(U.C. 0079.04.29 - 0079.05.11) As the Earth Drop Operations begin, the 603rd is assigned to test the Hildolfr, a transformable mobile tank. The piloting task falls onto Maj. Demeziere Sonnen, a formerly respected tank trainer who is now disgraced and troubled by dope addiction from his own misery after Zeon abandoned armored vehicles in favor of mobile suits. When the team drop into Arizona for field testing, they find the drop zone supply depot destroyed — by a team of Zakus captured by LtC. Federico Czariano's Federation squad. Sonnen is forced into combat with the uncalibrated Hildolfr. The fast and powerful mobile tank proves its mettle by taking out all enemies, but not without the cost of Sonnen's life.

(U.C. 0079.10.24 - 0079.11.10) Upon news of a powerful new Federation mobile suit, Zeon propagandizes the Zudah, a mobile suit claimed to be superior to the Federation prototype. The 603rd is put in charge of testing the prototype with the help of a distinguished Zimmad test pilot Maj. Jean-Luc Duvall. However, the testing soon goes wrong after a fellow test pilot is killed when his Zudah lost control and disintegrated during combat simulation. To add salt to insult, the Jotunheim crew is shock to learn that the Federation already knows the Zudah's shameful background — it is nothing but a repainted version of the failed project that previously lost the bid to Zaku I due to a lethal design flaw. The Zudah is doomed to lose all honor and become a ghost fighter.