The Old World did not entirely die in the Category-Five mana storms. A fraction of its absolute, unadulterated arrogance had been cryogenically frozen.
Exactly one mile beneath the granite bedrock of the Rocky Mountains, the massive, localized fusion reactors of Cryo-Facility 'Apex' smoothly cycled from standby to active. The facility was not a military bunker like the Winter Coalition or a research hub like the Tartarus Command. It was a localized time capsule forged for the architects of the planetary collapse.
It belonged to the board of directors of Zenith Corp, the hyper-conglomerate that had privatized global agriculture before the System arrived.
Inside the pristine, blindingly white central hibernation chamber, thirty massive, heavy titanium cryo-pods violently hissed. Thick clouds of freezing, localized vapor poured across the sterile floor as the massive glass seals retracted.
