Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory

Mayfly reveals Cima's backstory in flashbacks as she reflects on her past prior to the events of Episode 13. It reveals that Cima and her unit poisoned a Side 5 colony using G-3 nerve gas, under orders, but were treated as pariahs afterwards by their own countrymen for committing such an atrocity. At the end of the war her superior refused to let her retreat to Axis. Because their home colony Mahal had been converted into a weapon, Cima and her men were left stranded and homeless.

Universal Century 0083. Inside the Zanzibar-class mobile cruiser Lili Marleen, Cima Garahau, the former Zeon M.A.U. (Marine Amphibious Unit) Commander, was battling her recurring nightmare of being abandoned by Zeon military during One Year War and drifting in Space in the past 4 years. This picture drama also recounts Cima's past and present encounter with Anavel Gato, as well as introducing a new character, the Zeon fugitive Geil Hunt.

In the prologue (set during the Battle of A Baoa Qu in December U.C.0079), Zeon ace pilot Anavel Gato returns from combat to find Admiral Aiguille Delaz telling him of the deaths of Gihren Zabi and Kycilia Zabi, as the Zeon forces surrender. Despite the shock defeat, both men retreat and plan the return of Zeon. In October U.C.0083, the Federation space carrier Albion delivers two Gundam Development Project (GDP) prototypes, the RX-78 GP01 Zephyranthes and the GP02A Physalis, to the Torrington Base in Australia for ground testing under the aegis of Anaheim Electronics engineer Nina Purpleton. Because of lax security, a Zeon mole helps Gato infiltrate the base and hijack the GP02 just after its nuclear weapon is loaded in the middle of the night. Having witnessed Gato activate the mobile suit, Ensign Kou Uraki takes over the Zephyranthes and prepares to face him just as Zeon forces assault the base.

Kou, his friend Chuck Keith, and veterans South Burning and Dick Allen follow Gato through the outback in an attempt to recapture the Physalis. Zeon forces ambush them and kill Allen as Gato awaits a Komusai shuttle for extraction. Kou destroys the shuttle but it is actually a diversion - Gato escapes on a submarine that provided covering fire during the Torrington base attack.

Back at Torrington, Federation General John Kowen assigns Burning to lead the Albion's pursuit of Gato with a new crew of pilots to help him. Kou and Keith join the mission. Lt. Bernard Monsha, one of the new additions, doubts Kou's capability to fly the GP01. Despite Nina's assurance that Kou handled the mobile suit well, Monsha challenges him to a first-shot mobile suit duel to see who better deserves to pilot the Zephyranthes. Although Kou wins the match, Burning intervenes and sends both pilots to one week in the brig. Meanwhile, Gato heads for the Kinbareid diamond mine in East Africa, which is still occupied by Zeon holdouts from the One Year War.