Rust Tears of Veridia

The rain tastes like metal, a familiar tang on your tongue. You haven't felt the sun in cycles, not since the Sky Tears began. They said it was the Earth weeping, a final lament before succumbing to the Rust Plague. They said we, humanity, were the cause. They weren't wrong. You cough, the automated filter in your scavenged rebreather whirring uselessly against the acrid air. The cityscape stretches before you, a skeletal maze of rusted metal and crumbling concrete, shrouded in perpetual twilight. Above, the sky is a bruised purple, constantly weeping corrosive droplets that hiss and burn anything they touch. Welcome to Neo-Veridia, or what's left of it. You are a Scavenger, a relic hunter, a survivor clinging to the edges of oblivion. Your name… well, names are a luxury these days. Call yourself whatever helps you sleep at night. Your past is a blurred mosaic of loss and survival, a constant struggle to remember who you were before the world ended. Your mission, if you choose to accept it (and frankly, you have no choice), is to find the Aegis Fragment. Legend whispers of its existence, a pre-Collapse artifact said to possess the ability to purify the Sky Tears, to heal the Earth. A myth, perhaps. A desperate hope, more likely. But hope, however fragile, is the only currency you have left. The Collective, the self-proclaimed rulers of Neo-Veridia, also seek the Aegis Fragment. They control the salvaged water and the precious few remaining pockets of arable land. They rule with an iron fist, crushing any dissent, any hope. They want the Fragment for their own selfish purposes, to solidify their power, to ensure their survival at the expense of everyone else. Then there are the Rust Eaters, mutated scavengers driven mad by the Plague, their bodies twisted and warped by the corrosive rain. They roam the ruins in packs, driven by an insatiable hunger for metal and flesh. They are a constant threat, a lurking nightmare in the shadows. Your journey will be fraught with peril. You will face impossible choices. You will question your sanity. You will bleed. But you must persevere. The fate of Neo-Veridia, perhaps even the fate of what remains of humanity, rests on your shoulders. Now, Scavenger, take a deep breath of that metallic air and step into the rust. The world is waiting, and it's hungry.