The Stories
Gundam
Wing The TV Animation Series's Story
Gundam
Wing Endless Waltz The OVA Series' Story
Gundam Wing The Stories
It's the year AC (After Colony) 195. Over the past century, humanity has
established a
number of space colonies, giant wheel-shaped constructs that are home to
millions of people.
These colonies are grouped in clusters at the five Lagrange points, areas
of relative stability in
Earth orbit.
Heero Yuy
For decades, while the Earth's surface was wracked by war and civil strife,
the peace and
quiet of the space colonies presented an attractive alternative for war-weary
settlers. When the
terrestrial wars ended, a new world government was established, a "United
Earth Sphere
Alliance" committed to bringing about peace through force of arms. In the
name of peace and
justice, the Alliance seized control of the colonies.
To lobby the Earth's nations for autonomy, the space colonists chose a
man named Heero Yuy
as their representative. The charismatic Yuy united the colonies, and his
message of
demilitarization and non-violence was well-received by the people of Earth.
But when Yuy was
assassinated in the year AC 175, the colonists' hopes were crushed and
the colonies thrown
into turmoil.
Tyranny of the Alliance
Under the pretext of restoring order to the colonies, the Alliance staged
a second military
intervention, using humanoid fighting machines called mobile suits to crush
all opposition. The
colonies were placed under martial law, and all communication and cooperation
between
colonies was prohibited. Even terrestrial nations sympathetic to Heero
Yuy's philosophies, like
Europe's pacifist Sanc Kingdom, were crushed by the Alliance's overwhelming
force.
Behind the scenes, the Alliance is being manipulated by the Romefeller
Foundation, the
powerful industrial combine that develops and manufactures its mobile suits.
The Alliance's elite
mobile suit corps, the "Specials," is trained and staffed by the Romefeller
Foundation. In fact,
the Specials are nothing but a front for OZ, a Romefeller subsidiary which
has been recast as a
secret society. Answerable only to the Romefeller Foundation, OZ has infiltrated
the highest
levels of the Alliance military.
Operation Meteor
After two decades of oppression, a network of rebels based in the space
colonies decides to
strike back at OZ and its puppet Alliance. Resistance groups at each of
the five colony clusters
work independently on their part of Operation Meteor, each retaining the
services of one of
the scientists who helped create the first mobile suits. Using the super-strong
armor material
Gundanium, the scientists construct advanced mobile suits called "Gundams,"
entrust them to
five highly-trained, resourceful young pilots, and dispatch them to Earth
to wage guerilla war
against the Alliance.
Of the five Gundam pilots, the L5 colony cluster's Chang Wufei, L4's Quatre
Raberba Winner,
L3's Trowa Barton and L2's Duo Maxwell reach Earth without incident. But
L1's Gundam
pilot, a grim youth codenamed Heero Yuy after the martyred colonial leader,
is intercepted by
Specials ace pilot Zechs Merquise and forced to temporarily ditch his Gundam
at sea.
Staggering ashore, Heero encounters Relena Darlian, daughter of the Alliance's
foreign
minister. Heero promises to kill her to conceal his identity, but it soon
becomes clear he can't
bring himself to carry out the threat.
Operation Daybreak
Terrified of the unstoppable Gundams, the Alliance generals send Relena's
father to open
negotations with the space colonies. Specials leader Treize Khushrenada
is determined to
thwart these peace overtures, and dispatches his trusted aide Lady Une
to sabotage the
diplomatic mission. Relena's father is assassinated by Lady Une and, with
his dying breath,
reveals Relena's true identity - she is Relena Peacecraft, princess of
the Sanc Kingdom that
was crushed by the Alliance thirteen years ago. What she doesn't yet know
is that her long-lost
brother Milliardo is in fact Specials ace Zechs Merquise.
The Alliance generals meet and decide to make peace with the colonies.
When the Gundam
pilots attack the meeting, cunning Treize evacuates the peace-minded generals
in an OZ
shuttle, making them irresistible targets. With the Alliance's leaders
slain, OZ discards the
"Specials" moniker and seizes power under its own name, launching Operation
Daybreak to
wipe out all resistance from the Alliance's terrestrial forces. The coup
serves a more private
purpose for Zechs, the erstwhile Milliardo Peacecraft, as he avenges his
father's death by
slaying the Alliance general who conquered the Sanc Kingdom.
Self-Destruction
With Earth under its complete control, OZ readies for the conquest of the
space colonies. For
this purpose the Romefeller Foundation has developed unmanned, computer-controlled
mobile
suits called "mobile dolls," faster and more lethal than any human pilot.
Ordered to prevent
these new weapons from being sent into space, the Gundam pilots find they've
been lured into
a trap when Lady Une orders them to surrender or witness the destruction
of defenseless
space colonies. Breaking off a duel with Zechs, Heero defiantly self-destructs
his Gundam and
buys enough time for Treize to overrule Lady Une's unsportsmanlike plan.
The mobile dolls are
delivered on schedule, as Trowa carries Heero's battered body to safety.
Compelled by honor, Zechs rebuilds Heero's ruined Gundam, then tracks down
the wandering
Gundam pilot and challenges him to a rematch at a remote Antarctic base.
Zechs' activities do
not escape the attention of the Romefeller Foundation, which dispatches
a small army to the
Antarctic to eliminate the rogue ace. Holding off the Foundation's hit
squad, Zechs allows
Heero and Trowa to escape.
The Space Colonies
The five Gundam pilots hijack shuttles and launch into space to defend
their home colonies.
But OZ uses its dreaded mobile dolls against the Alliance occupation forces,
rather than the
colonies themselves. After twenty years of the Alliance's tyranny, the
colonies are easily
persuaded to welcome OZ as a liberator. Submitting to OZ's benevolent guidance,
the
colonies begin arming themselves - thus funneling more money into the Romefeller
Foundation's
coffers - and brand the Gundam pilots who fought on the their behalf as
troublemakers and
subversives.
Manifesting an unexpected split personality, Lady Une becomes OZ's saintly
emissary to the
colonies. In her more familiar persona, she orders the capture of the five
scientists who created
the Gundams, and has them brought to OZ's lunar base to develop new mobile
suits under her
supervision. Infiltrating OZ's ranks, Trowa is teamed up with the captured
Heero; the pair are
put to work as test pilots to gather data on the new mobile suits.
In their first combat foray, Heero and Trowa intercept Zechs Merquise as
he launches into
Earth orbit. Claiming to be an ambassador from the non-existent Sanc Kingdom,
Zechs has
come to make a goodwill tour of the space colonies and urge them to reject
OZ's militarism.
While he begins his diplomatic tour, Duo and Wufei also attempt to attack
OZ's lunar base and
are captured in turn. All this is according to the plan of the five scientists,
who have gathered all
but one of their Gundam pilots while secretly using OZ's resources to rebuild
Duo's and
Wufei's ravaged Gundams. But one Gundam pilot remains unaccounted for...
The Gundam Called Zero
Quatre has returned to his family's factory asteroid. Here, he sees his
pacifist father's civilian
employees pledge their allegiance to OZ, killing father Winner in the process.
Temporarily
unhinged by this traumatic experience, Quatre digs up the blueprints of
the ancestor of all the
Gundams - the never-completed, hideously destructive Wing Gundam Zero -
and begins a
one-man war against OZ. But the Wing Gundam Zero's brainwave control system
turns out to
have mind-warping side-effects. Sliding into madness under the "Zero System"'s
influence,
Quatre extrapolates his father's pacifism into a mandate to punish the
colonies for subscribing
to OZ's militarism.
Lady Une dispatches Heero and Trowa to stop Quatre's rampage. In the course
of the battle,
Trowa sacrifices himself to save Heero; Quatre is shocked back into sanity,
and returns with
Heero to OZ's lunar base. But while they were away, the political situation
has taken a turn for
the bizarre.
Operation Nova
To protest the Romefeller Foundation's plans - in particular, its increasing
use of mobile dolls,
which he considers dishonorable - Treize resigns his position as OZ's
leader. OZ promptly
splits into two factions, one loyal to the Foundation and another following
Treize. The
Romefeller faction takes over OZ's lunar base. Lady Une is shot, but not
before saving Duo,
Wufei and the five scientists from termination at the Romefeller faction's
hands. Heero and
Quatre, finding themselves caught in the middle of OZ's civil war, abandon
the
madness-inducing Wing Gundam Zero and flee to Earth.
In order to eliminate the Treize faction, the Romefeller Foundation launches
Operation Nova, a
massive invasion of Earth using new mobile dolls based on the work of the
five scientists.
Zechs attempts to intercept the Foundation's forces, but he is just one
man against legions.
Rise and Fall of the Sanc Kingdom
On Earth, Heero and Quatre find their way to the Sanc Kingdom, resurrected
under the
leadership of Relena Peacecraft and dedicated to the principle of total
pacifism. Accepting
Relena's invitation, they soon find themselves busy fending off the Romefeller
Foundation's
incursions. They must also contend with the devious and conflict-loving
Dorothy Catalonia, an
"exchange student" from the Romefeller Foundation. Ostensibly there to
study Relena's pacifist
philosophies, Dorothy is actually the eyes and ears of her grandfather
Duke Dermail, leader of
the Romefeller Foundation.
The Foundation concludes Operation Nova with a massive assault on Treize's
headquarters in
Luxembourg. Heero arrives at Luxembourg just as Treize's forces collapse,
and the former OZ
leader gives him a dubious gift - the mysterious Gundam Epyon, equipped
with its own Zero
System. Meanwhile, in space, the Romefeller faction attempts to lure Zechs
to his death by
using the Wing Gundam Zero as bait. The trap fails, instead giving the
rebel ace a
sorely-needed hardware upgrade.
Relena, Queen of the World
With the Treize faction defeated, the Romefeller Foundation turns its attention
to the pacifistic
Sanc Kingdom. Heero, Quatre and the other defenders fight fiercely, but
Relena surrenders
rather than see her kingdom turned to rubble. Heero, driven to a berserker
frenzy by the
Gundam Epyon's Zero System, fights on until Zechs arrives from space, too
late to save his
family's kingdom from a second conquest. Zechs and Heero duel each other
until they
collapse, trade Gundams, then gather their Zero System-addled wits and
fight their way to
freedom.
Now a captive of the Romefeller Foundation, Relena receives a surprising
offer from Duke
Dermail. To legitimize its conquest, the Foundation plans to declare the
establishment of the
"World Nation," and Queen Relena Peacecraft would make an excellent figurehead.
Relena
accepts, and then readies her address to the Romefeller Foundation's members.
Amazingly,
her appeal to the assembled executives - that, with total power now in
their hands, they can
afford to be magnanimous and strive for peace, justice and enlightened
coexistence between
Earth and the space colonies - is enthusiastically accepted. The Romefeller
Foundation's
members pledge to reject Dermail's empire-building and become good guys.
The Artemis Revolution
Just as the Romefeller Foundation dedicates itself to peace and justice,
a new faction enters the
fray. Masterminded by the wizened, enigmatic Quinze - the man behind Operation
Meteor -
rebellious OZ members and colonial resistance fighters form a militia group
called "White
Fang," dedicated to total independence for the space colonies. In short
order White Fang
occupies the lunar base, captures its mobile doll production facilities,
and seizes the
Foundation's ultimate weapon, the nearly-complete space fortress Libra.
Just as the Romefeller Foundation sought a figurehead, so too does White
Fang. Quinze
recruits Zechs Merquise as White Fang's token leader, and he proves to
be just as difficult to
control as his sister. In a worldwide broadcast, Zechs declares that, since
Earth and the space
colonies can never peacefully coexist, he will destroy Earth. As Zechs
declares his intentions,
the Romefeller Foundation's hapless Duke Dermail, attempting to reassert
his leadership by
personally leading an offensive to recapture Libra, is vaporized by White
Fang's forces.
With the magnitude of the White Fang threat now apparent, the Romefeller
Foundation's
members are panic-stricken. Taking advantage of their abject terror, Treize
stages a coup
d'etat and seizes control of the World Nation. The deposed Relena leaves
for space with the
intention of talking some sense into her brother. Dorothy follows suit,
with quite the opposite
intention.
The Gundam Team
While all this frantic realignment is going on, Quatre and the Sanc Kingdom's
other defenders
have returned to space. They discover that Trowa is still alive, albeit
temporarily amnesiac, and
convince Duo to join their ranks.
Wufei, meanwhile, has seen his home colony destroyed and launched into
a suicidal rampage.
In the depths of his despair he encounters Heero, and the mind-warping
effects of the Wing
Gundam Zero's control system actually serve to straighten out his tormented
mind and reveal
the solution to the current crisis: Both Treize and Zechs must be eliminated
for the sake of
world peace. Soon all five Gundam pilots are gathered at the space fortress
Peacemillion,
ready to intervene in the escalating conflict.
Space Fortress Libra
As Treize begins fighting back against White Fang, Zechs employs his ultimate
weapon,
blasting Earth with Libra's powerful main gun despite Relena's attempted
intervention. The
Gundam Team attempt to fight their way through White Fang's legions of
mobile dolls to Libra
itself, but Zechs holds them back by adapting the Gundam Epyon's Zero System
into a remote
control system through which Dorothy can coordinate mass quantities of
mobile dolls.
Treize gathers the entire forces of the World Nation for an all-out assault
on Libra. Before
sending his soldiers to their doom, he attempts to resolve the situation
by challenging Zechs to
a one-on-one duel, but the no longer honor-obsessed Zechs responds by blasting
him with
Libra's main gun. Though Treize is prepared to let Zechs kill him, the
comatose Lady Une
awakens just in time to race to the scene and shove Treize out of the way
of the lethal beam.
With no other option, Treize orders the World Nation into a hopeless battle
against White
Fang's hordes of mobile dolls.
The Eve Wars
As the battle rages, the Gundam Team's allies physically ram Libra with
the space fortress
Peacemillion. The collision destroys Libra's main gun, but since its engines
are still intact, Zechs
orders Quinze to set Libra in motion toward Earth and thus create an impact
large enough to
render the planet uninhabitable. Breaking into the damaged Libra, the Gundam
Team destroy
the mobile doll control system and locate the five scientists.
Treize is killed in mortal combat with Wufei, whereupon Lady Une promptly
declares the
surrender of the World Nation. But though the war is over, Zechs is still
determined to carry
out his threat to destroy Earth, and Libra's descent continues.
The Final Battle
Now Zechs has one last loose end to attend to - his long-delayed showdown
with Heero. The
two rivals fight on and on throughout Libra's crumbling innards, while
Lady Une has their
pointless duel broadcast worldwide as a case study in the futility of war
and hatred.
The five scientists attempt to use Peacemillion's engines to reverse Libra's
course. Quinze,
appearing too late to stop them, disappears along with the scientists in
the explosion of
Peacemillion's engines. Though the gambit is successful, a large fragment
of Libra snaps off and
continues its inexorable descent.
Now it's up to Heero. Dealing a crippling blow to Zechs' Gundam Epyon,
he proceeds to the
main engine of the remaining Libra fragment but discovers he's used up
all his ammunition. Just
as Heero is about to self-destruct in a desperate attempt to destroy the
engine, Zechs appears
and takes it out for him, promising they'll meet again as he's enveloped
by the blast. As the
falling hulk enters Earth's atmosphere, Heero recovers the Wing Gundam
Zero's mighty rifle
and demolishes the last fragment of Libra with one final, desperate shot.
Conclusion
With Zechs and Treize out of the picture, peace is indeed at hand. Representatives
of the
space colonies make peace with the World Nation, establishing the Earth
Sphere Unified
Nation. Relena and Lady Une take their places in the new world order and
devote their
energies to serving humanity, while the Gundam pilots quietly retire...
for now.
Gundam Wing Endless Waltz The
Stories
At the climax of the Eve Wars, on December 24 of the year AC 195, the armies
of the World
Nation and White Fang met in a ferocious battle. World Nation leader Treize
Khushrenada
was slain, White Fang leader Zechs Merquise disappeared, and Earth was
saved from
destruction by the intervention of the five Gundam pilots. Having witnessed
the consequences
of war and hatred, the people of Earth and the space colonies put aside
their differences and
together founded a new world government.
Under this newly-formed Earth Sphere Unified Nation, a year has passed
in peace. The
government and the populace have disarmed themselves, and almost every
remaining mobile
suit has been destroyed. Deciding to follow suit, Gundam pilots Heero Yuy,
Duo Maxwell,
Trowa Barton, and Quatre Raberba Winner place their mighty mobile suits
inside an asteroid
and send them on a one-way voyage into the sun. But even as they bid their
Gundams farewell,
a new conflict is drawing near.
Crisis at X-18999
Relena Darlian, now deputy foreign minister of the Earth Sphere Unified
Nation, is abducted
during a diplomatic visit to the colony X-18999 at Lagrange point 3. Her
captor is the sinister
child Mariemaia Khushrenada, heir to the Barton Foundation's business empire
and daughter
of the late World Nation leader. Mariemaia plans to follow in her father's
conquering footsteps,
and hopes that the former Queen Relena will serve her as a propaganda tool.
Meanwhile, X-18999 and the Barton Foundation that controls it are attracting
the attention of
the former Gundam pilots. Trowa, visiting the colony with his traveling
circus, stumbles upon
the Barton Foundation's suspicious activities. Heero and Duo note Relena's
disappearance and
set out to investigate, dispatching Quatre to retrieve the sun-bound Gundams.
And their former
allies Lucrezia Noin and Sally Po, now agents of the government's Preventer
intelligence
agency, have deduced that X-18999 is the site of covert mobile suit manufacturing.
Declaration of War
Trowa already knows who is behind Mariemaia's planned rebellion - her scheming
grandfather
Dekim, patriarch of the Barton Foundation. Though Dekim helped plan Operation
Meteor, in
which the space colonies struck back against the tyrannical Alliance by
dispatching five
Gundams to wreak havoc on Earth, his goal was to seize power rather than
to avenge the
oppressed colonists. Now Trowa attempts to assassinate Dekim and stop his
latest scheme,
but his attack is foiled by an unexpected enemy... the fifth Gundam pilot,
Chang Wufei.
In a flashback, we discover that Dekim Barton intended to exploit Operation
Meteor to
place his own family in control of Earth. His son Trowa was to pilot one
of the
Gundams, and his granddaughter Mariemaia would one day inherit the reins
of power.
Realizing this, the other rebels slew the real Trowa Barton, and a nameless
underling
assumed his name and replaced him as a Gundam pilot. This imposter is the
youth we
know today as Trowa.
Heero and Duo arrive at X-18999, fighting their way past the colony's defenses
with some
help from Noin and Sally, only to be intercepted by both Wufei and an apparently-traitorous
Trowa. Their hijacked mobile suits destroyed, Heero and Duo escape into
the colony's interior
on foot. Meanwhile, Mariemaia issues her declaration of war against the
Earth Sphere Unified
Nation. Listening to Mariemaia's words with dread, Preventer chief Lady
Une then receives an
unexpected visitor - Zechs Merquise, who has returned from oblivion to
sign up as a Preventer
agent.
Operation Meteor
At X-18999, Heero and Duo watch as Mariemaia and Relena depart the colony.
Meanwhile,
at the asteroid MO-III in Earth orbit, Dekim readies his mobile suit legions
for a full-scale
planetary invasion. Suddenly, a lone mobile suit appears, piloted by none
other than Zechs.
Armed with a devastating mega cannon, Zechs targets MO-III and prepares
to destroy it, but
Dekim counters by threatening to carry out the true Operation Meteor and
drop X-18999
onto Earth.
Now, almost two years later, the true scope of Operation Meteor is revealed.
The
original intention was to bombard Earth with falling space colonies, then
use the
Gundams to seize control of the ravaged planet. Rejecting this genocidal
scheme, the
five Gundam pilots absconded with their mobile suits to wage a more traditional
guerilla war against the Alliance.
At X-18999, Heero, Duo, and Trowa team up to disable the colony drop program,
while
Sally frees Trowa's circus troop and the other civilian hostages. With
Dekim's threat nullified,
Zechs is at last free to destroy MO-III, but it's too late. Dekim has held
him at bay long
enough to launch all of his forces, and Mariemaia's armies are even now
descending onto the
government capital in Brussels.
The Occupation of Brussels
Through a dangerous and difficult manuever, Quatre has managed to turn
around the
sun-bound asteroid and bring the Gundams back to Earth. Heero retrieves
his Wing Gundam
Zero and then confronts Wufei, whose bitterness at being a leftover warrior
in a world without
war has led him to side with Mariemaia. The two Gundams battle their way
through re-entry,
until Heero, tired of the endless fighting, breaks off the fight and plunges
into the sea.
Meanwhile, Mariemaia's mobile suits have seized control of Brussels, and
she, Dekim, and
Relena retreat to a fortified bunker. Zechs and Noin take on the hundreds
of enemy mobile
suits, but even when Duo, Trowa, and Quatre appear with their Gundams,
our valiant heroes
find themselves hopelessly outnumbered. Mariemaia and Dekim prod Relena
to ask the
defenders to lay down their arms, but she instead exhorts the civilian
population to rise up and
struggle for peace themselves. And then, above the bunker, Heero's battered
Wing Gundam
Zero appears...
The Bunker Falls
Again and again, Heero fires on the bunker, until at last its barrier is
broken. As his last shot
strikes home, Lady Une dashes into the bunker's control room and shoves
Relena and
Mariemaia out of harm's way. Outside, the tide of battle has turned; Wufei
has relented and
rejoined his comrades, and the people themselves, responding to Relena's
challenge, march en
masse to the shattered bunker to stand up for the cause of peace.
Dekim calls Mariemaia to his side, but Relena stops the child and tries
to reason with her.
Dekim shoots at the meddling Relena, but it's Mariemaia who takes the bullet,
whereupon the
villainous Dekim is promptly plugged by one of his own underlings. Heero
staggers into the
ruined bunker and pulls a gun on the wounded Mariemaia; finding his gun
empty, he sighs that
he doesn't have to kill anyone anymore, and passes out himself.
Conclusion
Mariemaia's soldiers surrender, and their weapons and uniforms are burned.
In turn, the
Gundam pilots self-destruct their own mobile suits. At last true peace
is at hand, because the
people have seized it for themselves rather than allowing others to fight
their battles and decide
their fates for them.
What of our heroes? Lady Une takes the recovering Mariemaia to visit Treize's
grave. Wufei
and Zechs join the Preventer intelligence agency, working side by side
with Noin and Sally to
keep the peace. Duo returns to his salvage business, Trowa rejoins his
circus, and Quatre
helps complete the construction of the X-18999 colony. Relena resumes her
state functions.
And Heero vanishes into the crowd until he is needed again...
