Age of Rust (Earth-1984)

The Age of Rust (also known as the Rust Age) was a period in Cybertronian history, marked by social and societal atrophy, as a demoralized Cybertron sought to recover from the failure of the Golden Age.

History
The Golden Age of Cybertron came to an abrupt conclusion when the colonies became infected with a Rust Plague. Possibly a deliberate attack by unknown parties, the plague was incredibly virulent and apparently incurable. The council on Cybertron made the heavy decision to destroy the Space bridge network for maximum quarantine, cutting off the colonies from Cybertron and abandoning them to their fate to prevent the plague from spreading to the homeworld.

By rust they fell and to rust they came. The global optimism brought about by the space exploration and colony programs was irrevocably lost. The people of Cybertron felt they no longer had anything to strive for, and merely went through the motions of existence. This malaise only intensified when Nameless bots began emerging from the Well of All Sparks en masse, just as they had during the Age of Wrath. The general consensus was that these new bots saw existence as too pointless to even bother choosing a name, or have things to look forward to. They merely went about their appointed role in life, no more or less.

The council managed to hold on to power during the Age of Rust, but accomplished little else, as they were too gun-shy and lacked the drive to begin new social programs or expeditions to reignite the people's spirit. Nova Major (secretly a former lieutenant of Prima) proposed a new ideology he hoped would restore Cybertron to its glory; a unified society where everyone would be "in their place" under Functionism. With the council's blessing, he took up the mantle of Prime and became the sole leader of Cybertron. He also wanted to restart Cybertronian esxpansion to share the "enlightenment" of Cybertron with the rest of the galaxy, to spread the ideal of Pax Cybertronia to the stars.

Functionism became prominent on Cybertron in the last six million years, even after the disappearance of Nova Prime. A Cybertronian's status was determined not only by the utility of their alt-mode, but also its scarcity. The more unique an alt-mode was, the higher a Cybertronian could climb in society, and vice versa. However, this new doctrine denigrated those with differentiating alternate modes, such as vehicles and animals, and felt as though they were stripped of their liberties.

The one growing "industry" on Cybertron during the age was gladiator combat, ruthless games of merciless combat and bloodsport arising from Kaon. Either vicariously or in the gladiator pit themselves, Cybertronians found themselves momentarily alive again as part of the ritual combat. It was in these games that a miner designated D-16 claimed the title of Megatronus, fallen of the Primes, before the exuberant crowds shortened his name to Megatron.

Megatron was a visionary as well as a warrior, and began addressing his audience of fans about the possibility of social change, even revolution. Indeed, Megatron ultimately brought about the end of the Age of Rust, but not how he expected. Megatron and his allies received an audience before the council to address their concerns, but the council sidestepped Megatron and presented the title of Prime to one of his less extreme advisors, the archivist Orion Pax. As Pax rose to become Optimus Prime, Megatron rejected his former friend and began open warfare in the streets of Cybertron. These two leaders and their factions, the Autobotsvand Decepticons, began the Great War that shook the rust from Cybertron's society, for good or ill.