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...
I am the Prime Minister of the
Earth Federation, Ricardo Marcenas.
.أنا رئيس وزراء اتّحاد الأرض الفيدراليّ، ريكاردو مارسيناس
Ich bin der Premierminister
der Erdenföderation, …
Soy el primer ministro de la Federación
Terrestre, Ricardo Marcenas.
Soy el primer ministro de la Federación
Terrestre, Ricardo Marcenas.
Je suis Ricardo Marcenas,
1er ministre du Gouvernement Fédéral.
Io sono il Primo Ministro del governo
della Federazione Terrestre,
Sou Ricardo Marcenas, primeiro-ministro 
da Federação Terrestre.