Episode 01: Prelude To Battle

June 15, CE 71: The Earth Alliance invades the sovereign nation of ORB in an attempt to seize control of the Kaguya mass-driver. Shinn Asuka and his family rush to pack up their belongings and flee their home as Uzumi Nara Atha's order of evacuation plays on the television; they run out of their home and into a crowded bus as an M1 Astray crashes into a nearby building. Several Alliance Dagger mobile-suits appear, shooting at the fleeing ORB mobile suits as the bus with Shinn and his family flees.

Kira Yamoto, piloting the Gundam Freedom, engages the three EA Gundams (Forbidden, Calamity and Raider) in the skies above a military port at Onogoro Island. The Calamity fires its twin high-energy beam cannons, which Kira dodges. The beams pierce through an ORB battleship and it explodes. Shinn and his family, along with many other refugees that fled to the port are showered with debris from the exploding battleship. Kira continues to trade shots with the three EA Gundams as the terrified civilians pack themselves into a transport ship. On the ship, Shinn is violently thrown off the ship by a panic-stricken man and falls into the sea; losing sight of his parents and little sister in the confusion.

While fighting the Forbidden and Calamity, a Dagger tries to attack Kira from behind, but is cut down instead. Shinn struggles to stay afloat in the churning waters as his family shouts at him from the deck of the ship. Shinn watches as the Freedom slices the Dagger in two, and each burnt half of the mobile suit crash down onto the refugee ship, exploding in a plume of orange fury. Shinn's sister screams his name as she disappears in the flames. Shards of flesh and blood splatter Shinn's face. He screams at the Gundams fighting in the sky above him and faints. Shinn's body washes away in the sea while the battle for ORB continues.

Ezalia Joule is seen meeting with an EA Admiral. A short narration details the events following the battle of Jachin Due. Both the EA and ZAFT lost the majority of their fighting ability along with their respective wills to fight, and thus sign a peace-treaty. After the unprecedented violence of the Bloody Valentine War, both the Earth Alliance and PLANT are threatened more by internal strife than each other. The Earth forces abandon most of their colonies and stations in space, withdrawing their decimated fleets to a handful of orbital facilities. The EA lacks the resources to repair the majority of it's ships. The Blue Cosmos influence in the Alliance Assembly is apparently removed, while most of Patrick Zala's supporters in PLANT are stripped of power and the Clyne-faction is granted amnesty. Seven years after the war's end the Earth Sphere is still in a state of chaos. The Earth Alliance has all-but collapsed, leaving the fragmented nations of Earth to fend for themselves. The delicate political landscape of the PLANTs has fallen under the control of the most decisive leader since Patrick Zala, Gilbert Durandel, who has started re-arming the ZAFT fleets. ORB protests this re-armament, and the Chairman of ZAFT agrees to meet with a representative from ORB to discuss the re-militarization effort.

October 3, CD 78: Cagalli Yula Atha, Chief Representative of ORB, along with a diplomatic entourage, arrives at a PLANT colony. Her envoy is greeted by an honor guard from ZAFT to escort her to a diplomatic conference with Chairman Gilbert Durandel, leader of ZAFT in the Capital. A group of young ZAFT pilots (including Lunamaria Hawke and Shinn Asuka) whisper to each other as they watch the delegation from ORB pass by. Lunamaria asks Shinn what he thinks the ORB princess is there to do, but Shinn turns his head and walks away silently.

Gilbert Durandel prepares to meet the ORB delegation in his office, while several advisers stress to him the necessity of appearing strong. ZAFT lost most of its military capabilities in the Bloody Valentine War, and the lingering animosity from the conflict still remains. If ZAFT shows the slightest weakness, Durandel's advisers fear that the Earth Alliance--and the Atlantic Federation in particular--will see it as an open-invitation to resume the war, and the colonies would not have the resources to defend themselves in a protracted conflict. Durandel interrupts his advisers, saying that the new mobile suits will be a more than adequate display of strength, and that it is time for him to go and meet the "Soldier-Princess" from ORB.

Meanwhile, in open space near LaGrange-point 1, three Nazca-class ZAFT warships approach the abandoned colony, Rhodes. On board, Yzak Joule and Dearka Elsman discuss the rumors of the rebel ZAFT military units that refused to recognize the treaty ending the first Bloody Valentine War gathering at an abandoned L4 colony. The rebels are ZAFT soldiers that still follow the path that Patrick Zala preached seven years prior. Yzak says their mission is to eliminate the ZAFT remnant before they can do any damage. ZAFT's intelligence indicates that most of the rebels are gathering at Rhodes in preparation for a terrorist attack against the current ZAFT government code-named "Operation Skybreak". Yzak wonders what the purpose of the operation is, and how ZAFT found out about it. Dearka comments that they should not underestimated soldiers that have held true to their beliefs for so long without anyone supporting them.

Yzak silences Dearka with a quick nod and says that now is the perfect time to strike and remove the soldiers that still follow Patrick Zala's genocidal beliefs once and for all. Dearka says that it will probably be an easy battle since the Zala-loyalists only have older-type GINNs and CGUEs mobile suits at their disposal. Yzak says he hopes Dearka is correct and gives the order to launch. Sixteen GuAIZ mobile suits launch from the three Nazca-class warships and boost towards the colony. Dearka and Yzak don their helmets and prepare to sortie as well.

Chairman Durandel meets with Cagalli and they board the Minerva--the first ZAFT warship to be commissioned since the end of the war. Durandel boasts that the Minerva's state-of-the-art propulsion system could sail the ship from PLANT to Alexandria (Mars) and back in less than forty days. Cagalli asks if it's truly necessary to hold the conference on board a warship. Durandel says that the conference will double as an inspection of the new autonomous colonies being constructed at LaGrange-point two as part of a joint effort between ORB and ZAFT. In the hangar of the Minerva, Shinn is chastised by a mechanic for failing to take care of his mobile suit. Shinn apologizes, and climbs into the cockpit of his mobile suit, the ZGMF-X56S Impulse Gundam. He begins running a diagnostic on the system, but as he glances at the stylized "head" of his Gundam he remembers the stoic "faces" of the Freedom, Calamity and Forbidden as they fought at ORB. Shinn then wonders what Cagalli will say to Durandel, and what she hopes to accomplish. Shinn forces himself out of his musing by slamming his fist on a cockpit-screen and saying to himself that it doesn't matter, and resumes work.

Cagalli and Durandel sit down in an observation room just under the Minerva's bridge. The Minerva launches. Cagalli tries to start talking to Durandel about ZAFT's recent re-militarization, but Durandel interrupts her saying that there will be plenty of time for that conversation later, and that for now she should enjoy the view. Cagalli sighs and looks out the window as the Minerva exits the colony's port and heads into open space.

Yzak, Dearka and their team of mobile suits enter Rhodes-colony where the Zala-loyalists are supposed to be. Rhodes is a dry wasteland and the air inside the colony is saturated with dust. Dearka and Yzak fly their GuAIZ mobile suites through the center of the colony and scan the "floor" for activity while the rest of their team splits up. Yzak quickly realizes that the colony is empty and exclaims that they've been had. Dearka continues to scan the surface of the colony but sees nothing. He frowns, and says that maybe the Zala-loyalists are gathering in a different colony, or have already left. Yzak calls Dearka an idiot, and orders his team to return to the Nazca-ships.

Episode 01 - END

Next Episode: Those Who Seek War