She didn't feel the pain anymore. It had all faded away somehow. She was older. Sixteen. It was the end of her academy years. In fact, this was her last day as a cadet. Her last day as herself. Starting today, she would have to assume another role for her to complete her mission. Her squadron was in combat gear getting tossed around in a troop transport by the pilot's last minute adjustments. She looked around and saw Samantha. She also saw Pierce. He was in command of this particular mission.

The last year at the academy is spent mostly by practicing in the real world what they had learned. Guerrilla attack on Commonwealth targets and convoys. They would be used as marines or ground troops. Stealing cargo. High command called it appropriating. Causing catastrophic decompression on Commonwealth ships. Gathering intelligence. Even assassinations. Nothing was out. Anything to disrupt the flow of work from the Exodus project.

Now, they were on this transport waiting to board a ship called the Argos. It had passengers from Triton heading for the space dock around Earth. They probably expected to work on the new ship called the Terra Nova.

They would never reach their destination.

They would never see the new planet.

They would never see anything again.

The Terra Nova was the city-sized ship the mud crawlers would send later to the new planet.

Cat had specialized in stealth, information gathering and assassination. She had never had to do the latter and she was secretly happy about it. She'd never killed someone and in her naivety, she didn't plan to start.

She was good friends with Samantha and some of the others, but Pierce was still a dick. She'd never taken care of the problem as Sam had put it four years ago.

"Alright, listen up people. I want this done by the book. We have a job to do and we're committed. They saw us and we're jamming their comm. We should catch them in about fifteen, so stay sharp. Helmets up!" He looked at Cat who wasn't looking at him. She was observing his assault rifle. "Fairfax! Pay attention!"

"I am." Cat replied simply, pointing at his weapon. "You better put your weapon on dispersal or you'll breach the hull and send us all to the void."

He glared at her, then reluctantly looked at his rifle. Without a word, he adjusted it.

"He won't let you forget this one." Sam whispered to her.

"I don't care. He's a fool and he would've endangered the mission." Cat hissed. The feelings were in full force right now and she didn't care. She felt her blood rushing through her veins. The adrenaline rush didn't help matters.

"Two minutes until hull contact." The pilot announced.

The tension was mounting in the assault bay. The squadron was getting ready checking each others armor. Sam put her helmet directly against Cat's so she could talk to her without the comm system. "Watch your back kid. His Royal Prickness has been bragging about training accidents in the field. How they were unfortunate but sometimes unavoidable."

Cat shrugged. "Thanks Sam. I got your six. Remember, he hates you too."

"I just now realized, he hates all the girls in our squadron."

"Maybe he can't get it up?" Cat said savagely. They both laughed loud enough for all to hear.

"Care to share the humor ladies?" Pierce asked.

"No." Cat said with finality in her voice.

"Contact." The pilot announced.

They felt a bone jarring shock as the shuttle attached itself on its prey. The breaching cutters let out their plasma fury in full force. In twenty seconds, the airlock was breached and they were inside running the corridors of the Tritonian transport ship. They were heading for the bridge to incapacitate the command crew of the Argos. Security was minimal, they had encountered and shot two security officers so far. No Peacekeepers thank Mars thought Cat.

When they got to the bridge's main entrance, they made a small hole in the doors and sent a nerve gas canister inside making short work of the command crew. When the doors were hacked, they checked the ship's sensors to detect heat signatures. They hunted down the rest of the crew in this highly effective fashion.

Pierce took Sam and Cat to come with him to the engineering section. "How many heat signatures?" He asked Brazeau, who was manning the sensors in the bridge.

"Three, but sir, these ones are much hotter than the others." He announced. Cat saw Pierce's face through his visor. He was scared. He stopped running. "What did you say?"

"Three heat signatures that have high body temperatures. Need any help?" Brazeau asked his commanding officer. Pierce looked at Sam, then Cat. He lingered on Cat and gave a curt "no" as an answer. They resumed their run and got to engineering two minutes later. As Cat was hacking the door's controls, the ship's intercom blared.

"This is Major Tanya Thonarr of the 12th Peacekeeper corps. Cease and desist. If you comply, we will treat you well and hand you over to the Commonwealth authorities to be prosecuted fairly for your acts of piracy. Do not and we will kill you all." The intercom went silent.

Sam said. "Peacekeepers! Shit! They were probably sleeping in a room close to here and decided to make a last stand in engineering. That was a Thonarr. I heard they're really badass."

"Shut up!" Pierce hissed.

"You forgot to call me peasant." Sam said laughing.

Cat, who was concentrated on the door lock was surprised by the loud report of Pierce's assault rifle. She turned around in time to see Sam fall to the ground in excruciating slow motion. Sam had a big hole in her back. Pierce was turning her way. He was so slow. Cat's fury sent her vision in a red tinted haze. She was totally under the feeling's control. She pushed the deadly muzzle away from her and kicked Pierce's right kneecap. It made a crunching sound as he fell to the ground screaming. She disarmed him easily and broke the rifle in two as easily as a twig. Pierce's eyes widened. She had never shown her true strength to anybody.

"This is Catherine Tyran. I'm assuming command of this operation. Code 1320." She announced over the team's secure commlink. She saw Pierce's eyes widen.

She finished the hacking sequence and the doors opened. Railgun bullets came flying through. Cat blindly shot a volley of bullets through the open door to keep the Peacekeepers at bay. She unhooked her grenade belt and attached it to a babbling Pierce. She activated the lot of them, grabbed him by the belt and bodily lifted him off the ground.

"You know, all these years, I wanted you to know. You blow."

She threw him inside the engineering room and ducked sideways to protect herself from the blast.

The explosion sent a shock wave throughout the ship. The Martian assault team came running to find Cat cradling Sam's corpse in her arms.

"What happened?" Jaak asked.

"Peacekeepers. I killed them. With my grenades." She said.

"Where's Lieutenant Walmont?"

"With my grenades." She stood up and carried Sam away. The rest of the team went inside engineering and saw what was left of Walmont and the three Peacekeepers. Cat went to the passenger area and opened the door to find the Tritonians workers scared out of their wits.

"Please don't be scared. We're not going to hurt you, we just need this ship. Please follow me." Cat said soothingly.

One of the girls came forward. She was wearing a nurse's uniform. "Is there something I can do?"

"Not anymore, but thanks." Cat said as she led them to an airlock. She opened the inner door. The rest of the Martian assault team joined them and watched as the Tritonians went inside the open airlock. They knew full well that this airlock wasn't connected to their shuttle. Cat brought Sam's body inside with them and deposited her on the floor. Cat was crying as she kissed her friend's forehead. "Goodbye Sam." She got out and closed the inner door. Without cycling the purge sequence, she opened the outer doors sending everyone inside to a starry grave.

She turned to the rest of the Martian team. They looked at her with new eyes. Most of them had directly or indirectly bullied her at one time. They cast their eyes to the ground. "Clean this ship as best as you can and turn the distress beacon on. Those of you not on the replacement team, leave immediately after you finish with the cleanup. The others, find your replacement target's room and replace their identity with yours. When everything is in order and you are safely back in the shuttle, leave at maximum acceleration. Now move! We don't have much time."

The hackers back in the belt had already changed the names of the Tritonians for theirs on the working visa's list. This way, there was less of a chance of one of them slipping or forgetting to answer if someone called them by the replacement target's name. Easier to be yourself than pretend to be someone else. This ship would be replaced on the arrival roster by one of their choosing. It was as if they had never existed. A lot of these ships came unregistered and sometimes fell prey to pirates.

But to Cat, she would remember for the rest of her life the look on their faces when she spaced them. Like Clara, they would live on in her memories for the rest of her life.

Cat let the team work cleaning the ship and went to the nurse's room. She entered the small cabin and closed the door. She looked around getting the feel of the person who had lived here. A picture was displayed on the wall. A young man in Navy uniform. The name tag showed 'Koslov' on it. She deleted it and went to the girl's desk. She hacked into it and proceeded to destroy all the data in it. She almost tapped the OK button but stopped short and pressed CANCEL instead. She opened some folder containing pictures and personal letters. Her name had been Vasilia Fedorov. She'd just graduated from nursing school on Triton. She was 26 and loved cats. There was a lot of pictures of her with an orange and brown tabby. Also a lot of pictures of her and the young man she'd seen displayed on the wall's wallpaper display. She read some letters she had sent to him. He was already on the spacedock orbiting Earth and was also part of the flight team on the Terra Nova. That Koslov person was in for a big disappointment. He would never see his girlfriend again and nobody would be able to tell him what happened to her. The team would change the ship's registry from the Argos to the Aegis. The name and registry number were already being changed on the hull. The serial numbers on the ship's components were in the software controlling them and were being changed as well. Nothing was left to chance.

Cat put all of Vasilia's files on a personal crystal she was carrying. She then deleted the files on the desk. Cat didn't know why she had saved the girl's personal files but it felt like a little redemption for what she had just done. She told herself that she would find a way to slip the files to her boyfriend when she got to the Terra Nova. He could at least have a little of Vasilia with him. She gathered the girl's personal items and put them in a bag. The clothes would be readjusted to her size later at the ship's store. She took off her own clothes and armor. Put them in another bag. She put on one of Vasilia's uniforms. It was a bit small but nothing drastic. Once done, she took the bags and left for the airlock connecting to the assault shuttle. The others were all there. The replacement team all gave their bags to the rest of the assault team returning back to the shuttle. No goodbyes were given. Not a word was exchanged. The doors closed and they were gone. Nurse Catherine Fairfax stood on the deck of the transport ship Aegis waiting for her new life on the Terra Nova to begin. It didn't change the fact that she felt dirty to her soul.

A few hours later, one of Earth's faster-than-light ships made contact with them. They were rescued.