Last Exile Ginyoku no Fam - 01

And the last show to air (I think) finally makes its appearance.  I never got around to finishing the first Last Exile, so it's possible, maybe even likely that I'll be missing details from time to time.

The show opens with Fam sleepwalking her way out of an airship's exterior door, stopped only by a rope tied around one of her ankles.  Apparently, she does it often (though one wonders what happened the first time...).

After the opening, the show starts in the middle of a hunt, with Fam and Gisey, in their two-person Vespa, leading an attack on a larger battleship.  After antagonizing the captain into launching a pursuit, they lead the ship into an ambush, letting the other ships in their group to launch anchors into its hull and tie it down.  Back on their main ship, another pirate, Dio, sits looking up at the sky, and sees Exile entering the atmosphere.

Covered back in the first show.

Elsewhere, at the Grand Lake, located between the Ades Federation and the Turan Kingdom,  Turan's two princesses are preparing for a peace conference between the two countries.  The younger princess, Millia, expresses doubts over the peace conference, as the Ades Federation has waged war to conquer other countries, while the older, Liliana, says that because both hold the lake sacred, they would not begin a war there.  They are interrupted by the arrival of the Turan flagship, the Lasas, and depart to the conference.

Back at the pirates' base, the ships have returned from the hunt, and Fam and Gisey go to get breakfast.  On the way, Fam notices Dio lounging around, and chews him out for not working.  He laughs, tells her that she's going to have a busy day, and runs off.  Soon after, an alarm is sounded, warning of a large number of ships approaching the Grand Lake, and the pirates launch again.

Again at the Grand Lake, the princesses are wondering why the Ades Federation's delegation is running late, only to be startled by the sudden arrival of dozens, if not hundreds, of warships.  Premier Luscinia, who is leading the ships, declares war, and opens fire, giving them no time to react.

Just screams "peace conference" doesn't it?

As Fam and Gisey approach the battle site at the front end of the pirates' formation, they see the Lasas under fire, and Fam decides to declare it the target for capture.  She signals the ship, informing them of her intent to commandeer the ship and take it away from the battle.  While Millia is hesitant, Liliana quickly realizes that they have no other option but to accept the pirates' aid in getting their ship away, and agrees to the deal.  The pirate mothership then launches its single-person vanships, who drop a smokescreen around the Ades ships, then use false signals to cause the ships to fire on each other.

Wonderful, blatant CG everywhere...

A few ships break out of the smokescreen and resume the attack on the Lasas, which is then boarded and commandeered by Dio, who begins to issue orders to drop all of the ships' smoke bombs and depth charges, and takes the ship straight up.  As it emerges above the clouds, the main wings are blown off, and it falls downward, vanishing in a massive explosion.  This causes the Ades commander to report that the ship had been scuttled, with all hands lost.  Despite that, Luscinia and his adviser have doubts about that report.

Meanwhile, the Lasas has safely escaped the battlefield, and Liliana declares that the surviving ships will regroup, then head for their capital.