And Gaia Slept Soundly

Gaia sat upon the outstretched palm of Cristo Redentor, a fitting throne for the day’s events. The remnants of humanity below preparing for the onslaught would have thought little of the macaw, her chosen guise, sitting on the massive statue.

No, they never thought of the small things of her kingdom. They never learned. These new invaders did not either. Pity...

She scarfed down the berries she carried, a proverbial feast, as the particle lance of a descending saucer knifed its way through a pair of warships trying in vain to defend this last human stronghold. Oil poured out of the burning ships as waves overtook them. Gaia smiled as she took another bite.

The extraterrestrial invaders were the last of their kind, or so she had gathered. Reduced to scavengers in their flight across the galaxy, only the few saucers assaulting Rio remained of their once system-spanning civilization.

Another of the saucers descended, and the sky came alive with laser fire. The extraterrestrial extermination of humanity had been swift. Their spaceports destroyed, humanity tried in vain to make last stands in fortresses across the world, all of them amounted to nothing. Only the fortress city of Rio remained, and by Gaia’s estimation, they wouldn’t last much longer.

A contrail traced its way toward the largest of the saucers before exploding in a mushroom cloud over the Atlantic. Gaia had to admit, it was a spectacular sight.

It did nothing to slow the advance.

Gaia sighed. Her brother Aether owed her another favor, and it was time for that bill to come due.

Almost bored, she snapped her talons.

On queue, the heavens opened.

The first meteor struck the ocean, and the ensuing tsunami crushed the defenses around Rio like it was a new Atlantis.

Another smashed through the shields of the largest saucer, the same ones that turned away the nuclear strike. Mass and gravity were undefeated when it came to extinction-level events. The ship crumbled under the weight of the meteor, and the waves carried them both to a watery grave.

Gaia smiled as the fire from the heavens massacred the remnants of both species.

She did appreciate those bleeding-hearted humans who tried to take care of her, she really did, but as Gaia watched the meteors mill what remained of humanity and these extraterrestrial invaders into a fine dust, she reminded herself that they never really cared about her, only about how she made them feel.

She cared naught for their feelings.

Oil streaks now covered the harbor as another saucer succumbed to her barrage. Those environmentalists would have wept at the destruction, she knew, had they been more than a memory now.

She wouldn’t.

Her berries now finished, Gaia took flight, not bothering to give the extinction of two plagues a second glance.

Yes, the humans never really learned. They could hack, burn, slash, cover her in oil, and devour Gaia for their sick needs, and she would feel none of it. Yet, all it took was a snap of her finger, and they went the way of the dinosaurs. She may mutate, evolve, and change, but she would always persist.

Something they could never do.

And as the latest cycle of earth came to its fiery end, Gaia slept as sound as a koala.

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A/N:

Written for the Liam Storm 'Mother Nature' Challenge! Sneaking my entry in before the deadline:

S/O to Lamar for his entry, which reminded me to do mine:

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