Six-of-Twelve

Six-of-Twelve is a Transformer from the IDW portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.

An army has a use, they can go and fight a war
A janitor has a use, he can go and clean the floor

The members of the Functionist Council are all driven by the tenets of their religious doctrine, but none of them take their zealous crusade quite as far as Six-of-Twelve, the "Enactor". Perhaps as a result of his title, Six-of-Twelve is far and away the most active member of the Council, enmeshed in numerous long-term schemes all aimed at spreading the word of Functionism writ large across the galaxy in the name of Primus.

It's unclear if these desires stem from Six-of-Twelve's naturally ambitious nature or the false copy of the Matrix of Leadership he has integrated into his superstructure. Through this artifact Six-of-Twelve claims to be a conduit of Primus's will, acting on cryptic visions and apocalyptic dreams of a coming war. Yes, everything must be done in the name of the greater good, in the name of Cybertronian sovereignty. And if a few million organic species perish in the name of that vision... then their deaths were clearly preordained by God himself.

Faith is not faith until it is tested.Six-of-Twelve, A World Misplaced

Fiction

IDW Generation 1 continuity

The Functionist Universe

A miner wields an axe
and a data slug stores facts

In an alternate timeline, the Functionist Council had publically clashed with and overthrown the Senate after debating the blasphemy of Nova Prime's spark stockpile. In the uprising, Six-of-Twelve personally executed Nominus Prime and took the Matrix for himself, A World Misplaced unaware that it was a fake. The Divided Self Production

Six-of-Twelve held the Matrix for the next five million years, A World Misplaced eventually modifying it into a personal, built-in agony beam. Modes of Production After studying the Matrix and its mysteries, he eventually came to believe that Primus could speak to him through the artifact—and that "Primus" foresaw a new era of war on Cybertron. Forewarned with this knowledge, Six of Twelve began preparing for the conflict. In an act of religious blasphemy, Six-of-Twelve began taking pre-existing Cybertronians and transplanting their Sparks into combat-ready construction and military bodies. A World Misplaced

The second part of Six-of-Twelve's plan involved Luna 2, last remaining moon of Cybertron and a constant battleground between the Primal Vanguard and the Black Box Consortia. Concerned with the idea that Cybertron's moon served no function on a planet without tides, he plotted to rebuild it into a massive harvester unit that would strip planets of minerals and send them back to Cybertron to fortify the planet. After half a million years of fighting, Six-of-Twelve had claimed to have abandoned his plans, and the rest of the Council agreed to sell the moon to the Consortia. The Custom-Made Now Unbeknownst to the other Councilors, Six-of-Twelve managed to capture the moon and rebuild it into his prophesied harvester unit. Dissolution Part 4: Bad Moon Rising

How can you stand to be here with it all?
Drowning in all this regret?

During a meeting of the Council at The Cog, Six-of-Twelve reported that he had consulted with their theoconomists over the next mass recall from the Grand Cybertronian Taxonomy, that of the data slugs. A strict reading suggested that they still had functional value, but their ability to store large amounts of data threatened the Council's ability to rule and so One-of-Twelve ordered their obsolescence chips to be detonated. The Custom-Made Now

Though Nine-of-Twelve eventually abandoned the Council after he discovered Six's heretical plans, the remaining members of the Council made a momentous discovery after a janitorial class worker happened to figure out Rung's "purpose:" the production of photonic crystals, which could be used to store sparks in "cold constructed" bodies. Though One-of-Twelve initially wanted to kill Rung, Six-of-Twelve convinced the others that this was a sign that Primus approved of cold construction after all. Predestination: An Expert's Guide Modes of Production

Wouldn’t you rather forget him?

The Council, still unaware that their Matrix was a fake, were unable to tap the Matrix for Sparks as they had hoped. Instead, they decided to break into Vector Sigma, supposedly sealed behind impenetrable ununtrium, and in the process quash anti-Functionist sentiment once and for all by roping Rung into it. Under threat of blackmail, Rung produced thousands of crystals to house future Sparks in war-ready bodies. Modes of Production

At some point after this, Six-of-Twelve had had his head rebuilt to resemble the Matrix. Anomie

His plans nearing fruition, Six-of-Twelve's endgame began when the Council announced the "Day of Revelation", where he addressed the citizens of Cybertron in a planet-wide broadcast. At midday, he promised, the Council would show all of Cybertron what the fabled "Useless One's" true purpose wasAnomie When the time finally came, Six-of-Twelve revealed Rung's falsified alternate mode: supposedly a giant drill capable of penetrating the ununtrium wall. In truth, Rung was little more than a prop — as the Councillors would simply use a normal ununtrium drill to reach the chamber— but Six-of-Twelve assured the crowd that Rung had been created by Primus for this exact purpose. At that moment, Six-of-Twelve's lunar harvesting unit returned to Cybertron, fully operational. A World Misplaced

Let's make a plan of attack
start looking forward and stop looking back

Knowing that the rogue Nine-of-Twelve had turned the city of Adaptica into a haven for the "obsolete" and other rabble-rousers like the Anti-Vocationist League, and armed with the new knowledge that the runaway Councillor wasn't required to activate Vector Sigma, Six's weaponized moon began tearing that city apart with tractor beams, sucking up and "processing" the city and its helpless inhabitants alike. While his project laid waste to the city above, the remaining eleven members of the Council arrived in the Vector Sigma chamber, where they were confronted by a dimensionally-displaced Rodimus and crew. Six's villainous monologues were little match for Rodimus' flippancy, and the Autobot simply tackled the Councilor, sending them both flying into the Vector Sigma chamber itself. Bad Moon Rising Six-of-Twelve subsequently trapped Rodimus in his agony beam before Rung, returned to normal, intervened. Rung outlined Six's plan to the assembled Autobots before turning his old captor's words back against them: their combined alternate mode, the Key to Vector Sigma, was little more than a piece of religious paraphernalia extraneous to the functioning of the mega-computer. All this time, they were just as useless as they had thought Rung to be; their old captive bid them farewell as they teleported away and sarcastically declaring the Council the true "Useless Ones". Modes of Production

Six's weaponized moon was eventually teleported away; the incident was blamed on the Black Box Consortia and Six returned to his normal position on the Council, with the majority of Cybertron none the wiser about what had truly transpired. This Machine Kills Fascists