The people aboard the Ark never forgot what they saw.
It was devastating—beyond anything the human mind could truly comprehend.
Through the reinforced observation decks, millions of eyes watched as their home, their history, their entire world… was erased.
The asteroid made contact. A blinding explosion engulfed the Yucatán Peninsula, a shockwave so powerful that it shattered the very fabric of the atmosphere. Mountains crumbled like sandcastles, oceans evaporated in an instant, and firestorms engulfed entire continents.
The Earth, once vibrant and full of life, became a graveyard in mere moments.
Mass extinction.
From the mightiest cities to the tiniest ants, nothing survived.
For those aboard the Ark, it was a firsthand view of the end of the world. They weren't just watching Earth die. They were watching everything they had ever known, everyone they had ever loved, vanish before their eyes.
Some screamed, others collapsed in silent grief, while a few simply stared, unable to process the horror unfolding before them.
Then came the final blow.
The secondary impact.
As the Earth reeled from the first hit, the asteroid's shattered remains rained down like celestial spears. The planet was unrecognizable. Clouds of ash blackened the sky, plunging everything into eternal night.
And then—silence.
No more signals. No more voices. Earth, their home, was now a lifeless rock.
For the survivors aboard the Ark, there was no turning back.
They were now the last humans in the universe.
The Universe Revealed Something… Unfathomable.
The Ark's super-intelligent AI, Astra, executed every possible maneuver to evade the incoming debris field—a storm of planetary fragments and metallic wreckage launched by the asteroid's impact.
It wasn't enough.
A massive shard of debris, moving at terrifying speeds, collided with the Ark's coolant system. The ship trembled as warning sirens blared, but the damage was already done.
The coolant system failed catastrophically.
What should have been a controlled emergency shutdown spiraled into an unstoppable chain reaction. Supercooled gases flooded the ship, temperatures plummeted, and the entire vessel began to freeze.
In mere moments, one million humans—the last hope of civilization—were locked in cryogenic suspension.
The Ark, once designed to carry survivors to safety, became a lifeless, frozen tomb.
With all power failing, Astra's voice echoed one last time before silence took over: "Cryostasis activated. Critical error… Unable to override… Drifting…"
Then, nothing.
The Ark became Earth's last artificial satellite, condemned to orbit the planet for 10,000 years, a silent relic of a lost age.
But deep within, beyond the ice and silence, something still lived.
And one day, it would wake up.