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...
This might cause more chaos
than we've ever known.
.قد يتسبّب هذا في فوضى لم نرَ لها مثيل
Es könnte noch mehr
Verwirrung mit sich bringen.
Esto podría causar más caos
de lo que jamás hemos conocido.
Esto podría causar más caos
del que jamás hemos conocido.
Mais nous risquons d’engendrer
un chaos bien plus grand encore.
Il che potrebbe portare a disordini e caos
 ancora maggiori di quelli avvenuti finora.
Isto pode causar um caos sem precedentes.