Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Destiny

Although the Requiem cannon has missed the PLANT capital of Aprilius, it has wreaked vast destruction on the surrounding PLANTs. In response, ZAFT sends its lunar orbital fleet to attack Requiem's first relay station, while the Minerva rushes to the Daedalus base to capture the cannon itself. As the Earth Forces prepare to fire a second shot, the Minerva and its Gundam pilots desperately fight their way through the enemy lines. But this time, Shinn and Rey are merely decoys, for the success of the operation and the survival of the PLANTs rest on Lunamaria's shoulders.

Aboard the Archangel, the injured Athrun thinks back upon the path he has followed to this point. Even though he saw the pointlessness of war during the previous conflict, he rejoined ZAFT and fought alongside the Minerva crew in order to bring the new war to an end. Now that Athrun has realized the sinister intentions of Chairman Durandal, he has rejoined his old friends. Meanwhile, Kira considers his own situation. Despite his hatred of war, he has returned to the battlefield in order to halt Durandal's plans. Placing his hopes in Lacus and Cagalli, he fights to help them bring about a world of true peace and freedom.

As Athrun and Meyrin escape from Gibraltar in a stolen mobile suit, Shinn and Rey pursue them in the new Destiny and Legend Gundams. Claiming that the fugitives have stolen classified information, Chairman Durandal orders Shinn and Rey to shoot them down. Rey tells the horrified Shinn that the traitors must be destroyed for the sake of Durandal's dream of peace. The crew of the Minerva are shocked by this turn of events, and Lunamaria is heartbroken by the loss of her sister. Even as they grieve, Durandal issues an ultimatum to the Earth Forces at Heaven's Base, demanding that they turn over Lord Djibril and the other Logos members.

Although the Archangel has escaped the Minerva's attack, the Freedom has been destroyed, and the ship itself badly damaged. After retrieving Kira, the Archangel continues on to Orb, while Shinn returns to the Minerva and receives a hero's welcome. Responding to Chairman Durandal's speech, the people of Earth have risen up against Logos, forcing Lord Djibril and his comrades to flee to the Earth Forces stronghold known as Heaven's Base. The Minerva arrives at Gibraltar to join the ZAFT forces which are gathering for an attack on Heaven's Base, and Shinn and Athrun are summoned to a private meeting with Durandal himself.

After laying Stella's body to rest, Shinn returns to the Minerva with a new determination. When Athrun visits Shinn's room, he finds Shinn and Rey running combat simulations to prepare for a confrontation with the Freedom. Meanwhile, Neo Roanoke awakens aboard the Archangel. To his confusion, the Archangel crew insist that Neo is in fact their lost comrade Mu La Flaga, but he has no memories of his life as Mu. The situation then takes a new turn as Chairman Durandal begins a worldwide broadcast...

Shinn and Rey have returned Stella to her allies in order to save her life. As punishment for defying military regulations, the two pilots are placed in detention while the ZAFT leadership determines their fate. To Talia's shock, her superiors decide to overlook the matter entirely, and she realizes that Durandal is intervening from behind the scenes to protect Shinn and Rey. Having failed in their mission to destroy the Minerva, Neo Roanoke and his Phantom Pain taskforce receive a new assignment. Stella is placed at the controls of the monstrous Destroy Gundam and begins wreaking a path of destruction across western Eurasia. Upon learning of this, both the Archangel and the Minerva rush to halt the Destroy's rampage.

Lacus returns to space and joins her allies aboard the warship Eternal, which is now hidden inside a cluster of asteroids. Chairman Durandal orders his forces to continue searching for Lacus, insisting that she is merely an impostor. Alone in his office, Durandal ponders the chance meeting that brought Lacus and Kira together, and questions whether it was coincidence or fate. Thinking back on his own life and the choices he has made, he wonders whether he might have found happiness along another path. In his imagination, Durandal hears the mocking voice of Rau Le Creuset.

Athrun has arranged a meeting with Kira and Cagalli, but the old friends no longer see eye to eye. Even after hearing of the assassination attempt on Lacus, Athrun still believes in Chairman Durandal's good intentions, and he returns to the Minerva after urging his friends to keep Orb from participating in the war. The Minerva travels to the Lodonia laboratory to retrieve Rey and continue the investigation. This abandoned facility proves to be a laboratory where the Earth Forces experimented on children to create Extended soldiers. At their own nearby base, the Extended pilots of Phantom Pain are shocked to hear that the Minerva has discovered the laboratory where they were raised.

The battle between the Minerva and the Orb fleet has been disrupted by the sudden appearance of the Archangel and Kira's Freedom Gundam. Cagalli enters the battlefield and orders the Orb forces to cease fighting, but Neo pressures Yuna into continuing the battle, and the Orb fleet renews its attack on the damaged Minerva. Since the Orb forces have rejected Cagalli's appeal, Kira sends her back to the Archangel and begins disabling both sides' mobile suits. Athrun tries to reason with his old friend, but he is unable to establish contact with Kira as the battlefield descends into chaos.

The Minerva continues on to the shore of the Black Sea and docks at the city of Diocuia. Recently liberated from the control of the Earth Forces, Diocuia is now the latest stop on Meer Campbell's morale-building concert tour. Chairman Durandal himself is also visiting the city, and he invites the Minerva's mobile suit pilots to a personal meeting. In his conversation with the Minerva pilots, Durandal reveals the dark secret behind the current conflict. He blames the fighting on the secret society known as Logos, a group of industrialists and arms dealers who incite war for the sake of their own profits.

Aboard the Archangel, Cagalli berates the crew for abducting her in the middle of her wedding ceremony. Kira gives Athrun's ring back to her, and gently asks Cagalli to join them in seeking a better answer to the world's problems. After learning that the Minerva has left Orb, Athrun at last rejoins the ship at Carpentaria, bringing with him new orders from Chairman Durandal. Talia is surprised to learn that Durandal has made her a FAITH member as well, and by the details of the Minerva's next assignment. Their new mission will take them into western Eurasia, where ZAFT is launching a campaign against the Earth Forces' Suez base.

Thanks to Shinn's fighting prowess, the Minerva has overcome the Earth Forces fleet. As the ship continues on to Carpentaria, the Orb government concludes its alliance with the Atlantic Federation. Yuna Roma Seiran, the son of Orb's prime minister, pressures Cagalli to accept his marriage proposal in order to unite their nation. Now that Orb has aligned itself with the Earth Forces, Kira and his friends are considering leaving for the PLANTs. But their plans are disrupted when their home is attacked by Coordinator special forces who have been sent to assassinate Lacus, and Kira is forced to enter the battlefield once again.

The conflict continues to escalate as Earth Forces fleets encircle the ZAFT bases at Gibraltar and Carpentaria, and the PLANT Supreme Council decides to strike back in the name of self-defense. Despite her best intentions, Cagalli yields to her ministers' demands that Orb ally itself with the Atlantic Federation. The Minerva receives a warning message and prepares to leave Orb before it is too late. In the PLANTs, Athrun visits the grave of his old comrade Nicol Amalfi. He is escorted by Yzak and Dearka, who urge him to return to the ZAFT forces. And back in Orb, Cagalli faces a fateful decision of her own.

The Atlantic Federation and its allies declare war on the PLANTs in response to the fall of Junius Seven. Although Chairman Durandal still hopes for a diplomatic solution, the ZAFT forces are mobilized to defend the PLANTs. Yzak and his comrade Dearka Elsman join the battle only to discover that they are fighting decoys while the Earth Forces attack the PLANTs with nuclear weapons. As the battle rages, Athrun waits on the sidelines for a chance to talk to Durandal. He is surprised to encounter a young woman who looks just like Lacus, and is even more stunned when the impostor greets him as if they were long-separated lovers.

Shinn and Rey struggle against the enemy commander Neo Roanoke. In order to help her pilots, ZAFT Captain Talia Gladys orders the newly constructed warship Minerva to launch from Armory One and join the battle. The enemy forces withdraw, and the Minerva gives chase. Although Cagalli and Athrun have ended up aboard the Minerva, the apologetic Chairman Durandal informs them that there is no time to send them home to Orb. Durandal gives Cagalli a tour of the ship, and she reacts with anger to the sight of all ZAFT's new weaponry.

In the 72nd year of the Cosmic Era, mankind's long war of bitter hatred has come to a close. Although peace has been achieved, it has been at the cost of innocent blood and broken dreams. Among those who has suffered deeply from the loss of both is the young Coordinator Shinn Asuka. Caught in the conflagration of the final battle of ORB, Shinn could only watch as his family was consumed, victims of chance and misdirected anger. Now, filled with a rage of his own and a desire to never see the innocent slaughtered again, he has left the peaceful nation that was his home and has joined with the ZAFT militia. But youthful anger and sorrow are no weapons to keep peace among the stars, and soon, the desire for power and the renewal of hatreds subdued but not forgotten send humanity tumbling back towards the horror and fear of a war that is not yet truly over...