I think it'd be pretty obvious if a Ceres Independence ship fired on someone. Cause, you know... it'd go up... and up... and then it'd accelerate to a speed so fast that it looks more like it disappeared. 

And the best part is, no one can do ANYTHING to the Ceres Independence! You can starve them, in which they'll lash out at all those Mars and Lunar colonies and steal all their foods. Yum. And then they'd rush with hydroponics and start ice-mining again. You'd only take out, like, half of them, and seriously piss them all off. You'd be getting airstrikes with weapons that need resources beyond what can be easily found on Earth. And to meet CI ships in space would be to spell death for you as well, because they are unparalleled in terms of space technology and combat....