Before his death, Fairlock nominates Ridget as his successor. Meanwhile, Chamber informs Ledo that he finally managed to pinpoint the location of their civilization in space, but their current location is too far from it, and it may take thousands of years until someone picks up their distress signal. As Fairlock's funeral is held, several dissident ships agree to follow Pinion's plan and prepare themselves to get separated from the Gargantia. Melty decides to leave with them, and Saya asks Amy if she does not want to leave with Ledo as well, but she responds that she can't abandon her brother. Seeing how much his sister is suffering with Ledo's decision to leave, Bevel tries to dissuade him, and Ledo says that his drive to kill the whalesquids also comes from his desire to protect both Amy and him from the Hideauze. Instead of attending her foster father's funeral, Ridget looks for a solution to stop the fleet from splitting up, but Bellows reminds her that she does not need to take all the burden to herself, as she will always have the rest of the fleet to support her. Ridget then sees Fairlock off as his body is sent to the waters and asks the members of Gargantia to lend her their support. Soon after, a devastated Amy watches as the dissident ships leave the Gargantia, with Ledo aboard them.

With all the Hideauze in the area killed, Pinion and his crew manage to salvage ancient technology not seen anywhere, but instead of sharing it with the rest of mankind as originally planned, Pinion says that they have the right to keep it to themselves, and sends a message to the other fleets warning them to keep out of their territory. As the message reaches the Gargantia, the fleet had just reorganized itself and there is the concern that other ships may leave to join Pinion's side as well. With the technology salvaged by them, Pinion's fleet defeats a hostile pirate crew who in return asks for a place among them, and he agrees. Meanwhile, Ledo hears from Chamber that the lightbugs that mankind use as a power source were also created by the Hideauze, which further proves their discovery. Ledo then questions if there is still a need to keep fighting the Hideauze after all they learned. The Machine Caliber replies that it came to the conclusion that the Galactic Alliance and the Hideauze are too different for them to coexist, as one side evolved and perfected their civilization while the other relinquished civilization altogether, thus their conflict is inevitable. Chamber then informs Ledo about a transmission from a Galactic Alliance vessel and as a huge fleet approaches them, Ledo sees Commander Kugel's Machine Caliber atop it and finds that he is alive.