GN-000 0 Gundam

The 0 Gundam was the first mobile suit to be equipped with a GN Drive. It was the prototype that lead to the development of the second generation Gundam Astraea and eventually the third generation, Gundam Exia.

Combat Characteristics
0 Gundam has basic complements for combat, a Beam Saber, Beam Gun, and Gundam Shield. For long range combat, the unit would deploy its gun and shield for shoot-and-block tactics. For close range combat, a beam saber can be pulled directly from its backpack for shield-and-strike tactics. When first tested, 0 Gundam's experimental GN Drive produced excessive GN particles, creating an angelic wing-like effect because of it known as GN Feathers. After additional tuning and modifications, the unit produced GN particles normally. 0 Gundam was later refitted with a GN particle storage tank (its GN Drive was given to 00 Gundam) for combat.

Beam Gun
Not much is known about the weapon, it's presumed because it's based on RX-78 that the beam rifle can rapid fire and/or shoot pulse shots.

Gundam Shield
The shield has a particle emitter at the center to strengthen it against beam and physical attacks. It's unclear if it can generate a GN Field or other capabilities due to limited use.

Beam Saber
One beam saber is visibly stored at the backpack of 0 Gundam. The beam saber is capable of increase its beam strength for stronger attacks.

GN Feathers
By releasing large amounts of GN Particles,together with control by the Clavical Antenna, the 0 Gundam can form huge wings of light. It provides stability to the unit while in mid-air while disrupting and jams enemy attacks.The wings of lights combined with the Gundam's overwhelming power and presence creates a powerful psychological effect. Since the 0 Gundam was the 1st Generation test suit, the wing's enormous output was considered to be too inefficient and was not used in later development.

Trans-Am System
Trans-Am temporarily gives 0 Gundam three times its normal operating capacity. Overall speed, strength, and power is dramatically increased to give 0 Gundam a tactical advantage in the field. It's unknown if 0 Gundam have special abilities when Trans-Am is activated because the system was never executed when it still had its GN Drive. After 0 Gundam's GN Drive was installed into 00 Gundam, a particle storage tank was substituted for powering the MS. In doing so, 0 Gundam can never utilize Trans-Am ever again unless its GN Drive is restored.

GN-000FA Full-Armor 0 Gundam
Appears in 00V. Full-Armor 0 Gundam is an armored version of 0 Gundam design by Sherilyn Hyde after Fereshte was absorbed into the main branch. Taking the idea from GN-005 Gundam Virtue's armor, 0 Gundam's GN Composite Armor can store GN particles and generate a GN field. The armor is also armed with a double barrel beam gun and shoulder-mounted beam bazooka. The GN Composite Armor was delivered along with the 0 Gundam to CBS-74 Ptolemaios 2 to use in battle against the Innovators. However, the armor was deem unreliable without a GN Drive to supply GN particles and thus never used in combat.

Intervention in Kurdish Republic
O-Gundam's only known sortie was an intervention mission in the Kurdish Republic. The pilot of 0 Gundam, Ribbons Almark, was suppose to kill all the combatants in the area; however, upon upon seeing the awed young Soran Ibrahim (who would later grow up to be Setsuna F. Seiei), Ribbons perceives the boy's look to be one of utter admiration and worship, and lets him live. Afterwards, he went and tampered with Veda's files (something that Tieria Erde would eventually pick up on) in order to make Soran a Gundam Meister by replacing Exia's original pilot with Setsuna.) He would later commented as a "momentary impulse... but also a sort of mercy."

Shadow Interventions
After the development of second generation GNY-Gundams, 0 Gundam's solar furnace was removed and given to Fereshte to operate their Gundams as the shadow group behind the Ptolemy group. With only a single GN Drive, the solar furnace was often swapped between all four GNY-Gundams and piloted primarily by Fon Spaak in their shadow armed interventions.

Resisting Team Trinity
During their armed interventions, Fereshte encountered the Gundam Throne Meisters and they came to claim 0 Gundam's GN Drive. They claimed that it was orders from Veda itself and demanded Fereshte to stand down their operation and relinquish control of their only true solar furnace. Fon Spaak/Gundam Plutone resisted confiscation of the GN Drive and Johann Trinity informed Veda of Fon Spaak's disobedience. Veda detonated the explosive bracelet on Fon and he nearly died of internal bleeding. Hanayo/Gundam Meister 874 intervened by scuttling Gundam Plutone's MS body and escaped with the GN Drive in Plutone's core fighter. The GN Drive was later transferred to one of Celestial Being's resource satellites (L1 or L3) for maintenance.

Four Year Aftermath
Nearly four years after "Operation Fallen Angels" (episode 25, season 1 finale) and the near destruction of Celestial Being, Wang Liu Mei and Hong Long visited one of Celestial Being's secret asteroid bases to oversee the recent developments (L1 or L3 satellite). She wanted to see the first Gundam and Ian Vashti opened the container doors for her to see 0 Gundam. Ian Vashti commented that 0 Gundam's GN Drive has been temporarily removed for an overhaul on 0 Gundams systems. The GN Drive was later moved onto 00 Gundam for testing.

Twin Drive Testing
Ian Vashti removed 0 Gundam's GN Drive and adapted it to 00 Gundam's Twin Drive System. He wanted to test out the synchronization and compatibility of dual GN Drives with little success. All combinations of the GN Drives failed and he hoped that Exia's GN Drive would fare better. When Exia returned to Celestial Being, compatibility tests resumed with only a 73% (needs to be 80%) synchronization rate. When A-Laws attacked Ptolemy II, Setsuna risked Trans-Am in attempt to level out the synchronization of 00. Setsuna managed to synchronize the Twin Drive System at 87% and defeated A-Laws opposition. With 0 Gundam without a solar furnace, the unit has since kept in storage for an indefinite amount of time.

Return to Battle
0 Gundam has since been moved to an alternate Celestial Being resource satellite, Lagrange 5. With the need for every mobile suit available for upcoming conflicts, 0 Gundam was considered to be reactivated for battle. Without a GN Drive, Linda Vashti and CB engineers designed and fitted 0 Gundam with a large GN particle storage tank to compensate for 0 Gundam's missing solar furnace. The Gundam was given a new paint job (hallmark colors of the original RX-78) and armed with its original GN Beam Rifle and Gundam Shield. It wasn't long 0 Gundam was put to use when the Ptolemy crew and Gundam Meisters were under heavy assault by kamikaze Innovator clone units, Gaga Forces. To ease the burden of combat, Lasse sortied with 0 Gundam to take down some of the incoming enemy MS units; 0 Gundam ran out of GN particles and he abandoned it. It drifted out of the hanger until Ribbons in his damaged Reborns Gundam found it and fitted one of the GN Drives he had stolen earlier from 00 Raiser. Ribbons then boarded his original mobile suit to engage in combat against Setsuna (who attached the remaining GN Drive of the 00 to the Exia R2). 0 Gundam was ultimately destroyed in the final confrontation; Ribbons fate is unknown. Both units didn't directly damage each others GN Drive. They made diagonal vertical beam cuts into each others MS frame, causing a systems overload. The GN Drive shell was designed to sustain high level damage, while not completely proven, the flashes of 5 GN Drives from Jupiter suggests the GN Drive survived the battle. It's unclear was 0 Gundam ever recovered and restored.

Trivia

 * The fact that 0 Gundam resembles the RX-78 Gundam, and Ribbons being its pilot, made it a considerable in-joke, as Ribbons shared that same voice actor of Amuro Ray, the pilot of the RX-78.


 * Ribbons Almark, an innovator, was first revealed as pilot in the novel, which was then confirmed in S2 Ep. 14.


 * The new paint job which the 0 Gundam features in S2 Ep. 22 is the same as the one of the original RX-78 Gundam.