Event Year: 2002

The Archangel and its crew are held captive by the Artemis forces. Nicol Amalfi in his GAT-X207 Blitz attacks Artemis, using its Mirage Colloid armor to remain effectively invisible and destroys the Umbrella of Artemis, which protects the asteroid fortress. During the attack, the Archangel is able to escape.

Mu La Flaga and Kira launch a counteroffensive against the ZAFT ship Vesalius. The Strike's Phase Shift Armor runs out of power in the middle of the battle and Athrun uses this moment to grab the Strike so he can take Kira with him, but Kira frees himself with Mu's help.

Kira discovers a malfunctioning lifeboat and brings it aboard the Archangel. Everyone is surprised to find Flay Allster as one of the rescued civilians. The Archangel decides to head for the Eurasian Federation military satellite Artemis to seek help. Rau Le Creuset follows and plans an attack on the Archangel. Kira decides to continue piloting the Strike and his friends volunteer to become members of the Archangel crew as his support.

Lt. Murrue Ramius takes over as captain of the Archangel and Kira and his friends are detained for seeing top secret military weapons. Rau Le Creuset is determined to capture the Strike after seeing how well it moved and sends out mobile suits to retrieve it. Disobeying orders, Athrun also dispatches so he could confirm if Kira is the one piloting the Strike, but when he finds his answer, Heliopolis crumbles as it sustains too much damage.