Richthofen took to the skies, heading back to the battlefield in search of the lost submarine, U-556. The water was still rough and choppy from the massive explosion that had rocked the area not five minutes prior, and the air pressures that she was facing made flying a plane through it quite the challenge. She looked at her instrument panel to see that none of her instruments were working properly as she approached the site where the enemy fleet once floated. The flecks of blue that fell from the sky reminded of of a soft snow in the middle of December. A light dusting that would coat the Rhineland in a soft velvety blanket that would bring happiness to the minds of the children. But deep down she knew, this was not snow, and there would be no happiness to come when this fell.

"This weapon... It cannot be used in such a way again. The damage. The destruction. The complete annihilation of all that stand before it. This isn't a weapon. It's a doomsday device." Richthofen muttered as she searched the ocean's surface, looking for any indication of the submarine that very well may have saved the fleet. She was about to turn to split off back to the group when she saw a dark shape moving slowly beneath the waves.

"U-556 is that you?" Richthofen asked, only receiving static in return.

"U-556 come in, this is Carrier Richthofen." Richthofen said, hoping to elicit a response, but received only more static.

"I guess I'll follow you then. It looks like you're heading back to Brisbane anyway, so that has to be you." Richthofen said as she spotted another dark shape in the water several hundred meters behind the first.

"Hello... and who are you?" Richthofen wondered as she flew over the second craft, realizing during her flyover that the design was different from the first shape she had seen. This one looked Siren by nature, and was slowly catching up to the first.

"Crafty little fuckers. Take out their surface fleet with that massive bomb, but then send in submarines to do what the battleships couldn't." Richthofen said as several squadrons of dive bombers appeared back on her flight deck. One by one they launched into the sky and made a sharp turn back towards where Richthofen was.

"Richthofen, this is Odin, What's going on?" Odin's voice, clouded by a thick static came over the radio.

"Enemy submarine spotted lurking behind our friendly. I'm engaging the enemy now." Richthofen said as the interference from the dust explosion cut the line.

Within minutes of the planes launching, the hunt for the enemy submarines was back on. The dive bombers flew low, looking to the dark shapes in the water. Richthofen spotted one and it was met with several Stuka's dropping AP bombs directly into the water, acting like makeshift depth charges, forcing the submarines to either maneuver away from the fleet, or take damage from the concussive force.

Richthofen scanned the ocean, watching a grey submarine rise to the surface several hundred meters ahead of her.

"U-556, is that you?" Richthofen asked via her radio, unsure if her transmissions were even getting through. Her worries were put to rest when she saw the distinct blue hair of 556 appear from the top hatch. Richthofen's relief was cut short when she realized why U-556 has surfaced. Smoke was pouring from the hatch that 556 had crawled out of, indicating a fire in the hull.

"Odin, come in." Richthofen asked.

No response.

"Odin!" Richthofen yelled into the radio.

No response.

Richthofen was about to call again when she saw a ship rushing forward from where the fleet was.

"Who is that?" Richthofen asked, straining her eyes to see who was approaching from the fleet. Several seconds of straining led to the identification of Patty, who, despite being moderately damaged by the shelling during battle, had made the initial repairs necessary to join in on the recovery effort. Richthofen could only imagine what kinds of things were going through the submarine tender's mind, seeing on of her precious submarines slowly burning in the middle of the ocean.

"Oh no! My poor little submarine!" Patty cried as she shifted her arm, cradled in a sling that had been applied by Arizona and Alice after the fleet disengaged.

Patty looked to the sky and saw the Stuka's flying low, providing cover from the advancing submarine threat.

Patty waved with her good arm when she saw Richthofen, who gave a slight wave back as she passed back towards her carrier to rearm.

Patty soon turned back to the matter at hand, pulling her vessel up along side the stricken submarine.

"You poor thing, what happened?" Patty asked as she helped 556 and the bulins aboard her vessel as she moored the submarine to the side of her hull.

"That explosion... all of my electronic systems went down. Sonar, Fire control, fire suppression... everything." 556 said as she coughed a bit.

"Aww. It's okay. Patty's here and she's gonna fix you up right away." Patty said with a smile. 556's eyes drifted to Patty's slung arm, seeing a massive black bruise on her arm. Looking around the vessel, 556 could see signs of damage and shell holes in the deck.

"Frau Patty... are you okay?" 556 asked softly.

"I'm a-okay. This isn't anything." Patty said with a smile.

"Are you sure?" 556 asked as she approached the submarine tender and looked at her arm.

"Ain't hurt nothing more than a black widow bite." Patty said.

"Don't those things routinely kill humans?" 556 asked, earning a nod from Patty.

"Don't you worry about me, little one. Let Patty help you back to the fleet." Patty said as the Stuka's continued bombing the ocean, striking submarines that were chasing 556 back towards the fleet.

Patty grabbed a large silver tank and slung it over her good shoulder before jumping over the side of her ship and onto the deck of U-556, quickly scaling the conning tower and disappearing below into the hull. 556 watched in suspense as the smoke slowed and eventually stopped coming out of the hatch. Minutes later, Patty emerged, covered in soot and foam.

"Don't worry. I've put out the fires. I'll get to work right away when we return to port." Patty said, her bright white teeth cutting through the soot and singed hair.

"I guess you really are okay..." 556 said as tears slowly formed in her eyes.

"Oh no... does something hurt?" Patty asked as she tossed the tank aside and jumped back onto her deck, rushing over to 556 who was now sitting on the deck with the other bulins, who all had tears in their eyes.

"This... can't be good." Patty said as she turned her vessel around, still attached to U-556, and begun towing her along back to the fleet.

"The only reason we were able to get out..." One of the bulins said.

"... was the bravery of the Head Bulin..." Purin continued.

"... who gave her life to ensure we all got to safety." 556 finished as her tears hit the deck.

Patty looked back at the mushroom cloud that refused to dissipate.

"So... she was in the middle of... that?" Patty asked. The bulins, Purin, and 556 all nodded slowly, acknowledging the loss of an ally and a dear friend.

"Well... I guess find solace in the fact that she felt no pain. I'm sure she didn't feel a thing." Patty said as the bulins stood up and ran to the tender, who embraced all of them in a gentle hug with her good arm.

"She was the best of us all." One of the bulins cried softly.

"Well, then let us carry on her will. We're going to look forward to the future, and make her happy, alright?" Patty said, earning a nod from the bulins.

"We have to get back and inform the Kommandant... this won't be good." 556 said softly.

Isaac slowly opened the door to the deck, only for it to be slammed shut again.

"Isaac, I can't let you out until we get out of the fallout range." Odin said as she stood in front of the door.

"Odin, I get that you're protecting me, but my suit can defend against this, I believe that Norfolk said that was the case." Isaac said.

"Kommandant, the reports from what happened with Akashi's fleet are gruesome at best. I cannot allow you to come out, and I cannot bring your suit to you in a way that won't expose you to this. You're going to have to remain inside until we get back to port and get the fleet hosed down." Odin said.

"So I'm stuck in here by myself for the next god knows how many hours?" Isaac asked.

"I can come inside and wash off if you want the company." Odin said.

"Please do. You can issue orders from in here." Isaac said as he sat against the wall.

Odin smiled slightly outside the door.

"Alright, Isaac. Just give me a few minutes to get washed off." Odin said as he heard her footsteps disappear.

Twenty minutes later, Odin walked towards Isaac from the inside of the ship. She sat next to him and pulled his head into her lap.

"Every victory carries the chance of defeat in the future. We knew we were overdue." Odin whispered as she ran her hand through his hair.

"I didn't want things to go this way. We had a plan. We had the tools. This was supposed to be a battle we could win." Isaac said.

"The enemy threw us several curve balls, Isaac. You've scared them. You've forced them to use unconventional means to attempt to dispose of us. We have to think outside the box as well." Odin said as she looked down at Isaac.

"I'm beginning to think that we couldn't have avoided this. There's no way we could have predicted that." Isaac said.

"Perhaps you're correct, Kommandant. Nimitz and I had no clue that this would be what we faced." Odin said as she pulled out a picture that she received from Richthofen during the battle.

Isaac looked at the picture, and saw what looked like a modified Battleship drone.

"What is this?" Isaac asked as he looked at it.

"During the battle, I consulted with Norfolk, and she said that these were heavily modified drone ships. Apparently, when they aren't moving, their shields increase in durability to nearly three times the normal. However, heavy bombardment, or explosives of similar magnitude to the 'Block Buster' would shatter them completely. The downside, is that those shields take forever to recharge, so once broken, those ships are practically defenseless in terms of shielding. However, their guns are more advanced and fire quicker to offset that disadvantage." Odin said, giving her analysis.

"And the lack of AA?" Isaac asked.

"They don't seem to have any. All of their processing power is split between propulsion, fire control, and shields. So equipping our carriers with heavier ordinance... or using the wisdom dust to produce explosives, would be the best way to deal with these new drone ships." Odin said.

"You saw what that dust did, and you want to use them?!" Isaac asked, shocked.

"We can control what we use them on. I refuse to allow the use of these potential bombs on humans. But if Drone fleets are doing things like this, we have to act in kind." Odin said.

"I... I can't argue that." Isaac said, giving up any potential fight he had.

"You wanted to say something." Odin said as she poked Isaac's face.

"I need to listen when my advisor speaks, so if she believes that it is a good idea to build munitions with the wisdom dust, then I have no reason to fight it." Isaac said.

Odin sighed.

"You can be so difficult sometimes. If you genuinely have a problem with it, we can find a way around the issue. But we can't always rely on being in friendly territory to provide heavy bomber cover. That is the only reason why I suggested it." Odin said.

"I don't like it. But... I can't argue this point. We need better weapons to deal with things like this, and I don't have any better alternatives." Isaac said.

"We can work on the rules for such things before we create them. That way the carriers know that we can't just use them for everything." Odin said.

"And I want to find a way to stabilize it. We need to find a scenario that makes them only deadly in their intended use. Because we can't be tiptoeing everywhere due to to volatile nature of wisdom dust." Isaac said.

"We can figure that out, but for now, let's just get to port and get everyone the help they need." Odin said as the horns of the fleet sounded, indicating their arrival at port.