Epilogue Gamma 2270

Thunk.

"Au! Verdammte Scheisse, blödes verdammtes Scheißteil!"

A long string of expletives was hurled by the red-haired youth at the bunkbed that had the temerity of being above her own. After a few moments nursing her head the young woman's ears perked as she realized just why she had awaken with such a start. The general quarters klaxons were blaring, without the three sharp beeps to indicate it was a drill. Another burst of curses escaped the girl as she pulled herself out and floated out and flung herself out of the room. Personnel were scrambling to their stations and the girl quickly tied her shoulder length hair into a bun before arriving at the lockers. The rest of the squad was already there and changing into their plugsuits.

"A bit late there, princess," one of her fellow pilots said with grin.

The smirk that appeared in response was not playful in the least but the woman did not directly respond.

"What's the status," she said instead as she began to strip.

"Four contacts," a cool and collected voice answered, "Command has ordered Talon and Rapier squadrons to engage. Dragon is to launch but remain on standby unless Talon and Rapier require assistance."

The woman frowned as she considered the news. Talon squad was a fairly experienced unit commanded by a competent leader while Rapier was one of the newly established squads transferred in from Earth a few weeks back. While full of enthusiasm they had yet to face the enemy in actual combat. Still between the two squadrons they would have twelve Guardians versus four gauna. That was three to one odds so it should be a fairly easy first blooding for Rapier squad, in theory. But as indicated by the orders given to her own squad Sidonia Command was not going to take any chances of the gauna springing some surprise and getting a clear shot at the base if they somehow managed to blow past Talon and Rapier.

The woman pressed the button on her wrist and the plugsuit sunk in into its form fitting configuration. She grabbed her helmet and turned to the rest of her pilots, the women at least.

"Alright, move out."

"Ma'am!"

The others hurried out but one with an azure bobbed haircut lingered just slightly. The squadron leader smiled, causing her freckles to shift, and gave her wingman a pat on the shoulder.

"I know you've got my back Yui, and I have yours."

The other woman regarded her superior officer for a moment before nodding firmly. "Understood, Asuka."

Asuka Soryu gave Yui Ichijo another pat on the shoulder before putting on her own helmet. The two hurried down to the hanger and slid into their respective Guardians. As Asuka sank into her seat she felt the plugs attach to the back of her suit and the LCL begin flowing in. The initial moment when it filled her helmet her vision clouded just a bit before the vision system compensated and she was presented with a full view of the outside of her Guardian as if it were her personally sitting on the launch rail instead of the mech.

"Dragon squad, you are cleared for launch," flight control informed them over the radio.

No further words were exchanged and one by one the rest of her squad was positioned on the launch rails. To her irritation doctrine dictated that the squad leader could not be the first one out the gate and so she had to wait until two of the other Guardians launched before it was her turn. And then her body slammed back into her chair as her mech was sent speeding along the magnetic track. Effectively a small mass driver, she was sent flying out of Sidonia base and quickly took up her position in lead of the others.

Now in the void of space Asuka brought up the tactical overlay. Something that most people on Earth underestimated was the sheer vastness of the void. They were technically in the asteroid belt, yes, but the nearest asteroid was still a mere speck in her eye. Talon and Rapier squads were already off in the distance, their exhaust a receding bright dot. Only the presence of their IFFs allowed her to keep a firm lock on their position. As for the gauna.

"Magnification, target designate alpha."

The Guardian's computer complied and projected a stream of four insect-like creatures floating through space. Sidonia base had a veritable fleet of recon drones sweeping the surrounding space and humanity had had plenty of practice learning how to quickly detect gauna over the past century since their intrusion upon Sol.

"I wonder what they're up to," Asuka said aloud.

"Does seem a tad small for a raid," one of her squadmates remarked. "Think they're testing us?"

"That would be something new," Asuka said. "So far the gauna haven't really show much in the way of strategy, just tactics."

"Well maybe we're doing too good a job of teaching them. We've spent the last fifty years just sitting around on the defense when we should be going after that mass union ship."

That Asuka could not dispute but that decision was well above her paygrade and while the rank and file could get away with openly questioning policy decisions an officer of her position could not so she kept mum on the topic. Of course for all they knew there was a plan to go after the mass union ship, it was just taking a while to equip an expedition that travel out of the inner solar system. Or maybe the bean counters had decided that waiting for the mass union ship to get closer to them would be more economical, though Asuka hoped the Admiralty would have moved heaven and earth to disabuse the accounts of that dubious wisdom.

Indicators started popping up, notifying Asuka that Talon and Rapier had engaged the enemy. The skirmish itself was too far way for Asuka to get a detailed view of the action with her limited tactical feed but the broad strokes were evident. The gauna had split into two pairs and Talon and Rapier had followed suit, each squad focusing on their own targets. For purely biological entities the gauna were remarkably capable, able to match and even sometimes exceed the performance of a Guardian mech. And despite the advances in material science humanity had yet to develop an armor able to withstand the assortment of bladed edges a gauna could sport so standard practice was to try and engage the creatures at range, chewing away the placenta that composed the majority of a gauna's body before delivering the coup de grace with the special AAF ammo first developed for use against active AT-fields.

That the only thing humanity possessed that could destroy a gauna's core, short of a high density positron beam, was the AAF suggested to many people that these gauna were perhaps the matured form of Adam derived lifeforms. The few intact samples retrieved were supportive of this hypothesis but supportive did not equate definitive.

"They're taking a while," another pilot remarked.

Asuka frowned. That was true, two gaunas versus six Guardians? That should have been resolved fairly quickly if only because of the amount of overlapping fire the Guardians could produce. As it was Talon squadron was zipping back and forth trying to nail their targets while the less experienced Rapier was sprawled out across a wide area trying to do the same. Finally one of Talon's targets went dark, indicating its destruction. The survivor continued to engage, seemingly focused on Talon lead as the rest of the squad maneuvered about to avoid hitting their own CO with their shots.

Suddenly a signal from Rapier squad disappeared.

"The hell?" Asuka exclaimed.

Even worse, it was Rapier leader. With their commanding officer gone the movements of the rest of the squad became even more erratic.

"Shit, command this is Dragon lead, request permission to reinforce Rapier squad."

"Standby." The wait was brief. "Permission denied, hold your present position."

"What!? Are you bloody serious!?"

"Order stands," the operator replied, "hold your present position."

With a growl Asuka keyed back her engines. If they had gotten permission to go her squad could have reached Rapier in a minute, a minute and a half tops. Instead they were forced to hang back for god knows what and watch the green squad scramble trying to cope with the loss of their commander. From the rough distance numbers it was clear the squad was moving further away, likely trying to chase down the gauna that had killed their comrade. What worried Asuka however was the approximate location numbers for the gaunas. All three had effectively broken off and were making a mad dash further away from Sidonia. Past experience showed that gaunas never retreated, they only pulled back so as to maneuver for a new attack. Even stranger the two gaunas that had been engaging Rapier squadron appeared to have split up. Why in the world were they doing that?

Alarms blared in Asuka's cockpit as suddenly a mass of red appeared on her tactical feed.

"Verdammte Scheisse!"

"New contacts!" the operator announced perhaps somewhat unnecessarily over the command channel. "Multiple new contacts! Detecting thirty-four gaunas advancing!"

"How the hell did we not see them!?" Asuka demanded of no one in particular.

"It does not matter," Yui stated calmly as ever. "They are here and we must fight."

Asuka grimaced. "Yeah, and this is not going to be pretty."

Both Talon and Rapier squadron had stopped their pursuit and were even now racing back towards Sidonia. Rapier had been too far ahead however and within seconds another signal disappeared. Despite the risk to themselves Talon slowed ever so slightly to provide cover fire for their comrades. At the same time Asuka watched as new signals appeared around her as Sidonia began launching the rest of the Guardian wing. A total of eight squadrons were stationed at the asteroid base making for a total of forty-eight Guardians when at full strength. They were already down to forty-six and before the day was over Asuka was grimly certain the numbers would see further diminishment. Another member of Rapier squadron fell victim to the oncoming gauna.

"All pilots assume bombardment formation," came the orders.

Asuka and her own squad obeyed quickly and the thirty-six Guardians maneuvered into a six by six square grid. Telemetry from all of their sensors was merged and further complemented by Sidonia's own arrays and the drones recording the battle. Targeting data flowed past Asuka's tactical display and the woman aligned her own cannon to match the designated vector. With this many gauna incoming the only way they would survive would be if they could whittle the enemy numbers down enough that they could engage with far greater numerical superiority once the gauna crossed the kill zone.

"Open fire!"

In space there was no medium to carry sounds and the designers of the Guardians had not seen fit to bother outfitting the machines with a system to simulate the sound of explosions. Each pilot could still feel their unit firing however, even if there was no time to actually follow the path of their shots to see whether they hit or not. The tactical system continued feeding in a stream of targets, concentrating fire on the most probable to hit and allocating the available firepower accordingly. The number of gaunas began to slowly drop as the vanguard ran into a wave of railgun fire, pummeled into tangled clumps of placenta before a second wave ruptured the exposed cores. Confirmation of foam disintegration came in but none of the pilots had time to pay them any heed. The number of confirmed kills was rising all too slowly for them to feel any sense of triumph after all.

Rapier squadron was down to a third of its original strength now but the survivors alongside Talon squadron had finally managed to disengage and were racing for the relative safety of the rest of the wing. The gauna seemed to ignore them now, instead focusing solely on closing the distance with Sidonia's defenders.

Asuka's expression twisted in concentration as she shifted from target to target. Another thirty seconds and the formation would need to disperse but they had only reduced the enemy down to thirty-one contacts. Thirty. Twenty-nine. Twenty-eight. Twenty-seven.

"All units scatter!" the wing commander ordered.

The Guardians obeyed, each squad forming up even as the wider formation broke up. The gauna however moved as if a single entity, all of them charging after a single squad.

"Katana squadron, you've got trailers!"

"We see them, since they're so eager to play let's see if they can keep up. We'll act as bait, you guys pick them off our tail!"

"Acknowledged, all units engage at will and watch each other's backs!"

"Roger!"

Even as Katana squad began running for dear life the other Guardians turned about, bathing the gauna in overlapping fields of fire. The gauna however responded by shifting their own formation, rotating their numbers about to absorb the incoming fire. This was not enough to completely negate the combined fire but the rate at which they were able to strip away the placenta plummeted.

"What the hell," Asuka cursed. "When did they start pulling tricks like this!?"

"Looks like today's the day princess," one of her squadmates said.

"This is Talon squad, we're joining in," another voice cut in before Asuka could reply.

Not just Talon, the survivors of Rapier were also in range and joined their firepower into the bombardment being laid down. Twenty-five now.

"GAAAH-"

Asuka grimaced as the scream from one of Katana's pilots was abruptly cut off. Despite the loss the rest of the squad kept running, understanding full well that turning to try to avenge their comrade would only see themselves overwhelmed by the gauna. Suddenly a third of the gauna split off and surged towards another squad.

"Shit! They're coming-"

The squad leader had no time to finish his sentence as suddenly his own signal disappeared. The rest of the squad dispersed, trying to put distance between themselves and their attackers but not entirely succeeding as two more of their numbers fell.

Asuka's eyes narrowed. "They're going for the squad leaders. Colonel! They're going for the squad leaders!"

"I see it," the wing commander said. "All units reform formation, they're trying to pick off the squads one by one."

The squadrons began converging once more, or at least trying to. The gauna swarm dispersed at the same time and soon each squad had a couple trying to disrupt their formations.

"Persistent bastards," Asuka cursed. "Star formation, clockwise rotation!"

"Roger!"

The five units that made up Dragon squad formed into a loose circle around her unit and began spinning. Each of her squadmates had their Guardian partially slaved to her, keeping their unit in formation but still allowing a certain degree of freedom of maneuver. Together the squad formed a tight shell that ducked and weaved as one while covering every vector of approach the gaunas could take. The other squadrons could be seen trying to do much the same but were just a tad slower off the mark. That difference soon became telling as a few more signals disappeared from the tactical feed. The wing was starting to claw back together however as its units coalesced into a single group once more. The price was heavy though with over a quarter of their numbers down with twenty gaunas still hounding them.

"All units begin falling back towards Sidonia," the wing commander ordered. "The station's guns will provide covering fire."

Asuka scowled. Was the situation really that desperate? If they actually moved the battle closer to the station they would be risking a gauna managing to burrow into it. If that happened it would be an absolute massacre before they could dig it out. But looking at the current numbers it was becoming abundantly clear that yes, things really might be that bad. They were down to thirty-two Guardians and not whittling down the number of gaunas nearly quickly enough. If this kept up Sidonia might not have any intact squadrons by the end of the battle.

"Dual or trio formations," the wing commander continued on.

Asuka maneuvered her unit closer to Yui's and reached out with her mech's hands. Yui's grabbed on and once the two were secure they hit their boosters in sync and roared away from the battle. The rest of her squad was right behind and soon enough bright lights marking the drive missions of other Guardian pairs or trios were streaking after them. The gauna could not match their speed and fell behind but they still kept coming. The Guardians would have a bit of time to set up once at their target location, but not much.

"This is turning out to be a really shitty day," a squadmate remarked.

Asuka was inclined to agree but still needed to play the role expected of her. "Cut the chatter. Get into firing positions and wait for my order."

There was no time to set up another unified formation for synchronized bombardment so each squad did the best they could, linking to each other in smaller nets and peppering the advancing gauna. The decrease in density severely curtailed their overall effectiveness but Asuka at least had the satisfaction of seeing one of the creatures disintegrate along its approach. And then Sidonia's railgun batteries opened up, the far more powerful cannons mounted on the asteroid completely shredding a gauna's placenta shell with only a single hit. Positron beams lashed out against the vulnerable cores and three more foam disintegrations were confirmed. Sixteen gauna remaining against thirty-two Guardians. Two to one odds now yet no one was about to celebrate just yet.

As the gauna closed in the swarm dispersed once more, forcing the Guardians to similarly split up and give chase. They could not risk any slipping through unnoticed to hit the station itself but being so separated they were vulnerable to the bait and switch tactics the gauna had already employed with such deadly effectiveness. Sidonia's own defenses also lit up but the lighter guns that were fast enough to traverse after a gauna could not match their larger brethren in destructive power. It was still a nice addition however and Asuka noted with satisfaction as another gauna disintegrated under the combined fire from her squad and the station defenses. The satisfaction quickly disappeared as another Guardian signal disappeared.

The radio crackled. "Sidonia station, this is Wisteria squadron, come in."

Asuka's eyes widened as she looked about toward the new contacts. Six, no twelve, no eighteen Guardians raced towards them in a single clasp formation. They dispersed in one smooth motion upon reaching the battlefield and bathed a pair of gauna with withering fire. Two more foam disintegrations were confirmed. It was not just Wisteria squadron, two others had accompanied it. Asuka grinned. The 2nd Patrol Fleet had arrived.

Some distance off, too far to help but closing fast, a trio of warships were tagged by the tactical display. Izanagi, Izanami, and Kusanagi's IFFs were broadcasting loud and clear. The grin grew wider. The odds were looking a lot better now. Asuka punched the acceleration on her Guardian and charged forth once more. Victory after all came to those who sought it out.

End of Epilogue Gamma

Ahem. I present a timeskip of over two hundred forty years. Suffice it to say that Shinji's generation is long dead, though their descendants are still hanging around. I'll leave all of you to speculate as to who left descendants and etc. This is a snippet for a second hypothetical sequel to In Tune, though whether it's a prologue or from the middle of the story or whatever is kind of up in the air. And the chances of me ever getting around to it are slim to none. Which is something of a shame since I think I hinted at so many things in this short snippet that some of you are probably very eager to learn more about the premise.

I've already established a habit of borrowing characters from other franchises. There is a rationale for each one, they're not completely random. The character sheet that will be published with the next set of author notes will have snippets for my rationale for each named character. Unnamed ones I'm leaving vague in case I ever do get around to writing more and I want the flexibility to make changes as needs arise.

Anyone, one more epilogue to go. Let me know what you all think.

I wonder what it takes these days to get an actual tropes page.