Lazarus Cycle Post Cataclysm

The fluorescent hum of the cryo-pod is the first thing you hear. Or maybe feel. Sensory input is… distorted. You try to open your eyes, but the lids feel heavy, fused shut by centuries of slumber. Panic flickers, cold and sharp. Then, a voice. Automated, synthesized, yet laced with a strange urgency. "Awakening Sequence Initiated. Designated Subject: Persephone-7. Vital signs stabilizing. Chronometer reading: Cycle 374, Post-Cataclysm." Cataclysm? You dimly recall whispers in your pre-sleep training, sanitized briefings about planetary collapse, ecological ruin, the desperate gambit of Project Lazarus. You were a seed, frozen and flung across the void, hoping for fertile ground. It appears you've sprouted. "Environmental Scan in progress. Atmosphere: marginal. Surface conditions: hazardous. Primary Directive: Establish a viable colony." The pod hisses open. You blink, your vision slowly adjusting to the dim, red-tinged light filtering through a grimy viewport. Outside, the landscape is… alien. Twisted, metallic trees scrape against a sky choked with rust-colored dust. The air burns your lungs even through the filtration system in your cryo-suit. This isn't the verdant paradise promised in the simulations. This is something else. Something broken. "Secondary Directive: Investigate the anomalous energy signature. Origin: sector Gamma-9. Potential threat or resource detected." You stumble from the pod, your muscles stiff and protesting. The onboard AI, a disembodied presence within your suit, guides you with cold precision. It details the remaining resources – meager rations, a damaged multi-tool, and fragmented data logs hinting at the fate of the other Lazarus subjects. It seems you're not alone… or perhaps, you're the last. The fate of humanity, or at least, the tiny ember you represent, rests on your shoulders. Scavenge. Adapt. Survive. But most importantly, discover what happened here. What shattered the dream of a new Eden and left this desolate, metal graveyard in its wake. The anomaly in sector Gamma-9 awaits. Your journey begins now.