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...
it couldn't have been more
than a momentary glimpse.
.فلا يمكن أن تكون أكثر من لمحةٍ عابرة
hätte er nicht mehr
als eine kurze Illusion gesehen.
no puede haber sido
más que un vistazo momentáneo.
no puede haber sido
más que un vistazo momentáneo.
ils n’ont dû apercevoir
guère plus qu’une lueur fugace.
gli saremo sembrati nient'altro
che una fugace illusione, non trovi?
não foi mais do que 
um relance momentâneo.