Though the skies above the Coordinator's armory of military secrets has been darkened by the hungry flames of newfound conflict, from those same skies a possible savior sweeps down bearing a sword of justice. Thrust into his first real battle, Shin immediately has to contend with a menacing threat. Three of the PLANT's most sophisticated and deadly combat mobile suits have been stolen, by a group of mysterious young pilots hell-bent on taking the weapons for purposes unknown. Tasked with stopping them, it is all he can do to try and prevent them from breaching the wall of the PLANT colony and dooming mankind to another time of war. As the situation grows further and further out of hand, and Orb representative Cagalli Yula Attha and her bodyguard, Athrun Zala (under the false name of Alex Dino) are caught in the struggle, PLANT Chairman Gilbert Dullindal has no choice but to launch the Minerva, the new warship ZAFT had intended to operate the stolen mobile suits from. Meanwhile, aboard his ship cloaked in the invisibility of the mirage colloid, the mysterious masked commander Neo Roanoke awaits word from his pilots... those very same young warriors who have braved the might of ZAFT to steal out from under them their weapons of greatest power. Launching a sneak attack against ZAFT's guard ships that catches everyone by surprise and brightly paints the cosmos with flame, the cunning Neo seems somehow familiar, but just how, no one yet can say.
—LainEverliving - Scribe of the Wired