The Rise

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The radical group known as "The Rise" have seemingly arisen in recent years as a protest against the restrictive terms of the Nominus Edict and the Autobots who uphold the mandate of Sentinel Prime. Though their proactive views on self-determination immediately mark them as a splinter group of the broader Ascenticon ideology, the 'bots who make up The Rise have eschewed the largely peaceful ways of the Ascenticons, making themselves known through violence, vandalism, and destruction of property.

The truth behind these two organizations, however, is far more complicated...

Members:

Fiction

2019 IDW continuity

Following his rise to the Senate, Ascenticon leader Megatron realized that the peaceful tactics of his mainstream Ascenticons would not be enough to elicit the changes he desired in Cybertronian society. To this end, Megatron secretly recruited the exiled Cybertronian Shockwave, smuggled him back to Cybertron, and put him in charge of The Rise. Under Shockwave's command, the disorganized group was reshaped into a tightly organized unit, The Cracks Beneath Your Feet Part Four operating from hidden bunkers such as the one near Iacon's Memorial Crater. The Cracks Beneath Your Feet Part Three

In time, more than two hundred Cybertronians joined the movement, attracted by Shockwave's message of violence—though to outsiders, it seemed as though the Cybertronians had abruptly vanished. The World In Your Eyes Part Five Megatron intended for The Rise to complement the pacifistic tactics of the Ascenticons: the violence and disarray spread by the Rise would, he hoped, push the people of Cybertron towards the politics of the Ascenticons—if the Ascenticons were put in power, after all, then The Rise would cease to exist. The Cracks Beneath Your Feet Part Four In public, Megatron continued to denounce the violent behavior of these "Risers" The World In Your Eyes Part Three while taking advantage of the increasingly unstable political situation on Cybertron to fabricate at least one failed "assassination attempt" that would make him look like a potential martyr. The World In Your Eyes Part Two

In time, however, Shockwave's increasingly ambitious behavior and his unilateral control over his operatives led to friction between him and Megatron: The Cracks Beneath Your Feet Part Four during a raid on a remote energon transmission station, the respected scientist Brainstorm was killed by Frenzy, in a manner that implicated The Rise. The World In Your Eyes Part One Learning that a Voin scavenger had witnessed the murder, the recent Ascenticon convert Barricade passed on knowledge of its location to Senator Soundwave, who, in turn, contacted Shockwave to tie up this loose end. Shockwave sent the notoriously unstable Quake to Iacon's Xeno-Quarter to find and silence the Voin; while he found and killed the alien, Quake got carried away and also wound up murdering the young Transformer Rubble, who had followed the alien out of curiosity. The World In Your Eyes Part Five

Let's go do some crimes.

After Cyclonus stumbled onto The Rise base under the Memorial Crater and informed Security Operations, The Cracks Beneath Your Feet Part Two Chromia took Windblade and Sideswipe to investigate. They ended up taking on Sixshot, Shadow Striker, and Flamewar, who self-destructed the base, but Windblade managed to retrieve information on The Rise's membership. The Cracks Beneath Your Feet Part Three After Rubble's death and the destruction of the Memorial Crater, a furious Megatron traveled out into the badlands of Cybertron to speak directly to Shockwave, and ordered him to take his operatives underground for a while. The Cracks Beneath Your Feet Part Four However, when it became clear that Barricade had outed himself as a potential Riser, Megatron was forced to order Shockwave to stage an "attack" on Ascenticon headquarters, in which Sixshot, Storm Cloud, and Visper were able to safely extract Barricade. The Cracks Beneath Your Feet Part Five

After Sentinel Prime returned to Cybertron, he quickly made rooting out The Rise his top priority, having SecOps step up their raids on potential Rise safehouses and places of congregation. Springer and Sideswipe interrupted a Rise cell led by Ruckus in the middle of a raid on an energon processing station. Their pursuit of the terrorists into the Cybertronian Mountains forced Ruckus and his team to hole up in an immersant Titan. The Change In Your Nature Part One SecOps pinned them down inside but were unable to breach thanks to a store of illegal weapons The Rise had stashed within. As the stand-off continued, Soundwave arrived on the scene under the pretense of negotiating with the terrorists. He was allowed entry to speak with Ruckus and while Soundwave initially planned on providing safe passage out of the situation for them, he had to change his plans when he realized Ruckus simply knew too much about The Rise's operation to be taken into SecOps' custody. Returning outside after leaving his electromagnetic suppressor behind, Soundwave detonated the device, destroying the immersant Titan and eliminating Ruckus and his team to protect The Rise's secrets. The Change In Your Nature Part Two

The destruction of the Titan was the last straw for Megatron, who decided he couldn't afford to let Shockwave run The Rise with impunity anymore. After being overcharged with energon, Megatron journeyed into the badlands of Cybertron and to the primary Rise bunker for a face-to-face with Shockwave. In front of Shockwave's lieutenants Sixshot and Slipstream, Megatron savagely beat the scientist into submission. Megatron declared The Rise officially dissolved and that he and he alone would have absolute control over all Ascenticon assets going forward. Battered to the edge of death, Shockwave could only choke out his assent. The Change In Your Nature Part Three

Despite Megatron's declaration that The Rise was no more, some previously under Shockwave's command still carried out operations for the Ascenticon cause, such as Team Stream's seizure of an outlying relay station that led to the awakening of the Titan Vigilem. The Change In Your Nature Part Four Vigilem would launch an attack on the Tether at the urging of The Rise and forcibly unmoored the Winged Moon from Cybertron. The Change In Your Nature Part Five

How do you like that, Obama? WE'RE STEALING THE MOON, YOU IDIOT!

In the aftermath of the Tether falling onto Cybertron's surface, Megatron reassigned much of The Rise to personally serve his needs in Iacon, like having Treadshot and Catgut attempt to assassinate Bumblebee. All Fall Down The more troublesome members of the organization who had officially been implicated in crimes, like Quake and Frenzy, were to be sent into hiding while SecOps continued their crackdown. Swindle's A group of civilian geologists ran afoul of a transport carrying these more unstable Risers out in Cybertron's hinterlands and were attacked, prompting a quick response from a SecOps strike team led by Novastar. Tremors A battle ensued and Sixshot was forced to come to his exiled troops' aid, but ultimately Quake was captured by SecOps at its conclusion. Quake was shortly thereafter killed by Bumblebee when he attempted to escape custody once returned to Iacon. Prisoners

After the Senate was convened to address the ongoing crisis, Megatron and his fellow Ascenticon senators barged in to speak. Megatron declared that The Rise had surrendered to the Ascenticons, and seizing the derogatory name Sentinel Prime had leveled on them, re-dubbed the movement the Decepticons. We Have Deceived You Team Stream was sent to capture the errant Winged Moon Wheeljack: Orbital Decay while the Decepticons seized the Senate and Iacon by force. Projecting himself holographically to the citizenry, Megatron assured them that The Rise had submitted to the Decepticons and that those who deserved justice and punishment would receive it under their rule. Prime The Rise largely ceased to exist as an organization after this point, with those remaining under Shockwave's command continuing to serve Decepticon interests, including Team Stream. Moon Megatron assigned Sixshot as head of the new Decepticon Guard, promoting the former Rise lieutenant to an official position in the new Decepticon hierarchy during a public broadcast with Andromeda. When Andromeda brought up Sixshot's former (and public) Rise connections on air, Megatron simply "explained" that the Autobots and the Senate had framed numerous individuals for The Rise's crimes and do so kindly hush up now please OR ELSE. Hunt