U.C. 0079.01.04 - 0079.01.17, with the outbreak of the One Year War, a team of Zeon technical personnel of all sorts of backgrounds gather on the ship Jotunheim to form the 603 Technical Evaluation Unit, in charge of assessing various prototype weapons.
Their first assignment is the testing of the QCX-76A Jormungand, a large and powerful long-range plasma cannon capable of taking out a battleship in a single shot. However, the weapon's maiden appearance at the Battle of Loum becomes its last, as a new member of the Zeon arsenal soon arrives to prove the Jormungand obsolete. As Char Aznable's force decimate the Federation armada and the Jormungand completely neglected, Chief Gunnery Officer Lt. Aleksandro Hemme uses the last glory of the doomed serpent to take down a Federation Magellan, ending the Dreadnaught era of the space warfare.