21
"So they found us" Gwen said with annoyance "Great!"
"They were going to sooner or later, that's what they do. Stat with major cities, then towns… then villages" Jack said with more clam than he felt as he watched Ianto cuddle Myfanwy.
"So… what now?" Owen asked.
"Now we do what we have been all along. They know we are here, we know they are there. They can't fly over and scoop us up due to the woods and the hills. Their only option would be a ground attack and with the wall… we have an advantage. You saw their legs, not good on this planet with it's gravity. They would not risk breaking something clambering over something. No… they will try tactics like what we saw today. They will try to pick us off." Jack explained "No one goes anywhere alone, we go in at least pairs and every group moving around has to be armed"
"Who knows how to use a gun?" Gwen rose to lok around the room as the people stared at her like she was insane.
"Gwen" Ianto said in a low tone "This is a farming community. Fair dos, they probably ALL are good shots."
"Oh, sorry. Habit" she sat.
Jack bristled and leaned over to say to her "Habits of the LAST job remember? Not Torchwood."
Ianto had no time for posturing so he took over with an authoritative look around the room "We double the security watches, time to bring the stock closer and any of you that feel unsafe in your houses near the walls come into the village here where we can hunker down. Remember… they cannot scoop us up, we can only be attacked on the ground. As long as we are ready, they will not win."
"Here here" one of the men called out "This is our home. Those bloody things can piss right off!"
Everyone cheered and took off to put the last of the reinforcements on the walls as Ianto turned to Jack and said softly "and we have to talk."
.
.
They were in the bedroom and Ianto was reaching under the bed as jack sat on the bed. Ianto pulled out the things that had been on the chair by the door previously and now Jack wondered why Ianto had moved them. Jack accepted the saddle bag from the dog's harness with trepidation, opening it gingerly to peer inside, and then look at Ianto with incredulity. Ianto shrugged, reached in and pulled out the Sonic Weapon like it was no big deal.
"So that Grey Man back at the house where we met was not the first one I ever met. Maybe I met one a few years ago, OK?" Ianto rolled his eyes and Jack reached out to accept the gun, turning it over in his hand.
"This is top of the line. This is not an infantry weapon… this is a specialty item usually…"
"Hitmen and assassins. Aren't' they the same thing? Just one bills more?" Ianto asked as he sat on the bed next to him.
"You know they did just come because they are sweeping. They DO really do this, they are not following you and Myf." Jack assured him.
"I know. If they knew we were here they would have attacked already. They clearly know some of us are on the planet, have been warned that we are about and they are covering their arses just in case. If they knew about us those Halos would have been everywhere."
"Halos. Rings… right."
"Sorry… that is the nearest word for them when you change it from their language. They are… Hot Halos. Silly… they put them around the neck of someone they are executing. What a terrible way to die" Ianto shuddered.
"Your memoires are coming back tenfold" Jack rose and placed the gun back in the saddlebag, than back on the chair where it always sat.
"Sleeper agents don't get it all in one go, it would overload us but I have the advantage of Myfanwy triggering the beginning of that release ahead of time. I didn't know what was coming, just that something was so when I left Lisa I had go bags and everything with me" Ianto snorted "and she called me paranoid."
"Well… joke is on her" Jack smiled as he reached out for Ianto "hey. You OK?"
"That could have been Myf. Or one of the kids"
"Or you!" Jack pointed out the obvious reason for his own dismay and might have said more but for the bedroom door opening and Alice entered to clip back the door and lean on it as she looked at the two men.
"How bad is this?" she asked.
"Well… on a scale of stubbed toe or world destruction?" Jack screwed his face up "we are sort of on defcon nine darling."
"Dad!" she said, then looked horrified as she glanced at Ianto who smiled and started removing his boots for a lay down. He liked an afternoon snooze as he would not sleep tonight.
"We are not done love, just in a danger level I don't like right now. Like when we ran… we are back to that moment, that feeling but this time we are not running. There are too many people for that and it is too chaotic." Jack glanced at Ianto who was now laying back on the bed ignoring them "besides… we have a god spot to defend here."
Alice looked from her father to the man sharing his bed and she nodded "Well, I don't know why you have changed your mind about running but I am ready to fight."
Jack nodded and started to remove his own boots as she stepped out of the room and closed the door. Neither man would sleep tonight.
Not when those fuckers out there beyond the walls see better in the dark.