The second Bloody Valentine War is an fictional conflict that occurred within the Gundam anime universe.

Background

Almost two years have passed since the Bloody Valentine War between the Earth Alliance and ZAFT ended with the Treaty of Junius Seven. The treaty placed restrictions on the numbers of mobile suits that could be maintained, and nuclear weapons N-Jammer and N-Jammer Canceller, as well as the Mirage Colloid were banned outright.

In those two years, one of the primary forces behind the war, the extremist Earth Alliance faction Blue Cosmos, reorganized under the leadership of Lord Djibril, and continued to exercise influence over Earth's political elite.

Peace Treaty notwithstanding, both ZAFT and Earth Alliance continued to expand their military assets, including development of mobile suits units. Even if nuclear tecnologies were banned, some of it remained secretly on their development agendas.

Armory One incident

With both ZAFT and Earth Alliance members building up their military powers, Orb Union representative Cagalli Yula Athha arranged a meeting with ZAFT chairman Gilbert Dullindal to discuss the need for power in the post-war era. Athrun Zala accompanied her as a bodyguard, under the alias "Alex Dino". The meeting took place at ZAFT's Armory One, which was currently preparing for the launch ceremony of the first post-war battleship, the Minerva.

While Cagalli met with Dullindal, Earth Alliance pilots Sting Oakley, Stellar Loussier, and Auel Neider infiltrated the base, commandeered ZAFT's newest Gundam-type mobile suits, ZGMF-X24S Chaos, ZGMF-X31S Abyss, and ZGMF-X88S Gaia, and heavily damaged the installation.

Various ZAFT mobile suit units engaged battle, including ZGMF-1000 ZAKU Warriors, ZGMF-X56S Impulse, piloted by Shinn Asuka, and the crew of the Minerva. The stolen units succesfully escaped the colony, and were picked up by the Mirage Colloid-cloaked Earth Alliance battleship Girty Lue, stationed just outside the colony.

The Minerva launched and chased the Girty Lue, engaging in battle several times. The chase was interrupted when the Minerva was involved in the upcoming Junius Seven Colony Drop.

Junius Seven Colony Drop - Operation Break The World

The theft of the three Gundams was immediately set aside when movement was detected from Junius Seven, which was supposed to be in a stable orbit. A rogue ZAFT force that supported the late Patrick Zala planted engines all over the colony's remains, sending it on a collision course with Earth.

A ZAFT squadron under the command of Yzak Joule was dispatched to break up the colony, and was soon reenforced by the approaching Minerva's mobile suits. They were engaged in close combat battle by the rogue squadron, and operations to break Junius Seven in pieces were compromised. The Girty Lue also arrived on the scene, launched the stolen mobile suit units and engaged the Minerva.

The Minerva forces succesfully broke Junius Seven in two pieces just as it began entering the upper atmosphere. During atmospheric descend the Girty Lue and the Joule team withdrew, but Minerva continued to pursue the debris, breaking it into smaller fragments with her main Tannhäuser cannon. The destruction was insufficient, and the pieces crashed to Earth, destroying Athens, Philadelphia, Quebec City, the Great Wall of China, Shanghai, Rome and numerous other locations, while pieces that hit the sea caused massive tidal waves. The most severe damage occurred near the equator.

In the aftermath of the disaster, ZAFT immediately sent humanitarian aid to Earth. Blue Cosmos, which manipulated the rogue ZAFT squadron, divulged photographic evidence showing ZAFT units executing the drop, and started uprising the public opinion into blaming ZAFT for the disaster.

Second Bloody Valentine War

Fueled by public opinion, manipulated by Blue Cosmos, the president of the Atlantic Federation sent a list of demands to PLANT's supreme council. PLANT was blamed for harboring the terrorists that had committed the drop, even though all had been killed. The demands required PLANT to dismantle its military, dismiss the current ZAFT Supreme Council, and to submit to Earth Alliance inspectors.

Dullindal wished to find a diplomatic solution, but the Earth military had already begun deploying forces and PLANT was forced to plan the defense line.

Before the expiration of the ultimatum, the Earth Alliance attacked PLANT, officially starting the Second Bloody Valentine War.

Battle of Aprilius One

The Earth Alliance main force launched its mobile suits against the main PLANT defense, while a separate ambush team moved to attack Aprilius One, the location of the Supreme Council. The team launched a squadron of new-model GAT-04 Windam units carrying nuclear warheads, but ZAFT had a surprise defense plan. A Nazca-class vessel armed with a Neutron Stampeder activated the device, sending out high frequency radiation that detonated all the nuclear weapons in the Earth's ambush fleet. The crippled fleet was forced to retreat to the moon.

As the nuclear devices detonated in proximity of the colonies, PLANT's citizens were outraged and began pushing for a retaliatory strike against all Naturals. Dullindal, knowing that escalation had to be curbed, called upon Lacus Clyne look-alike idol Meer Campbell to calm the people.

Dullindal assigned ZGMF-X23S Saviour to Athrun, now reenlisted in ZAFT. Athrun was also appointed as FAITH, a special forces unit, effectively given permission to use his power as his conscience dictated. He departed for Earth, to join the Minerva and comunicate to Talia Gladys her own appointment to FAITH.

Operation Spear of Twilight

Following the nuclear attack, ZAFT's Defense Committee drafted a series of proposals meant to strengthen ZAFT's position. Earth Alliance forces had begun surrounding ZAFT Earth bases at Gibraltar and Carpentaria, but the surprise use of the Neutron Stampeder stalled the Earth Alliance forces. ZAFT forces gathered in the atmosphere to commence a drop operation to support Gibraltar and Carpentaria, but they met a fierce opposition from the remaining Earth alliance forces stationed on the moon.

Orb enters Earth Alliance

Under pressure from public opinion, now fiercely agains ZAFT, the Earth Alliance seeked an alliance with Orb, which possessed a technically advanced military force.

The majority faction of Orb's governing body, led by Prime Minister Unato Ema Seiran and his son Yuna Roma Seiran, supported an alliance. Cagalli, Orb representative, remained fiercely opposed. The council feared the Atlantic Federation' military strength, and wanted to avoid the events of the first war, when neutral Orb was attacked by the Earth Alliance and suffered massive casualties. Cagalli was eventually forced into accepting the alliance.

Orb declared it would sign the International Safety Assurance Treaty.

Minerva's Ambush at Orb

Orb council planned to give the Minerva to The Earth Alliance as a gift of good faith. The Minerva was still at dock in Orb, after the damage she took in the battle around the drop of Junius Seven.

Warned by Andrew Waltfeld, the ship departed immediately from Orb, but was ambushed by a vast Earth Alliance fleet as soon as it left Orb territorial waters. The Earth Alliance deployed the massive mobile armor YMAF-X6BD Zamza-Zah, equipped with a positron beam deflector. An Orb fleet was deployed on the border to prevent Minerva from retreating into its territory.

Despite the odds, the Minerva successfully escaped the ambush by laying waste to the opposing fleet, destroying the mobile armor and sinking several carrier ships. The new Deuterion Beam technology and Shinn Asuka's SEED factor were instrumental in the battle. The damaged Minerva headed for the ZAFT Carpentaria base in Australia.

Lacus Clyne's assassination attempt

After the First Bloody Valentine War, the main figures of the Clyne Faction lived secretly in an orphanage in Orb, hiding both the Archangel ship and the ZGMF-X10A Freedom unit.

A unknown mobile suit task force attempted do assassinate Lacus Clyne at the orphanage, but was incapacitated by Freedom. All the pilots killed themselves after being defeated, and evidence suggested the units were sent by ZAFT.

As a result of the attack, and after the recent political events, the Archangel crew assembled and launched the ship, departing from Orb and hiding underwater. Before leaving, Kira Yamato used Freedom to "kidnap" Cagalli, saving her from the unwanted marriage with Yuna Roma Seiran.

Battle of Gunlahan

On route to the Black Sea ZAFT base, the Minerva had to break through Earth Alliance forces stationed in the Middle East area. With the help of local guerilla units, the Minerva managed to destroy a land-based Lohengrin particle cannon fortification in the Gulnahan ravine, east of Suez, and to free the city occupied by EA forces.

Battle of Dardanelles

On route to the Gibraltar ZAFT base, the Minerva departed from the ZAFT base in the Black Sea, but was intercepted by a Earth Alliance fleet in the Dardanelles strait. Despite Orb Union's historical non-aggression policy, in the light of the new alliance Orb couldn't refuse orders from the Earth Alliance, and a massive fleet comprised of several carriers and MVF-M11C Murasame mobile suit units engaged the Minerva.

Soon after, as the Minerva was to fire its main cannon on the leading Orb ship, her Tannhäuser cannon was destroyed by ZGMF-X10A Freedom, piloted by Kira Yamato. The intervention of the Archangel stalled the battle, and Cagalli tried to stop Orb officials to attack the ZAFT forces. Her pledge failed as Yuna Seiran ordered the leading Orb ship to fire on Cagalli's mobile suit and on the Archangel.

In the ensuing battle, the Gundam units stolen at Armory One also engaged the Minerva mobile suits, and due to the intervention of Kira Yamato Haine Westenfluss was killed in his new ZGMF-X2000 GOUF Ignited. They disengaged the battle after ZGMF-X88S Gaia took heavy damage. The joined forces of Minerva and Archangel repelled the attack, and the Orb fleet was forced to withdraw from the battle.