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...
They claim to desire autonomy for
the Spacenoids, but at their heart
،إنّهم يدّعون المطالبة بالحكم الذاتي للسبايسنود
Sie sehnen sich nach der Autonomie
der Spacenoids, doch im Grunde folgen sie nur …
Aseguran desear la autonomía para
los Espacionoides, pero en realidad
Aseguran desear la autonomía para
los Espacionoides, pero en realidad
Toutefois, bien qu’ils revendiquaient
l’indépendance des Spacenoïdes,
Essi sostengono a gran voce
 l'indipendenza degli Spazionoidi,
Embora clamem lutar pela 
autonomia dos espaçonoides,