On the day of the ceremony marking the transition from the A.D. to the Universal Century calendar, the space station Laplace, official residence of the Earth Federation prime minister, is destroyed by a terrorist bombing. One of the terrorists, a young man named Syam Vist, is caught in the explosion but barely manages to survive. He obtains a forbidden box that will come to be known as Laplace's Box.

Almost a century later, in Universal Century 0096...
Like whatever I'm doing...
I'm not really there, you know?
أشعر أنّي مهما فعلت... فأن لست موجودًا حقًّا، أتفهمين؟
Ich fühle mich, als würde ich …
Siento que haga lo que haga
no estoy realmente allí.
Siento que haga lo que haga
no estoy realmente allí.
Quoi que je fasse, j’ai l’impression
de ne jamais être réellement là.
È come se, qualunque cosa stia facendo,
in quel momento io non sia veramente lì.
Não importa o que eu faça,
eu não sinto que estou lá, entende?