It took five volumes, but I'm definitely more invested in the manga than I've ever been before, and I'm -finally- concretely committed to continuing reading it.
The biggest thing here is that a decent chunk of the volume is spent following Haruna fight the Japanese army on land, using her abilities as a mental model to carve up tanks and shit with the generation of forcefields and things. So while the future-naval action was pretty spectacular in earlier volumes, it seems I'm more interested when the thing more closely resembles a fucking shounen battle manga....
There are some neat developments with the characters here, basically proving the Fog's mental models are far more intriguing than the actual humans. When Makie's "creator" is killed in battle, Haruna goes berserk and almost bombs all of Japan's capitals while linked to Maya's weapons systems. Her fury is interrupted by a signal from a new mental model (thought by some to be Yamato, though others disagree) who broadcasts an image of her figure to the other mental models we've seen. Maya's ship is seemingly ambushed by another mental model (the same from the vision?) who appears dressed as an American astronaut. Takao is confused by the goings on, but Iona is not, which leads to Takao to question some elements of Iona's existence, being the second mental model after Yamato.
Haruna's legs are shown more frequently as she uses her coat as a weapon. The Nagato twins get more screen-time to be mysterious in their detached beauty. Takao gets a few large panels showing her swimsuit-clad form, as well as scenes with her in the short dress/shirt and tights. Good shit. Still no Kirishima as she appeared on Vol. 4's cover, but whatever.