With her nanomaterials compromised by her sister ships attack, the I-401 sinks into the deep ocean while Iona tends to an injured Gunz?. Meanwhile, Takao and the others look for them but all communications and radar are jammed by spatial distortions from the last battle. Despite knowing that the only way for her to survive is to abandon her captain, Iona refuses to do so until Gunz? orders her to cut all life support systems, claiming that fulfilling their mission to deliver the vibration warhead is more important than saving him. However, when Gunz? stops responding, a distraught Iona breaks down her own mental model to create a survival pod for him and her core. When Takao locates the pod, she decides to sacrifice her own body and use its nanomaterials to restore Iona and the I-401, bringing them back to the surface and saving Gunz?'s life. Once knowing that the I-401 has not perished, Kongou can't hide the urge to fight it again, but declaring that she is displaying the same erratic behavior seen in the other ships who deviated from the Admiralty Code, I-400 and I-402 relieve her from duty and lock down her systems. In the occasion, Kongou finds out that Maya's mental model lacks conciousness, being a fake artificial intelligence created just to watch over her.