The icy winds washed over the desolate landscape. Craters littered the frozen surface.

A small figure could be seen through the tempest winds. The winds tore at the figure's clothes, sleet battered the figure, icy fingers pulling at the thick coat covering the figure trudging through the thick snow. Frost coated the fur-lined hood. The figure was arched, its body straining against a dark thick rope. The rope was connected to a sled as big as him that was being ruggedly dragged through the waist-high snow leaving deep lines. Iota’s face was heavily obscured by a black bandana and thick faintly neon green goggles revealing wide ferociously determined eyes.

The darkness and thick snow caused low visibility and He didn’t notice that he had made it to the top of a crater. Iota tripped at the summit tumbling downwards. His clawed boots kicked through the snow and air, unable to grip onto anything. His sled slid down catching up to him. The rigid yet flexible frame slammed into him. It hit him squarely in the back. Iota gasped as the wind knocked out of him. He had no time to recover and was carried tumbling along with his sled into the center of the crater. The grunts and groans of him falling down were drowned out by the ever-present roaring winds.

He landed at the bottom heaving and retching, The remains of the little he had eaten threatened to force its way back out. A deep shuddering went through the ground at that moment. The ground shook violently, tossing him around yet again in the snow, not unlike a stone in a washing machine. Snow from around the crater opening fell down the crater's sides. The powdery snow enveloped Iota and his sled filling every crevice. Iota’s body rotated in the snow and the shaking earth. If his sled hadn’t been on top of him the falling snow would have knocked him out. Iota was entirely buried in the snow. He braced himself for dear life as more snow fell on top of them and the shaking ground vibrated through his body. Eventually, the earthquake ceased. A headache began emerging and It took a while for him to tell which way was up. His body was rotated 180 degrees and his head was facing down. He was exhausted and drifted in and out of consciousness. He kept on. It was simple, if you wanted to live you had to keep on going. Living was all that mattered to Iota. He reached to his head and pressed a button. A beam of light emerged from his goggles. Aside from a small area in front of his head, there was no empty space. There was a white shining wall of snow in front of him. Iota shifted around in an attempt to make space.

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The snow above him wouldn’t budge but he could slowly dig down. He scooped snow with his mittened hands. His body began sliding down deeper. He dug deeper when suddenly the snow gave way to a hole. The previous snowy walls changed to gray and brown rock and soil. He landed on a hard flat floor taking snow and dust down with him. He looked around but it was too dark to see anything clearly. The light from his flashlight wasn’t able to illuminate anything. He took off his hood and his bandana covering his mouth. He leaned back and took his first breath of proper air in a long time.

Where am I? he thought. What is this the place?

Iota reached within his coat and took out a hand-sized flashlight. He shone it above him at the hole. It wasn’t round, it was square-shaped and clearly man made. It was around 3 meters above him. Iota’s breath misted in the air obscuring his vision slightly.

He appeared to be in a large obviously man-made room- no doubt a remnant from the war. Pods lined the walls and small vibrations and buzzing sounds could be heard. There were always rumors that there were hidden pockets underneath the surface and in various places scattered across the planet. He wiped a thick layer of grime off one of the pods. The pod was vibrating softly and gave off both a faint heat and faint green light. The pod walls were transparent. Iota shined his flashlight inside. A horse-like creature was suspended inside on its back in a thick viscous liquid with its lidless glowing eyes staring upwards. Its metal body glared brightly against the light. It twisted smoothly onto its back.Iota instinctively struck back putting his hand on his belt but it was unnecessary, it was in some sort of sleep.

This isn’t a haven!

His sweat ran cold, He’d heard of these before. Of places where the anima came from. He walked around. His foot hit something. A blaring siren went off and light flooded the room. Pods lining the wall began humming loudly and turning bright green.

“no, no, no,” said Iota, backing away. He heard cracking to his left. To his left there were massive pods, these ones several times bigger than the ones he observed before.

They were open and covered in grime except for one. Viscous orange liquid fissured out of it. Through the grime that covered it, Iota made out a giant shining mechanical green eye the size of a dinner plate. He sprinted to the hole grabbing the rope that connected him to his sled. He attached it to his waist. He pulled a lever and went up and shot out through the hole.