In the year Cosmic Era (CE) 71, a war between the Earth Alliance and ZAFT
(Zodiac Alliance of Freedom Treaty) breaks out. The Earth Alliance catches
up in technology after ZAFT has a head start building giant man-piloted
robots called mobile suits. Immediately, four of the Earth Alliance's five new
mobile suits called Gundams are stolen by ZAFT, with the remaining
Gundam falling on the hands of a young Earth Alliance pilot.