The Rise
| This article is about the faction. For the unrelated comic issue, see 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 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:
- Astrotrain
- Barricade
- Bitstream (scientist)
- Blackjack
- Blast Off
- Bombshell
- Brawl
- Catgut
- Enemy
- Fangry
- Flamewar
- Frenzy
- Hotlink
- Hyperdrive
- Kaskade
- Kickback
- Lowload
- Lugnut
- Mindwipe
- Onslaught
- Rage
- Roughstuff
- Ruckus
- Rumble
- Quake
- Shadow Striker
- Shockwave (nominal leader)
- Shrapnel
- Sixshot (field lieutenant)
- Skystalker (cityspeaker)
- Slipstream (field lieutenant)
- Sparkstalker (scientist)
- Storm Cloud
- Sunstorm
- Tracer
- Treadshot
- Triggerhappy
- Visper
- Vortex
- Wirespike
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
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 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 and forcibly unmoored the Winged Moon from Cybertron. The Change In Your Nature Part Five
In the aftermath of the Tether falling onto Cybertron's surface, Megatron reassigned much of The Rise to official Ascenticon positions. 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
