The orbit was a graveyard of human ambition, secured by the brutal efficiency of the Warlord-Class Destroyer. On the surface, the Zenith-Class Harbingers maintained the lockdown, while the trios of Xylo-Sapiens directed the mᴀssive Harvest-Class Drones. The silence on Trái Đất was absolute, broken only by the hum of the alien technology and the sickening sound of continents being systematically cored. This final, methodical phase was only briefly interrupted by one last, desperate attempt at communication from the remnants of humanity’s scientific community.

Deep within a highly-secured bunker, the last surviving members of the China National Space Administration (CNSA) manned their posts. Their final broadcast, captured in fragmented form, showed them standing before large screens displaying the astonishing dual-core configuration of the object previously known as Comet 3I/ATLAS. The news headline screamed: “HUGE UPDATE FROM CHINA” and the expert analysis on the lower screen confirmed the grim truth: “COMET 3I/ATLAS POSSIBLY ‘ALIEN TECHNOLOGY’.” The CNSA scientists, with solemn finality, confirmed that ATLAS—the so-called “10th Anomaly”—was indeed the mobile, twin-core engine of Aetheria’s logistical operation, having been captured and engineered decades prior to act as the forward staging post and shipyard. The images on their screen showed the object with two distinct, mᴀssive spheres connected by an engineered lattice—an advanced, self-replicating bio-mechanical system designed to recycle extracted resources before shipping them back to the demanding home world of Aetheria. The very object that had caused the world to pause and speculate about ‘Oumuamua and other strange visitors was the final, devastating piece of evidence for the existence, and intent, of a planetary civilization far beyond our ability to resist.

At 14:00 PT, the inevitable conclusion arrived. The Sovereign-Class Behemoth, having fully secured its position and having cleared the orbital debris field, initiated its primary atmospheric conversion sequence. A network of beams, no longer violet-white but a sickening, pervasive amber, descended. These were not meant for destruction, but for preparation. The atmosphere—the culmination of four billion years of biological evolution on Sol-3—was being systematically filtered, compressed, and collected. The Xylo-Sapiens were methodically stripping the planet of its gases and water vapor, preparing the world for a future state dictated by the needs of their distant super-Earth, Aetheria.

The last images relayed before the final systems failed depicted the mᴀssive, cigar-shaped form of the Behemoth—the true successor to the initial Citadel of Xylos—now bathed in a swirling vortex of amber and blue light as it processed the stolen atmosphere. The prophecy of Elon Musk—that the celestial objects were armed, and that “WE WILL DIE!”—had been tragically validated by the scientific despair of NASA Administrator Bil Eaton and the final, futile efforts of the CNSA.

By January 2048, the silence that enveloped the former planet Earth was cosmic and complete. The Xylo-Sapiens, having executed their centuries-old mandate, left. They took with them the most valuable components of Sol-3’s core, its atmosphere, and its complex organic matter, leaving behind a scorched, geologically unstable husk—a mere refueling station for their ongoing intergalactic journey. The existence of a planet outside Earth, Aetheria, was confirmed not by shared discovery, but by the utter, permanent annihilation of humanity. The story of mankind ended not with a bang, but with the cold, calculated efficiency of an interstellar harvest, leaving only the silent memory of a civilization that had looked up at the stars and failed to see the reaper’s scythe disguised as a comet.