One early glimpse into comtemporary life on
Cybertron was revealed in
The Transformers #17: Return To Cybertron, part 1, published in 1986. In this two-part episode, the
Decepticon forces on Cybertron are engaged in building a bridge which would employ some unspecified advanced science to span the cosmos between Cybertron and Earth. The purpose of this bridge was to reinforce the earthly Decepticon forces led by
Megatron. Notably, this was a space bridge, not a time bridge. As the Transformers story line took place in present day 1986, readers got a glimpse into the affairs of contemporary Cybertron.
As one would suspect of a world ravaged by millennia of warfare, the infrastructure of Cybertron appeared to be in shambles. This episode begins with two robots, on foot amidst the ruins, fleeing from a flying Decepticon pursuer. These poor wretched looking specimens were dispatched with an energy blast and their bodies subsequently collected by a cruder machine. These two victims bore no Autobot or Decepticon insignias, so it would appear that these two were civilian non-combatants. Gruesomely, it was then revealed that the purpose of the assault upon these two civilians was to collect their bodies to be recycled in a giant smelting pool!
This smelting pool appeared to be the only enterprise of any kind in this episode. It also suggests that the raw materials on Cybertron had been so depleted that the Decepticons had to resort to a sort of industrial cannibalism to construct their space bridge. This savage operation was supervised by the imposing figure of the Decepticon Lord Straxus. Readers were introduced to this Straxus as he held an audience before two different cowering and diminutive robots. Again these appeared to be civilian non-combatants, begging for mercy for their lives. Governor Straxus explained that there was, "no mercy dispensed here, ONLY DEATH," as he clove these wretches in two with an energized axe.
What of the Autobots in this grim contemporary account of Cybertron? An underground Autobot enclave was located somewhere within Straxus's governorship comprised of a small yet sturdy band of Autobot warriors. The storyline of Transformers #17 included the capture of an Autobot spy named Scrounge, friend of one Autobot named Blaster. The Autobots traveled to a particularly destitute neighborhood to gain information about their captured comrade from the wasterels residing there. These poor creatures, with their missing limbs and exposed circuitry, begged the Autobots for fuel. They were clearly starving, indicating that the economy on Cybertron was in a deplorable state of idleness and unemployment. Basic public services seemed to be altogether non-existent. The Autobot called Cosmos gave one "old-timer" a beaker full of fuel to charge his memory circuits. Obviously, these robotic mendicants relied entirely upon the charity of others.
The "old-timer's" intelligence led Blaster, Cosmos and their team of Autobots to the Decepticon Smelting Pit, where they discovered Scrounge, and dozens of other poor wretched citizens in the process of being melted down alive! This evidence presented in Transformers #17 proved that there was contemporary citizenry on Cybertron, but their lives were defined as living nearly entirely without sustenance, scrabbling for day-to-day survival in the shadows of a merciless reign of terror.
Budianski, Bud (w) Perlin, Don (p) Williams, Keith (i) The Transformers #17: Return to Cybertron, part 1. Marvel Comics June, 1986.
http://www.seibertron.com/comics/issue/the-transformers-17/19/