At the graveyard of a beloved cousin, Regal stands quietly. Nicole Amalfi, the young pianist and a loyal friend, has died in war, protecting his nation at the age of 15. The war is not yet over, but many hearts have died along with the countless lost lives. In the midst of this pain, a young soul is being ignited, determined to stop this war which is causing everyone so much pain…
Regal leaves his cousin's graveyard in a dull mood, now is no longer a time for sitting and doing nothing, war has taken away his dearest cousin and best of friends; if he does not do something about it, he will regret it for the rest of his life. On the way home, Regal picks up a newspaper from the residential news agent, the headline of the day is "the theft from the Zodiac Alliance of Freedom Treaty (ZAFT) hangar has been linked directly to the Supreme Chairman of Plant, Seigel Clyne, and his daughter, the famous pop idol, Lacus Clyne." Apparently, when ZAFT enforcers tried to arrest the Chairman at his house, they found him dead, presumed suicide, and his daughter was nowhere to be found.
"ZAFT dogs, how well they make stories, they should all take up story writing, it's a waste for them not to," Regal says to himself. As he continues his journey home, Regal thinks about how Miss Clyne would try to escape. She would only be safe outside PLANT territories, that means she must find some sort of hidden transport that could out-run military vessels, but what could possibly out-run the vesalius?
"Whatever it is, it must be in Armory One!" Regal exclaims out loud. Everyone around him stares at him with weird eyes. "Sorry, got a little excited..." Regal says embarrassed. Regal finally gets home; instead of shutting himself in for hours like he has done for the past month, Regal packs his bag as if he was about to go camping. "I'm going out for a few days mom!" Regal shouts downstairs.
"Where're you going?" Regal's mom replies. To the sweet, but worried, voice of his mother, Regal stays quiet for a few moments and finishes packing his bag. He runs downstairs where his mom looks at him anxiously. Feeling awful inside, Regal has to find a way to stop his mom from worrying before he takes the most daring decision of his life.
"Don't worry mom, I'm going over to Derek's for a few days. I can't stay like this forever." Regal replies with a weak smile
"OK dear, take care. Don't go for too long though, I'll miss you..." Regal's mom says hesitantly. As she does so, Regal heads for the door. Regal takes the bus to the station nearest to the military hangar; everything seems normal. They must be getting ready, Regal thinks to himself. Sneaking around to the back entrance, Regal takes out a tube and a few darts. Science has proven its worth; he has produced his own tranquilizer and made darts which can easily knock out anyone and he can even calculate the amount needed each time and adjust the volume accordingly. From the bushes, Regal shoots the darts at the 2 guards. It is a perfect shot. They fall like flies. Regal emerges from his hiding place and retrieves his darts and gains a bonus of one machinegun. Regal is ready, he would persuade Miss Clyne to take him along and teach and allow him to pilot a mobile suit.
Inside the hangar, Regal is beginning to wonder if he will turn out as successful as he thought; the place is huge and workers are everywhere. Regal slips around each corner swiftly in hope that no one would notice him but all is in vain. Someone taps Regal on the shoulder and makes him turn around only to meet a pistol aiming for his forehead.
"Who are you? Wha..." That is all the young lady in standard green uniform can say before she falls to the ground, much like the 2 guards by the entrance. Regal realizes that he can't just leave her there, she would be noticed and he would get caught. Finding a room, he quickly hacks the door open and drags the girl inside. The door shuts and all goes dark. Regal fumbles for the switch, locating it a few minutes later. What meets his eyes is his dream and something a civilian can only wish for: two rows of mobile suits. Snapping back into reality, Regal suddenly remembers that the tranquilizers are going to wear off soon. At the same time the sirens go off. Regal is startled. Reacting quickly, he grabs the girl and gets onto a lift. Frantically pushing random buttons, the lift suddenly lifts him up to the cockpit of a mobile suit, surprising him, so much so that he almost falls off. After a few minutes of sitting on the lift, as Regal realizes that the siren is not because of him, a thought strikes him. Miss Clyne's taking action!
"Damn! How will I even catch up to her if she's about to leave?" Looking into the cockpit, Regal is about to dare himself for the second time in one day. Taking the girl with him into the mobile suit, Regal sits in the pilot seat. Switching the mobile suit's Operating system (OS) on, Regal hurriedly searches for a user's manual of any sort. From skipping around windows of the OS, Regal learns the name and weapon list of the mobile suit he was in before finally stumbling onto the controls. What he is in is the latest mass-produced MS in the ZAFT military, the GuAIZ. By this time, the sirens have stopped. A nearby explosion causes the outward wall of the room Regal is in to tear open, and begins sucking out everything in the room, including the GuAIZ Regal is in. I didn't know that I was so close to space!
Regal quickly switches on the cameras and sensors thus activating the mobile suit, stopping it from flying out into space at a damaging rate. Aiming its beam claws sluggishly, Regal gets the GuAIZ to destroy all the obstructions. Tearing out of the PLANT itself, Regal, for the first time of his life, sees stars through his own eyes and the largest amount of space one could see. The bewilderment makes him forget his purpose and the danger he was in, from both inside and outside the GuAIZ. The girl he had dumped behind the pilot seat has finally woken from the drugs and the MS's that have gathered to stop the escaping battleship causing the chaos have taken notice of him. Snapping back to reality, Regal realizes half the trouble he is in.
"Oh no. This can't be good. You can't be serious. I'm NOT going to die here!" Regal instinctively snaps into action as a pink battleship emerges from the smoke its beam-cannon has caused. The young officer in the back gets up and rubs her head in pain. "What happe... What have you done?! What are you thinking?! Do you know what you are doing?!" the girl says in a worried and frustrated manner; pushing Regal's head out the way, the girl reaches for the com-link.
Regal stops her and hushes her before he inefficiently boosts towards the escaping battleship and tries to dodge incoming attacks at the same time. "How can I communicate with that battleship? We need to get aboard it." Regal asks as if they weren't enemies, blocking rifle bullets that are being shot at him.
"What 'we'? I have no intentions of going anywhere!" The girl proclaims, but she is sharply cut off by Regal.
"I do, and you don't have a choice but to go along with me. Those units see us as an enemy and will shoot us down, given the chance. I want to meet Lacus Clyne as well, and I have every reason to believe she's on board that ship,"
"What, Lacus Clyne is onboard this battleship?" the girl replies again in surprise.
"Hurry, or we'll never catch it, unless you want to be killed along with me in here!" Regal says in a threatening tone. Reluctantly, the young girl pushes a few buttons and the screen above the camera monitors turns on, showing a single eyed man and the pink haired songstress herself.
"What's this, a transmission from a new model that hasn't even been fielded yet, and a civilian in the pilot seat?" The single eyed man says.
"Aren't you… that supposedly amazing commander, the Desert Tiger?! Never mind that, we request to board your ship, as this idiot of a civilian here has thoughtlessly stolen a mobile suit and dragged me into this mess with him… Since this suit is stolen, I can't return to PLANT without potentially being charged for treason, please allow us to board." The girl says, obviously troubled by the situation she is in, as Regal busily continues his attempts to dodge attacks coming in from near all directions.
"Please! I've never piloted a mobile suit before! I can't last long out here!" Regal interrupts as he continues to fiddle busily at the controls.
"Okay... I'll believe you, I'll slow down slightly so you can catch up, hang onto the turret and I will retrieve you two once we get to a safer position." Miss Clyne says calmly. The pink battleship begins to slow down slightly and the GuAIZ catches up with it as quickly as possible, on its way, closing up to an enemy and destroying its head. Once he catches the battleship's turret, the battleship maximizes its thruster output and speeds away from PLANT air space safely, its speed unmatched by any other battleship produced to date. The ZAFT mobile suits can do nothing to stop the escaping ship; all the pilots can do is stare in amazement, as the battleship's thrusters' flames grow smaller and smaller until they finally disappear as if the ship is just another star in the many that they can see.