The earthquake came out of nowhere, shaking the whole city. The side of the mountain liquefied and flowed down in a massive landslide, engulfing a third of the city's buildings and many of its inhabitants. People ran through the narrow streets, carrying what few possessions they were able to gather, urging children to hurry, trying to get out of the way of the advancing wall of mud. The roads and houses filled with the thick, flowing earth, or were crushed, toppled or even lifted from their foundations. Nothing survived in that affected area. The cleanup would take months, possibly years.
Watching from orbit, Gorignak marked off his checklist and shed a tear before turning off the agitator beam, stopping the earthquake he had caused. Being a park ranger for the Earth Natural Reserve was, for the most part, a very good job. The blue-and-white globe out the window of his monitoring station was the best view he could hope for, there was always something new and interesting to learn, and he only occasionally had to lead politicians from the central star systems on sightseeing tours. It was just days like this, when he had to do "population control" that he wished he'd applied to work at the galactic bank instead.
Mokalus of Borg
PS - I just wondered one day, what if all our natural disasters were a form of deliberate population control?
PPS - It's far from the simplest explanation, though.
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