The Illusion That Lingers above the Orbit

U.C. 0079.10.24 - 0079.11.10, upon news of a powerful new Federation mobile suit, Zeon propagandizes the EMS-10 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 insult to injury, the Jotunheim crew is shocked 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. As the Jotunheim responds to the distress call of orbit-drowning Zeon forces retreating from Odessa, the disgraced Duvall sorties in Zudah to engage the incoming Federation forces in order to prove its worth (and also his) one last time.