 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.