Movable Warrior Nepgeardam
Space. The so-called final frontier of humanity.
For many years, the most humanity could do was to imagine their lives on space. Be it either through movies, telltales or simple theories; humans didn't have the technology or knowledge to actually survive for long in space...
However, that finally changed during the first year of the Galactic Era.
After that, colonies harboring countless of humans started to fill the Game Sphere's atmosphere and beyond. The four most nearer to the planet were named like the four main nations of Gamindustri: Planeptune, Lastation, Leanbox and Lowee. The rest then got their names from other nations or continents found in the planet.
With how many people started to move into those space colonies, it really seemed like a new golden era had started for humankind, and, for a while, it was.
Peace, however, tends to be anything but everlasting...
The Console War. This was a conflict born out of the arrogance of the CPUs - name that certain humans attributed to themselves for gaining special qualities by living in space. They considered themselves as the evolution of humankind and because of that, ordered the ruling Game Federation on the Game Sphere to give up their control to them.
Naturally, this enraged the leaders of humanity. They refused to accept their conditions and immediately ordered them to yield, which is a thing this certainly didn't do. In fact, the CPUs, joined under the name of the "invincible" Principality of Gyan, not only refused to follow their orders, they also went onto the offensive and attacked the colony of Planeptune, completely decimating it with their powerful movable warriors; mechanical wonders that were far beyond any human weapon of the time.
This was the trigger that ultimately started a full scale war between both parties.
The war would continue for years and years, and against all predictions, it would end up in a stalemate pretty quickly, and it remained that way for a long time... Until...
In the year 0083 of the Galaxy Era, the Game Federation revealed their newest weapon against the movable warriors from Gyan: The Nepgeardam!
The Nepgeardam was a powerful machine capable of performing feats that no other robot could ever dream of, and it was thanks to the Nepgeardam that the Game Sphere began to turn the tides on their favor during the most crucial times of the Console War.
...But still!
Even if the Nepgeardam was truly a matchless movable warrior, there was one person on the entire Principality of Gyan that was able to cause troubles to that machine: Neptune, the Shooting Star of Gyan!
The Nepgeardam and Neptune fought several times, but this story is about their very last showdown, during the Battle of Celestia - one of the most important battles of the Console War, and the one that would bring an end to the entire conflict.
However, our sole focus will be the fight of the Conqueror of the Federation and the Shooting Star of Gyan...
The personal battle of those two started when the Nepgeardam, sensing the presence of its lifelong enemy, separated from the mothership and flew towards a nearby debris field...
"Neptune, come out!"
A feminine voice shot reverberated through the debris field, its point of origin being the familiar white and light purple colors of the Nepgeardam. The ultimate movable warrior of the Federation had a weird cylindrical body and limbs, colored so they looked like a sailor dress, and socks, on the legs case. On the back, the machine had a backpack where a single sword handle rested in.
The Nepgeardam also had a very distinctive feature on Its square-shaped head, as it had what looked like a perpetually surprised and/or worried expression drawn on it. Nobody knows why it looks like this, but the most accepted theory is that it gives the Nepgeardam a semblance of uniqueness to it that no other movable warrior shares.
"Come out!" repeated the voice, which was the pilot of the machine, Nepgear. "I know you're here, so stop hiding already!"
The purple-haired robot moved its head around, letting its pilot see every nook and cranny of the debris field thanks to its highly optimized main cameras.
"...Ah!"
...However, what let Nepgear find her enemy wasn't those, but her own instinct, as she almost immediately moved away, barely dodging a dangerous energy beam that ended erring its intended target and, instead, struck a piece of scrap, destroying it completely.
"I see you really have gotten better, Nepgeardam!" the sudden voice made Nepgear turn towards its origin, coming face to face with the Shooting Star herself.
Neptune was driving the Nepgyang, the most advanced movable warrior made by the Principality of Gyan. It looked like a mechanic feminine body, super pointy breasts and everything, and was colored black and light blue. On its back, a large thruster was present - a much more smaller one was also found at the end of its legs, replacing the feet. Its head had a pair of large horns made of a glowing crystal, and it also had a single eye fit into a light blue slit.
"Neptune!" simply replied the pilot of the Federation, drawing a white rifle and pointing it at the dark robot. "I'm here to defeat you, Neptune, and this time for good!"
"I see," replied Neptune, as she ordered her machine to draw a pair of pistols from a couple of openings on each thigh. "So be it, Nepgeardam. This place will become your grave, and your defeat will serve as the proof humankind needs to realize their weakness!"
The white machine and the black machine stood still after that short exchange. Time seemed to have stopped for those two, but it resumed as a large piece of debris floated its way to the middle point between them. That was the starting point for Nepgear, who immediately dashed around the debris and pointed her rifle at the spot she last saw Neptune in, only to not see anyone at all.
"W-What!?"
"You're still easy to predict, Nepgeardam!"
From behind the floating debris, the Nepgyang showed up, its twin pistols already pointed against the white machine of the Federation, and fired two yellow-colored beam bullets.
Not having enough time to dodge her opponent's surprise attack, Nepgear could only order her movable warrior to cover its body and face with its arms, as the bullets struck one on its right arm and the other on the left elbow.
"N-Ngh!" Shaking violently inside the cockpit, Nepgear quickly pulled herself together and started to check on her machine's status while also trying to regain control. "A-All green! The enhancements to the armor worked perfectly; the impact did little damage!"
It was as she said. Once the smoke on its arm and elbow cleared up, only scratches could be seen. Still, though, she needed to pay attention now more than ever, lest Neptune ends up outwitting her again later on...
"Its armor was upgraded? Damn Nepgeardam..." Clicking her tongue at the lack of damage thereof, Neptune ordered the Nepgyang to throw the pistols away, in favor of a large sword that was produced from within its back. The edges of its triangular blade instantly shone with a light blue energy when the enemy robot wrapped its hands on the hilt. "Whatever. Not even the thickest armor will be able to stand against the Nepgyang's ultimate weapon: The Trinity Blade!"
Neptune rushed in afterwards, blade in hand, approaching to a still somewhat confused Nepgear.
"A-Alright, where's she...?" Shortly after recovering control of her machine, the movable warrior pilot from the Federation began to look for her opponent.
With a gasp, however, Nepgear felt sharp sensation pierce her mind and it made her draw the hilt from the backpack in her machine's back, a light purple beam blade sprouting out of it, just in time to parry Neptune's supposedly surprise attack!
Sparks of both blue and purple flew everywhere as the two swords collided and got entangled into a rather intense clash...
"W-What!?" The pilot of the Nepgyang, of course, was startled by the sudden reaction from the Nepgeardam. In fact, it was so fast and exact that it almost seemed she knew of her presence without actually seeing her. "T-That reaction... D-Don't tell me that she is...!"
Meanwhile, Nepgear was trying her best to keep the clash up, though with noticeable difficulty as she, too, couldn't quite understand what had just happened... No, it wasn't like that. She already knew of that weird feeling she had every time a CPU was nearby, but this time... "It felt so strong... Almost as if I had a vision of where the Nepgyang was at that moment..."
As the clash kept going, with no side doing an attempt to push forward, the two of them ultimately came to a similar conclusion, before resuming the matter at hand...
"I can worry about that later. What I should be focusing on is the battle before my very eyes, anyway!"
Afterwards, the black machine, Nepgyang, started to apply more force to its side of the clash, gaining the upper hand almost immediately on their intense feud. The Nepgeardam tried its best to halt the advance of the enemy machine, but failed to do so, and as a result, it got itself pushed away, crashing hard against a sizable piece of debris that was floating nearby.
"A-Agh!" For the second time, the cockpit shook and Nepgear had to do her best to not let it affect her all too much, as she grasped back the controls of her robot after letting go of them due to the shock. "T-This is nothing!"
Once she focused on the image before her, though, she'd only see the figure of the Nepgyang right in front of her, already bringing down its triangular sword on the cockpit of the Nepgeardam...
"This is the end, Nepgeardam!"
Given the lack of time she had to properly move her beam blade in the way of the sword, or even to dodge the slash, Nepgear did the only thing she'd do in such a situation to avoid certain death.
"A-AHHH!" Pulling a lever on the control panel, which acted as the steering wheel of the robot to call it something, Nepgear ordered her white machine to move slightly away at the very last second, making the sword miss its intended objective, but instead, let it sever the right arm of the Nepgeardam, that was currently holding her powerful beam rifle.
As the arm was being separated from its body by the blue-edge blade, a small explosion occurred, which served to distract Neptune as Nepgear immediately acted on reflex and swung the beam sword, aiming for the midsection of the Nepgyang with an horizontal slice.
"D-DAMN YOU!"
"Tch!"
Mirroring Nepgear's situation, Neptune had just as much time to act upon this sudden move from her enemy, and after realizing she had to way to get out of range in time, the pilot of the black machine made it to fly away, moving the cockpit away from the blade, though that ended up in the weapon cutting away the legs of the Nepgyang from its knees and below. An explosion followed suit, as the severed limbs floated away into the debris field...
The first of the explosions had already generated a small curtain of smoke, but the second one only made it larger and thicker. Both parties took advantage of the cover to leave some distance between them, as they each had to run their own diagnostics on how much damage they just received.
"Curse you, Nepgeardam..." Neptune clicked her tongue as she stared at a screen, showing a rough draft of the Nepgyang, and next to it, a scale that indicated how much damage it had sustained so far. Of course, given what just happened, said scale was rather high up. "To think she would be able to deal this much damage to the Nepgyang already..."
The pilot from Gyan stared back into the curtain of smoke, her eyes narrowing ever so slightly. "However, that she did such a quick response to my attack... Is she - the pilot of the Nepgeardam - really a CPU?"
As Neptune kept watching the smoke for any signs of the enemy machine, Nepgear on her side was breathing in and out, almost as if she was exhausted. In fact, she looked shaken and a little bit scared, though it was to be expected. She was about to die just roughly a minute ago...
"T-That was... really close..." Nepgear said, giving the readings of the damage a skim before she immediately looked back to the monitor that showed the curtain of smoke before her. She didn't seem to be paying actual attention, however. "... B-But... How did I do all that...?"
Memories of recent battles, as well as the couple highlights of her current feud with Neptune, cursed through her mind in quick succession. Feats befitting a human with way above reflexes past any experienced movable warrior, being able to see Neptune approaching her without actually ever looking to her at all...
"W-What is happening to me...?" Nepgear's face was full of fear and doubt of herself, as even she was able to deduce that nothing she has been doing can be replicated by your average human being, or way above average, even. "A-Am I...?"
The proud pilot gritted her teeth almost immediately as the thought of being part of the same race the enemy was... No way she was going to accept something like that! After al...
"I'M A HUMAN BEING!"
Pushing the lever that controls the thrusters on her back to its maximum, the Nepgeardam got itself off the piece of debris and towards the curtain of smoke, following the faint shine of a blue light to guide her towards the Nepgyang.
"Huh!?" Nepgear, however, halted her advance as a large object suddenly got itself in her way.
It was really big, probably ten times or so bigger than her own machine, and upon closer inspection, Nepgear realized that the thing wasn't a machine or an object, but a living being, given the fact it had a face, and that it seemed to be wearing some kind of fancy dress. It had blonde hair, tied in pigtails and wore a white headpiece with a purple "N" written on it...
"W-What the goodness!" exclaimed the girl, as her eyes couldn't believe what they were seeing.
Then, as if it wasn't enough with its sudden appearance, the giant figure opened its eyes and stared right at the Nepgeardam, making its pilot flinch noticeably. After that, it began to move one of its massive limbs towards her...
"I-I better return to the mothership!" the pilot of the white robot gritted her teeth at this decision, but if she were to stay, she would probably die at the hands of the unidentified being... "Dammit!"
Turning around, the Nepgeardam started to fly away, but no matter how much far she went, the large limb was always near her. It almost seemed like the arm was stretching more and more, until it eventually was about to reach her...
At that point, Nepgear simply braced for the inevitable and...!
"G-GYAAAAAA!"
Nepgear bolted awake after such a frightening scene, her face full of cold sweat, as well as an expression similar to the one the Nepgeardam had. It took her a moment to finally calm down, her face attaining a more... human expression, albeit still as confused and worried.
The first thing she noticed was that she had apparently fell asleep while working. Something that's normal to see happening with the older of the Planeptune CPUs, though not so much on the younger one. She was sitting before the desk on the work office and on top of it were a few piles of what can be assumed are forms that are yet to be sorted, although one of them definitely has to be the sorted pile, at the very least.
Additionally, there was a familiar figure right next to her; it was the all-knowing tome of Gamindustri, as well as the Oracle of Planeptune...
"H-Histy?" Nervously asked the Candidate. She was still shaken by that weird dream, and even though she wasn't in a cockpit anymore, she still felt somewhat scared of the little fairy.
On the other hand, Histoire was completely out of commission, probably due to Nepgear's sudden yell rendering her unconscious from sheer shock alone. In fact, you'd even see a bit of her soul sticking out of her mouth...
"Histy? ... H-Hey, Hiiiiiistyyyyyy!"
... It's the year 0084 of the Galactic Era.
After the Battle of Celestia came to an end, both sides - the Game Federation and the Principality of Gyan - made a pact with each other to cease any and all conflict immediately. This event marked the beginning of the end of the Console War, but also signaled the starting point of a calamity that had yet to come...
The end