@maximummuses asked for a glimpse of the past
Megatron had always been angry, always been bitter, always longed for something more than the mines. It wasn't until this day he had realised he had the power to do more than just seeth. That he and his brothers in arms could force change, rather than wait for the slow trickle of change that the corrupt functionist elite held at bay with iron clad dams of regulations.
A senator had come to announce their mines were closing, that they were to be reallocated, separated from the brothers in arms they had been sparked with. Voices had called out from the crowd, Megatrons amongst them, only to be ignored and spoken over by the elite who knew nothing of their culture.
He couldn't say who had moved first. Perhaps it was him, perhaps it was another one of the miners, perhaps they had all surged forward together. Rage turning into action, a wave of outrage, sorrow and determination.
It had been carnage, the officers attending the senators had weapons, military tactics, training. Their riot had not been a prepared coordinated attack, and the response to their lack of planning was a death count that rivalled even skirmishes later in the war.
Those who had survived had been arrested, corralled into cells, but what Megatron learnt from this wasn't the futility of fighting. No, for the first time he had a clear insight into their collective power. The problem wasn't that they couldn't rebel, but that they hadn't been organised to.
The senators were frightened of them, and he was going to make their worst fears come true.
