An Exploration Mission (Closed; Att'n Vallermoore)

[Vallermoore]

Janzac


The splashing and noise scared the deadly spiders away for the moment at least, and the snakes decided that these humans would not make a good meal-however, at least one of the alligators had other ideas, and the gators here when fully grown were BIG-fifty feet or longer with car size jaws, enough to make even fully armed humans panic. Seeing the gleaming paint, it decided that Loyal Star must be tasty. He let it get close enough to open it's mighty jaws and then blasted Decepticon blaster fire into them, expecting that whilst on the outside it might be armoured surprisingly well, inside it would be soft and squishy like any biological. If that somehow failed, pony lightning would surely do the trick. With the gator dead, surely his parishioners would regain some of their bravery and the attack on the Zontacs could continue. If other gators showed up he would have to keep shooting them, and order a retreat if even his blaster fire could not stop further attacks.

Earth

Marketeer was running the single player option of Conquer the Universe to keep hackers out of his mind and he had almost reached Vallermoore (in the game, even Decepticon friendly planets were there for the taking as if they were hostile) when a player suggested "I have a bet on this game,and rather than lose, I will give you the missile codes for the Defense System of Marrikesh. All you need to do is let your forces be driven off of my planet here..."

Marketeer didn't think Domintel would deliberately hack one of their own loyal and very much on duty soldiers for nothing, but he ran his antivirus twice just in case and his fans whirred as he thought a bit.He went on the game again and offered to give up bits of the planet for bits of the code, the whole planet only being given up for the whole code. He also decided that if he himself were offered a bribe to give up Decepticon secrets he most certainly would refuse, not wanting to end up in a pit of hot metal. Treason after all was the crime of crimes.

[Victorious Decepticons]

Janzac

The giant reptile reared back and made a loud, pained "gronking" noise as the blasts hit it in the mouth, but it did not immediately deactivate. Loyal Star kept on firing to little effect, but then realized this was because the blasts were so powerful that they were going all the way through the creature and only causing little holes in it as they did so. After a moment, he switched to lower-powered fire, but kept the energy going in a long, steady attack instead of using burst-fire mode. This allowed the blast-energy to linger in the target and heat the area around the parts being directly hit.

It didn't take long under this new assault method for the gator's brain to overheat and then begin to boil. Now, it fell down and convulsed in the swamp, splashing water and tiny marsh creatures everywhere. After several minutes, its death throes ended, and a strangely delicious cooked gator smell lingered in the air.

While there were plenty of other gators in the swamp, there were very few "king" ones in any given area. At most, two or three more might be somewhere within range between Loyal Star's current location and the Zontac camp. Still, the group would have to be on the lookout for the smaller ones, which could still easily bite off an arm or leg.

Before he could call for the rest of the group, several members of it appeared on their own. "Looks like we ain't gotta worry about supplies after all," one said smugly to a couple of the others. "This here's enough meat fer our dinner and then some!"

Remembering how most had come with coolers of the local beer and maybe a couple of fish, Loyal Star agreed that it would be a good idea to go ahead and fill up on this natural windfall. He was secretly antsy to get going, but wanted to help dilute the blood-alcohol level of some of the gang, who had been drinking their beer quite steadily until now. He also knew that biologicals didn't perform as well when hungry.

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

Earth

The game character accepted the deal, and it seemed to go off without a hitch. Now, however, Marketeer was down a planet in a game whose victory condition was to take over the entire universe. He would only have one way to win the full victory: Take that planet back.

It suddenly struck him that if he didn't regain that planet, and he had enough time to complete the game, he would essentially be giving up any chance of the ultimate victory. Now that he did the deal, he would have to backstab the AI in a fairly rattish maneuver, or lose...

Somewhere at a secret on-site DomIntel room, agents waited to see: Would Marketeer stick to the overall objective, which if it was real life could be an important Decepticon mission, or choose "higher principles" - and a military life as yet another foot soldier?

[Vallermoore]

Janzac


For a moment Loyal Star thought he might lose a body to this huge gator. If it bit through his outer metal, water could short him out and send him in data-packets back to Cybertron, something he really did not want. Then he changed the energy to a different beam and setting and finally the giant gator died. He watched, looking around for Zontac or other gator attacks, as his men cut up the gator for food with bowie knives and started getting a cooking fire started in one of the swamp's few dry areas. He would have a few hours before sunset and mosquito attacks, which could not hurt him but might hurt his men, not all of which were prepared. He checked briefly with heat vision for various foes, from hiding Zontacs to more gators, determined to try and make his crusade bear fruit.

Earth

Marketeer played a bit more, then paused the game for a bit and thought. He decided that losing that game that time around was not important. What mattered was the codes that might be changed if he turned backstabber. He decided to run the Be The Dictator game for an hour or two instead.

[Victorious Decepticons]

Janzac

As they were squatting around the campfire, which was in a relatively dry spot, Loyal Star's hearing picked up a strange stretching sound, followed by a snap. This indicated the presence of a creature, not native to the area, that was likely trying to sneak up. If it was a regular animal, it would either know the swamp well enough to be totally silent, or it would be of a type that didn't care about noise and that would just come crashing through. Before he even turned his heat vision to the area, Loyal Star realized that he should be looking for a Janzakkian, and most likely, a Zontac one.

Just like he expected, his vision picked up the heat silhouette of one of the four-armed residents of the country, though of course, heat did not display an affiliation. With a low voice, just loud enough for his own group to hear, he said, "Attention!" while gesturing in the proper direction.

"WAY-HEY, IT'S TIME TO RUMBLE!!" The loudest, drunkest one said, blowing any chance of catching the would-be intruder by surprise. Before Loyal Star even had a chance to facepalm, the guy and about 10 others were on their feet with their rifles out. One began shooting blindly toward the designated place as the others charged forward. Miraculously, they all knew, seemingly innately, to stay out of the path of the bullets the first gunman was spitting out of his weapon. They had clearly grown up not only around guns, but around hotheads shooting them off.

Their initial assault, as Loyal Star expected, was futile. The visually-hidden person ran off through the swamp, and now, all the Priest could do was join the chase and yell out the new directions. His group was now all in, with the other 90 following the leaders, and the ones in front now firing as they grew tired of running after the unidentified person.

Then, to Loyal Star's surprise, they heard a pained male shout followed by the sound of someone falling. One of the group had actually managed to hit the interloper! It sounded non-fatal, but likely that a foot or leg had been damaged. Just how much damage it was, and whether it'd stop the person from getting back up and fighting (or shooting back) was unknown, but it wouldn't stay that way for long. Soon, the initial men and Loyal Star would reach the spot, and see who had been snooping on them...

~~~~~~~~~~

Earth

Even though Marketeer couldn't figure out a way to both keep the codes and screw the other guy, his motivations for not re-attacking the planet would later be deemed sufficient. For now, the DomIntel agents switched to other matters, since they had not tampered with Be the Dictator.

~~~~~~~~

Marketeer enjoyed the opening sequence of the game, which put him as the dictator of an unnamed planet mysteriously like Cybertron...but not so much like it as to accidentally give anyone too detailed of a manual on how to rule the actual Metal Planet. This sequence started him out with a cutscene of him giving a rousing speech to countless loyalists, who all cheered at the appropriate moments and randomly cheered at all other times. Clearly, his ascent to power was well-received! Then, the game gave its challenge:

You are clearly well-loved now, and the people expect great things of you. However, there can be a huge difference between expectations and reality. In a dictatorship, negative differences will result in attempts to get rid of you, and the only viable way to do that is to either kill you or run you off. Can you keep the people's faith in your regime, or will your reign end with nothing but a plaque on the wall of the Main Foundry?

The camera panned to the audience, where already, one citizen stood sullenly still...his lack of enthusiasm making stand out against those around him. Then, the scene went dark.

When the darkness lifted, the next scene began. Marketeer now had full control over his character, but said character was pre-seated at a big, fancy desk with a PC screen in front of him. It had words, and when he zoomed in, he saw that it said TAX POLICY at the top. Several options presented themselves.

Paying for your governmental activities is one of the most basic, yet most critical, aspects of ruling. Too much tax, and you get a revolt. Too little, and your government can't function, also causing a revolt. The size of the revolt depends on the level of dissatisfaction, but remember - it only takes one successful blast to end you. While a large revolt is much harder to defeat, never fully discount the Power of One. Choose wisely... The warning came on the screen. As was common in games, instructions like this came on during the first part of a new instance of the program, though they could be turned off in the Settings.

The options then appeared:

- Graduated Income Tax: People pay a higher percentage as they make more money. Set low and high numbers [X-XXX]
- Flat Income Tax: Everyone pays the same percentage on whatever they earn, win, or otherwise accumulate.
- Activity Tax: Only the proceeds from specific activities are taxed. [A dropdown of taxable activities, and possible tax rates, were present]
- Sales Tax: No tax on income or specific activities, but every trade is taxed. [select tax percentage]
- Head Tax: Everyone has to pay a set fee, regardless of how much (if any) money they've made.

Marketeer could choose only one. Once chosen, he would then set the details of the tax.

In the corner of the in-game PC screen, he could see a tab marked "Budget." Choosing this could help him determine how much money his government would need. Another tab, "Population," had information on how many people there were and how many were old enough to pay any kind of tax.

The notoriously-difficult game waited for his input...

[Vallermoore]

Earth


Without knowing it Marketeer had done enough to avoid becoming a mere soldier of General Soundwave's division and passed his loyalty test. He turned on his Dictator game which revealed a planet clearly based on Cybertron, with a robot population, but different enough to not be like the true Cybertron. He enjoyed the start with all the loyalists. He knew he was in no danger; if he failed he wouldn't really be blown up or melted down. Some dictatorships would have banned a game like this, but Megatron was far too secure in his own mind-boards for that and most likely thought, if anything, that it distracted would be opponents rather then giving them treasonous ideas. Marketeer decided upon and Activity Tax, with a 10% tax on interplanetary raiding and a rather high 25% tax on those setting up their own businesses. Lastly, he put a 10% tax on Coding new bots, leaving the other taxable activities untaxed, and wondered how that was going to go down with his virtual subjects. He had a feeling it might well not go down that well.

Janzac

The person turned out to be a Janzacian, his four hands held up in surrender and a deep flesh wound on his leg that was probebly allready infected from the swamp water, allthough the dirt and germs from the swamp would take time to affect the wound, if he was even allowed to live that long. He wore an amulet that identified him as a Zontac and was almost certainly a scout or a spy. "I'm a scout, my amulet shows that! If I was a spy I would not wear any identifying symbols." They dragged him up before Loyal Star. "If we let you live rather then just shooting or hanging you on the spot, what can you offer in exchange?" Loyal Star asked him, hoping to get infomation from him and knowing his wound was almost certainly infected anyway and would cause great pain and then death within days.

[Victorious Decepticons]

Earth

After setting the taxes, the game gave a cue for the Player to go outside and fly around his new domain. During the flight, he noticed many new businesses opening up, and anticipated a big increase in tax revenue. He also saw quite a few people coming out of parts stores with complete kits, which could be used to build new bodies either for themselves or new offspring. He figured that at least some of them would result in more tax money. Finally, he saw lots of people lined up at Raid Dropoff Points, with tax money piled up behind the tables.

Upon returning to his virtual Marketeer Mansion, he dashed to the tax-checking screen to count the Cubes. To his grand dismay, he had obtained NO new-business taxes, and only a few had paid the Offspring Tax. Even worse, there was now an Internal Intelligence report stating that those who paid the Offspring Tax were under investigation for VehiDroid mindsets - specifically because they had paid the tax. Only a law-bound type would pay that, the virtual agency noted. It is likely that their offspring will be trained to oppose the Marketeer Way.

Now, Marketeer was faced with the question of what to do about the total ignoring of the New Business Tax, and the fact that only a few willingly paid the Offspring Tax. He was presented with some options:

- Set up an enforcement division and send them on tax-dodgers
- Call it treason to not pay, and set Internal Intelligence on the dodgers
- Quietly rescind the tax, and hope not too many noticed that the government was ignored
- Try to talk the people into paying

Marketeer was starting to realize why everyone said it was almost impossible to win this game. What he didn't know was that this difficulty was planned by Leader Megatron himself. The game, far from being thought of as a risk to the real government, was a tool of its own Bureau of Propaganda. It was meant to make it seem all but impossible to be a successful dictator, and so hard and frustrating that even those who managed to win wouldn't want to try to be the ruler in real life.

It seemed that for this instance, the game was about to live up to its reputation. All of the possible options seemed likely to bring on some sort of rebellion, or at least make the government look ineffectual.

The game hinted at this potential, as its camera panned down a remote street and focused on the original, sullen non-celebrant from the intro. Now, he was talking to a few other angry-looking folks. Audio came in and he was heard saying, "a tax on this, a tax on that! I say we pay him his Energon...after we run it through these!" He pointed at his blasters, and the others nodded. Was this just some angry griping? Or would Marketeer have to dodge their blasts soon?

A new screen appeared after he finished with the other one. It asked whether he would like to invest in more armor. If he said yes, he would be better able to withstand blaster fire, but then, he couldn't spend the money on something else. He would also move slower until he upgraded his engine. The screen showed that his personal funds were only 10,000 Cubes...far less than what it would take to make a nearly-invincible body like Megatron's...

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

Janzac

The scout looked around fearfully, as he was soon encircled by Loyal Star's entire group, many of whom were rubbing the handles of their holstered pistols. Even more worryingly, some had gotten their guns out, and looked like they were itching to use them and get themselves a story to tell - about how they'd wiped out one of the big, bad Zontacs.

"I...I can lead you to the camp!" He said convincingly. Though he didn't currently trigger Loyal Star's internal lie detector, it was possible that he could change his mind later and lead them into quicksand instead. Loyal Star would have to consider whether or not the risk was worth it, compared to the risk of them ending up walking into trouble (or getting lost) on their own...

[Vallermoore]

Earth


Things seemed do be doing well on the game world but apart from the Raid Tax (which was hard to dodge unless one did one's own refining which was a bother) almost all the other taxes had been ignored and those who paid the Offspring Tax were being looked into by Internal Intelligence, the game's version of Domintel. A minority of bots at least were already angry and possibly planning a revolt. He decided to spend 1000 Cubes on armour and another 2000 on a slight engine upgrade and save the rest. He then decided to announce that tax evasion was treason. Surely Internal Intelligence could make an example of the tax dodgers. He was soon to realize that unlike on biological worlds, things would act differently to the way he thought they would...He wondered in the privacy of his own mind boards how before he became divine Megatron was able to rule Cybertron without getting killed.

Janzac


"Tie a rope quite loosely around his belly but tight enough so he can't just wriggle free and let him take us to the others, but if he is lying or leads us into trouble, shoot him dead," Loyal Star instructed.

[Victorious Decepticons]

Earth

The game dutifully accepted the command, but noted that since it hadn't been treason to dodge the taxes before, anyone who did it before that moment would not be prosecuted. This caused a delay in any apparent changes, or so it seemed.

Marketeer decided to take his character outside and check out his estate - and that's when the results of his order became obvious. As soon as he opened the door, he saw a crowd of angry people, and before he could really react, several in front opened fire on him while yelling, "HERE'S YOUR TAX ENERGON!" Leading the crowd was the angry bot from the intro, and who had been "looked in on" later in the game.

The scene went black, only to reopen in what appeared to be an underground vault-like area. Marketeer looked around, and saw one copy of himself standing mindlessly next to him. He had lost a life and respawned in a spare body. The presence of one more body meant he had one more life after this, and wouldn't get any more unless the game provided some means to do so later on.

After a cutscene of him walking out of the vault, he was teleported back to the tax-setting room.

"Your last taxation scheme resulted in a successful revolution. Try again..." the game instructed.

~~~~~~~~~

Just as he was about to think up some other way to do a tax, an announcement blared over the PA. Recruits were to go check out the local forest. "A walk outside might do you good," the voice said with fake cheer. It was obvious that something had been set up, but the scenario wouldn't be rigidly planned like the other exercises were...

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

Janzac

The scout looked very nervous, almost like he thought he was sure to die, but began to lead them through the swamps. He expertly found the dry areas, which to the outsiders, didn't look much different from the rest of the swamp. He also led them away from a large alligator, and they were mostly past it before anyone even noticed that there was one.

After about three hours, the scent of campfires could be detected. A few pinpoints of light became visible in the dimming light of the evening, and it was clear that they were indeed approaching a camp. Right about then, though, one of Loyal Star's group yelled out. "Woah-HO!"

The other Janzakkians couldn't figure out what was going on in time, but Loyal Star's processing system was easily fast enough to spot it: There were about 50 armed Zontac cultists hidden among the trees. The scout, being a zealous follower of his religion and willing to die for it, had led them straight into an ambush.

Simultaneously, the Zontacs, Loyal Star, and the guy who had spotted the enemy fighters got their weapons ready and began firing at each other, while the others grabbed for their guns in confusion and tried to figure out what they should be shooting at. In normal conditions, such a situation would lead to the massacre of the intruders, and this was exactly what the scout had been planning on. He had figured that he'd die in the crossfire, and then enter the Great Hall of Heroes of Zontac - a paradise afterlife.

What the scout forgot was that Decepticons weren't just metal people. They were war machines.

Loyal Star's battle coding immediately came online, and he began to dispatch the enemies one after the other, re-aiming and re-firing in less than a second as he switched between targets. His kill rate against mere biologicals was devastating, and in less than one minute, he had wiped out the majority of the foes. If someone had been able to stand and watch from a safe location, he would have been chilled by the factory-like efficiency of Loyal Star's response, which was now being governed by his aiming module. He actually had full control over this module and was using his faster processing speed to achieve the efficiency, but he had been taught by the Military that appearing emotionless freaked out biologicals and caused them to lose faster due to them becoming rattled. Therefore, he had activated his freeze-face and stuck his expression into one that was unyieldingly emotionless.

Once his main barrage was over, he realized that he had only deleted 46 of the 50 originally counted. He also saw that the scout was now dead - shot in the back. This meant that one of his crew had done the deed. He approved of this, but was now scanning the trees and lower-growing plants for the missing four enemies. Soon, he announced that there were four more, and immediately, everyone began to cautiously scan the area along with him.

Before long, shots rang out - one had been spotted. Not long after that, two more were seen, and the group started trying to hit them. With so many shooting, it didn't take much for these stragglers to be overwhelmed.

In the distance, the sound of running footfalls alerted them to the location of the last one. He was weaving in and out of the trees, so the Janzakkians couldn't get good shots in. Finally, Loyal Star took aim and just blasted right through the trees, vaporizing parts of their trunks as well as the actual target. The cut-off trees fell over after a notable delay, making a crashing sound that the remaining Zontacs in the camp surely thought of as a foreboding omen.

"TIME TO CLEANSE THE LAND OF THE INFIDEL!" Loyal Star yelled out strongly, and the group now marched toward the main camp as quickly as they could. All of them had their guns out, and all of the biologicals were full of adrenaline. Loyal Star's engine revved for battle, and he had the mechanical equivalent of an adrenaline rush. The group had one goal, and that was to massacre the entire camp. At this point, all Loyal Star would be able to do would be to guide their destructive force to hopefully-strategic areas of the base - he would not be able to stop them from attempting to wipe it out, no matter what they found.

In just a couple of minutes, they arrived within firing range of the tents. The campfires had been abandoned, but obviously only within the last minute or so. Now, the Zontacs were hiding. Were these remaining ones like civilians, with only light arms or none at all, and few who had the will to fight? Or would this turn out to be a full "militia" base, with everyone in it ready to fight to the last? They had eliminated the advance guard, but it was unlikely that there weren't any other fighters among them...

As Loyal Star thought about this, one thing became clear: At least some of the remaining Zontacs were indeed fighters. A few shots began to ring out from somewhere in the warren of short, straw-colored canvas tents to his front-right...

[Vallermoore]

Earth

Marketeer was faced by a revolt and blasted into bits, then found himself in a new body. Clearly, ruling these bots was very hard to do. The base PA automatically jolted him out of the game with an announcement. "A walk outside might do you good." He paused the game as military orders took precedence, and headed downstairs, locking his room behind him, wondering as he went outside what test he was likely to find waiting for him next.

Janzac


When the scout led them into an ambush, almost at once Loyal Star's battle coding came online. He was facing fifty or so armed Zontac cultists and under normal circumstances most or all of his band would have been wiped out. He was rapidly able to kill the biologicals with ease, and whilst they got a couple of shots in, they whacked off his armour denting it and causing only slight pain, as he had lowered his pain signals to a mere 10%, enough to let him know if he had been injured. Only a couple of his men were killed and one got a flesh wound on the arm before the rest of his men killed the last four Zontacs. "Don't get separated, and watch out for another ambush. This might be a de facto military base, or we might have..." More shooting rang out and Loyal Star went back into battle mode, pleased that his men had already killed the traitor, who no doubt would not be having a nice afterlife. Many of the Megatronists were being bitten by mosquitos but didn't notice it yet in the heat of battle, whilst as an android, not even the largest mosquito could do Loyal Star's metal body any harm. Unknown to Loyal Star, one of the few women in his band had a crush on him. Should she tell him later when things were safer, he would of course have to turn her down. He was a Decepticon Priest after all, and his loyalty was for Megatron and Megatronism. As a pony, he would have been interested back, but as a pony, she would have scorned him. To a Janzacian, they needed to be one of their own. If they didn't have four arms, they would not find them attractive on a physical level.

[Victorious Decepticons]

Earth

Marketeer soon found the nearby forest, which several recruits were staring at with bewilderment. The huge robots saw no way in through the thicket of regular-sized trees except to stomp on through, which hardly struck them as a "walk through the forest." Finally, some used their size-and-density changers to shrink to about twice human size, but when they tried to take their walk, their wings bashed into the trees. Some persisted despite the aggravation, while others stood back and tried to figure something else out.

After watching this for a while, Marketeer decided there had to be a better way. He walked far away from the woods, transformed into jet mode, and then flew over the edge of the forest. Now in the air, he could easily see that there was a clearing not too far in. There was also the beginnings of a trail leading from that area. It led under the tree canopy, showing that shrinking down would indeed be needed in order to use it. He decided that, since there was no specific instruction to use that pathway, or even on just where to "walk in the woods," he would fly all the way to the clearing and land there, like a proper Decepticon.

Once he landed, he looked around more closely. Surely there was something meant to be found in or near this obvious clearing. After a few moments, he realized that he heard a strange, hollow wind noise. It was coming from a place a bit further back in the trees. Deciding to investigate, he finally shrank down, finding that he could get to about 1 3/4 the size of a human - pretty big compared to that species, but tiny compared to his usual form. He was careful of his wings as he sidled through the trees at angles, and before long, he came to the source of the noise: a vent.

This indicated the presence of an underground structure, so he began to check around for the opening. In the distance, he could hear the aggravated revs of a few guys who had found the official pathway. He decided to hurry, because often, it was best to be first in tests like this. He activated his non-visual detection systems in hopes of thwarting all of the camouflage the forest provided.

Some of his systems returned no results. There were no heat signatures, excess CO2 emissions, or anything like that. However, when he pinged the ground with sonar, a buried concrete structure with one opening was revealed. He soon went over to that opening, and found a thick metal door.

"ENEMY BUNKER"

The Decepticon Military wasn't remotely subtle about what this was supposed to be! Marketeer chuckled, but there was good reason for the blatant marking. No one had set up a fake country name to look for, so they wanted it to be clear that this was NOT to be mistaken for a neutral or friendly installation.

Since Marketeer was the first on scene, and there were no instructions one way or the other, it was up to him to decide what to do about, with, or to the bunker. He could try to infiltrate it, weld the door closed in hopes of turning the base into a giant coffin for whoever (if anyone) was in there, blow it up...or, perhaps, something even more imaginative. In the trees, several well-hidden DomIntel and MilIntel cameras recorded his every move.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
Janzak


Once the shooting resumed, it didn't take long to find out how zealous most of the people in this camp were. The majority began to fire from in between the tents and behind trees, using these items as visual cover to make it hard for the Megatronists to see exactly where to shoot back. This time, however, the Megatronists were all ready with their guns out and their adrenaline pumping. They immediately returned fire, and a full battle began to rage.

Meanwhile, in the center of the tent-filled area, a few fancier-looking types began to make their way towards the far side of the clearing in hopes of disappearing into the swamp during the chaos. These were some of the highest-ranking members, though notably, the true head of the organization wasn't there. Despite the absence of the Divine Prophet of Zontac, it would be worth capturing or killing these infidel priests. If captured, information could be extracted from them, and if they were killed, it would demoralize the zealots and greatly interfere with recruitment efforts. Of course, some Zontacs would initially want revenge and cause trouble, but it would be easy enough to stamp that sort of thing out thanks to the massive numerical advantage that Megatronism had in this nation.

At first, the fleeing priests had no opposition, but then, Loyal Star's detection systems - now running full-on - spotted the heat signatures of the retreating figures. He couldn't tell who they were from their heat pattern, but he could easily spot the fact that they were trying to sneak away by the postures of their silhouettes...

[Vallermoore]

Janzak


This time both sides were equally ready and there was much death and injury on both sides. With the blood in the water it would only be a matter of time before more of the great gators got involved. For now though all the gunfire kept them and the other wildlife away. Loyal Star saw the heat signatures, put on his cloaking and flew after them as quickly as possible with his foot jets, which this body had. He blocked their way, decloaked , gunned down two who tried to shoot him and said to the other five "Reach for the sky, or die in the same way!" He hoped to take them alive but his mission would not be a failure if he killed them all. Although he kept it very firmly to himself where only Debugging could someday find it out, he had a secret grudging respect for the rival priests as they were after all priests like himself who had gone through a lot of be members of a rival faith in such a hostile land. Meanwhile his Megatronists despite their losses were winning the battle by now.

Earth

He decided that if he could open the hatch he would use his cloaking to infiltrate it, but if the hatch could not be opened, or the opening underneath was far too small for him to fit inside, he would weild it shut with his blasters, melt a small hole inside it and asxphixiate any biologicals inside with his exhaust gasses. He expected he would be able to get in, as the elite forces of Soundwave's Division were all about espionage, unlike the infamous Genocide Battalion of General Carjack. Surely the training therefore would be about spying rather then mere slaughter?

[Victorious Decepticons]

Earth

Marketeer put his cloaking on, and found that the outer door - a concrete one - opened quite easily. However, the moment it did, loud alarms sounded from inside and he heard running footsteps. An instant later, an inner concrete door opened and three soldiers rushed out with military rifles at the ready. These "soldiers" were obvious androids, but they wore headbands that identified them as "ENEMY TROOPS - FOREST TRAINING ZONE."

"I smell exhaust!" One of them yelled out. "I think it's coming from over there!" He pointed his gun and let off a spray of bullets, but Marketeer had stepped out of the way as soon as he heard the part about smelling exhaust. Soon, the training "troops" came out further, looking for whoever had opened their door. This would be Marketeer's chance to dash in behind them, but it was now clear that he'd have to use his electrical backup engine if he didn't want his scent to give him away.

Behind him, other trainees heard the commotion and shooting and soon came into the area, some with cloaking and some without. The "enemy troops" played their parts, complete with the appropriate exclamations of "holy shit, Decepticons," and their engagement with those trainees gave Marketeer a much-needed distraction to hide his own advancement into the bunker.

After going down a short passageway, Marketeer came to another door, this one made of steel. A quick heat scan showed no heat signatures, but when he pinged with sonar, he detected the shape of a powerful machine gun mounted in the back of a somewhat small room. He didn't detect any androids or humans in there, though, so as long as the gun wasn't remote controlled, it would be safe to enter...for the moment. This uncertainty could not be resolved without opening the door and seeing what would happen...

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

Janzak

Most of the opposing priests stopped and held their hands up, but a few of them weren't so eager to surrender. One reached for a gun, intending to open fire, while the other called upon his God Zontac to strike Loyal Star down with lightning. After the first one was dealt with and the second had made his call, a third made the mistake of saying that Megatron was a false god who could do nothing, even claiming that Megatron wasn't even real and that corrupt politicians had just made him up to excuse their unethical dealings.

The remarks of the third one would be fighting words in any holy war, but in one where at least one of the gods is very much corporeal - and was also very much watching the events - it was more than just a mistake. There was an immediate crack of thunder and blast of lightning right next to the remaining Zontac priests, and in easy view of the other fighters who were still engaged in battle.

This lightning wasn't just a sign, and as the skeptical Zontac soon learned, it also wasn't stage magic. When the brightness began to dissipate, there was none other than Leader Megatron himself standing there in the Metal. An initially-angry look gave way to a smirk as he watched the shocked faces of his would-be adversaries.

With one swift move, Megatron leaned over and scooped up the human who had said he wasn't real, and with another quick move, he got him in position to be held in the robot's giant black fist. This fist then closed somewhat, giving a quite uncomfortable, and threatening, squeeze to the biological's body.

"Who were you saying wasn't real~?" Megatron said to his captive, staring him in the eyes with slightly dim red eye-panels.

Down on the ground, the sounds of shooting slowed considerably as most of the combatants took cover so they could watch the giant robot with relative safety from each other. The Zontac priests on the ground, or at least those who were still alive, looked both shocked and horrified. Most of them had thought that Megatron was a fiction, though they secretly differed on who they thought made him up. Now, they saw that, regardless of anything else, he was definitely real. Some looked openly sick as they realized that a key part of their worldview had been wrong, and that this meant that the Zontac religion might be wrong about other major things, too...

[Vallermoore]

Janzak


Loyal Star shot the priest dead who pulled a gun and was not at all worried by the other priest. If a lightning bolt, divine or not, did strike him, his Faraday cage would protect him. If it didn't, he would get to a new body. Even if it killed him outright, he would find himself in the Megatronist afterlife, and since it would be not a suicide but a death from a foe whilst on duty, he would most likely go to the Realm of Endless Energon until his close friend Fire Eater brought him back with a Save Disc. One thing was near certain, he would not end up in Pony Hell or the Realm of Punishment. He was far too loyal for the latter and as a Decepticon, the former could not lay a hoof on him. As it turned out, a god was taking interest, but it was not the Zontac one. When the third priest blasphemed against Megatron to everyone's shock on both sides there was a lightning blast and thundercrack and Megatron appeared in the Metal. Under normal circumstances, Loyal Star would have bowed deeply before his god but he didn't want to take his eyes off the Zontac priests, and given the situation, he was pretty sure that Megatron would understand. He could bow once the danger from the priests of Zontac was over. As always when next to his God he felt a sense of awe at his sheer power. He also, at this moment at least, felt safe too, despite Megatron being able to short Loyal Star out with his powers or destroy him with a single shot from his fusion cannon.


Megatron reached down and grabbed the priest in a metal hand-a hand that like all Decepticon hands had plenty of sensors on it go it could grip well. He squeezed the biological hard enough to hurt and asked "Who were you saying wasn't real~?" Loyal Star grinned. "I....you....it would seem you really are real!" the terrified priest said, expecting to be crushed to death very quickly. Nearly all the fighting had stopped as both sides stared at the massive-and divine-robot, the Ultimate Decepticon and the only bot who could rule Cybertron and it's piratical people. The Zontac priests were horrified, and the Megatronists were amazed, never expecting to see Megatron in the metal. Privately, within his mind boards, Loyal Star remembered long before he became a bot or had even heard of Megatron-when he never saw any of the alicorns that he had worshipped back then. Back then, he had been in awe of them, but never in the way he felt now about the Decepticon of Decepticons.


*****

With his electrical backup engine Marketeer made his way to a room with a machine gun and decided to open the door from the side so that if it was an automatic booby trap, the bullets would miss him and just fly down the corridor harmlessly.

[Victorious Decepticons]

Janzak

Megatron grinned in a sadistic and scary way, sending tremors of fear through his captive. "Yes, I am QUITE real," he gloated with slow, deliberate words. After a pause, he looked downwards at the one who had been calling for Loyal Star to be smitten by lightning. "However, it appears that YOUR 'god' is NOT!"

The other priest, on the ground, looked quite aggravated at this accusation. Just the same, it was true that no lightning had come to blast the Decepticon priest. The skies hadn't even darkened a little.

"Well? Do you admit that you were bamboozled, and that there is no Zontac the Supreme, or do you wish to holler your lungs out trying to call on him some more before you accept reality?" Megatron challenged, after secretly using his own Divine power to scan and make sure that there were no powerful entities around who might answer such a call. Megatron looked back at the guy in his hand, and added, "and do you wish to concede now, or will you call on your 'god' to save you from my might?!"

To the captive in-hand, this was far more than just a matter of showing faith or abandoning it. If he called on Zontac the Supreme and nothing happened, it was clear that Megatron would kill him on the spot. Yet, if he conceded to the Incarnate God who held him, the Zontac faith insisted that he would go to a hell realm and be eaten alive by animals for eternity, forever regenerating his guts just enough for him to feel the continued destruction.

Now, all of the other fighting stopped. The Zontac fighters waited to see if their leaders would abandon all that they had been preaching, while the Megatronists reveled in their god's glorious domination of the opposition.

Leader Megatron awaited the opposing priests' answers, visibly growing impatient by the second.

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

Earth

To Marketeer's dismay, the door turned out to open inwards, leaving not one centimeter of safe space for him once opened wide enough for him to get through. If anyone was ready to fire, he would just wait until Marketeer came through and then let loose.

Fortunately, there was no one, and no remote controlled fire, waiting once that door-opening was complete - at least, not in that room. However, Marketeer now saw that inside the room, there were two other closed metal doors: A smaller one on the left, likely going to a storage area, and a large reinforced one on the right. Sonar pinging revealed that there was a hallway past the one on the right, with concrete walls, at least one off-branching hallway, and at least one big room further down that hall.

To the left, Marketeer's sonar reveled that there was indeed a storage area beyond that door - and, quickly approaching the door, a soldier with one grenade ready to go, and perhaps a few more grenades in his pockets!

[Vallermoore]

Earth


Marketeer was horrified when the door opened inwards. However the machine gun did not fire and no one was inside. When his sonar revealed the lone soldier with grenades, Marketeer remembered that the soldier was for this exercise pretending to be a biological-and biologicals were much weaker then bots. Instead of blasting and attracting more soldiers to the noise, he karate chopped the soldier as soon as he opened the door, *killing* him soundlessly and lowering him to the floor. As well as taking the grenades and putting them in a panel he took the soldier's military ID so that it would be copied later by the Decepticons and used to help androids infiltrate other military bases on that planet and put that in a panel too. He propped the soldier up against the wall so that at first sight he would seem to be un. He would have liked to rig up the machine gun as a booby trap but lacked the tools to do so, so carried on probing ahead with his sonar taking great care, certain that Domintel, Milintel or both were watching.

Janzak


Megatron grinned and said "Yes, I am QUITE real, However, it appears that YOUR 'god' is NOT!" He secretly scanned to make sure it wasn't real-strong as he was, he was aware that gods and goddesses were capable of killing each other, and divine weapons could pierce his armor. The terrified priest called out "Zontac the Supreme, if you really exist, save me from this metal horror before I am crushed to death!"

[Victorious Decepticons]

Earth

Marketeer checked inside the storeroom and found some cleaning supplies and what appeared to be oxygen tanks, but no more troops. Now that he could be sure that nobody'd come up behind him as he went to the other door, he walked over to it and opened it after using his sonar. He noticed that the metal and cement construction of the bunker dampened his sonar range a bit, but at least he could be sure that someone wasn't standing on the other side with a gun ready.

Upon opening that door, which also opened inward, he found a dimly-lit concrete hallway. Way at the other end, he noticed the barely-visible silhouette of someone in a black uniform. Between his current position and that guard, there was an apparent hallway leading off to the left, and further on, two mystery doorways to the right. Directly behind the guard was another door, and to his left, the hallway made a turn and likely continued on.

For just a moment, it seemed like Marketeer hadn't been seen. Despite the alarm that was still sounding off, large groups of troops had not approached his position. As he proceeded on, he would realize that this because they were almost all in ambush locations instead.

Right as he was taking in the scene, the soldier at the end saw that light was coming from the room Marketeer was in. Even though the infiltrator had his cloaking on, this light alerted the guard that something wasn't right. The sound of the guard snapping his gun's safety into the "off" position rippled down the echoey hallway, and soon, the guard began to cautiously come towards the open door...

~~~~~~~~~~

Janzak

All was silent as Megatron's captive called out frantically for the Supreme Zontac to save him. For a moment, it seemed as if even the swamp's animals were holding their breath.

Megatron waited, giving plenty of time for everyone and everything around to see that there had been no response whatsoever from any Zontacish heavenly being, or any angel, messenger, or other emissary of such an entity. He decided that instead of instantly turning the opposing priest to hamburger, he would wait a full five minutes, so it was absolutely clear that nothing *would* happen.

Once the time was up, Megatron looked at his captive and said - loudly enough for everyone to hear - "You have made the wrong choice, and now, you reap the results." With that, he closed his hand, effortlessly crushing that priest between his fingers. Gore nastily, but very memorably, dripped down from those fingers and landed on the ground far below.

Now, Megatron aimed his fusion cannon at the other Zontac priests. "Renounce Zontac now and acknowledge ME as the Superior Being, or perish and enter the only Realm of Punishment that is still active!"

[Vallermoore]

Janzak


Inwardly, Loyal Star wondered what to do if the Supreme Zontac did show up. He decided that he would only interfere if either called on by Megatron or if Megatron looked like he was clearly losing as Megatron would not thank him for spoiling a duel otherwise. He wondered if his holy fusion fire could harm the Supreme Zontac or not. As it turned out, his thoughts on the matter was groundless. Either Zontac didn't exist, couldn't interfere or just didn't dare to get involved. Eventually Megatron said ou have made the wrong choice, and now, you reap the results."The unfortunate priest was quickly but painfully crushed to death, and Megatron pointed his fusion cannon at the other Zontac priests and demanded "Renounce Zontac now and acknowledge ME as the Superior Being, or perish and enter the only Realm of Punishment that is still active!" They all knelt at his feet professing loyalty. Loyal Star privately decided that if he ever faced a foreign God or Goddess demanding worship, and coulden't get away, he would rather die if he had to, as in such circumstances it would surely be the Decepticon afterlife that took his soul, and most likely it would be the Realm of Endless Energon that he went to. Even if the God or Goddess somehow turned him back to a pony, he would still stay loyal to Megatronism.

Earth


Marketeer decided to let the guard come close and try and beat him with a metal fist and knock him out like the last guard, reserving his blaster for if that didn't work. He knew since this was a training exercise only, he would not be facing Decepticon blasters and a punch in the right place would make the guard pretend to be knocked out. He didn't want to just blast as that would make too much noise and make other guards come down hard on his location, which he was hoping to avoid..

[Victorious Decepticons]

Janzak

To the relief of the now-ex Zontacs, and the surprise of the Megatronists, Megatron ordered the Zontacs to go back to their cities immediately. They took off instantly, leaving everything behind, in fear that he might change his mind.

Once they were out of earshot, Megatron explained that now, at least some of them would start talking about how they met him in person, and this would not only expand Megatronism's reach, but strengthen the faith of those who were already on his side. "It's always good to let a few such stories 'leak,' as long as doing so doesn't make you look like a wimp. Since their stories will surely include the fate of their more stubborn members - " Megatron indicated the gore on the ground as well as the many who were shot dead by Loyal Star's group - "there will be no need to worry about being seen as soft! Instead, those few who survived this encounter will count themselves incredibly lucky."

Megatron now looked around a bit, and then back down at Loyal Star. "You have done well so far, but your work is not yet complete. In order to stamp out the last vestiges of this nasty little cult, you still need to get proof that it is really bankrolled by hostile foreigners. I also want their true high priest to be located. Of course, as the Decepticon of Decepticons, I could generate the 'proof' - but it would work out much better if a legitimate version could be found. I'm quite sure that the cult is being astroturfed by Kazmanip, especially since the local DomIntel traced many of those who fled to a country friendly to that one."

With one last look around, Megatron took on an expression of slight concentration, and with a boom, he disappeared.

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

Kazmanip Foreign Intelligence Agency

"We lost most of our operational command?! How?!?" The director demanded to know of the lieutenant handing him a report.

"Megatron showed up. In the fle...um...in person. When our undercommander tried to hold the line and continue his act, Megatron...he..." The operative simply opened the folder to the proper page, and there was a picture - obviously taken hastily, and from a hidden camera - of the "undercommander's" barely-recognizable head sitting haphazardly on the pile of gore that had been his body. A look of horrific pain and terror was plainly visible on the purple, puffy face.

"By the gods!" The director involuntarily shuddered a bit before quickly turning the image over.

"The other Zontacs, what's left of them anyway, are now talking about it to everyone they see. Membership in the main cell is down by over 80%."

"What do you mean, 'what's left of them?!' What happened to them?!"

"There was a huge battle, sir. Over half of the civilians in the swamp cell were lost. Several Megatronists were killed as well, but they had clearly begun to win even before Megatron himself showed up."

The Kazmanip Foreign Intelligence director looked strained, but said nothing. He dismissed his operative and picked up the phone.

"Sir, we have a problem." He said flatly once the President of Kazmanip picked up the other end.

That night would not be a restful one for the high officials of Kazmanip, who were soon assembled to confer about the possibility of exposure, the potential for war against Janzak, and even more worryingly - the chance of war with Cybertron. After many hours, however, they realized that so far, there was no proof of Kazmanippian involvement in the cult. As long as it stayed that way, there may not be open hostilities...

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

A Tropical Island

At a secret villa on a sparsely-populated, wealthy island, the High Priest who called himself the Supreme Zontac (as opposed to the "god," Zontac the Supreme) sat at the side of his large, private pool. This entire compound was financed by the earnest tithes of the Zontac membership, which was told that the funds were being used to build a megachurch. He, like his most-direct underlings, were operatives of Kazmanip Intelligence, but it hadn't been long before he'd seen the value of practicing the Decepticon Way - by deed, if not by word.

At first, the skimming had been minor, paying for repairs to his old car and then buying himself a new one, but as time had gone on, the lure of wealth was too much to ignore. For a few years now, he'd been taking 90% of the tithes for himself, leaving only the amount of money needed to keep the cult's cells operational. When the Kazmanip government pressed him on when his megachurch would be revealed as true competition to Megatronism, he stalled, saying he couldn't get permits, or there was an overly-Megatronist judge who would pounce on him, or whatever other excuse he figured would work.

He had no idea that his underlings were now either open converts to Megatronism or dead. He knew that the political/legal situation was hot now, and made a mental note to call for an assassin to "deal with" this upstart new Megatronist priest who'd gotten the courts all riled up, but he wasn't really worried. It would surely blow over, he thought.


~~~~~~~~~~~

Earth

The guard came closer, squinting in the light coming from the room, but he stopped when he saw the one sitting on the floor against the wall. He knew that this other guard's proper position in an alarm situation was in the storeroom behind, not out in the open - and certainly not sitting with his legs sprawled forward! He already had his gun at the ready, but he gripped it tighter. Then, he aimed it at the open doorway, staring hard and letting his eyes scan the entire room - even the ceiling.

Finally, he came a bit closer, but now he was clearly indecisive. One hand kept loosening from the gun as if he was considering reaching for something. Marketeer looked at the soldier's belt and realized that a walkie-talkie was what was within easy reach of the hand that was making the slight motions. The soldier must have been thinking about radioing for backup~!

[Vallermoore]

Janzak


Megatron allowed the surviving ex-Zontacs to leave, and explained to the rather surprised Megatronists "It's always good to let a few such stories 'leak,' as long as doing so doesn't make you look like a wimp. Since their stories will surely include the fate of their more stubborn members -"there will be no need to worry about being seen as soft! Instead, those few who survived this encounter will count themselves incredibly lucky." He looked around a bit and then down at Loyal Star. "You have done well so far, but your work is not yet complete. In order to stamp out the last vestiges of this nasty little cult, you still need to get proof that it is really bankrolled by hostile foreigners. I also want their true high priest to be located. Of course, as the Decepticon of Decepticons, I could generate the 'proof' - but it would work out much better if a legitimate version could be found. I'm quite sure that the cult is being astroturfed by Kazmanip, especially since the local DomIntel traced many of those who fled to a country friendly to that one." With a bang, Megatron vanished, leaving deep footprints that soon filled with water. The next day Loyal Star would have a look for a jewellery store, looking for a ball of the right kind of quartz. If he could find one, his pony magic would identify exactly who the leader of the Zontacs was and where he was so he could be dealt with. He also told the country's Domintel of what Megatron wanted. It took a while, and then he had to persuade the jewellery shop owner to let him use it , but by the end of the day he knew exactly where the Supreme Zontac was and, turning on his cloaking, teleported over to the island, ready to use his blasters to kill any bodyguards if he had to.

Earth


Marketeer sprang forward, grabbed at the hand near the radio and chopped at the neck with his other hand. As this was a military excercise, he knew he wouldn't by making a future enemy on Cybertron. He hoped to have the guard down within seconds. He wondered if he would ultimately succeed in this labyrinth.

[Victorious Decepticons]

Janzak

The boom of air displacement put the entire compound on alert, but since Loyal Star had his cloaking on, nobody could see where the sound came from. The Supreme Zontac had jumped up, spilling his drink, and jogged partially to the place he heard the noise, but then he became wary and slinked back into the nearby tropical bushes.

As he did so, he caught the slightest whiff of an exhaust smell. It didn't seem like the scent of a lawnmower, which stank much worse, and he realized he didn't hear any mower noise. In this area, no cars were able to fit either. His mind churned with possibilities, and it wasn't long before he came to the conclusion that a Decepticon was on the premises. Shit, they're trying to beat me to the punch, he thought silently.

Hastily, he got out his cell phone while simultaneously hiding even lower in the bushes. He sent a quick text to his own "problem solver," telling him that a Decepticon problem solver was there and to come and take care of it right away! Then, he stayed hidden, hoping he wouldn't be seen by the wrong one before his backup arrived.

Within minutes, a Janzakkian dressed as a butler rushed down the pathway, his head looking this way and that in an alarmed way. His facial expression, however, betrayed a steely resolve and a chilling calmness. In his hands, he held what appeared to be a sturdy beach umbrella. This umbrella was actually a high-powered rifle with its butt and trick trigger apparatus hidden under the fabric. It contained hardened bullets - ones expected, but not actually tested, to penetrate Decepticon Steel.

The "butler" rushed by Loyal Star's position, but he stopped short almost immediately and turned on his heels. Then, he pointed the "umbrella" directly at Loyal Star and made as if he was about to open it. Of course, "opening" this umbrella would actually open fire, but this was not visually apparent at all. Even the end of the shaft looked solid at this point, but of course, its solid end was actually just a prop that the bullets would easily shoot right through.

It was right at this point that Loyal Star realized that he'd been leaving footprints, and that this guy had seen them (and where they had stopped), but the umbrella behavior was definitely strange. He considered whether he should do anything about it...

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

Earth

If DomIntel had known that Marketeer was wondering if he'd ever get out of the labyrinth already, they would have disqualified him for lack of confidence! As it was, they were not mind-reading, so they had no idea that he had such thoughts so very early in the process of penetrating the bunker.

Upon being attacked, the guard let out a sharp yell and tried to fight back, but before long, he was "deactivated" and Marketeer had his gun. Marketeer proceeded to move onward, and got near the hallway to his left. He realized that this hallway wasn't lit at all, but a light was coming from somewhere further down it. After stopping for a moment, he heard the sound of agitated footsteps from that direction *and* from at least a few people in the doorway further up and to the right. They had all clearly heard the last guard's quick shout, and were now on high alert.

For a moment, it seemed like he might soon be attacked by half a dozen defenders at once, but then, all went quiet except for two sets of footsteps. These approached from the hallway, and seemed like they would be at Marketeer's position within a second or two. Then, to Marketeer's consternation, they stopped, just around the corner - and remained stopped. They had clearly taken up positions to give the intruder a "special welcome" of the submachine gun variety if he dared to get in range.

There would be no way to walk by without getting absolutely pasted, at least unless Marketeer remembered a way to take them out before proceeding.

[Vallermoore]

Janzak

Such was his desire to deal with the Supreme Zontac and succeed in his mission-one given to him by Megatron personally- that Loyal Star forgot to switch to his electric engine. Also the boom of air displacement gave his presence away, even though they didn't know exactly where he was due to cloaking. Knowing a Decepticon was present due to the exhaust smell, the Supreme Zontac was able to alert his own problem solver. Quickly a Janzakkian in a butler's uniform with a beach umbreller showed up. Loyal Star remembered a movie he had once watched when he was a pony about a brave Vallermoorian secret agent with a license to kill for his country who had once faced someone like this. Just in time he stood in a way that he presented a smaller target and the bullet missed him when the disguised rifle fired. Loyal Star fired back with his blasters, intending to kill the bodyguard and take the Supreme Zontac alive for interrogation. Killing the Supreme Zontac would mean the information about the cult would die with him and might even make him into a martyr figure. He wondered if the umbrella was somehow blaster proof and needed holy fusion fire to destroy it.

Earth

It was just as well for Marketeer that Domintel had no idea what he was thinking. Whilst they could mind-read bots, it was complex and not done for fun without any reason, in case that sparked off the very revolt that Domintel was there to stop. Marketeer had taken several grenades from the guard, and threw two of them into the room, then got out of the way as two loud explosions went off.

[Victorious Decepticons]

Janzak

The guard didn't even have a chance to change his facial expression when the two powerful blasts ripped through his chest, taking out his rifle along the way. For a moment, he actually didn't feel anything - the damage was done before the pain signaling system caught up. He took a step forward, clearly intending to engage the foe with some small weapon - perhaps a pistol or knife - despite the futility of such an effort.

When he made that move, his entire system caught onto the facts and he was wracked with pain. He attempted to gasp in air, only to find that the blasts had punctured his chest wall and lungs. Due to the chest wall being punctured, his body did not generate a vacuum to draw air to the lungs. Instead, air rushed through the blaster wounds, filling the chest cavity outside of the breathing organs. Simultaneously, he began to bleed profusely from the branches of the pulmonary artery that had been severed.

He pitched to the ground almost immediately, though at this point, it was more due to pain than the lack of new air. It would take just a couple more minutes before the bleeding, combined with the cutoff of his oxygen supply, killed him. The would-be killer tried to spit out a curse word, but even that ability had been lost. The air he would have used to speak hissed out of the blaster wound holes, leaving him frustrated as well as in agony.

Soon, his blood pressure dropped to a point too low to sustain lucidity, and he twitched incoherently. Not long after, he passed out. Without medical help, he would die within the next couple of minutes - and even if first aid did come, it was unlikely to be enough to do any good.

~~~~~~~~~~

The Supreme Zontac watched from the bushes with horror as this scene unfolded. He still couldn't see the Decepticon who had so easily dispatched his most skilled assassin, but he definitely recognized the blaster fire as being of Cybertronian origin. His "religion," which he had to memorize perfectly in order to play his role, had likened it to the energy of the fires of Hell, and taught that the sight of it meant that the Final Battle had begun. Was it a coincidence, or was someone in Kazmanip Foreign Intelligence at least a little psychic, he wondered.

While he didn't believe that Decepticon blasters were powered by hellfire, he saw how easily it cut through his assassin's bulletproof vest, meaning that the Zontacs truly would stand no chance - and the Final Battle between Zontacism and Megatronism was indeed upon him, his cronies, and his well-meaning but misled followers.

The Zontac shrank down as low as he could, but his large body was unable to minimize itself much more than it already had done. He was lucky that the groundskeepers had kept these bushes in great shape, with thick, lush foliage. However, the Zontac knew that if the Decepticon was tall enough to see over the hedgerow as he walked by, and chanced to take a look there, he would be completely exposed.

Knowing that he stood no chance in direct combat, and that his "religion" was a complete fake, he paused a bit when he got the urge to pray for his life. Who could he pray to? Certainly not Megatron, who was well-known for NOT being the forgiving type, and whose religion regarded forgiveness as wimpy and foolhardy! He decided to pray to the Warrior God of the Kazmanip pantheon instead, and immediately began to do so fervently but silently.

~~~~~~~~~~~

The Realm of the Kazmanippian Pantheon

Here in what was once the grandiose land of the Kazmanippian gods, only broken castles and the giant, but shattered, skeletons of those gods remained of the old empire. Meanwhile, the signs of the cause of this destruction remained in full bloom: Decepticon Seals flying from long flags hanging from the roofs of new buildings made of metal, the ghosts of Kazmanips endlessly toiling in mines and working on electronic toys of Decepticon proportion, and thousands of Decepticon Paranormal Division soldiers keeping control of it all.

The landscape was now something more like a hellscape, with open smelting pits dotted around and piles of slag in other places. Kazmanip slaves stirred these pits manually, rather than using the typical automatic stirrer system, and they sweated profusely from the heat. When one slowed down, a Decepticon soldier would apply a few lashes to speed him up again. Other slaves constantly brought mined ore to the pits to be refined into strong steel for use by Paranormal Divisioners as needed.

After Megatron's ascension to godhood, everyone there knew, there had been immediately followed by a war-tour through other gods' realms, where he killed the competition and took over their territories. However, those still living were unaware of this, and this provided a steady stream of intelligence to the Decepticons in the form of prayers. These prayers were usually just ignored, but now, one in particular would end up leading the very Decepticon that he feared to his exact position.


A soldier, listening to the messages, quickly picked up one praying for the War God to come and save him from the "Decepticon of Death" who had come from him. In his fervency, the Supreme Zontac was also praying for forgiveness...for starting a false religion that took people away from said War God. He prayed over and over that he renounced his actions in starting the Zontac Cult - thereby inadvertently identifying himself to the Decepticon monitor of the Kazmanip Afterlife Realm as a living Subject of Interest.

The information was forwarded to Divine Leader Megatron, who now knew - without having to use his own processing cycles to find him - exactly where the Supreme Zontac was and what he was facing. Megatron used his power to put the scene on a screen, and proceeded to watch with a smug and sadistic smile as Loyal Star came closer.

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

Earth

The grenades Marketeer threw turned out to be special "training" versions, which splattered the soldier-actors with removable paint. These soldiers dutifully pretended to be dead or wounded, and Marketeer was able to move past them without incident. However, the fake grenades did let out big bangs, perfectly imitating the obviousness of real ones.

Marketeer expected the bangs to draw plenty of action, but unnervingly, the bunker now stayed eerily silent. Finally, he activated his sonar, but to his dismay, the concrete walls and metal doors blocked most of the signal or caused it to echo back meaningless data. Examining the data return more closely, though, he thought he caught a hint of a large, burly man hiding in the next doorway with what appeared to be a very large, bipod-mounted machine gun.

Remembering the large number of footfall sounds he had heard before, Marketeer realized that this couldn't be the only enemy in that room. There were likely at least five others in that area alone, and more likely, six of them. These, however, were too far away from the door to be detected by scanning. The only way to really be sure that the room was clear - and that nobody could come sneaking out of it to blast him in the back after he passed the door - would be to go in and clear it, military style. It would be a highly dangerous part of the test, and one that had caused many would-be recruits to fail the scenario.

Meanwhile, unseen at the end of the hallway, the doorway of the darkened generator room opened just a crack. He noticed a slight motion there, but now, everything in that area remained perfectly still. Was there a soldier there or not? It was impossible to tell. For now, though, he would need to get the machine-gunner out of that doorway and then neutralize any other troops in the room behind.

[Vallermoore]

Janzak


Loyal Star turned on his body heat sensors to find out exactly where the Supreme Zontac was hiding, and grabbed him with two arms whilst removing his pistol and dagger with the other two, then teleported back to outside the courthouse where the fake judges had been uncovered and turned off his camouflage, expecting the Supreme Zontac to start trying to punch him with his four arms. Instead, the Supreme Zontac started begging for mercy. "I'm sorry that I set up that nasty cult, I really am..." Loyal Star snorted in disgust. This was clearly no true priest. Before Loyal Star had become a Decepticon or even knew that living machines even existed, he had worshipped the Two Pony Sisters from childhood as goddesses. When he apostized from Ponyism and became a Megatronist instead, his religion had been just as genuine and he had gone through a lot to get to where he was now. And when Megatron had been killed outright, he had risked his life and even his soul to bring his God back to the lands of the living, putting himself in the way of a firing squad-one that had been deleted by fusion cannon when Megatron returned. "If I was in a similar situation to the one you were in now and could not fight my way out, trick my way out or just mind transfer my way out I would radio a true friend to find a Save Disc of mine and then, as a very last resort, run the suicide command and take my chances with the Decepticon Afterlife. I am pretty sure that the Realm of Punishment would not be my lot and that my friend would bring me back in time to the living world so I could still serve my God again."


He called for Judge Janzak and soon enough the Supreme Zontac was in the hands of this world's Domintel, and with that done he radioed his Priestly Superior, High Priest Warfire, with the good news, and was ordered to return to Cybertron for a few days rest and reimerrsion in Cybertronian culture. Unusally, Loyal Star was an immigrant who was not tailed by any Forintel agents when he went abroad as his loyalty was solid. He thought to himself happily about how it would feel when he touched down on the Metal Planet, the solid metal feeling to his feet like a grassy field would feel to the hooves of a pony. But he was not to make it there...

Unknown to him, a cloaked bot was following him with murder in mind, a bot who wanted him dead for destroying his own cult months ago-a bot who was also a priest-and whose fusion fire he had felt before and needed Megatron's help to undo the effects off when it turned his leg into a pony one. As he took off into the sky and went over to the nearby gas giant to look more closely at it before he went into FTL, his android body was straffed from behind and turned into a sapient pony. He radioed out three words before that became impossible "Fire Eater, help....!" On Janzak he could have fled from the robot, or put up a fight with pony magic, but here he was sucked into the gas giant and died within seconds.


He found himself in a small metal room, with three screens, just as in the Book of Megatron, one of which showed the horrors of the Realm of Punishment, one showed the Neutral Realm and one showed the glories of the Realm of Pleasure. To his intense displeasure he was still a sapient pony, although his gleaming Decepticon cutie mark remained and gleamed metallically in the light. He gently ran a hoof over it as a rather surprised Afterlife Administrator came in wondering how a biological got here. Loyal Star said to the bot who towered over him "I know this might seem like a connive, but I'm sure you must have a Book of Life or at least a File of Life on me that will show how I died and came to be biological at the end of it. My name is Loyal Star." The bot looked for the file in his mind boards and looked at the death entry, then smiled and pulled a blank body through the wall. "You can mentally mind transfer to it without pain, your pony body will vanish with a light pop. Now, let's speed read your file and see what you did in your life, to see where to send you until someone brings you back with a Save Disc, if anyone wants to and can..." Loyal Star did so as the bot read his file, happy to be back in a proper body although this one had no Priestly paint or powers at least for now. He hoped Fire Eater had heard him.

Earth


The grenades were training versions as it would be a waste of taxpayer's money to blow up expensive android bodies during training. The bots pretended to be dead or badly injured and he picked up a few more grenades from their bodies and threw one at the soldier with the bipod-mounted machine gun, hoping to "kill" him or at least damage his weapon. He needed to be dealt with first.

[Victorious Decepticons]

Janzak

Unlike the DomIntel of Victorious Decepticons, Janzak's secret service had no reservations about visiting torture upon the enemies of the State. It made sure to let the Supreme Zontac know this as it began its interrogation, letting him know that things would go much more smoothly for him if he told them the real story behind his cult.

He was quite eager when it came to basic information, or at least he seemed to be. He gave his name as Johnathan Moran, and presented a life history that was not only believable, but was supported by some of the papers in his wallet. He'd been a member of the International Worker's Union, did a stint in the equivalent of the Peace Corps as well. It was as a Corps member that he decided that the Decepticon Way could only lead to war, and from war, there would be the very sort of famine, disease, and death that he'd fought to contain as a Corpsman.

The trouble with his story was that it was 100% bovine manure. He and the Kazmanippan Foreign Intelligence Bureau had cooked it up as what to say if he was busted and interrogated.

Janzakkian Intelligence, however, was no fool. It quickly accessed the membership rolls of the Peace Corps during the time in question. There, they found that a Johnathan Moran had indeed served - but his file image looked nothing like their captive. It was clearly a case of identity theft.

"We see that you think truth is a commodity that you should keep to yourself!" The interrogator said, opening an ominous briefcase. "We believe that you might be more willing to trade it...if what you get in exchange is relief from our 'enhanced' interrogation methods."

After several hours, the captive seemed to relent. He admitted to being a foreign agent and trying to undermine Megatronism and the warrior spirit that it brought on. However, he said he was working for Carpland rather than Kazmanip.

"Do you think I am an idiot?" The interrogator said, bringing out some nasty-looking gator clips and a large battery. "Carpland is one of our biggest customers. In fact, they are completely dependent on us for all of their advanced manufacturing. Without us, they would be using stones and wooden sticks to grind their grain - and they wouldn't have anything else! There is no way they would try to undermine us, and especially not to the point of causing societal collapse!"

Despite what happened next, the 'Supreme Zontac' would not budge further. Finally, after forcing him into a very uncomfortable physical position that would end up causing massive leg cramps, the Janzakkians stopped the active interrogation.

"This is pointless," one investigator said to the other. "If we go further, he'll start making up even more BS, and we'll waste our time running down all of the fake leads."

"I agree. There is only one thing to do..."

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

Domestic Intelligence Headquarters
Cybertron

It was all but unheard-of for a communication to come here from another planet. Most gave up on contacting the agency once it was well-known that it would stand firm on the nation's no-extradition policy, and on top of that, would block foreign interdiction attempts with the might of the Decepticon Military. Yet, on this day, the communications operator was surprised to get a radio message from the planet on which Janzak sat.

The Janzakkian agent quickly explained that he was part of a staunchly Megatronist nation and had apprehended the leader of an infidel cult. However, they suspected foreign involvement. Alas, their interrogation had yielded only irrelevant information and outright BS. He concluded by asking for some help, or at least some tips, from the great DomIntel of Cybertron - renowned across the Megatronosphere for "knowing all" and for its fearsome reputation for getting any information it needed.

This kissing-up worked quite well on the DomIntel agent, who was suddenly far more proud to be part of that agency. However, since this was a religious matter, it would not be handled by average agents. Instead, he forwarded the call to the Office of the Megatronist Inquisition - an office that was under both the authority of Decepticon Intelligence and the First Temple of Megatron.

It was because of the Temple's role that the unheard-of was approved: A DomIntel interrogator would be sent to Janzak to code-read the cult leader. The Office explained to its Janzakkian contact that this would inevitably result in the suspect's death, and stressed the importance of knowing that he was 100% guilty before the procedure was performed. Upon receiving the necessary assurances, the DomIntel agent was dispatched, carrying all of the needed equipment. This agent was a full-sized, open Decepticon - better to strike fear into the suspect as well as the nearby populace - so special accommodations would be needed.

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

Decepticon Afterlife Waiting Area

Upon mind-transfer to the new body, its paint job began to swirl and it took on the other customized attributes of Loyal Star's old one. However, it ran like it was built only an hour before and had 0 miles on it. While Loyal Star's last robotic body had run extremely well, there was nothing like NEW, and he appreciated the perfect tuning that came with it.

The Administrator read the file quickly, but didn't miss a single word. "Your Incarnation Record shows that you were once a priest of a competing religion! You are very, VERY lucky that you converted willingly, rather than out of fear of Decepticon invasion, or even worse, after a successful Decepticon invasion! If you had done that, you would be going to the Realm of Punishment as a faker and a spy."

"However, your motives appear to be pure, and even better -" He seemed to reread this part of the data - "You restored Leader Megatron from a Save Disk when he otherwise would have been lost to the Realm of the Physicals! Your last Debugging report shows that you did not do this out of some glitch that stopped you from realizing the potential for taking over, but out of true devotion."

"Congratulations," he concluded, "You are one of the few who can step through the Platinum Portal to the Realm of Endless Energon." An oval portal, framed in shining platinum, appeared. The Administrator gestured toward it in a grand way.

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

On the other side of the portal, Loyal Star found himself standing on a high nearly-white platform.

He was greeted by the sight of a few large mountains in front of him. Giant "water"falls of Energon cascaded down each one, with the largest mountain ahead of him having a fall of a truly amazing size. It looked to be several miles wide. Just below him, out of sight because of the platform, he could hear the roar of more falling liquid - likely an even bigger Energon fall. He realized from this that his platform must be attached near the top of another very tall mountain.

At the feet of the mountains, towns with gold buildings shone in the sunlight. The town directly in front and below was the biggest, being about 3x larger than the others. Each town had a large Megatronist Temple - the largest building in their respective areas. Decepticons were seen flying in perfectly-tuned, immortally brand-new bodies with impeccably-chosen paint colors and perfect, better-than-showroom wax jobs. There were no actual cities, though - not enough people made it to this realm to populate even one full-sized city.

The temperature itself, Loyal Star was surprised to find, was actually quite crisp. It seemed to be about 20F (-6.6 C)! Almost immediately, his dismay about this faded. He realized that his mind-boards and other computer circuitry ran a lot faster at this temperature, with no need to blast his fans or activate other cooling. Now, he could process data 10% faster, which made him 10% smarter when it came to learning new things. A simple adjustment to which temperature his body considered "normal" eliminated any discomfort.

There was plenty of information to learn, if he chose to spend his time that way. A massive library, visible even from his vantage point, beckoned the scholarly. Near it, several museums and even a symphony hall were visible.

Since not everyone thinks an afterlife of plenty of study and culture is paradisaical, the Realm of Endless Energon had plenty of other entertainment options, too. Down the road was a giant arcade, populated by Neutral and Punishment Realmers who had been consigned to occupying video game boards as part of their rehabilitation or punishment. Those from the Neutral Realm were in fairly easy games that were unlikely to be abused, while Punishment condemnees were stuck in ridiculously hard games like Gravatar, which were sure to get constant kicks and punches from frustrated gamers.

On the other side of the scene, Loyal Star saw many Decepticons engaged in what seemed like a massive, raging dogfight. These were people who loved to fight just for the excitement or fun of it, and who had indicated that they wanted better competition than mere biologicals. Whenever one got shot down, he instantly reincarnated in another brand-new body on the ground below, ready to jump back into the fray. Since the fighters didn't die, they were able to keep on battling until they got bored and went away until the next time they felt like some challenging combat.

~~~~~~~~~

"It's quite a sight, isn't it?" The voice from the rear-right startled Loyal Star, and he jumped around to see who it was. He found a bowing, obsequious robot painted in a servant's suit design - a bot who wasn't quite good enough to enjoy the privileges of citizenship in this realm, but who was too good for mere factory work in the Neutral Realm. If he performed his servant duties admirably enough for the next 300 years, he would gain full privileges here.

"I am assigned to show you around, and to get you set up in your new dwelling," he continued. As he said this, he pointed to a very large mansion that was easily seen from the tall platform on which they stood.

"You are a VIP here," he said with an impressed aire. "Only those who are particularly favored by our Leader are assigned to homes like that. Whenever you are ready, let us glide down and get your keying set up."

Even here, engine-vibration keys were necessary. It wouldn't be paradise for a Decepticon if it was impossible to burgle an unlocked house. While other species would have wanted a lack of robbers, or at least a 100% block on them, the Decepticons were quite different. In fact, Loyal Star would later learn, there was actually an area here where robbery would ALWAYS be successful - a domestic raider's dream come true. For interplanetary raiders, a similar area, this one full of intentionally ineffectually-guarded oil fields and refineries that always contained endless loot, awaited their attentions.

Those who didn't want to raid or rob with (or without) "God mode on" didn't have to even try. They could get all of the Energon they wanted from the massive rivers of it, pay a small stipend for already-Cubed fuel, or if they were blessed with a Neutral Realmer servant, send him to go get it from either source.

The servant speaking to Loyal Star now, however, would not be his personal servant. Instead, he worked with Realmal Administration, and his job was to get new arrivals settled in - in style.

[Vallermoore]

Janzak


The Supreme Zontac pretended to tell Janzak's secret service whatever they wanted to hear but they soon found out that he had been telling them lies the whole time. After a few hours of torture they still had not got what they wanted to know, so they decided to, unusually, call on the help of Domintel to help them find out what they needed to know. Very unusually, and only after asking if they were sure that he was guilty, Domintel decided to help and passed the matter on to the Office of the Megatronist Inquisition. A full size Domintel bot was sent to help and soon enough the helpless Supreme Zontac was downloaded painfully into a set of mind boards so the information could be read. Once he was fully downloaded and could be of no more help, his body and the mind boards would be put into a vat of molten metal, and his soul would be swiftly captured, chipped and set to work in the afterlife Kazmanippian Pantheon, stirring a vat of molten metal.

Decepticon Afterlife Waiting Area


When Loyal Star mind transferred to the blank, it at once acquired the swirling paint of a Full Priest of Megatron and the various other things Loyal Star had enjoyed in his lifetime within his body, such as various store-brought games. It also felt very good. The eyes of the Afterlife Administrator went dark with just a faint glow. Your Incarnation Record shows that you were once a priest of a competing religion! You are very, VERY lucky that you converted willingly, rather than out of fear of Decepticon invasion, or even worse, after a successful Decepticon invasion! If you had done that, you would be going to the Realm of Punishment as a faker and a spy."However, your motives appear to be pure, and even better -" he reread something in his mind, and his eyes took on the bright, warm red of Decepticon happiness, whilst his rough engine now purred. "You restored Leader Megatron from a Save Disk when he otherwise would have been lost to the Realm of the Physicals! Your last Debugging report shows that you did not do this out of some glitch that stopped you from realizing the potential for taking over, but out of true devotion. Congratulations, you are one of the few who can step through the Platinum Portal to the Realm of Endless Energon."

The portal that opened was not the dark one that led to the Realm of Punishment, that on average opened a few times a year, nor the one that went to the varying levels of the Neutral Realm, that varied from fun at one end of the spectrum to almost hellish at the other end, and opened slightly more often, death amongst Decepticons being rare as most had multiple bodies. This one opened rarely, and was framed in Platinum. Only the very best Decepticons who died ended up here. With a polite bow, Loyal Star stepped through the portal, and found himself on top of a metal mountain with other mountains nearby, which had rivers and waterfalls, not of acidic water (which would be the robot equivalent of rivers of molten lava for biologicals and certainly not something that should be in Decepticon Heaven!) but of Energon, pure, tasty Energon! In effect, it was a river of money and of food/drink rolled into one. He was struck by the cold, until he realized that he could think 10% clearer now, and reset his comfortable temperature from 30C or so to -6.6 C.

At the feet of the mountains were several towns with golden buildings. Each had a Megatronist Temple at their centre. Decepticons in perfect bodies were flying around, whilst others were fighting in dogfights in the air and blasters, fists and feet on the ground. When they were defeated, they were magically made new again, and were fighting only for fun rather then for status or out of anger. There was a huge library which he decided to go to when he had found out where he was living, as well as museums and a symphony hall. Elsewhere was an arcade and even a Decepticon size amusement park.

He remembered when he had put his life and indeed, with Megatron dead, his soul on the line, risking the possible tortures of Pony Hell to defend Megatron until he could upload himself-and the looks of fear on those bot's faces when Megatron uploaded and blasted the lot of them with his fusion cannon, no doubt sending them to the Realm of Punishment for their treason.


Just then he heard a voice behind him. "It's quite a sight, isn't it?" He spun around, used to the violent world of Cybertron, where an unknown voice from behind might indicate trouble, either a scammer or someone looking for a fight. Instead there was a servant bot who was too good for the Neutral Realm but not quite good enough yet to enjoy the full privileges of citizenship here. The bot bowed to him like he was a High General. Amongst bots, nods and bows replaced things like hand-bumps or hoof-bumps, handshakes, backslaps or hugs, to avoid accidental denting. "I am assigned to show you around, and to get you set up in your new dwelling." He pointed to a very large mansion that on Cybertron would be owned by a bot like Ultimate, one of Cybertron's richest business-bots. Even here, it stood out due to it's sheer size."You are a VIP here," he said with an impressed air. "Only those who are particularly favoured by our Leader are assigned to homes like that. Whenever you are ready, let us glide down and get your keying set up."

"What I did is classified, but I can say this, which is no secret as it was broadcast on Cybertron's holovision. It involved almost unimaginable loyalty-and earned me in life two Gold Stripes My name is Loyal Star, by the way." The stripes he had earned were in effect the Decepticon equivalent of the biological Medal of Honor or Victoria Cross on Earth before it was taken over, or the 1st Class Star of Vallermoore-and to have two at once was almost unprecedented. His parents had seen the broadcast from Vallermoore and turned against him, but he pushed *that* memory of his angry parents firmly to the back of his mind boards. After one last long look around at the scene, the two transformed and flew to the mansion, where the servant-bot helped Loyal Star get keyed up as even here, burglary was a possibility, although much less likely then on Cybertron, as there were a minority of thief-bots who considered it truly heavenly to burgle other bots, risking blaster-fire if caught in the act.


When they went inside and shut the door behind them, Loyal Star grinned and said "Wow." A huge holovision set was on one wall, and there was a couple of nice chairs in case he made a friend here-or indeed had a servant assigned to him. There was a sink with cold and hot Energon-something rare even here. He experimented with the channels and found the Cybertronian ones, the Vallermoorian ones too, and several others, but now was not the time to watch TV so he turned it off and they carried on exploring. There was, amongst several other rooms, a prayer room with a statue of Megatron just like in Loyal Star's Cybertronian home, a room full of books with metal covers and fine foil-paper, a telescope room, (despite the fact that Decepticon eyes didn't need telescopes) a room full of swords and other pre-tech weapons (as a pony Loyal Star had once been a sword-collector, something that at the time was legal on Vallermoore as long as the person or pony was not a convicted felon, and was legal now for everyone who was free regardless of earlier convictions) and a room full of tin soldiers. Later, Loyal Star would find that when he looked through the telescope he could just think of a planet and it was visible. "So, I have a few questions. What other things are there in this Realm of Endless Energon that I have not yet seen? And do I have my own servant-bot somewhere?" He still hoped that Fire Eater would bring him back but if he didn't, it wouldn't matter. He was looking forward to exploring this place, starting with the library.