Iowa looked at Isaac who had placed down the receiver.
"What's wrong, Admiral?" Iowa asked.
"Perkins authorized the use of Wisdom dust munitions against a target in the Union." Isaac said.
"So? Is that bad? What are Wisdom Dust Munitions?" Iowa asked.
"I'm sure you have heard of the Manhattan Project. The project designation used for the construction of the Atom Bombs?" Isaac asked, leveraging what little he knew.
"I have, if only from my Commander. It sounds like a truly devastating weapon." Iowa said.
"It was… Perkins authorized the use of a bomb that has similar capabilities. And he used it knowing that thirty-five thousand souls resided on the other end of that Mirror Sea. Iowa… I need you to make a choice." Isaac said.
Iowa looked at Isaac, her mind racing at the potential choice in front of her after hearing that her own husband had leveled a Union town.
"I-I'll hear it." Iowa spoke, still processing the news.
"I plan on giving Perkins some time to get away from the front. Maybe station him in the Philippines until we inevitably invade the Soviet Union. You need to choose whether or not you're staying with him. He will need time to properly internalize the ramifications and aftermath of the orders he gave." Isaac explained.
"So, either I stay with him, or I go with you?" Iowa asked.
"Yes. We have the Yamato sisters who can, with a bit of help, fill the role of losing our star Iowa class Battleship… but I also remember your aversion to being away from the front when I asked you to escort the Chinese cruisers to New Guinea. That's why I'm putting the ball in your court so to speak." Isaac said.
Iowa hung her head.
"Give… give me some time to mull it over, Admiral." Iowa requested.
"You have some time. I will only be relaying this order once I step aboard the Norfolk and resume command over my fleet." Isaac said as he sat in the chair on the bridge and held his hands to his head.
Iowa walked away from the bridge with tears streaming from her eyes.
"So many people… honey… why did you do it?" Iowa whispered as she made her way towards her quarters.
Empress sat on the charred concrete that had made up Puget sound Naval Yards. All around her, the fires were dying slowly and the winds finally beginning to calm.
With little effort, Empress rose to her feet and summoned her rigging, bringing with it a host of screens labeled with the names of the other three Arbiters. Once the faces appeared on screen, Empress cleared her throat.
"Apollyon has managed to develop weapons based off of Wisdom dust." Empress spoke as the other Sirens looked at her via their screens.
"Preposterous." Strength spoke angrily.
"He has become quite dangerous. Perhaps we should deploy similar tactics?" Hermit suggested.
"Let us not be too hasty, Hermit. Us using similar force would result in the world being reduced to ashes and cinders. All of our hard work, and comrade's lives would be lost for nothing." Temperance spoke before turning to Empress.
"Empress, you would have some form of evidence of this, right? He has never produced such weapons in other timelines. Maybe things are not as they seem?" Temperance spoke up.
All eyes went to Temperance.
"What do you mean? You doubt me?" Empress asked pointedly.
"Not at all. But I would at least like to hear about what had occurred, if only to help corroborate your story." Temperance said, earning her nods from the other two arbiters.
"Agreed." Strength spoke, her harsh tone sending a small chill down Empress's spine
Empress huffed but complied, nonetheless.
"Fine. From what I recall, we were attacking his forces via a mirror sea we hijacked. There was a plane, looked like an Ironblood plane that had been shot down on the other end. It crashed through the mirror sea and within seconds, detonated with a brilliant white light." Empress recalled.
"Ironblood aircraft? Empress, it wouldn't be impossible for it to be something that the Ironblood's had managed to modify using the wisdom cubes. Were you able to confirm the presence of an actual device that used wisdom dust as a source of the explosion?" Temperance pushed.
"Well… no. It detonated within seconds of crashing down on our end… but… you might have a point. Alpha did report finding documents saying that the humans had dabbled in using wisdom cubes as a power source… but any evidence has been destroyed… Puget sound is nothing but a crater…" Empress spoke, the anger in her voice mixed heavily with the doubt in her own memory.
"Perhaps this plane was one of the objects they experimented with, after all, Apollyon has gathered some interesting characters, including an Ironblood pilot, according to reports from before his capture of the Philippines." Temperance spoke, putting several lines of text up on her screen for everyone to see.
Empress sighed.
"Perhaps the explosion affected me more than I care to admit. It does seem plausible that this pilot and his plane could have been the cause of such a detonation. In either case, we have to cover up any indication that Apollyon has this kind of research. If he has the documents from the Ironblood experiments, he could utilize it to monstrous effect." Empress spoke.
"Agreed. However, Empress… I would like to protest the use or even thought of using Wisdom dust as munitions. Tester used them in Australia, according to her reports. The fallout killed hundreds of people we could have used… had her forces won the day. I prefer not to rule over a world of ash. As much as he pisses me off with that fleet of his, it is not worth destroying this planet to kill him. He is only one person; he will fuck up eventually… he always does." Strength spoke in a surprising turn of events.
"I would stand with Strength on this. He is not worth even considering such action." Temperance spoke.
Empress sat silent for a moment.
"Then how do we proceed?" Empress asked.
"We shall redouble our efforts in supporting Purifier and Alpha. We will also upgrade the drones to be more durable in the face of Apollyon's growing firepower." Temperance spoke.
"Worst comes to worst, I will go kill him myself." Strength spoke.
At Strength's word, Empress seemed satisfied with dropping the subject.
"Fine. I will begin digging through our previous research to see what can be done to augment our current assets. His next target is the Soviet Union, maybe we'll get lucky and he will freeze to death." Empress spat as she cut her connection.