Ironsides heads to a meeting with the National Assembly Leaders (NALs), who rarely make appearances at post-battle meetings. She is satisfied with the outcome of Spensa’s journey in the DDF, for she was able to obtain medical readings from Spensa’s helmet before finding an official reason to dismiss her from duty. Now, she does not have to fight anyone over whether to let Spensa into the DDF as a full pilot.

The NALs confront Ironsides and tell her the DDF is spiraling into failure under her leadership. Inwardly, she has known this for some time. She hasn’t had the resources she needed, and the NALs keep pulling their children, the DDF's best pilots, out of service. Now, she proposes a bold, dangerous plan: throwing all their resources into a battle to protect the falling, cube-shaped shipyard from the Krell so that they can salvage its massive store of acclivity rings. She proposes that if they succeed, the store of acclivity rings will allow them to build a large enough force to survive the Krell. The NALs agree to the plan, noting that it will be like another Battle of Alta.