The Darksyders are a group from the Beast Wars: Uprising portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.

The Darksyders are the leading criminal organization on Cybertron. In an act of sheer brazenness that is pretty typical of their founder, they're based right out of Iacon, the very seat of Builder control. Their insignia is a double-sided spear. Their members include:

Fiction

Beast Wars: Uprising

A good twenty-one stellar cycles before the Grand Uprising began, the Darksyders started with two 'bots: Gnashteeth and Scorponok, the head of the Dynamic Energon Distilleries' Iacon plant, and a programmer who worked at said plant. Gnashteeth had gotten unceremoniously abandoned by his Builder mentor, Double Punch, and inspired by an idle comment from Scorponok began selling some of the plant's surplus energon on the down-low. Business began slowly, waylaid by dealers going rogue and needing to be dealt with, or problems with the pricing, but soon the nascent gang began to bloom, attracting the attention of the local big-shots, the Kopsegos.

The gang's leader, Thunderhoof, inflicted a violent beatdown on Gnashteeth when he refused to join with them, which resulted in the Predacon spending thirteen hours in a CR Chamber. Aggravated, Gnashteeth set about getting even, starting by murdering Double Punch and framing Thunderhoof. He took advantage of this desperation to murder Thunderhoof, having bought off his guards beforehand. After this, the Kopsegos were absorbed into the new Darksyders, taking the name from an off-the-cuff comment Terrorsaur had made during the disastrous first meeting with Thunderhoof. Identity Politics

Over the next twenty-one cycles, the Darksyders would go from strength to strength, building up their powerbase in Iacon, and slowly encroaching on the territory of the other big-name crime gang, the Minions of Unicron. An initial peace-offering from Cryotek was viciously rebuffed. They did manage to successfully absorb another gang, the Destron Boys Not All Megatrons

Optimus Primal led his team of Maximals against the Darksyders; in the ensuing conflict, Rhinox and Silverbolt were killed. Alone Together: Prologue

MCSF officer Wolfang noted that Hotwire offered her services to the likes of the Darksyders. Trigger Warnings

Four years after the Grand Uprising began, the Darksyders had pushed the Minions into a corner, utterly robbing them of their reputation and influence. In a desperate move, Cryotek sought out Megatron's residence to put an end to him. It was a trap, and Cryotek was forced to agree to dissolve the Minions and make them join the Darksyders. With a little "persuasion" to make sure he didn't get any ideas, afterward, that is.

Unfortunately, this wasn't enough for Megatron, who felt the Darksyders were wasting their time while real change, real opportunity was to be had in the chaos of the Uprising. To this end, and with some help from Scorponok, he hit upon the idea of making Predacons and Maximals alike able to survive without the Builders, to make them like beasts.

To do this, he had newly recruited Minion Packrat find and steal a Stasis pod, which the larcenous Maximal accomplished. Experimentation on low-level Darksyder grunts didn't go well, forcing them to find other ways of recruiting "volunteers". Their failed efforts drew the attention of the PSP, one whom tried telling Megatron what he was doing wouldn't work in exchange for living. It didn't work, but it did clue Megatron in to where to look for help. After recruiting the mad Autobot scientist Leatherhide, he told them they needed an un-formatted protoform to get the upgrade to work. With the assistance of the unwitting patsy Bisk, such a protoform was acquired. After some time of work, Leatherhide managed to successfully create a new Beast-former. And with that, granting the same to the rest of the Darksyders proved easy. Not All Megatrons

From there, the Darksyder's Beast Upgrade spread like wildfire across the planet, making their front corporation, Darksyder, Inc. very wealthy. Cultural Appropriation

During the Vehicon Apocalypse, the Darksyders' main headquarters in Iacon came under attack, though thanks to all the money they'd acquired from the Beast Upgrade, Megatron had been able to upgrade his base enough to weather them long enough for Leatherhide and Labrat to finish work on the Esau device, which protected them from the monstrosities by converting poor Wasp into a half-Vehicon form. In the aftermath, with their sheer globe-spanning wealth and influence, the Darksyders became part of the newly formed Cybertronian Parliament, with the addition of a new member, PSP castaway Tarantulas. Derailment

Notes

• The Darksyders' name is, obviously, a reference to the Predacon starship from the Beast Wars cartoon.
• Scavenger escaped his universe along with fellow Predacon Immorticon. It is ambiguous if Immorticon is a member of the Darksyders or not.