Born in the Shangri-La colony at the Side 1 O'Neill Cylinder, Judau was originally part of a band of teenage scavengers who sold damaged mobile suit parts and other mechanical junk for money. A casual encounter with the crew of the Argama and the AEUG survivors of the last battle of The Gryps War forces him to pilot the Zeta Gundam and then the ZZ Gundam against Haman Karn's Neo Zeon.