison. They ordered him to come and "clean" an area underneath a flight of metal stairs - an area that the guards knew was a camera blind spot. Once he arrived with the two guards who came to get him, he was met by four others. All of the guards, now six in total, simultaneously got out their nightsticks.

"This is what you get for trying to act like you're the law around here, boy!" One said. All at once, they set themselves upon Loyal Star with the intention of giving him a severe beating. If it killed him, that was fine with them. They would just say he "became unruly" and that they only did what they had to do to subdue him. At least, that was their plan...

Arcturus

It didn't take long to wipe out the rest of the hidden population once the bombers began to make their runs. These troops, while essential, were thought by most of the Military to have it easy. They could be assigned to exterminate millions of people, yet since they did it from above and the sight of the carnage was blocked by the dust kicked up by their bombs, they rarely developed mental glitches as a result of their work. At most, some of the big soldiers would be a bit bothered by the knowledge that entire cities' worth of people were under their bombs, but it was nowhere near as up close and personal as it was for the ground troops.

The Genocide Battalioneers, on the other hand, saw it much differently. They usually felt sorry for the bombers because, in the Genociders' view, the bombers were deprived of having any fun. In this war, though, they were irked because they figured that they - the Genociders - were not only deprived of the "thrill of the slaughter," but said thrill would be lost on the ones now doing the work.

"There was no real way around it," Carjack said over his radio, which was now tuned to the Genociders' intra-regiment communication frequency. "It would take us far longer to bomb all of the cities on this planet than it will the actual bombers. We are, after all, primarily fighter jets. While our design allows for some bombing ability, that's mainly so we're not screwed if we find that we need to blow things up from the air and the bombers aren't around. Since the people are so well-prepared to hide in bunkers, this job is going to require a huge amount of bombing."

"For now," Carjack went on, "we shall go after the small cities, towns, and villages that are surely dotted all over this planet. They likely didn't have the resources to build bunker systems, and we'll have no difficulty wiping out any that don't instantly surrender. It's not as fun as returning a city to the dirt, granted, but if we don't get them, they'll become hubs of insurgency."

With that, the Genociders split up into 5-bot squads according to a pattern they learned as part of this battalion and took off into the skies.

~~~~~~~~~~~

The sound of bunker busters and gas bombs continued to ring out in the distance, and now, the booms were far more powerful than before. While the bombers weren't specifically into genociding, they were very much into delivering their bombs with precision and excellence. Random whoops came over the radio as they made direct hits on their targets - the expression of pleasure at jobs well done. These sounds were heard deep into the night, along with the roar of cargo-bots who came to resupply the bomber forces with more ordnance.

When dawn came, Leader Megatron made a general announcement. Of the approximately 5000 large and medium-sized cities on the planet, 10 had decided - after realizing that the holdouts were simply being wiped out - that surrender was a good idea after all. A few of the smaller burgs had decided the same thing. This left the population of Arcturus, which once numbered billions, at a mere 5,000,000.

It was quickly decided that the Arcturan genomes would not be used to produce any new slave stock. While the information would be cataloged, it would simply become part of the Decepticon national archive. New slaves, on the other hand, would be cloned from the tested and stable Approved Human DNA Codec and the new (but still proven stable) Approved Equestrian DNA Codec. These Codecs were known to produce loyal, obedient slaves. Arcturus, on the other hand, had already been shown to be anti-Decepticon to the point that it was likely that this trait had its roots in Arcturan genetics.

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

Megatron enjoyed the glow of victory, and the pleasure of subjecting his new supposedly-sapient property to his victory speech via giant TV screens he had set up at the places they had been gathered. The few remaining people were horrified to learn that, unlike most of the places the Decepticons took over, Arcturus was to be "raided to the bare sand." By demanding extradition of Decepticons - not as mere political posturing, but with utmost seriousness - it had acted as if the mighty Empire of Victorious Decepticons was its subject. This gall, Megaton decreed, could only be met with the highest of punishments: The bare sand raid. Its people, resources, and even the last blade of grass would be taken by the Decepticons, and when all was done, it would be but another barren ball of rock in a universe full of them.

Unlike the stripping of most conquered worlds, a bare sand raid was a relatively fast operation. In a year or less, it would be completed. Then, the planet would be blasted with high-powered laser cannons to sterilize its surface. Finally, an obelisk would be placed that said, in many languages, the crime the Arcturans had committed. "This planet's people thought that they held authority over the forces of the Empire of Victorious Decepticons," it would read. "Due to the concurrence of the population with this wretched idea, it was decreed on [date] by Leader Megatron of the Decepticons that the planet be raided to the bare sand in retribution for this affront and as a warning to any other nation that might have had the same sort of notions. The last detectable thing of any value was removed from this planet on [date]."

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

Even as Megatron made his address and new cargo-bots were coming to transport the gathered livestock to the Decepticons' hastily-built processing center on another of its resource worlds, his Divine Processor was using many cycles on new plans. There were other members of Galactipol, and he needed to do to the strongest of them what was being done with Arcturus. The weakest members, on the other hand, would receive demands for cripplingly onerous annual tributes (intentionally designed to drive them into poverty to the point that they could not build up a significant military force) - and, of course, that they disband Galactipol and renounce the very idea of a galactic police force.

He was also paying attention to Loyal Star and a number of other up-and-coming Priests of Megatron. For Loyal Star, he thought it would be funny if he set it up so that two things happened: First, he willed the handles of the guards' sticks to become red hot. Then, he made it so that anyone who tried to punch or kick him would get a big electric shock. Loyal Star, on the other hand, would get no jolts. Instead, he would simply know that his Divine Leader was indeed paying attention - and making sure he won his fight against the hostile Sing King guards.

~~~~~~~~~~

Yellowstone

Having a cold sucked, but at least Venables hadn't contracted anything weird like he could have if he'd chosen an exotic location. Now, he needed to find his way out of the gully and look for a new camp site.

Far in the distance, the slaver who had circled around cursed. He hadn't been worried about mere scratches, but instead, would have found the 30-60 foot tall trees too much to easily walk through. They were to him like tall grass in height, but thick wood trunks would not just bend over like weeds. Instead, it would be like a human trying to walk through a sea of solidly-planeted picket fence sticks of varying heights. Not only that, there was no way for him to know if the ground was solid enough to hold him up or if he'd sink to his waist (or worse). For these reasons, the slaver went back into formation with his buddies after just a single pass. There would surely be some other wild humans he could catch somewhere.