Welcome to Project Blackwing

Lheah watched Joan closely. She seemed very nervous, and was glancing around the cave. "Look Joan, I'm sorry about earlier. I don't know what came over me." Joan didn't answer.

Then the noise started again. It filled her ears, deafening screams, quiet sobbing, and laughter. Lheah whimpered and covered her ears, but it only made it worse. She curled up into the featal position on her side, with her hands over her ears. "Make it stop!" She shouted. She couldn't hear herself over the sounds. Tears streamed down her face. The sound seemed to actually hurt her, making it feel like someone was driving nails into her eardrums.

Richard examined the charred mark on the ground until he was certain Joan and Lheah were gone.

"Took them long enough." With that same cold smile he'd worn earlier when he'd subdued Lheah, he shut the ship's hatch and did a quick systems evaluation. It seemed the only thing Lheah had damaged with regards to the ship was the brig's door, but that wasn't something he was going to use.

With an air of self-assured efficiency, Richard took to the pilot's seat and turned off the auto-pilot. Within a matter of seconds he'd taken off, leaving Lheah and Joan on the planet by themselves.

((don't worry, I'm making him come back))

The sound was becoming louder, and more noises joined it. Moaning, the sound of nails on a chalkboard, and worst of all, speaking. "You're going to die Lheah." The voice whispered.

Lheah shook her head violently. "No."
"Yes. And you'll go through the same treatment that all killers get."
"No!" Lheah shouted. The sounds faded, and she was left shivering on the ground.

Joan was just staring at her. Then she heard footsteps. She uncurled herself slowly, and sat up. "We aren't alone are we?" She whispered.
Joan shook her head.

Mikael

I launched my pod from the ship while it was still in high altitude. For most the shock of landing would have splintered bone and turned organs for jelly. For me all it meant was a flash of armoured skin and i was safely on the ground.
The crunch of detonating bolts was followed by a flash of sun as the hatch way fell open and i was out. Arrayed around were a few curious aliens who reacted with confusion at my strange, armoured form.
Well lets not give them time to get organised, i thought grimly blasting one off handedly.
The others didnt take to that too well and i was fallen upon by two of the angry creatures. I placed my hand against the head of one and smiled as its flesh melted away beneath my hand. The other went wild, thrashing and clawing, desperate to penetrate my armoured shell.
"Sorry mate," i sighed before tearing its head off and tossing away.

*Wow you guys write a lot. I may have a bit of trouble keeping up. Sorry :/*

**Hehe, welcome in. I love your avatar.**

**Query: the cave is, in fact, filled with aliens, right?**

**Yeah. And before you ask, I know because I know Tala personally, and she told me on AIM**

Sinan Kell, 'Sparrow'

So many of his former brethren scampered towards the invaders, some in the new shapes, almost identical to their enemies. Other retained far more primitive forms - halfway between the humans and their true forms, teeth bared, snarling hungrily as they fell upon them. Sinan Kell watched everything from his perch, a jutting sliver of rock high in the cave, connected to a small tunnel that opened behind him.

"Primitives." Kell murmured, an arrogant half-smile playing across his lips. So far, only had two had gone down, and they only temporarily. The large one who'd started the fight - well, the physical one, anyway - was back up and slaughtering Kell's estranged kinsmen. But the alien wasn't worried about him, he was mere muscle, there seemed to be no thought to him.

Sinan Kell, often referred to as Sparrow in hushed voices by his people, had always preferred mind games. It was that love that had earned his second name, for their planet had a small bird that would have seemed similar to their invaders - a bird with eyes it used to hypnotise its prey. That prey ranged from being its own fellows to far larger and more dangerous creatures.

Kell's red eyes sought out his previous target, lips stretching into a thin, bloodless smile as he caught sight of her again. "Lheah." He murmured straight into her mind, practically tasting the foreign name. He gave a satisfied chuckle as he saw her flinch.

"Thought I'd leave you alone so soon, huh?" Kell said. "[i]Why would I do that, Lheah? I'm going to kill you, after all. Even if you murder every last one of my brothers, you'll never stop me." Images flashed through her mind - an insane mismatch of scenes from his memory, from hers, and from what he threatened her with. In her mind's eye, he knew, she would be seeing the blood of her victims splattered across walls. Then a flash, no more than a second, of the reason for his exile. A mass slaughter, but of creatures unfamiliar to her. Then a brutally rapid succession of the thousands of punishments for death he could pilfer from both her mind and his people.

His attention snapped away from her as he heard the scrape of taloned feet on stone behind him. Kell's red-tinged black hair whipped about, eyes narrowing on the fear filled face of one of his fellows. He rose slowly, collecting his spear, and started towards him. With a shout, the hunter broke out of the trance, scattering more stones as he ran back down the tunnel. "Sparrow!" He screamed in their language.

Snarling, Kell threw his spear, impaling the fool even as he rushed forward at full speed. He tore his weapon from the corpse, battering at other natives and screaming in their minds. Some of the psychic overload might have spilled into the humans' minds, a cacophony of voices in the alien's language - all emotions from accusative to afraid to happy, a reminder of his victims. As they staggered under the mental attack, Kell sprinted to the mouth of the cave, eyes flashing mischievously as he cast a glance over his shoulder. He looked directly at Lheah, and pressed a thin finger to his lips before vanishing into the outside world.

**Billy, genius, absolute genius.**

Lheah started as the voice came back into her mind. "Lheah." It whispered. Lheah jumped. The voice was much stronger than it had been.
"Thought I'd leave you alone so soon, huh?" Lheah shook her head. She had to ignore it. It didn't exist. It was only in her head.
"Why would I do that, Lheah? I'm going to kill you, after all. Even if you murder every last one of my brothers, you'll never stop me."
Suddenly images filled her mind. She saw hundreds of strange creatures, lying dead, with one lone figure standing in the center, laughing. The the picture dissapeared, and another one took its place. She saw herself, run through with her own sword, and then herself again, this time with thousands of strange creatures crawling over her writhing body. The images continued, each more horrible than the last.

Then the images dissapeared. Lheah sighed in relief, and swung her sword around, decapitating an alien that had been foolish enough to come near her. She began giggling as the pleasure of the kill took her over. She spun, running another alien through the chest. Black blood poured from the wound, and the alien keeled over. Then that sound came back. Lheah moaned, and killed another alien with a clumsy swordstroke. The sound lessoned some. Lheah grinned. I won't allow this sound to torture me any more. She thought. She went into a frenzy, destroying an aliens within her reach. The sound lessoned dramatically. Then she saw an alien fleeing the cave. She squinted. She recognized this one. She couldn't remember where she recognized it from, but she did. It looked over its shoulder, and looked directly at her. It pressed a finger to its lips, and ran off. Lheah narrowed her eyes. No alien is going to be left alive on this planet. She thought.

She reached into her bag and pulled out an explosive. She set it to the second highest setting. She shoved the lever in and tossed it as hard as she could into the bowels of the cave. She ran for the exit, and she heard the explosion. The sound filling her ears dropped so much that she staggered.

She saw footprints in the sand. Lheah followed them quickly. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a crash site. Debris reached so far that some was by her feet. she recognized the metal as the type that their ship was made of. She saw the alien that had fled, standing fifty feet away, almost as if it was waiting for her.

She grabbed onto Lheah. When she had a clear shot she smacked Lheah as hard as she could in the hand. This force was enough to knock it to the ground. She ran for it and held it up. "You can't go doing this Lheah" She muttered. She took a step back. She made sure to watch Lheah carefully.

She looked at the crash site for a second. She did this because she was about to trip over a piece of rubble. She watched the cave explode. She nearly yelled out. The mission had failed unless there was another nest. She herself felt something. Perhaps something in her head was a bit to loose.

"You ruined it. The entire mission ruined!" She narrowed her eyes. "She took a step forwards. "Our mission was to collect an egg sample and you blew up the entire cave!" She spun around. She kept a tight hold of the sword. She spun so fast it was hard to see. Then with all her might she tossed the sword away. She pulled up some sheets of metal to try and find someone in the rubble.

Lheah glared at her. "I didn't blow up the cave you dimwit. It wasn't that powerful. I just took out about a hundred of the suckers. And if you're going to continue shoving me around like I'm your little sister, I'm going to leave." She got up and snatched her sword from the ground.

She turned back in the direction that the alien had run. It was still standing there, watching her. She wiped some blood away that was dribbling from a cut in her lip that had come from Joan's robotic hand. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have something I need to do." She began walking towards the alien again.

Her jaw dropped. She followed her and again knocked the sword out of her hand. This time she snapped it in half. "I am your commanding officer. That is no way to speak to me." She grumbled unhappily.

She grabbed onto her arm. "As your commanding officer, I order you to stand down and return to the ship." She then shifted her gaze to the alien. "Thanks for making one of our members go crazy. Mother I love youing aliens."

Lheah glared at Joan. That sword was her life. She had poured hours into making it. She narrowed her eyes. "I'm not putting up with this anymore. Good luck with the mission." She grabbed the pieces of her sword and took off across the sand, towards the ship. But then the strongest mental attack yet hit her, causing her to collapse.

As he walked from the cave, feet sinking ever so slightly into the sands that stretched as far as the eye could see, Sinan Kell could hear the dying screams of so many of his kind. There was no questioning it – the invaders were dangerous. Such callous slaughter he had seen back in that cave, not that he could criticise that. Except the screams annoyed him – he still had a tenuous link to them, it seemed, and their cries echoed in his mind.

Kell turned back to look at the cave, something in the mind of someone there catching his attention. No alien is going to be left alive on this planet. He frowned – that didn’t seem very friendly. An explosion shook the rock formation holding the cave, and a white light seemed to fill the entire thing.

The alien let out a sigh, shaking his head. No finesse to it at all. Although, it did seem efficient.

In the mouth of the cave, he could see two humans bickering. One, the one he had attacked earlier. The other seemed to be furious about something. The explosive, perhaps? Kell couldn’t imagine why, those few races that had tried to invade beforehand had tried to wipe out every last one of them before eventually giving up and leaving. Why would they want any alive? In any case, it did not matter – if they wanted more of a fight, there were plenty of his kind on the planet. Thus far, they’d faced only the most primitive, a pack of malformed cave dwellers.

Lheah started towards him, and the other human simply glared straight at him. Why was one so small on a mission of this fashion? In any case, now that she had bent her thoughts in Kell’s direction, he could understand her strange speech. Mind to mind, of course, he missed the censorship of her chat filter. Chuckling, Kell gave her a mocking bow, “You’re very welcome.”

When he looked up, Lheah was on her way towards him, the two pieces of her broken sword clutched in her hands. He tilted his head a little, seeming amused, and then got to work on stopping her getting any closer. This time, the mental attack was far more raw. There was no appealing to her fears, this time, just the tormented sounds that had accompanied his earlier attacks, and a highly focused strike at the sensory areas of her cerebral cortex. The bright sun, to her, would seem to have been magnified a million times. The touch of the light breeze, carrying tiny grains of sand, would be the grating of sandpaper on skin. Neither of these would have the effect they would if they had been real – no blindness, and no actual damage – but they would both feel real to Lheah.

“Now,” Kell murmured, still resorting to mindspeak even at this range, since he didn’t speak her language, “You’ve said you’re going to all my kind. I can’t really let you get any closer.” He crouched down, gripping his spear loosely, “Why are you here, and what do you want from me?” It seemed things had turned around, he wasn’t in a killing mood any more. Or he was just in the mood for some conversation – something his people could hardly offer him. Maybe it was just the desert air.

Lheah moaned and fell to her knees, dropping the two halves of her sword. It seemed as though her senses had sharpened so much that she felt everything. The breeze hitting her face felt like a hundred-mile per hour gale, and the grains of sand that came with it were like knives puncturing her skin.

"Now, you've said you're going to kill all my kind. I can't really let you get any closer." She saw the alien crouch down, looking her directly in the eyes. "Why are you here, and what do you want from me?"

Lheah knew that Joan would murder her if she told it anything. But what else could she do? She was alive, but she knew that this creature could kill her very easily. "Our planet is unstable. It's breaking into bits. We need a new place to live, or we'll all be wiped out."
the alien seemed mildly interested. "And they sent two inadequate people to secure this?"
"No. They sent two expendable people here. People that make no difference to society whatsoever. People that, if lost, could be replaced easily. But also people who hold powers beyond the dreams of many. I can't help killing. Blood, it's the most beautiful thing ever. I'm a freak of society. Everyone on my planet fears me. And frankly, I don't blame them." There was no trace of biterness in her tone.

"You still haven't answered my second question." The alien said.
Lheah gulped. "You were, and still are, a threat to me. Threats are to be eliminated. It's instinct. You've caused me a lot of grief since I got here.