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...
Tonight, we shall become
witnesses to history.
.سنشهد اللّيلة على كتابة التاريخ
Heute werden wir Zeugen,
wie Geschichte geschrieben wird.
Esta noche seremos
testigos de la historia.
Esta noche seremos
testigos de la historia.
Nous allons devenir
les témoins de l’histoire en marche.
Stasera diventeremo
Esta noite, seremos 
testemunhas da história.