This is my first attempt at a mulitchapter fic, so please be patient. This is a sort of re-write/expansion of my previous fic Heartbeat, so thanks to all the people who suggested that I expanded that fic a bit more and gave me the idea to do this. : )

Lynchpin

Chapter 1

Ratchet gingerly eased a foot long spike of shrapnel out of Hound's leg and set it on the trolley beside him before picking up a small penlight and shining it into the ragged tear left in the metal.

"How bad is it?" Hound winced as Ratchet dug around in the hole with a long probe.
"You're lucky, it's just cosmetic damage." The medic replied gruffly. "And what have we learned today?"
"Do not attend any more of Wheeljack's weapon demos." The tracker parroted. He'd heard the lecture several times already that day.
"Good."

Ratchet picked up an arc-welder and was about to begin sealing the hole shut when a flicker of movement caught his attention. "Sideswipe! Siddown or I'll weld you to the floor!" The medic ordered, not bothering to turn his head as he returned to the task at hand. Sideswipe, knowing full well that Ratchet was both willing and able to carry out the threat, gingerly lowered himself back to the floor.

The walking wounded, numbering about a dozen, lined the back wall of the repair bay. The more seriously damaged, of which there were only two, had been dealt with several hours earlier.

"Done." Ratchet announced as he set down the welder. "Report to Hoist and he'll fix your paint."
"Thanks Ratchet." Hound grinned as he jumped off the berth he had been sitting on. "I don't know what we'd do without ya."
"You're welcome." Ratchet answered gruffly, then turned to the still patently waiting warriors. "Next!"

Meanwhile, deep inside the Decepticon's underwater base, Megatron stood in his darkened quarters, brooding. Fully half his warriors had been disabled in the last disgraceful sham of an attack a week ago. "Where did it go wrong." The warlord growled to himself, absently rubbing the connection point on his arm where his cannon usually sat. A parting shot from Sideswipe had chipped the muzzle of the weapon, and Megatron knew far better than to fire the cannon while it had even the slightest damage, thus he had removed the weapon so that it could be repaired.

The massive warrior clasped his hands behind his back and paced. He knew that a part of the Autobot's reoccuring successes were due to their cohesion as a unit. His own troops were a clear example of what happened without that unity.

But there had to be a weakness, a fracture in that interlocking resolve. Megatron's frown deepened. Their strength was in numbers, but if one of the lynchpins could be brought down or captured their organisation could be crippled. The question was who. Prime had the nasty little habit of not dying when he was supposed to, the same with Ironhide. Jazz was too combat savvy to allow himself to get separated from the rest of his unit during battle, and when the tactician Prowl emerged to fight, he too stuck close to his comrades. Wheeljack would be too troublesome a prisoner, and he was almost always packing some new gimmick that would allow him to either escape, inflict serious damage on his troops or their base, or all three.

That left only…Megatron's lips twisted into his version of a smile as he began to rough out a plan.

It was that hellish time between midnight and morning when Ratchet finally staggered out of the repair bay in search of a working energon dispenser and somewhere to crash for an hour or ten. With bleary optics and shaky steps, he stumbled down the hall in a more or less direct route to the common room.

Jazz, who had just clocked off his shift, noticed the medic's semi-coherant state and came over to help. "Y' ok Ratch-man?" The black and white queried as he helped Ratchet stand up.
"No." Was Ratchet's surly reply. "I'm gonna have Wheeljack's fraggin' head for this." Ratchet muttered, swaying slightly.
"Well, b'fore y' go on a rampage, let's get a bit o' energon in ya before ya keel over." Jazz said as he slung one of Ratchet's arms around his shoulders and helped the medic down the corridor.

Skywarp didn't like this plan. Not one bit.

As the Seeker, along with the rest of the Earth-based Decepticons, listened to the latest plot cooked up by their leader, he decided that he really didn't like this plan. But he'd seen Starscream get blasted enough times to know when it was and when it wasn't a good time to voice concerns. Right now was one of those times when it wasn't. So he very wisely decided to stay mute and continue listening. But he still didn't like the plan.