You’re pretty spot on. Sides are typically groups of space colonies clustered around the Lagrangian points in Earth’s orbit. Newtype powers have varied over the years. It ranges from minor telepathy (framed as the ability to sense the intent of others, which is allegedly responsible for their unnerving reaction times) to, uh…

…well, they can get pretty out there. No spoilers, but it’s not clear yet where GQuX is going to fall on the scale of “I can feel your anger” to “I can reshape reality to my will”.

Lorewise, GQuX benefits from effectively being an alternate universe to the original 1979 Mobile Suit Gundam, so you don’t need to follow the half-dozen sequel series (and as many again side stories) which exist in the same continuity.