To say that there was nervousness in the Thanatos would be an understatement, as the time counter synchronized with the nuclear bombs on the other side advanced the faces of officers, of subordinates, of friends' soldiers, of people who firmly believed they were their commander in chief. People who believed that Eneas, like Jahve, had been chosen by a strange entity from the future to save them all, were falling into disquiet.
There is no moral in a death in war, it simply happens, except for acts like those of Jason and his companions, most actions could have an unforeseen, non-heroic ending. The colonel had risked his life for a mere intuition.
More than seventy percent of the crew did not know Achilles, nor did they give a damn that he had been cloned. Eneas' mission was just a risk that her boss, her idol, should never have taken.