Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet

Overview

In the distant future, humankind has taken to the stars and formed the Galactic Alliance of Humankind. The Galactic Alliance is engaged in a perpetual war with a tentacled alien species known as the Hideauze. Sixteen-year-old Ensign Ledo is a soldier in the Galactic Alliance, piloting a Machine Caliber, an artificial intelligence-automated, humanoid-shaped battle suit, which he refers to as “Chamber”. After a failed attempt by the Galactic Alliance forces to destroy an enemy super-weapon, Ledo is knocked into a wormhole and loses consciousness. When he awakens, he learns from Chamber that he has been in cryostasis for six months while his wounds were healing. Ledo learns that he and Chamber have been “salvaged” by a rag-tag band of “primitive” human scavengers. Ledo discovers that he is on board an ocean ship named the Gargantia, that is part of a massive fleet of ships on an ocean-covered planet. Chamber tells him that local star charts reveal the planet is Earth, the birthplace of humanity, a place that members of the Galactic Alliance were only familiar with from stories and believed was a myth.