Pragmatism Begets Better Odds

Summary: If the technologically disadvantaged Autobots came upon an old Decipticon transport that could potentially be full of Cybertronian tech, then why the scrap would they leave it alone for over a season?

1. Resource Acquisition

Story Start: At The Tail End Of Partners

"The damage looked bad, but, it was a snap to repair, allowing us to reverse its effect on you. You should regain your full range of motion before long." Ratchet said as Bulkhead started stretching.

"And, Arcee?" Optimus asked in concern.

"She's rather resilient, for a two-wheeler." Ratchet said and they all glanced to where Arcee was sat, arms wrapped around her torso.

She looked back over her shoulder at them as Optimus walked over and said "It is the external wounds which heal the quickest."

"I thought settling scores would allow me to move on, instead I chase away our hope of winning this war anytime soon." Arcee said as she curled her arms further around herself.

"Wisdom cannot be granted Arcee, it must be earned. Sometimes, at a cost." Optimus said solemnly.

The solemn mood between the two was broken as Ratchet walked forward and said "Optimus, now that the urgent matter of your stasis locks and Arcee's wounds have been resolved, I believe it would be to our advantage to return to the Harbinger's resting places. It is possible that there are abandoned resources that we could desperately use."

"Wise counsel old friend." Optimus said with a nod of agreement before he glanced at Bulkhead and Bumblebee and said "Autobots, prepare to roll out." Looking back at Arcee, he continued "Arcee, I feel it would be best for you to stay here on ground bridge duty in order to finish recuperating." Arcee let out a short nod in acquiesce even as Ratchet reopened the Ground Bridge.

Scene Change: The Harbinger

The ground bridge portal opened up at the rear end of the split ship. Optimus was the first out, quickly followed by Bumblebee and Bulkhead before Ratchet stepped out last, the portal closing behind the medic, said medic's eyes rapidly scanning the rear half of the ship with a hum as he said "The ship must have skidded over the cliff top before falling over the edge when it crashed."

"Everyone be careful, we do not know how badly damaged the inside may be." Optimus said as they began walking forward.

Time Skip: Forty Five Minutes Later

It hadn't even been an hour yet and Ratchet was already pleased with what they had found so far. Several intact terminals had already been found whose parts would be used to upgrade Outpost Omega One's own technical equipment along with several hand-held tools and other equipment that he could always put to good use. Better yet, it had been found that the Harbinger's tracking system was synched with the Nemesis which meant they could now track it in real time if they ever had to make any further incursions into the once untraceable ship, maybe even allow Raphael a back door into hacking into the Nemesis' systems if they could get the communications systems properly running allowing them to access everything in the ship's cyber systems. Not to mention the handy little Ground Bridge remote which could come in handy for later though they would have to make it so that way it used their bridge rather than the Cons' since it wouldn't do for some Decipticon Ground Bridge operator to note that their system repeatedly opened a bridge with one end opening at Jasper.

As Ratchet opened the door of the next laboratory though, all thoughts of previous finds quickly left his mind as his eyes widened and he said "Oh my," Turning his head to where the others were examining another room down the hall, he called "Optimus, you're going to want to see this."

Curious, the other three walked over and the Prime's eyes slightly widened as he looked into the room and said "Protoforms."

"Enough to double Team Prime's numbers." Bumblebee said in surprise as they stared at the five 'blank slates' that could easily become fellow Autobots with the right know how.

"It would seem that we were most wise to return here before the Decepticons decided to." Optimus said, his 'lips' twitching upwards in what for any other bot would have been a full-blown grin.

Ratchet walked over to the lab's terminal and it activated under his deft fingers. Eyes rapidly flicking down the screen as he accessed the stored information, he said "It appears that the Decepticon that was working here was both interested in cloning and making modified frames. They were going to use one protoform to clone themselves and the other four to try and make Super Soldiers. There's a journal entry talking about how they had an extra protoform made as their 'payment' of the job so that way they could do multiple things at once. Heh, I can certainly understand the appeal in that."

"We're not going to have two Ratchets running about are we?" Bumblebee asked, a slight tone of nervousness in his voice.

Ratchet scoffed and said "As tempting as that would be, our team needs a second medic much less than we would need another fighter, even if there were four other new fighters to go along with it. The Decepticons still vastly outnumber us even with these new recruits and every Bot in the field counts."

"Ratchet is correct, and I do not believe that it would be wise to clone any other members of Team Prime either." Optimus said with a slight frown.

"I don't know, can you imagine if we had five other Optimuses? The Cons wouldn't stand a chance!" Bulkhead said excitedly.

Ratchet turned around with a frown and said "Unfortunately, I do not think that the cloning process would fully replicate Optimus Prime's identity which is augmented by the Matrix of Leadership which is a relic of the Primes, and thus most likely impossible to clone. A much more likely scenario would be that we would now have five Orion Pax's, Optimus' pre-Prime incarnation."

"Oh." Bulkhead said, rubbing his head in embarrassment.

Turning back around, Ratchet looked further into the systems and said "Since cloning is out, I suggest we take the time to properly go through all of the options and give the protoforms frames that can best help the team in the field. I believe making at least one of them a flyer would be a wise choice in order to counter the air superiority the Decepticons tend to enjoy."

"Better make that at least two, they like to travel in flights of five to twelve." Bumblebee countered and Ratchet nodded his acquiesce even as he continued to dig through the terminal.

"Along with making one of them Arcee's size so that she may have back up whenever the rest of us cannot provide it due to size constraints." Optimus suggested, earning a nod from Ratchet as he continued working.

It was an hour later that the professional in Ratchet was satisfied with all of the research into the con scientist's work enough to begin putting in the commands for forming the protoforms. He gestured to a lever on the right side of the row of protoforms and Bulkhead pulled it down causing electricity to stream through an overhead conduit and into the protoforms which began jerking around much like a human going through a seizure even as their forms shifted, one of them shrinking while the rest started to bulk up slightly.

When the electricity stopped, the smallest autobot mech was a deep forest green with light yellow as a secondary color. He looked over his hands for a moment before they shifted into his weapons, the left hand into a gun like Arcee's while the right into a kukri knife. A moment of study later they returned to normal hands and he flicked his right hand out sending high tensile strength electric augmented wires out of his fingertips that could easily slice a mech Bulkhead's size or bigger in half with ease. This was Trip Wire.

The next new Autobot down the line was about ten feet taller than Optimus with a fire engine red complimented by navy blue body that had the same build as Bulkhead. The bot had similar energon weapons as the Wrecker, a Kanabo on his back and a devastatingly powerful beam emitter taking up half of the space on his chest that could be focused into a small beam or a wide funnel of destruction. This was Ground Quake and he and Bulkhead were giving each other speculative looks.

The next two were a pair of twins, wings slightly visible on their backs denoting their Flyer status. The two were a gun metal grey with black undertones. Their guns were similar to Bumblebee's while their melee weapons were arm blades like Arcee's. Their super soldier augmentations came in the form of electrical cannons on their forearms that could fire electrical shockwaves like directed EMPs. These were the brother-sister pair Razor Wind and Storm Rider. They gave everyone around them curious looks in between having a silent conversation with each other with only their optics.

The final bot was just slightly smaller than the twins and the most unremarkable looking of the group but all the more terrifying for it if one knew what the Decepticon scientist had meant for him to be. The unconventional augmentations of the other four were made to easily turn a battle to their side's favor. Night Shift's two augmentations, yes two, were made for not only assassinations, both singular and largescale, but complete chaos sewing. He had an energon weapon that was more like a sniper capable battle rifle than the usual pistol distance blasters that most Cybertronians had along with about twenty different throwing and dueling knifes on his person. Those were just the 'standard' weaponry on him though. His first augmentation was the damn near perfect cloak, and the Decepticon scientist only called it damn near perfect instead of perfect in his work logs because it could only last an hour and required a half as long as cloaked cool down period. The second augmentation was taken directly from the incredibly rare Shifter breed of Cybertronians' playbook. Night Shift was capable of creating both soft and hard light projections over his body that could allow him to appear as anyone and the auditory equipment to match. The currently all black mech's blue optics coolly surveyed his surroundings as he fingered the hilt of one of his knives.

After a moment of both sides inspecting the other, Optimus stepped forward and said "My Autobot brethren, and sister," He nodded at Storm Rider who gained a slight smirk as the Prime continued "I am Optimus Prime, Leader of the Autobots, and with me are members of Team Prime. We are few, but strong, and if you were to join us, would be even stronger. What say you?"

While the other four traded looks with each other, Night Shift didn't hesitate to step forward and give a fist over spark salute as he said "I am yours to command sir." The other four soon repeated his actions and Team Prime's numbers grew.

END

Author's Notes: I realize I suck at naming Cybertronians, please don't leave a review that simply says my names are terrible or something similar and nothing else.