We're back on the Jjaro station, but this time we're in a different area. It's a vacuum again, and this is because someone left one of the airlocks open. There are several other differences, notably the Troopers. Where are they coming from (if all ships in the area were destroyed)? Why are they on the level at all? You can explore a bit more of the station, and find some 2x health, but no oxygen.
The terminal is very strange. The first mention of the Marathon itself since the M2 final screen, except that now it's the USEC Marathon. This can't be a typo since it occurs several times in the terminal. Perhaps this is another of the "minor details" time travel stories love to play with, as Shade mentioned a while ago. But what were USEC ships doing at Lh'owon in the first place? And why was a colony ship brought to this battle? I believe that the Marathon isn't actually there at all, and that Arthur Frane is referring to himself by his official name and rank as part of a broadcast distress signal, a last desperate attempt to contact someone, anyone, or at least let humans elsewhere know of what happened. Sure, it would be nice for the starship Marathon to appear in the game one last time, but it seems unlikely that the universes would be that different. None of the other timeline changes have been nearly so major, just whatever the Marine personally does and sometimes a reshuffling of identical events. "Nova event" means that the trih xeem has gone off again for some reason; we don't know exactly what provoked it this time, but we know that Durandal was able to set off his trap for the Pfhor upon his death in Hang Brain. Perhaps Durandal successfully resurrected himself as he did in M2; through his machinations he can nullify even the Marine's best efforts at influencing events. But that's OK, he doesn't need to defeat Durandal any more; he's going to try some machinations of his own. Power up those Jjaro boxers and get your one-way ticket to the Big House. A different Big House this time, but still...
