Chapter 689: Establishing the Promotion System (Part 1) (Patreon)

Transformers Begin : Table of Content/Chapter List

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Upon hearing that Atlas and his team had successfully mastered the technology for breeding humanoid Decepticons, Sun Cheng felt a sense of relief.

In the short term, he had to prepare for retaliation from the Skytiger Legion, and in the long run, he would likely have to deal with the resurgence of the Quintessons.

Until the planned Mars base was established, the piece of land in South America that Sun Cheng had chosen as his own territory needed to develop steadily.

Seeing Mora, who was left behind and seemed somewhat uneasy, he smiled and nodded, saying, "You don't need to worry. The reason I left you behind is simply to let you make your own choices."

After a moment of contemplation, Sun Cheng continued, "I'm planning to redesign a promotion system for all the Decepticons under the base, including you Engineers."

Although Base Two had already implemented a series of promotion and reward programs for quite some time, Sun Cheng's primary focus was not on managing Base Two. As the commander and the most powerful force of the base, his main tasks were to formulate development strategies, maintain the situation to prevent hostile forces from destroying Base Two, and create a more ideal external environment for Base Two's growth.

Therefore, in terms of Base Two's development, he had to delegate more authority to the Decepticons, Engineers, and Central Main Control AI—Teletraan.

Although everyone had performed reasonably well over the past year, there were still numerous issues within Base Two, especially in terms of internal hierarchy. This was partly due to Sun Cheng's overzealous approach when designing the reward system. He had simply divided it into four grades, from A to D, with just over a dozen different enhancement plans.

At the same time, he stipulated that as long as all Decepticons under the base diligently completed various tasks assigned by the base, such as intelligence gathering, undercover missions, production, research and design, and eliminating resistance forces within South America, they could accumulate a certain number of opportunities for localized enhancements.

At that time, Sun Cheng clearly hadn't considered just how eager the Decepticons under his command were to advance in ranks and improve their life levels. This became even more apparent when Atlas and his team of Engineers successfully advanced to the rank of engineers, serving as a stimulus for the rest of the Decepticons who seemed to have collectively turned into relentless task-completing machines.

Now, Sun Cheng had realized that he had miscalculated. By using this relatively lax enhancement system that he had designed, Atlas, who was simultaneously burdened with several major research projects, had become the biggest beneficiary.

So far, Atlas had obtained four opportunities for localized enhancements. He had enhanced his brain's computing power twice, strengthened his Spark once, and added a pair of multifunctional mechanical arms to himself.

In a sense, even though Atlas had not yet replaced his old mechanical body, he had already created a substantial gap between himself and ordinary Decepticon engineers.

If it were solely based on efficiently completing tasks to earn enhancement rewards, Sun Cheng might not have minded. However, the Decepticons under his command were inherently cunning and sly.

Some of them discovered the imperfections in the reward system. Specifically, when a major research project breakthrough occurred, all participants and helpers could be recorded for future reference. As a result, cunning Decepticon engineers began exploiting this loophole to gain more than one opportunity for localized enhancements.

Among the engineers who discovered and exploited this loophole was Atlas himself. He had been assigned to work on what Sun Cheng considered the most important research projects, which also meant they were the most challenging to accomplish. Consequently, when he accessed the recorded tasks and research information in Teletraan's logs, Atlas discovered that he had participated in almost all of Base Two's research projects as a helper.

Clearly, this individual has also discovered the loopholes in Sun Cheng's established task, statistics, and reward system and is exploiting them for personal gain.

While the losses caused by this are of little concern to them, Sun Cheng has indeed recognized the issue, and Decepticon's cunning has once again taught him a lesson.

When problems are found, they must be corrected promptly, and for this reason, he is preparing to redefine a new promotion system.

Regarding this new promotion system, Sun Cheng intends to draw inspiration from both Decepticon and Autobots.

The Skytiger Legion, having spent millions of years, has already established a relatively comprehensive hierarchy.

At the bottom of this pyramid are unquestionably the Decepticon Engineers and Medical Spiders, who are treated as nothing more than slaves. Their combat capabilities are quite low, and they may not even be able to handle underage humans.

Soldiers hold a higher position than Engineers and Medical Spiders, as they are under the command of Starscream and Shockwave, known as Vehicons.

Although there are special entities among the Vehicons, such as Terrorcons and the Trencher Team, the vast majority of Vehicons are bred solely for the purpose of serving as cheap cannon fodder on the battlefield. Thus, these ordinary soldiers only have a slightly higher status within the entire Skytiger Legion than the slaves.

The backbone of the Skytiger Legion consists of larger-scale advanced warriors who possess greater combat prowess than ordinary soldiers. Some elite Vehicons also belong to this rank. They are brave and skilled, have a degree of autonomy in their missions, and occasionally receive energy supplies as needed.

Moving up the hierarchy are the Elite Warriors, considered the true fighting force of the Skytiger Legion. Most of them are loyal to Megatron, with a small number drawn to Shockwave's cruelty and ruthlessness. Only a few have aligned themselves with Starscream or have chosen to go their own way, harboring their own agendas. These individuals are seen as unstable elements within the Skytiger Legion for most of the time.

Strictly measuring their strength, within the Skytiger Legion, only those appointed by Megatron to lead certain important squads, military institutions, or Legions have the qualification to be called "commander."

At least the strength of the Elite Warriors is a hard benchmark for being appointed as a commander, so commanders are strictly symbolic figures of power and honor, although they later gained independence and ranked above the Elite Warriors.

For the combative Decepticons, becoming a commander under the Skytiger Legion requires not only intelligence but also formidable combat capabilities. Even Soundwave, who is least skilled in combat, possesses the strength of an Elite Warrior.

Both Onslaught and Starscream have slightly weaker combat capabilities than Leaders, but they lead their own military forces or wield certain authority, which is why they, along with Soundwave, are commanders of the Skytiger Legion.

At the top of the hierarchical pyramid within the Skytiger Legion is unquestionably the Leader.

The Leader transcends Elite Warriors and commanders, requiring not only immense combat prowess but also sufficient intelligence and cunning.

To date, the Skytiger Legion has recognized only two Leaders: Megatron and Shockwave.

Even Megatron's enemies, including Sun Cheng and Autobots, are forced to admit that Megatron is a ruthless, cold, and domineering yet remarkably charismatic commander.

He has placed a great deal of trust and authority in Shockwave, and Shockwave has never let this trust go to waste.

The Autobots have also had a hierarchy since their inception, consisting largely of old aristocrats and monarchists from the Council of Primes era. The hierarchy is divided into Leader, commander, elite warriors, advanced warriors, and ordinary warriors, with the exception of the slave tier, which Decepticons have. The Autobots' hierarchy is fundamentally similar to that of the Decepticons, but it is not as pronounced as that of the Skytiger Legion.

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Next Chapter >>Chapter 690: Establishing the Promotion System (Part II)