The discovery of an advanced model of combat mecha on their space colony throws a young man and his friends into involvement in an interplanetary war as the crew of a powerful fighting ship.

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 G-Project mobile suits are stolen by ZAFT, with the remaining one, the Strike, falling into the hands of a young civilian.—fml_lopez

The confrontation between the Earth Alliance (Naturals) and ZAFT (Coordinators), which originated in economic friction, reached a stalemate. Ultimately, the two sides opted for the last resort of diplomacy - in other words, war. Our story begins roughly a year later. Heliopolis, a resource satellite belonging to a neutral nation, is suddenly attacked by a Zaft mobile suit force. Their goal is to seize the Atlantic Alliance's newest Gundam mobile suits, which the Alliance has produced here amid total secrecy. The raid is successful, and ZAFT captures four of the Gundams. Kira Yamato, a Coordinator and student at an industrial college, is drawn into the conflict when he is reunited with an old friend, Athrun Zala during the attack. Tragically, Kira finds that his old friend and the other Coordinators are now his enemies. For patriotism's sake, Athrun sets out to defeat Kira. One against four... the battle of the Gundams begins!—neovu79