The One Year War had reached a stalemate, and the Earth Federal Forces were scrambling to develop and deploy their own mobile suit forces to counter the Principality of Zeon. While the Federation's "Project V" prototype units were creating havoc for Zeon in other parts of the Earth Sphere, the Federal Forces were already hard at work laying the groundwork for their own mass-produced mobile suit. A pre-production model developed in conjunction with the experimental groundpounding RGM-79[G] GM Ground Type, the RGM-79[E] GM Type E was designed for space combat and was closely based on the prototype RX-78-2 Gundam mobile suit operating at the time. The GM Type E, along with combat data obtained from the Gundam's "learning computer" system, would serve as the basis for the later mass-produced RGM-79 GM.
Only a few units of the GM Type E were produced and placed into actual combat for testing. One of these units was operated by Sergeant Terry Sanders, Jr., who became one of the Federation's first ace mobile suit pilots by scoring six enemy kills in his GM. However, his entire team was wiped out on UC 6 October 0079, when the GM Type E pilots encountered a new test-model MS-06RD-4 Zaku II mobile suit. Sanders was the only member of his team to survive the encounter, with his own GM left severely damaged and incapable of combat. With his infamous "Death" nickname insured - due to his curse of being the only member of his own team to walk away alive - the Federation transferred Sanders out of the space unit test team and into groundside combat in Southeast Asia. |
