The Five Faces of Darkness, part 1

Recapping on the events of the movie, the narrator explains that the Decepticons, without a leader, have retreated to the burnt-out planet of Chaar, where a weary Astrotrain crashes down with some energon cubes that the Constructicons set about fighting each other over, though when realising their provider tries to get one for himself, they form Devastator and kick him aside to take it for themselves.
 

Menasor smashes Devastator into his component parts and takes it from him, only for the Insecticons^[1] to try and pinch it, though ultimately the whole scuffle goes nowhere as Cyclonus, Scourge and the Sweeps land and scold them for being such petty thugs, claiming this is no way for the Decepticon empire to live on as.

Elsewhere, the Galactic Olympics are taking place, with the Autobots there as special guests, Rodimus Prime being the one to announce the starting of the events.

Blurr, however, isn't taking in the race, as he and Wheelie are assigned by Perceptor to head on over to Autobot City with the transformation cog and install it, what with the original being destroyed in the great war. However, after the race is over two shadowy figures tell their lackey, a Skuxxoid, to set their plan into action...

...and that plan involves firing a laser into the giant torch, sending lasers, sparks and fog everywhere, apparently killing some fleeing audience members while a familiar looking ship drops a large canister with shadowy beings inside, that run about firing at people.
 

Spike and Carly try firing back, realising their pistols are just really useless against these things, and Spike vanishes after the smoke of a thrown bomb clears. Since the fog is so thick and their attackers being all shadowy the others aren't having a better time fighting, so Rodimus gets sick of it all and just does a mad dash into the fray.

Springer attempts to douse the fire, though by dousing the fire, he means just firing it with more lasers to make the whole torch explode, which happens to clear the fog and send the shadowy enemies making a snappy exit. However, Ultra Magnus and Kup are gone as well, leaving Rodimus to pout moodily and propose a quarantine on the planet until they're found again.

A ship then abruptly busts through the ground, prompting Springer and Arcee to go and get themselves their own ship to chase after. Meanwhile, Blurr and Wheelie fly by a very crappy looking Cybertron which still has Unicron's head circling it, though oblivious to the two, Cyclonus and the Sweeps are on it, looking for the memory banks of Unicron to see if he knows where Galvatron was last headed.

After watching repeated footage from the movie, Cyclonus inputs some coordinates and finds out that Galvatron was headed towards the planet Thrull, and apparently using some kind of super telescope or something, they see the exact location he is on that planet, and are pretty joyous about his survival.

Meanwhile, Blaster and Outback are landing in the Socialist Democratic Federated Republic of Carbombya to see if there are any Decepticons hiding around, though the president of the country, Abdul Fakkadi, refuses to let them land. They ignore his commands and set down anyway, Outback making use of his Decepticon detector to prove Fakaddi wrong.
 

His device is actually a load of lies, but the repeated loud mentioning of it causes Ramjet and Dirge to reveal themselves to be among the jets and attempt to make a getaway, only for Outback to fling a smoke bomb at them and causing them to crash. He forces the coordinates of Chaar out of them and reports it to Rodimus. Perceptor, meanwhile, examines the remains of what of the shadowy opponents they fought earlier, which are now familiar to Rodimus, but not so much to the microscope man.
 

Since there was no real indication of the Decepticons being behind the attack at the Galactic Olympics, Rodimus decides to find out for certain by heading to Chaar with Grimlock. Arcee and Springer, meanwhile, are hot on the trail of the fleeing ship with the Skuxxoid, though they don't get far before rounding an asteroid and getting caught in mechanical pincers coming out of it.

They bust through the wall and drop down onto the asteroid's surface, and after hearing a noise from below, blast another hole into the surface and find a ship-like interior, with the Skuxxoid hammering away at a control panel. Springer pushes a gun against it's neck and gets an answer out of it to who hired him: The Decepticons! Since the little alien jerk destroyed their ship, they tell him to get lost and take his one, the Skuxxoid escaping in a smaller one.

The Skuxxoid calls his superiors from earlier, claiming he made the Autobots believe the Decepticons were behind it all, but is cut off before money can be arranged for his benefactor to look upon his prisoners: Spike, Ultra Magnus and Kup!

Meanwhile, on Chaar, the Decepticons realise they need a leader to do anything productive, and conveniently, Cyclonus and the others arrive to inform that Galvatron lives.

Everyone celebrates, and Cyclonus takes Astrotrain's energon as supplies to revive Galvatron, making them all a little less joyous. Rodimus and Grimlock, oblivious to the Decepticons, are watching this from a cliff nearby, almost feeling sorry for the hopelessness of their enemies' situation.

However, they realise that since the Decepticons are so weak, it's unlikely they were responsible for the kidnappings, and Grimlock's loud questionings alerts their enemies to their presence, Cyclonus blasting them down to the ground while they all rush upon the Autobots...

^[1]Even though they were quite clearly reformatted in the movie, the Insecticons are alive and well, though silent and ultimately unimportant in this story arc.

What looks like Jazz appears to take part in the race, the camera specifically focusing on him and all the Autobots cheering wildly for him, but it turns out to be "Munka-Spanka from the Orgenon cluster", who isn't Jazz at all.

Cyclonus approaches Astrotrain with a black box in his hand, and he sets it down to congratulate the Decepticon, where it promptly disappears.

Since Cyclonus is never seen with it again afterwards, we never find out what the hell's up with his box that actually has a design. I'm guessing it was meant to simply store the cubes for Galvatron, but he ditched it upon seeing Rodimus and forgot to collect it again, but it's so much more fun to think it's important. Like it contained Galvatron's sane mind or something.

Thanks to woeful animation, it looks like Galvatron is already rescued in a cheering crowd scene.

Get back on Thrull, you!