The Moon Platoon

by Jeramey Kraatz

  Fear filled the Taj, though few spoke of it. They didn’t have to. Benny could see it in the eyes of everyone he passed. He tried his best to keep it off his own face. He kept busy, which wasn’t hard to do. EW-SCABers were constantly cornering him with questions about Earth, the asteroids, the aliens, and what Elijah was doing—all things he didn’t have good answers to, really. And yet, everyone seemed to feel a little better after talking to him. He figured that maybe that’s all they needed, to get the questions out of their minds so they could continue their training. If that was the case, he was happy to help.

  And then, seemingly out of nowhere, it was well into the night, and despite all the challenges waiting for them the next day, the EW-SCABers remaining aboveground at the Taj went to bed, having worked themselves into a state of exhaustion. Pinky urged everyone to rest as much as possible, spouting facts about the optimal hours of sleep with regards to maximum brain functionality and awareness. But Benny stayed up, sitting at the holodesk in the meeting room, staring at the approaching asteroid storm and thinking about everyone on Earth until finally, without even realizing it, he passed out in one of the floating chairs.

  He woke around 5 a.m. the next morning, and after changing out of his now-very-smelly space suit, he headed down to the garage. The lights were on, but it didn’t look like anyone was working. It was eerily calm. Serene, even. He could almost imagine that he’d just sneaked into a fancy showroom back on Earth, that all of this had been a bad dream.

  He walked among the laser-mounted vehicles, letting his fingers brush against them. The McGuyvers had even painted racing stripes on each of the crafts in the colors of the different teams—or squads now, he guessed. He stopped in front of one with Mustang-red markings. In his hand, he held his father’s hood ornament. He wondered if it had ever been as shiny as these cars, one day long ago when it was brand-new.

  “Dang, kid,” someone said behind him. “Is that what I think it is?”

  He turned to see Ash McGuyver, who snapped a piece of gum as she eyed the shiny metal in his hands.

  “It’s a hood ornament,” he said.

  “Not just any hood ornament.” She snatched it from him and held it up to her mouth, breathing on it. Then she polished the metal on the front of her coveralls. “This is from a 2025 Rolls LE. Did you steal this from Elijah or something?”

  Benny started to protest, but Ash laughed.

  “Kidding. If this were Elijah’s, he’d have had me bolt it onto a Space Runner pronto. So where’d it come from?”

  “My dad.”

  “Your dad has impeccable taste in cars.”

  “He did, yeah,” Benny said. “He collected hood ornaments sometimes. This came from some wreck we found out in the Drylands. I think he almost cried having to pry it off, but the rest of the car had already been picked clean by scavengers, so it was basically scrap.”

  Ash whistled, shaking her head. “You want to put this on the front of your car? For luck?”

  Benny grinned. “I really do.”

  She called over her shoulder. “Yo, bro, bring me that batch of epoxy Trevone made.”

  Bo stomped over, grunting as he held out a tub of some clear, gel-like liquid. In seconds, Ash had fixed the ornament to the front of one of the Space Runners with a cherry-red stripe on its hood.

  “Whaddaya think?” she asked.

  “Looks good,” Bo replied before Benny could respond.

  He stared at the man as he turned and walked away—he didn’t even know Bo could speak. Ash clicked her tongue and pointed at her brother with her thumb. “That’s the best seal of approval you’ll ever get right there.”

  Pinky must have woken the rest of the EW-SCABers, because soon after Benny’s hood ornament was in place, everyone started to filter into the garage. Some glanced around at each other, making nervous small talk. Others just stared at the cement floor. It occurred to Benny that he didn’t even know most of these kids’ names, much less anything about them or why they’d chosen to try to save their home planet instead of hiding underground with Elijah. He wished he’d had more time with them—to have gotten to know them like he’d gotten to know the members of his caravan back at home, slowly but individually, until at some point no one could pin down, they’d become family.

  Hot Dog and Drue claimed Space Runners on either side of Benny’s. Drue eyed the hood ornament and immediately looked taken aback.

  “Dude, we could have customized these?” he asked. “Why didn’t anyone tell me?”

  Hot Dog rolled her eyes as Drue went off to find the McGuyvers. She turned to Benny.

  “You ready for this?”

  “No,” he said. “But I don’t have much of a choice.”

  “That’s not true. We can always call the whole thing off and head underground.”

  He looked at her with his eyebrows scrunched together, worried she’d given up.

  “Relax, Love,” she said. “I’m just messing with you.”

  Someone called out to her, asking about shifting gears, and in a flash she was off helping them.

  “We need to get started,” Jasmine said, coming up to Benny’s side. “A couple of volunteers are more comfortable staying back here and helping me, so that makes forty pilots total. Pinky will automate your flight until you’re in range of the storm, then she’ll release the controls to you.” She pointed to three oversize Space Runners in the corner that looked more like small RVs than sports cars. “The McGuyvers will follow in these. In case anyone’s hyperdrive gets damaged or someone needs emergency assistance, they can tow you back to the Taj.”

  “And the third one?” Benny asked.

  “That’s for Ramona. She’ll be parked halfway between the storm and the Taj as a makeshift satellite. It should be enough to keep Pinky functioning—at least to keep our communications up. We’ll be in constant contact. Assuming we stop the storm, we can try to get that SR close to Earth without it being shot down so we can reestablish communications and let everyone know what’s happening. Then we can prepare for our next move . . . whatever that is.”

  “Awesome. Thanks, Jasmine.”

  It suddenly seemed very quiet. That’s when he realized that everyone in the garage was looking at the two of them.

  “What’s going on?” Benny asked.

  “You should say something,” Jasmine suggested.

  “Why?”

  “Because you’re the person who got half of them to join us in the first place with whatever speech you gave.”

  “Drue was there, too,” Benny said.

  She gave him a skeptical look.

  “Just a few words,” she said. “It’ll be good for morale.”

  Benny took a few steps forward, raising one hand in the air, the engine in his chest revving.

  “Uh, hey, everyone . . .” he started. “Um . . . I come from a caravan. Some of you might think that we’re just gangs roaming the Drylands, but that’s not how it is. We look out for each other. We help each other. That’s how we survive.” He shrugged a little. “I guess what I’m trying to say is that we’re kind of a caravan now. So let’s stick together and blow these rocks up and save all the people we care about back home. Remember, we’re doing this to keep them safe. And once we get back, we’ll have Pinky feed us so much ice cream and pizza we won’t be able to move. Sound good?”

  A wave of whoops and shouts rushed over him, causing goose bumps to prickle all over his body.

  “Cool,” he said. “Uh, Pinky? Wanna take it from here?”

  “Sure thing,” the AI said. She appeared beside him, her voice booming through the garage. “Everyone, choose a Space Runner and buckle in. Our mission begins in T-minus five minutes.”

  As Benny walked back to his car, Trevone caught up with him.

  “Not bad,” the Crew member said. “Sounded like it came from the heart. I can see how you got so many of them on your side.”

  “Thanks,” Benny said. “I think.” A moment of silence passed between them. “Yo
u can come with us, you know. Help us stop this.”

  Trevone looked over at his blue Space Runner off in the corner. For a second, Benny was sure he was about to climb inside and lead them out of the Grand Dome. But then he turned back, and something about his expression told Benny that wasn’t going to be the case.

  “My place is here,” he said. “With the rest of the Pit Crew. With Elijah. You don’t know him like we do. I understand how this must seem to you, but . . .” He shook his head. “Look, when I came up to the Moon for the first time, I was nothing. I was a squatter in a crappy building in the Bronx with my dad and a bunch of his junkie friends. The only reason I was so good in school is because I spent as much time there as I could. Elijah changed everything. He saw something in me. He saved me. I can’t just turn my back on him. I’m sorry. I wish you guys luck. If it’s any consolation, I’m rooting for you.”

  And then he was headed off toward the exit.

  Benny started back to his Space Runner. Drue, Hot Dog, Ramona, and Jasmine had gathered around the front of it.

  “Let’s make a promise,” Hot Dog said. “You guys came and found me when my car crashed. We broke a bunch of rules together and kind of started this whole thing. And somehow we’re all still here. Let’s keep it that way. No Mustang left behind.”

  Jasmine nodded. “No friends left behind.”

  “We save the Earth,” Benny said.

  “Let’s blow up some asteroids!” Drue grinned.

  “Roger, roger,” Ramona added.

  Benny nodded. “All right, Moon Platoon. Let’s do this!”

  When they were all tucked inside their Space Runners, one wall of the garage slid away, opening up to the Grand Dome—it was easier for all the cars to get out through the wide pressurization tunnel there instead of driving through the auxiliary garage entrance one by one. As his car raced through the courtyard, Benny looked up at the roof of the Taj, where the sheets of gold bloomed around Elijah’s private quarters. He was standing there in the window, watching everything going on below. Here was the guy who’d gotten them into all this, who hadn’t warned the Earth about the impending attack—who was ready to let humanity die. Just watching them all leave.

  Anger burned in Benny’s veins. And yet, at the same time, he couldn’t help but think how alone Elijah looked standing in that high window all by himself.

  Then his hyperdrive engaged, and he was shooting through the tunnel. In a matter of minutes, the Taj was becoming a smaller and smaller glimmer in the background. Benny turned to face the front, staring at the darkness of space ahead, hoping with everything in his being that the next time he saw Elijah, he’d be able to look him in the eye and tell him that he’d been wrong. That there had been another way—a better way—after all.

  27.

  It would take almost half an hour for the Space Runner fleet to reach the asteroid storm, and after running around the Taj trying to get everyone organized and trained for this mission, Benny kind of appreciated the quiet of space. A couple of times Drue patched in to his and Hot Dog’s comm systems, making some joke or comment, but none of them seemed eager to talk.

  There was too much at stake, too much weighing on their minds.

  Instead, Benny kept looking at Earth shining in the distance. He could just make out the brown swatch of land covering so much of the western United States, the Drylands, his home. His stomach was in knots, and he clasped his hands in his lap in order to keep them from shaking.

  He realized it had only been a week since he was in a Space Runner for the first time, filled with a similar kind of jittery nervousness as he wondered what the Taj would be like. Now, that excitement seemed almost laughable, like something only a dumb child would feel.

  He pulled his HoloTek out of his space suit pocket and extended it, tapping on the video his grandmother and brothers had filmed the day before he left. As he shot through space, that’s what he watched, along with other home vids he had saved, reminding himself that he didn’t have the luxury of being nervous. He had more important things to focus on.

  Finally, the asteroid storm came into view. Benny had seen the field as a small-scale hologram, but that had done nothing to prepare him for the awe-inspiring massiveness of the formation itself. Huge boulders of the sickly yellow minerals gravitated around what looked to Benny like a small planet, four times the size of the Taj, at least. The rocky field stretched well beyond the approaching Space Runner fleet, hundreds of yards in each direction.

  “Holy whoa,” Benny murmured.

  They continued their approach, Benny having to remind himself to blink as they got closer. He put his HoloTek away and gripped the flight yoke. Eventually the fleet came to a stop in several uniform rows well away from the approaching field.

  “What’s our next move, Jasmine?” Benny asked, opening up a private line with her.

  “We’re still unsure how the asteroids will react to our new lasers, considering the fact that the rocks exploded against the dome,” she said. “We’ve been running tests back here, but the sample sizes are so small.”

  “What do you think we should do?”

  “Have one pilot do a test shot. I figured Hot Dog or Drue would jump at the chance to—”

  “No,” Benny said. “Let me. If I’m really the reason some of these pilots are up here, then I should be the one blown up if something goes wrong. Just make sure Pinky keeps the rest of the Space Runners at bay for now.”

  “Okay,” Jasmine said. “Pinky?”

  “Relinquishing control now.” The AI’s voice crackled through his Space Runner.

  The flight yoke in his hands suddenly had more give to it, and he pushed it forward, slowly breaking away from the group.

  “I’m sending you a viable small target on the edge of the storm,” Jasmine said. “I’m also blocking the rest of your comms for the moment. I figure it’ll be easier to focus without Hot Dog and Drue complaining that they should be the ones getting the first shot based on their flying skills.”

  A hologram popped up above Benny’s windshield—a target, zeroing in on a large hunk of yellow rock off to his left side.

  “Thanks, Jazz,” Benny said. “Wish me luck.”

  He flew to his target, keeping enough distance that he felt like he should be far enough away if anything too bad happened as a result of shooting a newly overcharged laser beam into a rock made up of a bunch of unknown alien elements.

  The hologram blinked on his windshield, signaling that now was the time to fire.

  “Here goes nothing,” Benny muttered as he mashed the red button on one side of his flight yoke.

  Two lasers shot from the front of his Space Runner, meeting together to form one red beam of light as thick as Benny’s arm. It blasted forward, piercing the center of the targeted asteroid. The entire boulder exploded, erupting in a flash of orange and blue flame that was almost instantly consumed and stamped out by the vacuum of space. Bits of debris and rock floated away, but the asteroid was gone. The laser had done its job.

  Benny breathed a sharp sigh of relief. And then, alone in his Space Runner, shouted at the top of his lungs.

  Jasmine’s voice was on the comms again, calm but firm as she dished out assignments.

  “That’s a go! Mustangs, Pinky is supplying you with targets now. Vipers, loop around to the rear of the storm and start from there. The rest of you hold back until we get a look at the debris patterns. Remember to keep an eye out for your teammates.”

  Benny looked to his right flank and saw almost twenty Space Runners all breaking away from the fleet and beginning to fire on the asteroid field. Within seconds the boulders were exploding left and right as the newly formed Moon Platoon flew by. The novice pilots stayed on the outskirts of the storm, but the more daring among them dove through the field, looping around bits of debris and shattered minerals.

  “Woo-hoo!” Drue shouted as he took out another asteroid, Benny’s comms active again. “I know this is weird to say, but I think this might
be the best vacation of my life.”

  Benny kept flying, too, going after each target that appeared on his windshield before Jasmine finally called the Mustangs and Vipers out, remapped the storm to take large pieces of debris into account, and sent the Chargers and Firebirds in.

  Benny parked his Space Runner near another group of Mustangs and patched into the comms.

  “This is crazy,” he said. “I can’t believe it’s working.”

  “I took out a dozen of those things,” Hot Dog said. “And did you see Iyabo? That girl has crazy good aim.”

  “Crap!” Drue exclaimed. “Jazz, are you counting our targets? I haven’t been keeping score!”

  “This isn’t a game,” Jasmine replied. “But Pinky’s keeping track. You can compare notes when you get back. This wave of attacks will take out the rest of the smaller asteroids, meaning now we can focus on that monster in the center. I’m going to have the Vipers clean up any remaining small targets while the Mustangs start in on it.”

  “Right on,” Benny said. All the nervousness from earlier was actually starting to fade away, thanks to the combined adrenaline of not only being in space firing lasers at alien rocks but also knowing all their prep, all their hard work was paying off.

  “Mustangs,” Jasmine said, “I’m marking your targets. Let’s take this final boss down and get you back to the Taj.”

  Benny raced forward—he was actually beginning to get pretty used to the Space Runner controls—as a new target popped up on his windshield. It looked as though Jasmine and Pinky had them all attacking different areas of the looming asteroid in the center of the storm in an effort to chip it down to something more manageable. Benny took the left flank, lining up his Space Runner and firing his laser. Despite the direct hit, it looked like barely any damage had been done.

  “Not good,” he murmured. “Let’s try again.”

  Hot Dog must have noticed the same thing.