Revolutionary Violence and Its Reversals

This thread traces how the Liberation Militia’s pursuit of equality through armed action draws in Callum McGregor, harms civilians, and turns its own members into targets of distrust and retaliation.

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A Divided Household

A Divided Household The Appeal of Resistance Ryan McGregor and Jude support the Liberation Militia, while Meggie McGregor argues that peaceful resistance remains morally necessary. Their arguments reflect competing responses to Nought oppression: whether violence is an unavoidable answer to entrenched exclusion or a force that will reproduce the harm it opposes. Callum Outside the Circle Callum McGregor recognizes that his father and brother are concealing their involvement, but he has not joined them. The family’s secrecy leaves him both curious and excluded, foreshadowing how the political conflict will become a personal choice rather than a distant debate.

The Dundale Explosion

The Dundale Explosion An Attack on Civilians A bomb explodes at the Dundale Shopping Centre, killing and injuring people. Callum McGregor has learned that an attack is imminent and pulls Persephone Hadley out of the Cuckoo’s Egg café; they are outside when the blast occurs. Fear Becomes Policy The government treats the bombing as proof that the Liberation Militia must be crushed, while people close to the organization claim that a warning was meant to ensure evacuation. The disaster’s civilian casualties deepen public fear and give political force to policies that target Noughts broadly, even as the question of who planned the attack remains unresolved.

The Family Arrests

The Family Arrests Tear Gas and Accusation Police break into the McGregor home at night and arrest Callum McGregor, using tear gas and force before he understands why he is being detained. The raid collapses the distinction between investigation and collective punishment in the family’s experience. Evidence from a Hospital Visit Investigators question Callum about his relatives and the bombing, then tell Meggie McGregor that a drinks can bearing Jude’s fingerprint links him to the attack. The fingerprint was registered during Meggie’s hospital visit, an ordinary act of care that has been transformed into evidence. Jude is missing, and the police’s claim threatens to draw the rest of the family into the case.

Ryan’s Protective Confession

Ryan’s Protective Confession A Choice Under Pressure Police tell Ryan McGregor that Jude faces the death penalty and that his wife and younger son may also be implicated. Ryan signs a confession to the bombing, believing he can divert the case away from his family. Protection at a Moral Cost Ryan later explains that he did not plant the bomb, but his confession makes him responsible in the eyes of the law. His act protects Jude from immediate prosecution while placing Ryan himself in the path of a capital charge. The authorities’ pressure converts a father’s attempt to shield his family into the foundation of a wrongful conviction.

The Militia’s Internal Fracture

The Militia’s Internal Fracture A Suspected Betrayal After Persephone Hadley escapes, Callum McGregor argues that Andrew Dorn must have betrayed the cell’s plans to the authorities. Police had anticipated the group’s movements, and Callum connects that knowledge to Andrew’s access to the operation. Trust Under Strain Jude and Morgan are reluctant to accept that a senior Militia figure could be a traitor, but the capture of Leila and death of Pete make the explanation harder to dismiss. With no safe route to the General and no proof that can be made public, the surviving members choose secrecy and separation. Their cause remains, but the organization’s trust has been damaged from within.

During Callum McGregor’s first term at Heathcroft High

During the spring, at the Dundale Shopping Centre

The night the police raid the McGregor home

After the arrest, when Ryan McGregor is held by police

After the failed hostage operation, during the Stiletto cell’s retreat