Hate Plague
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The catastrophic Hate Plague epidemic (also referred to as a madness plague by Rodimus Prime) is an event within the main Transformers timeline that occurred sometime during or after the year 2006 and resulted in such historical events as the return of Optimus Prime, a temporary truce with Galvatron and the Decepticons, and the long-standing temporary depletion of the Autobot Matrix of Leadership.
The Hate Plague is a seemingly non-sentient contagion that breeds dormant contempt, violence and hatred in any living entity it comes in contact with, including mechanical and organic life. An infected individual can be easily identified by a dark red glow emanating from their being. Aforementioned, physical contact is required to contract it, except in unusual situations where the atmospheric density of the spores results in a critical concentration of them. In and of itself, it does not appear to be fatal. Although, the resulting behavior increases the possibility of a violent death. It is unknown if the spore plague was engineered to use violence as a method of propagation. Upon further study, it was found that the spores are immune to all known forms of heat, radiation, and even gravity or lack-there-of. However certain composite metals (perhaps similar to Electrum) can contain and/or shield individuals from the spores. It was known to be released at least once before in the distant (pre-Cybertronian Civil War) past, and a Transformer scientist was somehow able to contain the spores and release them onto the surface of a distant star. This ultimately proved futile.
The spores were accidentally discovered by Dr. Jessica Morgan and her partner, only known as Gregory, while testing a heat and radiation-resistant alloy on their ship by taking it close to the surface of a star then going nova (interestingly enough, this is also the same expedition that recovered Optimus Prime's stasis-locked body). The spores swarmed, covering the hull, though it was observed that they could not penetrate. They then layed dormant, allowing Dr. Morgan to collect enough samples of them, until introduced to the presence of a living being - an Earth rat - in an aerosol form. It is at this time that the Decepticons attacked the laboratory to acquire the radiation-resistant alloy under developement, and Dr. Morgan was injured during the attack, losing the function of her legs. The Autobots fitted her with an exoskeleton concept that allowed her to walk again, though (either through human prejudice, fatherly guilt, slight contact with the spores, or a combination of all these factors) her father was furious with them.
After attempting to revive Optimus Prime on their own for unknown reasons and failing, Dr. Morgan (Jessica's father) and Gregory devised a devious trap for the Transformers; they placed Prime's shell in a sealed room where Autobots could easily attempt to retrieve him. Once they entered, Morgan released the spores in aerosol form. The contagion spread from there across most of the planet. Eventually, members of the Earth Defense Force (EDF) and other Transformers capable of off-world flight inadvertently spread the spores to other worlds; a galactic epidemic was in progress.
Sky Lynx, one of the very few Transformers able to escape infection (other than only Metroplex), was given direct orders from Rodimus Prime to find a Quintesson who may be able to truly revive Optimus Prime (as they had done before, seen in the episode Dark Awakening) again. After finding a Quintesson, Prime was successfully revived and a plan was soon devised to recover the Matrix of Leadership from the now-infected Rodimus. In order to make contact with Rodimus, Optimus coated himself with the alloy created by Dr. Morgan that he acquired on the planet Chaar with the suprizing assistance of Galvatron. Once in possession of the Matrix, Optimus Prime proceeded to commune with the Oracle to try to find out as much as he could about the Plague; after finding that a construct of the Matrix of Leadership had knowledge of it, and learning that only the raw power of wisdom could negate the spores existance, Optimus reawakened and released the essence of the The Matrix, the collected knowledge and wisdom within it proving enough to seemingly eradicate the plague and cure all those infected. However, as a result of this extensive cure-all, the Matrix of Leadership was rendered unusable until it could theoretically be refilled with the power of wisdom yet again.
It is possible, however highly unlikely, that some survived the Matrix's wisdom-barrage and can still be harvested from somewhere in deep-space. The infection Megatron used on the Maximals eons later (as seen in Beast Machines) could either be a different strain of the Hate Plague, or a completely new contagion designed to acurately mimic the historical accounts of the original's symptoms. As is his style, Megatron imbedded this new contagion within his Spark-harboring Vehicon Generals as not only the ultimate fail-safe against natural free will, but also as a valued counter-point to its continous chaotic existance. The newly-resurrected Silverbolt (previously the Aero-drone General Jetstorm) realized he was a carrier soon after the entire group became infected. In the end, the Maximals' new techno-organic vessels (as well as their sharpened minds) proved too advanced for this particular strain, whatever its origins, and soon overcame its affects, wiping it out completely.
Notes
The only other being who never gets infected by the Hate Plague is the Quintesson contacted by Sky Lynx. Considering their callous scientific nature, it could be theorized that, due to the minimal yet definite evidence, the Quintessons were in fact the original developers of the spores (perhaps testing it on the Trans-Organics in an earlier time), explaining said Quintesson's unquestioned immunity to it.
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