The Chronicles of the Milky Way Galaxy : Gaia

Chapter 2 : Impact

March 13, 2116

That's when the world ended. As predicted, the impact took place on the coast of
eastern Australia, near Brisbane. The few humans who had remained in space
stations in orbit stayed, knowing that this would be their end, but they also
documented and gathered intel that was then sent to the dome cities for future
reference.

With their eyes in the sky and smiles on their lips, some chose to go near the
impact site and welcome their doom. Kneeling with their hands held together, they
fearlessly looked upon the small dot that was coming to end everything. Eyes opened
wide as the small blip of light began to grow exponentially; no thoughts, no time for
thinking. The dot suddenly grew to cover the entire sky. Less than a second
remained; the blinding light came without sound, and the last images to be
transmitted filled those who came later see them with terror. The world became a
flaming ball of dust and thunder. Winds of unprecedented speed started spreading
the flaming gases and dust around the globe. A wave of thunderous black clouds
ignited everything in its path, releasing more clouds of dust and smoke, which
covered the sky of the entire planet, storming as if on a race around the Earth.

Earthquakes maxing out the Richter scale were felt throughout the world. The
tsunamis that hit the west of the American continent and the east of Asia proceeded
so deep into the continents that they transformed the landscape in their path forever.
Australia's east coast sank into the sea. The west burned so hot that the soil looked
like a sea of lava. For days, a rain of burning rocks, returning debris from the impact,
bombarded the Earth. Weeks after, volcanic eruptions had not stopped, spewing
molten rock and adding more carbon and other chemicals into the atmosphere,
further deepening the thick clouds that were slowly freezing the planet under.

Most of the dome cities suffered manageable and expected damage; some
collapsed. Most of the secondary survival plans, like underground vaults, did not
survive the first weeks. Humanity was now down to about sixty million people in
population. Sixty million people who, for a while, had visual feed from the most
catastrophic event ever to hit the Earth. When the earthquakes started shaking the
Earth, when the winds started whipping the walls of the cities, when the rock impacts
began to sound like machine guns, relentlessly bombarding the roof of the domes,
some screamed, some cried, some remained silent. The one common feeling they all
felt was that our minuscule size and power finally became apparent. Then they all
understood,

"We should have moved faster ... we should have gone to space earlier
... we should have listened ..."