Where on Earth is Xacio 555?

[tachyon]

"No. I don't think what he does is magic," Kei says, "it's definitley telepathic. I've never seen him create something; build with his hands, yes, but never out of thin air. The other two, whoa yeah he can manipulate and destroy alright...I suppose that the Vailen could have been like that, but I remember that Doc once said that he's nowhere near as powerfully as he could be."
She paused for a moment to fiddle with some controls.
"He said that if Zeke wasn't rasied by humans, if he'd been found by a naturally telepathic race like the Hssketh or the Thylanhe, that he'd be much stronger... and probably a lot less dangerous."

[Ash]

"One point for the humans.By what I´ve seen and heard,he is powerful enough.And I´m sure that I haven't seen nearly anything he is capable of."

Suddenly he notice that he was holding the solvent he got from Kei the whole time.

"Oh yeah.I knew i forgot something.", he says as he walks into the back of the ship.

[Machaeus]

Machaeus shrugs. "Well, I was exploring all possibilities."
"As silly as they were," Urufu mutters, earning a metal spellbook to the skull.

[tachyon]

Kei seemed lost in her own thoughts. The ship passed over a slight drop of only a few dozen feet crossing into what used to be an inland sea.
"That was our last high point," Gordon says, "it's all below sea-level until we reach Vozrozhdeniya...Umm, Kei, y'can kick it up a notch if ya like. We'll get there faster."
Kei acts like she's just been woken up. "What? Oh, right. Ok, taking it supersonic."
The craft accelerates quickly, the familiar 'boom' thundering through the cabin once again.
"Gear up lads an' ladies, we'll be there in 5 minutes." says Gordon.

Several hundred kilometers ahead, atop a ruined concrete bunker, a lone figure was standing. The savage desert winds whipped around him but he showed no sign of discomfort, for while his body was there atop that building, his mind was wandering. Traveling. Expanding.
He could feel the ebb and flow of this planets magnetic field, sense the electrostatic chaos from a distant thunderstorm, even touch the glowing energy of a city far to the North-West; Moscow, is what what it's called. But what he sought was directly above, far above, at the edge of the atmosphere. Amongst all the junk and debris that this worlds inhabitants had put into orbit over the centuries lay a ship, unseen to all but one. He let his mind meld with it's systems, they were familiar but cold, so very cold. He was one with it; it was not a machine but rather an extension of his own body. And mind. He looked back down at the small blue world, back at himself looking up, to the North, the West, the South, and then he saw it. No. First he felt it, then he looked to it and saw.
A ship, small and grey, flying across the sands. It's systems were simple and easy to read. Easy to manipulate. Then and there he could have sent it spiraling into the ground, but there was no sport in that. No honour. In it's systems he saw the destination. It merely confirmed what he already knew. If what the Observer had told him earlier was true, then it's occupants were the same who had left this same world nearly a day ago. He did not trust the Observer. He had seen all that he needed to see. He withdrew his mind from the image of the ship, the image of the small blue world, the pulsing heartbeat of the cold vessel, pulling back to the confines of his body.
In an instant his sight was his again. The sun beat down on him, the billowing sands stung him.
He hated this planet.
He turned and walked down the side of the bunker.

Back inside the small grey ship, Gordon's shivered as best a disembodied head on a computer screen can show.
"Phowar, you lot ever get that feelin' like someone's just walked over y'grave?"

[Machaeus]

"...what?" Urufu asked. "What's that mean?"

[tachyon]

"Y'know," Gordon says, "that cold shiver up ya spine y'get for no reason."
"Gordy, you don't have a spine," says Kei, "or a grave."
"Yeah, well I still got this bad feelin' all of a sudden for no reason."
"No reason other than we're trespassing in restricted airspace to go to one of the most isolated places on this world to see someone who one of the galaxy's most dangerous beings?"
Gordon nods.
"Yeah, somethin' other than that."

[Ash]

"Cold shiver ?Huh.I have that feeling quite often lately..."

Under the helmet,he smiles.

5 minutes.Only 5 more minutes.Thats practically nothing.

Why was he so happy?Because this journey was coming to an end?Because he was looking forward to the fight with Xacio?Was there even a difference?In all these thoughts,he even managed to forget his headaches for a while.Or have they vanished?

"In 5 minutes we will see our friend Xacio again...Isnt that beautiful?"

[tachyon]

"Don't know if that's how I'd describe it." says Kei to Ash.
In the distance, a low rocky plateau can be seen rising from the white sands.
"That's it," Gordon says, "the Vozrozhdeniya Plateau, formerly Vozrozhdeniya Peninsula, and prior to that Vozrozhdeniya Island. Only things on it is the ghost town of Kantubek and the bioweapon base. An' sand. Lots an' lots of sand...made of salt. So I suppose it's really salt and not sand...well it has got bits of rock in it an' that...so that sort of makes it-"
"Gordon shut up before I...do something not very pleasant." Kei said, too distracted to think of a good insult.
In a few minutes they had reached their destination. Kei circled the site so as to get a good view and to search for a landing zone. The facility could barely be seen under over 200 years worth of wind-driven sand; the odd length of fence topped with coils of razor wire marked a rough boundary, the tops of the administration buildings stuck out of a dune, the control tower for a long buried runway still stood tall, and a once elevated helipad that was now at ground-level. But then, as they rounded the tower, they could see that something had blasted a long ditch in the sand to the base of a dune. At it's end was the side of a concrete bunker, scorched black by the heat.
"I'm going to put it down on that landing pad over there," says Kei as she drops the landing gear and positions the ship over the structure, "Gordy, any signs of contaminants in the air?"
"Already done," he says, "Not a sausage. This place is clean."
"Right, well unless there are any objections lets put her down."

[Machaeus]

"Well, our source said Anthrax was the biggest problem here, but if I remember correctly both sun and rain can make it diminish, so I don't think we have a lot to worry about," Urufu says.
Machaues shrugs. "No objections here. Let's land and kick @$$."

[tachyon]

The ship sets down on the rusted helipad, which groans under the weight. Kei powers down the ship while Gordon opens the rear hatch.
From outside the smell of salt is heavy in the air, each breath seems to burn the lungs. A gust of wind blows into the ship, freezing everyone to the bone before it passes. After it does, the scorching desert heat begins to seep in.
Kei unbuckles herself from the pilot's chair, pulls Gordon's remote unit out of the console and walks up to the rear hatch.
"Well, after you guys." she says.

((Next fanfic chapter up too BTW))

[Ash]

Ash returns from the back of the ship,most of the blue spray-paint from his armor gone.
He takes a look at the helipad before he jumps out.As he lands,the pad groans again a little.

"Not very stable.I think I shouldn't do this again.",he mumbles as he slowly walks around.

"Lets go inside.If hes not out here,we just have to search the robot."

((And again,a very good chapter! ))

[tachyon]

"Hey," says Kei, jumping of the back ramp after Ash, "do any of you-ooh!!!"
She stumbled as she hit the metal deck, grabbing onto Ash to stop herself falling over. Still holding onto his shoulder as she gave a little smile.
"Heh, first time in real gravity...at least since I was eight. Anyway, do you guys actually know what... Gordy what was that robot called again?"
"Cluster Mk IX Wardroid." said the AI, who was hanging from Kei's belt.
"Yeah, that. You guys know what that is?"

[Machaeus]

Urufu takes a whiff of the salty air and gags. "Guh...sensitive nose plus d@mn salt smell permeating everything equals not a good thing. And no, I don't. I was frozen back when the first Mk III Wardroid attacked. Why?" He shudders when another wind kicks up. "Geez, freeze and roast at the same time. Lovely place."

[tachyon]

"I'll say." agrees Kei, who is still hanging onto Ash, "What the frack happened here?"
"Well, it didn't happen here," explained Gordon, "it happen everywhere."
"What do you mean?"
"Look, as I've said many times already when this place was first built in the 1940s it was an island in the middle of an inland sea. But after 200 years of pollution bein' pumped into Earth's atmosphere the temperature shifted an' this place dried, happned all over the world. Someplaces got hotter, some got colder, some went underwater.
"Back on the subject of Cluster robots," Gordon continued, "seein' as this one crashed on Earth in 1978 it must have been of an older series than what you're thinkin', Rufi lad. And if it's the one I'm thinkin' of then that's a bit o' a mixed blessing."

[Machaeus]

Urufu looks to Gordon. "How so?" he asks, his voice with a bit of worry in it.