Monday night. I sat on my balcony, staring up at the dark sky. I couldn't see the Centaur stage with my naked eye—it was just a speck of white paint in the void—but I knew exactly where it was. "Ready when you are," I whispered, gripping the railing.
"Trajectory calculated," Archi replied. "Detonation sequence primed. I have overloaded the auxiliary power cells. Hydrazine pressure is critical. Say goodbye to Scavenger One."
"Goodbye, you ugly patchwork monster."
"Initiating Event in 3... 2... 1. Mark."
I didn't see anything. No flash in the sky. It was too far away and too small. But on my smartwatch, the telemetry went haywire. The signal from the Centaur cut out instantly. "Did we die?" I asked nervously.
"We—the entity known as US-Obj-2004-012A—are dead," Archi confirmed. "Switching to the backup core."
A new window opened on my HUD. It showed a chaotic cloud of spinning metal fragments. But in the center, shrouded by the expanding gas cloud of the explosion, a dark, compact cylinder was accelerating away from Earth at incredible speed. "The masking worked. The radar return is a mess. We are currently indistinguishable from the shrapnel field."
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Vandenberg Space Force Base 18th Space Defense Squadron 03:45 Local Time
"Whoa!" Specialist Miller jumped as his screen flashed red. "Captain! We have a breakup event!"
Captain Vance rushed over. "Which bird?"
"The Centaur! Object 28374! The one we were watching!" Miller pointed at the blooming cloud of pixels on the radar map. "Thermal spike consistent with a fuel explosion. It just... popped."
Vance sighed, rubbing his temples. "Batteries probably finally gave out. Or a micrometeorite hit the tank. Is it a threat to the ISS?"
"Running projection..." Miller typed furiously. "Negative. Debris field is expanding into a higher graveyard orbit. Most of it is just confetti."
"Any large pieces?"
"A few," Miller squinted at the data. "Looks like some bigger chunks were thrown outward. Trajectories are random. One piece seems to be heading out on a high-eccentricity hyperbola. Probably going to burn up or drift into deep space."
"Alright," Vance nodded. "Mark Object 28374 as 'Fragmented/Destroyed'. Catalog the debris pieces later. Good catch, Miller. At least it wasn't aliens."
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Balcony
"We are clear," Archi announced. "The Earth is behind us. We are drifting dark. Estimated time to Lunar intercept: 48 hours."
"And the landing?" I asked. "How do we stop without crashing?"
"We don't stop. We crash with style. I've reconfigured the remaining structure into a kinetic penetrator. We're going to hit the far side dirt at 2,000 meters per second. The nanites will act as a fluid shock absorber."
"Just make sure the internet connection survives the impact," I muttered, going back inside. "I have a raid on Wednesday."
"Pack your virtual bags, Surgrim. We are going to the Moon."