Welcome to Project Blackwing

Richard didn't see any reason to trust this person, but then Richard never trusted anyone if he could help it. "I know that I was not placed in charge, Joan, but seeing that neither you nor Lheah seem to be very sane at the present time..." He followed the alien across the sands, not particularly concerned about where they were headed. Richard wasn't completely sure, but he thought he might be able to hold his own against this stranger if it turned out to be a trap. And even if he couldn't, it was difficult to destroy an android with conventional weaponry.

Lheah followed Richard and the alien cautiously. She by no means trusted this alien, especially since he had put her through so much torture, but he was the only guide they had. She was still holding the pieces of her sword. She examined them as she walked. If she remembered correctly, she could fix it. A smile lit up her face. I can fix it! It would be hard to do while she was walking, but she could do it. She tied the wires inside it to the matching one, making sure to do it tightly. She held the pieces the way it was supposed to be.She stopped and set it down on the sand. This part was risky. She took out an explosive and put it on the sword at the breaking point. She didn't set it this time, and instead twisted the lever before pushing it in.

A moment later the explosive broke in half, and a yellow-green liquid poured out of it. It was compressed, so more liquid than would have been thought possible fit inside. It seeped over the sword, covering the breaking point completely. A second later it dissapeared.

Lheah picked up her now whole sword, and swung it experimentally. She pushed one of the buttons. Electricity crackled down the blade. She grinned. Now I can fight. She put her sword away and ran to catch up with the rest of the group.

She walked over to the alien. She grabbed onto his arm and tossed him against a rock. "If I explode you're going with me! I am not leaving you for a second. If you pull anything I'll blow us all!" She locked eye contact with it. She had screamed at it not in English, in it's language.

"You think I'm stupid?!" She turned around. She shook her head then turned back to the alien. "You're right I am." She turned around. She kept her stare fixed on the alien. "He's a liar." She spoke this sentence in English, unlike the past few.

Richard seemed unaffected by her pronouncement. "Aren't we all? Now if you're finished being dramatic, perhaps we could see what it is this rather interesting local has to show us."

Joan did not take lightly to being crossed. "I'm in charge of this operation, and we aren't going ANYWHERE until I get some answers!"

The corner of Richard's mouth twitched, apparently in amusement. "We aren't? And what if I have decided that you are unfit to lead?"

She clenched her fists. "Then you're walking into a trap, he intends to use us and our planet as prey. If we fall for this, then we've just doomed ourselves and I should blow us all up right now!" She looked at herself screaming. Then she glared at the alien.

"Why should I care about the human race, they've made an android that would willingly walk into a trap." She continued to stare holes into the alien.

Richard walked up to her. He grabbed her arm and forced her to lock eye contact with him. "You are no longer fit to lead, I am taking command of this operation, I want you to either follow quietly, or return to your ship."

She picked up the alien who was still laying on the ground despite his protest. Then she ran. She couldn't let them walk into a trap. She made sure that she wasn't heading towards the city. That would be fatal.

Mikael

I marched ceaselessly through the baking sun. Along my journey i spotted several distinctive types of the species that inhabitted this planet. Some, like those i had encountered earlier, roved mindlessly in packs. Other walked slightly more upright and some seemed to have mastered basic tools. I finally crested a hill and could see in the dim distance the landing craft i had ejected from prematurely. I strode purposefully down the hill, pulling my strange armour back into my body. First impressions are everything after all.

Lheah saw someone walking down a hill in the sand. She recognized it as one of the backup crew. She let out a shout and ran towards the newcomer, sending sand flying. Maybe this person could help. "Hey, you! Over here!" The person looked up, saw her and began walking faster.

((BTW, Richard still doesn't know that Joan knows the code to shut him off. The word is 'lackadaisical,' by the way.))

Richard watched as Joan ran off with a satisfied smile on his face. He didn't really care how this excursion turned out as long as he got out of it all right, and this turn of events only proved to make things more interesting. The other robot had irritated him earlier, so naturally taking her down would provide some small amount of satisfaction. He started to pursue Joan, that characteristically cold smile on his face, when he spotted movement out of the corner of his eye.

Turning his head slightly, he noticed Lheah and a humanoid stranger approaching each other. The newcomer was not an alien from what he could see and was most likely another member of the back-up crew. He is no concern of mine unless he tries to aid Joan, the android thought.

Kell watched, seeming quite satisfied, as the dangerous android girl fled them. One less, that should prove very useful if they turn on me. He understood part of what she was saying though - he'd expected her to warn them if she'd understood any of what he said, but it was something else that had shaken him.

Joan had referred to his homeworld as our planet. Inside, that suggestion made Kell seethe with fury. This planet was his alone, he was the apex predator here, and he would by no means allow these vermin that relied on machine people to claim it as theirs. But that, of course, he couldn't reveal just yet. As much as they suspected his true aims, he couldn't let them realise the lengths he would go to to keep the planet largely to his people.

He saw Lheah dashing off towards someone behind them, though, kicking up trails of sand. Her sword, he noticed, had been repaired at some point. The newcomer could prove troublesome, though. Deal with one problem, and another simply rises up to meet you. He reached out mentally - and smiled. Well, at least this problem wasn't an android.

Kell kept an eye on the newcomer, but moved so that he could watch Richard as well. Did this new robot have a self-destruct chip as well? How did I access Joan's frequencies? He thought, concentrating hard on remembering exactly how he'd managed that. If he could do that, maybe - just maybe - he could 'accidentally' detonate this Richard without being in range. It was a long shot, and he didn't particularly want to risk it. But the androids, being harder to kill conventionally, and harder to disable with his mental abilities, were easily the greatest threat to him.

"Lheah," He called, "Who is this?" He knew she was still annoyed for what he'd done to her mind earlier, but he couldn't really imagine trying to ask somebody else. After all, Richard didn't trust him. And Kell didn't trust the newcomer. And Joan had run off, and didn't seem to like him anyway - a very disappointing fact. Well, Jhardin always said I needed to work on my diplomacy. Guess this proves he was right.

"Lheah, who is this?
Lheah sighed. "A member of the backup crew. I need to tell him what's happened since we got here." She paused for a moment. "Be careful around Richard. He cares for nothing but himself and the mission. He won't heitate to kill you if you start messing with us again. And quite frankly, I'm not sure if I'd try to stop him.

Mikael

A female figure came running down the sands to meet me. As they got closer i got a strange feeling i had seen them before.
"Lheah? Is that you?" I asked. The last time i had seen Lheah, i had been in a military mental clinic.
"Mikael? What the hell are you doing here?"
"What am I doing here?" I asked indignantly. "I'm here because they let me out of the crazy house long enough for me to flatten the place."
She looked at me not saying a word, a strange look in her eyes. Then i remembered why she had been in the mental ward. She killed. Hell she lived for the kill.
"Let me guess. You killed someone important?" She didn't say a word, but turned and marched back up the hill.

Kell's eyes slid to Richard, weighing up the android again. His fight with the smaller one had become desperate very quickly. Even if she had got the drop on him, he had reservations about fighting one that seemed more suited to combat. And he wasn't sure whether he could access this one's thought frequency, or even if that would be a good idea.

He frowned at her last words, had he been that bad? The whole mental torture he’d put her through was, really, nothing compared to what it could have been. He made his usual prey suffer far worse than he’d done to her. Still, his first impression hadn’t been great, apparently.

“Should’ve listened.” A soft, melodious voice murmured in his head. Jhardin. Now, that was a good sign that he was doing something wrong. Those people were meant to stay dead.

Kell placed his hands together and closed his eyes for a few moments, quelling the echoes of his teacher. He had to do something, then. But whether it was, as Lheah had put it, ‘mess with them’, or aid them until a better opportunity presented itself, he wasn’t sure. “This way!” he called, continuing through the desert, towards a small lump on the horizon.

"This way!" She heard the alien say. Lheah broke into a run and followed the alien across the sands. She saw Mikael following. The last words he said had stung a little. And the look in his eyes! He seems to think I'm some kind of beast. Was I really that bad? She thought back to when she had been in the clinic.

She was strapped to a wall, growling and trying to free herself. Someone came into the room and pressed a button on the wall, causing the cuffs that were wrapped around her wrists and ankles to open, causing her to fall five feet straight down. The person that had released her was wearing a lab coat and was going bald. He held a clipboard in one hand, but he also had a metal rod that he could charge with electricity. If he was fast enough, that is. Lheah didn't wait, and immediately leapt at the man, sending him to the ground with her on top of him. Her hands wrapped around his throat, squeezing, pushing down. He fought to breathe. Lheah pushed harder, and his face started turning blue. Then the shocking weapon hit her arm, sending 10,000 volts of pure electricity surging through her. She yelped and jumped backwards, and almost immediately leapt at him again.

Lheah shook her head to stop the memories. I was that bad. She thought sadly.

**Would someone be willing to wake this up again? *pokes sb* I can't because I posted, but maybe Buggy or Billy could...?**

((If I can think of something for Richard to do, I will, but right now I must study for a test.))