5
The town is sprawled before them, as the mule heads in.
The town embodies the lives of folk out here: adobe and wood mix with metal and plastic - whatever's on hand to build with. Right now the streets are mainly empty.
The mule pulls up, Martha hitching it as Rhys speaks "What are we hoping to find here that equals the worth of a turd?"
"Agency payroll. There's peace enforcing squads stationed all about this quadrant. Can't use credits out here" Jax says excitedly. "They got to pay their boys in cashy money. Which once a month rests here."
"Something about stealing from the Agency just warms a body like whiskey in winter." Martha sighs happily as Jax grins back.
"Shiny." Rhys says as he pulls out a hand gun "Let's be bad guys."
Jax turns back to Ianto. "You ready to go to work, darlin'?"
"There's no pattern to the pebbles here, they're completely random. I tried to count them but you drove too fast Cariad." Ianto told him earnestly through the goggles and with weird hand signals for emphasis.
"Right. Great. Let's go." Jax says with a look of confusion, then he turns to head in.
The door slams open, Jax and Rhys stride in, Martha following and whipping her weapon right at camera without looking.
The camera blinks with "Welcome to Lilac" on it for the millisecond before it's blown to bits.
There's maybe fifteen people in the place: store workers, farm-folk and a couple dirt-poor kids. It's a combination post-office, general store, bank, and most other things.
"Hands and knees and heads bowed down! Everybody, now!" she roars.
Two men who appear to be farm folk rush Jax and the others. Jax draws on the elder one and he stops dead in his tracks. Jax's gun is long, not unlike Civil War era issue, but very much new in design.
The other tries to tackle Rhys, which is not necessarily a great idea. Rhys clotheslines him so hard he spins right upside-down - and Rhys grabs him by the legs and CRACK! -bounces his head right off the floor, knocking him out cold.
"Y'all wanna be looking very intently at your own belly buttons." Jax says calmly, "I see a head start to rise, violence is gonna ensue."
The guy who rushed Jax complies along with everyone else.
Rhys dumps his catch on the floor and rips open his dirty shirt to reveal the purple of an Agency uniform. "Looks like this is the place."
Rhys looks up at Jax, who motions for Martha to open the front door. She does, and Ianto steps in and starts walking slowly among the hunched-over customers as Jax addresses them.
"You've probably guessed we mean to be thieving here, but what we are after is not yours. So let's have no undue fussing." Jax soothes and as he is speaking, Rhys is scrambling to the back office, finding the small vault locked.
"She's locked up." Rhys calls out as Ianto suddenly looks around, perturbed.
Ianto looks up at Martha, alarmed, and silently points to the young man by the door. He is slowly reaching for the weapon in his belt. He finds Martha's sawed-off nuzzling his cheek.
"You know what the definition of a hero is? It's someone who gets other people killed. You can look it up later." Martha whispered and he drops his weapon, slides it across the floor.
Jax moves to the Trade Agent. Hauls him up, tosses him toward the vault. Martha and Rhys follow.
"This is just a crop moon, don't think you'll find what you…" the man whimpers.
Jax replies by cocking the weapon and canting his head.
The old man punches in the code. What opens is a tiny wall safe. Bundles of bills, some scattered coin. Unimpressive. Rhys and Martha are behind the captain, peering in.
"At last. We can retire and give up this life of crime." Martha drones sarcastically.
Jax reaches in, pulls a lever and the floor opens, a six foot hole appearing, stairs leading to a corridor, all gleaming metal and blue light. Martha smiles. Rhys peers down as Jax addresses the Trade Agent. "Is there a fed down there? Be truthful."
"Y'all are Great Coats, hey?" the Trade Agent notices Jack's coat for the first time. "Fought for independence?"
"War's long done. We're all just folk now." Jax replies, then leans out to call down "Listen up! We are coming down to empty that vault!"
The voice of a young Agency Guard comes up from below. "You have to give me your authorization password!
Rhys impatiently fires a burst of machine-gun fire down into the hole. A beat...
"Okay..."
Jax looks at Martha and they head down into the vault which is as modern as something off the Central Planets. A short corridor leads to a real vault door that the guard is already opening. Behind that door, a few bags of the real deal: neatly stacked cash, waiting to be robbed.
Ianto pauses as something crosses his face. Worry.
A Woman carrying a bucket while walking along the dirt road in the main street and her nine year old Son are looking at the trading station a few buildings away.
"Repeater." The son points out.
Did sound summat like gunblast...Maybe you aught run tell Lawman..." She turns and right by her, in the shadows, is a man.
Mostly.
He is hideously disfigured, a combination of self-mutilation and the bubbling red of radiation poisoning. His clothes are rags, his eyes pinpoints of glazed madness.
A blade blurs as it flies throught the air...
.
.
.
.
.
Ianto screams and flops onto his back, pinned by revelation.
Others look at him, concerned, as Rhys makes his way to him, "What the hell is up? You all right? What's goin' on?"
He holds him, as Ianto whispers, wide-eyed...
"Munchers."