16
Ianto looked over the sea of faces as Jack stood behind him feeling mighty uncomfortable. The only 'Natural' in a room full of Meatsticks. He stuck out like a sore thumb and they all looked at him with open confusion.
"Men. Thanks for assembling so fast, I know I am demanding lately but I have always been a bossy little shit" Ianto said and some nodded as others grinned "I called you here because something monumental has happened in the history of our kind. I have been told that a Meatstick… one from the third set of cells has been advanced… we now had a Meatstick with the rank of General."
Silence as they contemplated then a roar started as they all took off. Hugs, hats flying and general chaos as they reveled in a historic event. Ianto then raised his hand "So… Henders. You have been my right hand man... my second for five years, proven yourself as a good leader in my name so I am here-by appointing you Captain Henders of the United Fifth Gen Cells. Justice… you are to be his second."
Everyone stood silent, staring at him then someone called out "Boss? Are they retiring you out? Recalling you?"
"No… I am to choose an office here so I can watch you bastards from a nice comfy chair and throw shit at your heads when you lose a limb without having to walk the dirt so often. Captain Harkness here… Jack… is to be my second. Jack is going to head a training facility right here on the Red Planet… we will become a Rock Face Training Facility making sure those little pissants the Academy is churning out can walk the dirt before they go off and get themselves killed."
"Boss? What will you do?"
"I am going to be the one running things here. Did I not just tell you there is a new General in town?"
Now the noise was deafening as Ianto grinned, letting them finally see the reason they were called in and he laughed with them "You know a Meatstick is Agency for life so there is no such thing as retirement but… this is the closest an old warhorse like me gets to a pasture of his own. I got to choose where to be, where to plant my roots and I knew in a heartbeat that I could never leave you. This Godless rock is mine now. My family… Old Earth is gone to me, that dream a silly one when I can be here with you and live my best life."
"Your best life in hell Boss!" someone shouted.
"Yes!" he shouted back "With all you fucking devils for company!"
"HOORAHHHHH"
.
.
Jack was in shock as he watched Ianto fiddle with papers, sting across from him at the huge glass desk.
"Ianto?"
"Hmmm?"
"Training facility?"
Ianto looked up at him and smiled "Yes. You will be able to hand-pick your team, the west conference room can be a starting spot for the first intake. They have authorized the funds to build a training facility off to the side of the building with training quarters, sleeping quarters… an entire kitset barracks is being flowing in. You will train others, you will weed out those who are more of a danger than a weapon and those we send back from this planet will be harder and meaner than any others. The dirt… it demands it."
"You are serous" Jack leaned forward with delight "I will be their boss."
"Yes. You earned it. You will have the military rank of General… same as me. Your service rank will remain Captain as that is your flight preference but you will hold the rank of a commander's man. Mine. How about them apples eh? Three hats depending on what one you want to be seen as"
"So now I get all the vid-calls and the closed doors. You have been negotiating" Jack laughed "You cheeky devil."
"I am a devil… a Dust Devil. That will be the name of the academy. Dust Devils. How about that? We will have red and black uniforms, the poor recruits will not know what hit them. They will scrub out in the fucking hundreds. Just need to rename this planet something better than Shithole."
Jack laughed with glee, slapping at Ianto as he agreed.
.
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"Toshi… just tell me." Ianto said sitting at his desk as he watched her hop from foot to foot with nervousness. Jack was behind the desk, his back to them as he carefully hung one of the certificates Ianto had received to show his power…ah… status.
"Well… we did it. Hooked in, sent spikes and blew servers… chaos… the whole nine yards… ah… we also sent the locations to local law enforcement… raids and stuff…ah…"
"OK. So… that is not the real thing?"
"We got a signal. We were fiddling the different sound frequencies and band widths to see how far it could go and we picked up a low level signal. A distress single" she said as she glanced at Owen who waved a hand to egg her on.
"Tosh?"
"It… we think.. I mean we are not sure if it means anything as it might have started when the flares hit and it is set on repeat so it's not like someone is still alive or…"
"TOSH!" Ianto barked "Report man!"
"We think it is from the colony… from the Flares. Er… the third sector."
"Wait… my colony?" Jack asked with horror "Are you telling me that these past three months… they might be trapped... still alive in there?"
"No. The signal is still active. They might all be dead inside the facility" she said softly "We are just getting the repeated pattern form their emergency signal."
Ianto looked over at Jack and nodded, then rose "Tell Henders he is about to take out his first team. We are all going over to look."
"But the flares…"
"Then we just don't get cooked" Ianto said calmly, and she nodded, taking off as Ianto turned to Jack "Like she said. It means nothing. They were all assumed dead, there is no way of telling anything else… if there are survivors, why have they not contacted us via coms? This might be a wild goose chase into hell."
"I know… but can you look at that little girl tonight and tell her you did all you could?"
Ianto nodded, reaching out to take Jack's hand for a squeeze then he said softly "Come on. Let's suit up."
