Right, well - Holden managed to get a hold of Miller, and Miller said that we needed to show the sphere that we weren't a threat, and to do that, we needed to power down every drive core in the ring.

At the same time, the UN and Martian and Belt commanders were hatchin' a plan to do the exact opposite, and use the tight beam laser as a weapon by hookin' it up directly to the drive and then usin' it like a surgical laser to slice through the ring.

So Naomi and Drummer and Holden went to go get control of the drive, and me and Amos and Monica and Anna - the reporter and a really sweet priest who was really damn good at calmin' people down - went to hijack the comms systems, to send out a broadcast to the whole fleet to power their drives down.

Obviously, the powers that be didn't like that much, and sent down some Martian Marines to deal with us.

Hell, Gunny, if you'd had your armour with you, I think you woulda managed to kill all of us before you even knew it was us. But without it, we were firin' down the hall at each other without knowin' who was on the other end of the gun.

[ There was a pause, and then, very hastily - ] We didn't shoot you. You called out, and I recognized your voice, so I called back. Was surprised as all hell and damn lucky to boot. If it hadn't've been you, I'm sure we'd be dead.