a million miles from home

01. 02. 03. 04. 05.

• Ledo is an Ensign in the Galactic Alliance Army of Humankind


• He has served for over 145,000 hours (16.5 years)


• Pilot of a mass-produced model of Machine Calibre, an Anti-Hideauze Annihilation Weapon


• Assisted by Chamber K6821, a Pilot Support Enlightenment Interface System

Skills

• hand-to-hand combat
• weapons skills
• zero-g combat and survival
• piloting skills
• reconnaissance
• computer technology and information systems

Ledo has been in military service (presumably) his whole life until his crash-landing on Earth.

It is to be expected that his fighting skills, reaction speed and reflexes, quick and decisive thinking and repressed extended social skills are a part of his character already.

This is also shown upon his first ride in a provided Diver Yunboro, as he mastered the control without any help immediately, although he eventually messed up due to the fact that he is not trained to swim, and thus unable to move underwater.

His piloting skills are shown to be quite strong and he is capable of taking down extremely large amounts of enemies at once (with the help of Chamber).

However, he also takes risks unbefitting of his capable mind.

Due to the fact that he has been raised specifically for combat, he is overspecialized in that one field and is completely at a loss when not in battle.

He later decides to use his skills with Chamber to become part of the Salvage Teams of Gargantia.

Other combat related skills of he's includes hand-to-hand combat and Firefight Training as displayed when he took down two armed Land Country Operatives within three seconds.

Note: Contains spoilers for the entire plot of Suisei no Gargantia. Not all information here will be relevant depending on canon point

Content Warning: contains mentions of death and specifically child death, indoctrination/manipulation, brainwashing, eugenics, genocide, violence, gore

Early Life

Like all humans born in space and raised as a part of the Galactic Alliance of Humankind, Ledo's entire existence has revolved around the war against the Hideauze.

By his own admission, he gets rid of anything deemed unnecessary according to the Galactic Alliance's guidelines on what is best and what is unnecessary according to the intended plan for the future of the human species, which is one possible explanation for why many of his childhood memories are missing.

Equally likely is that his memories were forcibly repressed to avoid the lasting, long term effects of trauma. He witnessed the death of Londe — the boy he recognises as looking like him and who is most likely his younger brother — when he was disposed of according to Galactic Alliance law regarding the fate of those deemed too weak to be useful as soldiers.

Crash Landing on Earth

Ledo is awakened from REM Enlightment by Chamber, an artificial intelligence unit who looks after Ledo's battle and life functions. After being briefed on the Galactic Alliance's plan to assault the Hideauze base, Ledo is informed by Chamber that he has been in military service for 145,000 hours (16.54 years) and that when the mission is over should he survive it, he will be granted limited citizenship rights and will be allowed to visit Avalon for four weeks to eat, sleep, and reproduce as he sees fit.

Uninterested, Ledo states he did want to see it but he's no longer sure. Told of the rights he will be afforded, Ledo dismisses them as not being for him. Asking Chamber if he is happy, Ledo is told he exists for his success, for which he thanks him. As the battle wages on, the Galactic Alliance begins to suffer heavy casualties and begin retreating. Ledo offers to buy time, but eventually he runs out of power. As Commander Kugel falls back to delay the Hideauze, Ledo is attacked just before boarding the carrier and is sent spiraling out of the Galactic Alliance's wormhole jump.

Six months later, Ledo is brought out of cryostatis by Chamber due to a need for pilot intervention. As he examined his surroundings, Pinion's crew is trying to take apart his Machine Calibre with absolutely no success whatsoever. He and Chamber strategise and wait for everyone else to leave. As Ledo looked around, Amy enters along with Pinion. Trapped and likely to be discovered anyway, Ledo is forced to take Amy hostage in the hope that they won't attack immediately. As he ran throughout the ship, he is eventually cornered by the crew and is forced to activate Chamber. The robot crashed through the roof of the hanger and flew in to land in between Ledo and the men.

Ledo and the Gargantia crew end up in a tense stand off. Ledo manages with Chamber's help to communicate with Ridget. However, his words seemed to rile them up more than calm them down. As Ridget, the Fleet Commander, and the crew try to decide what to do about Ledo, Amy starts talking to him.

However, at the same time Bellows returned to the place they salvaged the Machine Calibre from. Pirates attacked her ship convoy. Amy asks Ledo for help in fending off the pirates, and he agrees seeing an opportunity to gain the trust of the people.

He flies to Bellow's convoy and vaporises all the pirates with an extremely accurate beam. The people of Gargantia are shocked at Chamber's destructive power and Ledo's choice to kill the pirates. Amy scolds Ledo while the leaders of Gargantia discuss the eventual retaliation they may suffer from other pirate fleets. Meanwhile, a survivor informs the pirate leader Yukkage about the attack, and she decides to attack Gargantia.

Bellows explains to Ledo that weapons must only be used as a last resort, and that in this world, people must rely on each other to survive. However, Yukkage's fleet is seen approaching Gargantia. Ledo speaks with Ridget about the situation and agrees to help them in exchange for being accepted by the fleet.

When asked, he explains that Bellows told him that Gargantia believes in the saying "give fresh water to the one who catches the fish" and that the pirates do not. Understanding this, Ledo determines that it would be more beneficial to come to an arrangement with Gargantia. Ledo is then instructed to defeat the enemies with no human casualties.

Ledo complies with his new orders, disables the pirate ship, and returns to Gargantia to deal with Yukkage, who has attacked Gargantina in a sneak attack. Ledo confronts Yukkage and defeats her without a single scratch, sending her and her girls flying. Seeing this, the remainder of her fleet chooses to retreat. The crew of Gargantia thank Ledo for this, and upon coming back to Gargantia, Ledo is greeted by Amy and replies with his first words in Earth language: "Thank you".

Despite having driven away the pirates, Ledo receives an invoice to pay for all the damage caused by him and Chamber, although Ridget claims that he shall be relieved from the living expenses and the fee of having Chamber aboard for his help. The crew then asks Chamber for help in moving items.

Adapting to Life on Earth

While Chamber helps the other workers, Ledo continues to carve the Hideauze claw he always carries with him. When Amy asks him about it, he gives it to her and she decides to pass it to her little brother Bebel. He also mentions that he is standing by as his lack of skill in helping the workers only slows them down, so it works out better for everyone for him to observe Chamber working rather than participating himself.

Ledo soon wants more information about his whereabouts, so Amy decides to take him to Dr. Oldham, who explains to him that most of mankind's old technology is lost, thus there is no way for Gargantia to help him return to space.

Some time later, it begins raining. Ledo is surprised by this as he's never experienced a "precipitation event", as Chamber would later refer to it, and helps to collect it in response to Bellows' request.

As the rain stops, Amy takes Ledo back to her place to dry his soaked clothes and meet Bebel, who asks him about his life in space and the object he was carving. Ledo claims to not know what it really is and upon realising that it is actually a flute, Bebel plays it. This triggers a forgotten memory that makes him cry for the very first time, judging by his confused response to what is happening. He then asks Bebel to return the flute to him.

Later, he considers if he should learn more about their surroundings, while Chamber mentions that he must eventually leave it all behind when he returns to command.

Despite Chamber regarding the action as "unnecessary", Ledo decides to find himself a job rather than relying on Chamber to serve the crew. Acknowledging this, Amy decides to help Ledo but there aren't any vacancies on the fleet. Amy has to go back to work and Ledo continues to search on his own with no luck until he was offered a job at the stable to shovel cow manure. Excited at first at finally being offered an opportunity, he quickly refuses and runs away due to the smell.

After getting himself some fresh air, he comments that finding a job on the fleet is unexpectedly hard, and asks Chamber to again scan for any job suitable for him. Once again Chamber reminds him that there is nothing suitable for him and that he should just continue to standby.

Ledo is later invited by Pinion to a barbecue party as the whole fleet stops moving due to no wind, meaning no waves and therefore a calm day at sea. Amy is also invited, while Melty and Saaya are already waiting at the spot as the trio arrives at the "secret place" according to Pinion. The courier girls invite Ledo to swim (and Amy eventually teaches him a bit), but Pinion asks Ledo to retrieve something important for the meat and frames it as a task that only he can accomplish. Considering this his first job, Ledo is determined to complete the task.

On his way to retrieving the item, he accidentally runs into three transvestite men who intended to hire him, who then chase him until he ends up at the dead end on the broken staircase on Gargantia's water sprinkler system. He is later rescued by Amy as she's flying up on a sail kite racing Melty and Saaya to the top of the tower.

Amy drops Ledo off at the entrance of the block, where he is again chased by the same trio again.

Ledo retrieves a mysterious box from an old woman working at the ironsmith and wonders if there's some sort of parts inside. He has to return through yet one more chase but finally returns to the "secret place", although by now many more people have shown up uninvited at the barbeque.

Chamber is laying on the deck, being used as grilling surface, and repeatedly queries Pinion for an explanation for what's happening.

The item Pinion asked Ledo to retrieve turns out to be a special barbecue sauce and Ledo is shocked by the tastiness of the grilled meat. Everyone returns to work once the wind picks up again in the evening and Amy tells Ledo that the party was actually thrown by Pinion in order to cheer Ledo up since he'd been disappointed at not finding a job.

Later, Ledo attempts to help out the fishermen during the festival where a "ring galaxy" has formed from an intersection of currents. The ring of light bugs traps fish and makes them easy to catch in large numbers.

However, due to the fact that he can't swim, he fails to maneuver a Diver Yunboro when he realises that the mechs do not have voice control or AI support. Chamber takes over the task. Having lost his first job, Pinion takes Ledo to a restaurant where the courier girls are performing a dance. He then asks Ledo to join his team to salvage things from the sea bottom. Bellows interrupts the conversation, asserting that Ledo should join her team instead of Pinion's. They argue while Ledo is distracted by Amy's performance.

The main dish is soon served, revealed to be an octopus. Ledo mistakes it for a Hideauze and points his gun at it but Bellows assures him that it's merely a harmless cooked creature.

Meanwhile, Chamber had caused a mess among the fishermen due to its Gravity Wave used to capture the fish being too powerful and mincing the catch. Requesting pilot assistance, Ledo arrives and guides Chamber to use a net and work together with the Diver Yunboros to fish properly.

Later that night, Amy gets to spend some time alone with Ledo. A sudden burst of lightning off the sea galaxy startles Ledo and he quickly draws his weapon and protectively shields Amy while commanding Chamber to scan for any enemies. Chamber finds no threat and Amy assures Ledo that everything is fine and explains that it was just an energy discharge off the "ring galaxy" breaking up, which also creates aurora-like veils of light over the sea. He asks Amy to show him her dance one more time. He then gave Bebel some sweets and a toy crab after they returned, and decided that the money paid to him should be used to benefit others.

Returning to the Mission

Deciding to join Bellows' salvage team, Ledo used Chamber to help out on the job so that he could learn from her. During the operation they encounter a whale-squid, which Chamber identifies as almost certainly being a form of Hideauze. Ledo moves to attack the whale-squid, ignoring Bellows' pleas, and kills the creature.

This causes a disturbance among the fleet, as most people regard the whale-squid as a sacred creature.

Meanwhile, Ledo has Chamber analyze a sample of the creature and he learns that the Hideauze on Earth had likely devolved due to a lack of predators and are capable of co-existing with mankind unlike those in space.

However, this does not stop Ledo from attempting to complete his mission when a large pod of whale-squids pass within thirty metres of Gargantia. Ridget and Amy prevent him from climbing about the Machine Calibre. The fleet managed to avoid any conflict, but Ledo decides that he must hunt the Hideauze down for the sake of Gargantia's, and more importantly, Amy's safety. He feels that the Hideauze do not threaten humans as of now because they are too primitive but that they will eventually become a danger as the Hideauze in space are. Ledo is convinced that if the Hideauze become a threat than the only response will be to form a human society like that of the Galactic Alliance, necessitating the same sacrifices in the name of efficiacy, such as culling the weak.

Meanwhile, Pinion sees an opportunity as a chance to return to the spot where his older brother died while exploring a sunken complex that turned out to house a whale-squid nest. Pinion also persuades Flange to leave the fleet and start salvaging things from the Sea of Mists. Ledo agrees to join Pinion in order to terminate all of the whale-squids in the area.

As the fleet arrives on the spot, Ledo and Chamber are sent ahead to battle the whale-squid and he succeeds in eliminating all of the them with the assistance of Pinion and his crew.

As Ledo moves into the heart of the facility, he discovers old archival data and learns that the Hideauze are actually a kind of "evolved" human created via genetic engineering in order to allow humanity to adapt to the hostile environment in space during the fifth ice age.

The conflict between the Evolvers and the Continental Union finally lead to the never-ending war between the Hideauze and the Galactic Alliance of Humankind.

Knowing that the victims of the massacre he caused were humans too, he feels disgusted and begins doubting himself, his mission, and the Galatic Alliance's way.

Chamber, on the other hand, concludes that no matter what the GAH's standards and ideas are, the Hideauze are still considered enemies due to their "evolution" granting them a powerful body, which meant that they had no need for the intellectual pursuits and the significance of civilisation that symbolises the human race. Due to this, they have rejected humanity and should therefore be eliminated to allow for the stable future development of humanity.

Reuniting with the Commander

Meanwhile, a mysterious fleet slowly approaches Flange's fleet. It is soon revealed that Command Kugel also fell through the wormhole and ended up on Earth. The first Earth dweller he meets is a young pirate queen named Linaria who was being chased down by her older sisters with the intention of killing her in order to take back their father's fleet, which he had left to Linaria.

Linaria is also an outlier as she worships the Sky God as opposed to the whale-squids, which most see as a sort of sea god. Thus, Linaria presents Kugel to the others on the fleet as an emissary of the Sky God, allowing her to maintain control of the fleet despite her sister's efforts to undermine her.

After destroying an entire nest of whale-squids and realising the the humans of Earth have been revering the Hideauze like gods and therefore must have lost their dignity as humans, Kugel takes a more active role in ruling the fleet.

Kugel genuinely desired to help the fleet, but things start to take a bad turn as the size of the fleet grows and disease starts to run rampant.

Eventually, Linaria succumbs to her consumption-like illness which affects Kugel profoundly. He decides that things need to change in order for human civilisation to thrive, meaning creating a society on Earth comparable to what exists in the Galactic Alliance. Most significantly, Kugel determines that not only is this his directive as the highest ranking Alliance officer on the planet, it is his directive as god.

Summoned by Commander Kugel, Ledo offers no objections to rejoining the chain of command. Flange's fleet is forced to join Kugel's fleet when threatened to do so. Ledo talks with Kugel and decides to help Kugel "enlighten" the people, and Ledo agrees though he has doubts. Kugel also reveals that the Galactic Alliance command has always been aware that the Hideauze evolved from humans but felt that the average front line soldier did not need to know as that knowledge is unnecessary for them to complete their mission.

He grows concerned when he is informed that the next target for "enlightenment" is Gargantia. Later on, he witnesses how the fleet culls the weak by dumping them into the sea, which shocks him and made him worry again that the same fate would befall Bebel.

Ledo pleads with Kugel to reconsider the upcoming attack on Gargantia, but Kugel disagrees and emphasised once again the importance of the "education" for the stability and order of the world, which is the only way to truly liberate them.

Back at the hangar, he asks Chamber if it's possible and legitimate to battle Kugel. Chamber gives Ledo a positive response, but then Ledo discovers Pinion overhearing their conversation.

Pinion agrees to help Ledo with the rebellion and upgrades Chamber with additional weapons. Ledo engages Kugel's Striker unit prior to the attack on Gargantia in order to protect the fleet. Ledo is overpowered by Striker's superior speed and weaponry, but with the interruption of Pinion, he is able to pin Striker down and open the cockpit.

Here Ledo discovers that Commander Kugel has been long dead, a dried out corpse still sitting in the cockpit's sterile environment. When exposed to the elements his body fully dessicates.

It is revealed then that Striker had taken control of the fleet according to Kugel's plan prior to his death, and the AI regained control of the unit's movement to continue the battle.

In order to stop the malfunctioned Striker's plan, Ledo agrees with Chamber to shoot down Striker, but is again overwhelmed until Ledo decides to activate their Neuroplus power. This ability grants the unit a major boost through interfacing directly with the pilot's nervous system. However, prolonged use will lead to the death of the pilot.

Chamber's power slightly surpassed Striker's thanks to the Neuroplus link but Ledo still fails to shoot it down before the time limit that will kill Ledo if he decides to continue fighting.

Ledo considers that he has always been willing to die but he never really knew how to live, expressing his regret at not being able to spend the rest of his life on Gargantia and with Amy, who is willing to do so.

Chamber determines that Ledo's thoughts have made him unfit for a soldier in combat. As unauthorised people are not allowed in the cockpit, Chamber ejects the cockpit which leaves Ledo confused.

Chamber stats that Ledo should go discover the world and that there is no more guidance or enlightenment that can be offered. Ledo doing so will fulfill Chamber's task as a support unit. Witnessing Chamber sacrificing itself for him, Ledo sheds tears.

After the battle, Ledo returns to Gargantia and continues his job with the salvage team.

Even without Chamber's presence anymore, he keeps its now defunct communication terminal in rememberance.