21
Rhiannon stood staring at the large Bug on the ground as Owen crouched by it muttering himself while poking at it. Ianto watched her pale as she finally realized what these things were, not little dog sized things like Sebastian had told them.
"Now, these things start off as half sized and in packs. Four of them, then over time as they grow they die off and one is left behind… what's to sat this was one. This is not the largest, I have seen larger. See the claws?" Ianto pointed "I've seen bigger, able to vizierate a man. Slice to the bone."
"Oh my god"
"Hey, he's missing a hand… foot… thingee… look" Owen led up a limb that was indeed missing the lower appendage and as he was examining it, the thing twitched.
Owen screamed, Andy shrieked, Jack yelled as he pulled out his gun and Ianto roared with mirth as Mickey pulled back his foot he had nudged the creature with.
"You fucker" Owen spluttered, laughing as he sat on his arse in the dirt.
"Ant man, you made a noise like a little girl!" Rhys giggled.
"Stuff off!" Andy poked his tongue out.
"Ant man?"
"Ant the man." Rhys said as Francine joined the conversation "Look at him. These things are like… big buggy things. Andy here is like Ant Man. He is small, unassuming but he can move like greased lightning."
"I still don't get it."
"You know the story of the Ant and the Grasshoppers? Right? Ant here is working, working, working"
"Tell the truth. You forgot his name was Andy and called him Ant, then it stuck" Ianto snorted.
"Well... I like calling him that"
"You can call him whatever you want to" Ianto shrugged, "Jack doesn't care what I call him, as long as it's not late for dinner."
"Where do they come from?" David asked, creeping around the vehicle to peer at the Bug, "what's that smell?"
"The spaceships dropped them here. They rot" Ianto explained softly "They seem to get all rotten like a cancer or something that eats them as they grow bigger. Our planet or their food source does not agree with their anatomy."
Food source. Several people shuddered at Ianto's gentle choice of words. Much better than saying Human flesh.
"Cool. So they will all die out?"
"No, they seem to keep coming in small form so they might be breeding" Jack answered.
"Ewwww."
"I know... buggy sex. Like… all those limbs. Imagine the hugging" Jack said, Ianto blinking at him with horror as he spoke to a child like he was a man.
But I guess now, with everything happening… he was an adult before his time.
.
.
"Right. That moat idea… even more of an idea now" Rhys huffed as he stood looking at the cattle stop.
Francine was entertaining the kids while the other adults stood by the gates considering the problem of a breach. Except for Owen who was transfixed.
"So... if one did it another will do it" Andy sad flatly.
I agree" Mickey nodded, looking over at Owen who was still crouched by the Bug in the middle of the compound, even with the vehicles moved, the thing was still there "And we need to move that thing. It's freaking out the kids."
"Barn?"
"You know… if we hinge it, we can lift it on a chain and then fill the void under it with water?" Clive asked. The cattle stop still in discussion.
"The fuckers can still put branches over it, like… it would need to be twice the width. I still like the idea of digging a huge moat all the way around the place" Rhys snorted.
"Well, we need to find a digger… something to line the dugout trench with and see where we go from there." Jack turned to face Ianto "Did you get that thing form the Fire House that you made little noises about as you hid it in the Transporter?"
Ianto blinked slowly "Yes. Actually. I pinched three of them."
"Three what?" Owen joined the conversation as he wandered over, wiping his hands on a t-shirt that they suspected he had just pulled off his own body.
"Drones."
Owen stood staring at him, and then said softly "Repeat that?"
"Drones. Used by the Fire Service to survey a fire site from the air, to get an overview. I found some and sort of… uplifted three of them so we can look around the place in the general area of us from the safety of the compound, then decide the best way to go. They have a range of about two miles… right?"
"From up high you can see a lot farther" Owen lit up "I love drones. I had one of my own in town. Fuck… where?"
And that is how they started their next project.