The Rise

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 larger Ascenticon faction, 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...

Fiction

2019 IDW continuity

Following his rise to the position of Senator, current Ascenticon leader Megatron realized that the peaceful tactics of his Ascenticons would not be enough to elicit the changes he desired in Cybertronian society. To this end, Megatron 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 unilateral control over his operatives, led to friction between him and Megatron: The Cracks Beneath Your Feet Part Four under as-yet-undivulged circumstances, the respected scientist Brainstorm was killed, in a way that incriminated 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 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 wound up killing the young Transformer Rubble, who had followed the alien out of curiosity. The World In Your Eyes Part Five

Shortly after learning this, and after Chromia's Security Operations taskforce raided one of their hidden bunkers and retrieved information on The Rise's membership, a furious Megatron travelled 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 ousted 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