Patrick Zala is a member of the PLANT Supreme Council, Father of Athrun Zala. He loses his wife in the Bloody Valentine Incident and blames the Earth Alliance. He makes it clear to PLANT Supreme Council Chairman Siegel Clyne at a council meeting at Aprilius One that no Natural should be left standing, they must be wiped out for the sake of all Coordinators.
His rise to power as the Chairman of PLANT gave him great military power for expansion, which he used in Operation Spitbreak. Officially, the operation was to take out the Alliance's last mass driver at Panama; unofficially, he had his forces deploy instead to take out Alliance headquarters JOSH-A, without the approval rest of the PLANT Council. However, Rau secretly leaked intel of this attack to the Alliance, which compelled Blue Cosmos to sacrifice the Eurasian forces with the Cyclops system to eliminate half the attack force. The aftermath involved near insanity for Zala. Believing that the moderates had betrayed him, he ordered their arrest and if necessary, death in which he had Siegel Clyne killed. He got even more furious that his daughter Lacus had allowed the new Freedom suit to Kira Yamato, whom he presumed to be an Alliance spy. He sent his own son, Athrun Zala/Justice after the suit but when Athrun returned without either suit, he shot his own son, when he refused to divulge the location of the mobile suits Freedom and Justice. However, Athrun was rescued by members of the Clyne Faction, who stole the Eternal for their escape.
Eventually, word of the Alliance's destruction of Boaz through use of Neutron Jammer Canceller technology reached the PLANTs. Patrick cursed the Naturals for such barbaric actions. During the Battle of Jachine Due, Zala unveiled the GENESIS, a superweapon designed for ending the war. The first shot destroyed most of the Alliance fleet, the second took out the reinforcements and the lunar base of Ptolemaios. However, Patrick became infuriated that the Alliance was still fighting and that not even ZAFT could stop the Three Ship Alliance, who were attempting to stop such genocidal actions. He tells the Jachin staff to target GENESIS on Atlantic Federation capital, Washington. His actions clearly showed that Patrick wasn't just satisfied with conquest, but to annihilate all Naturals to make Coordinators the "new" mankind. Ray Yuki protested such an action, as it would wipe out half the life on Earth and destroy the surface; Patrick responded by shooting him. He justified to his troops that there enemy is still out there and they must destroy them all; one of his aides pointed out that their space forces were still in the line of fire; Patrick stated that all their forces were fighting for one thing - victory. He is then shot by Yuki, who then dies. Athrun and Cagalli then come into the control room to find Patrick's floating body. With his dying breath, he tells Athrun to fire GENESIS, to make the world for Coordinators. However, Athrun doesn't and detonates the Justice inside the superweapon. Patrick's body is then annihilated by Jachin Due's explosion. Afterwards, Eileen Canaver takes over and opens negotiations with the Alliance.
