Hyperdimension Neptunia: God Wars - Ancient Grudge
Disclaimer: Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Idea Factory (for EU and US releases on the Playstation 3, Playstation 4 and PC), Compile Heart (for Japan releases) and Felistella (for PS Vita releases). All characters that appear in this story that have appeared in any game and/or the anime are NOT owned by me, nor do I claim ownership of said characters.
However, any character that does appear in this story that HAS NOT appeared in the games or anime is owned by me and is an entirely fictional character and not based on any person, living or dead. Any likenesses are purely coincidental.
Synopsis: Have you ever wondered why there are goddesses protecting nations across various dimensions? How about why there are goddesses but no gods? For every female, there must be a male counterpart and vice versa, but what if there is a dark story behind this? What if Neptune and company have to deal with a god - something none of them have ever conceived the notion of. And what if this god harbours a grudge against all goddesses? What will become of Gamindustri if said god appears before our favourite CPUs?
Prologue: Death of Our Home
Hatred, anger, rage.
A small aircraft carrier floated in the calm sea. It was an odd design - One launch pad for four aircraft that had VTOL (Vertical Take-Off and Landing) abilities, which were moved onto the launch pad via the pad itself lowering into the ship's hull. The aircraft were moved across on a pulley system where the pad would be raised onto the flight deck where they could launch. At the back of the ship was a large hangar door where amphibious vehicles could launch from - another four of those.
The ship boasted a powerful medium range dual firing laser cannon on top. The laser was on a turret fixing, allowing it to rotate 360 degrees around and directly up, but only 45 degrees below, so it would avoid firing on itself. The carrier also is armed with powerful flares to aid in defence against missile strikes and has a warhead launcher of its own. The launcher has a unique drone launch which effectively fires a drone camera high into the sky from which the warhead targeting is connected to by radar. The camera allows for a target to be selected on an interface screen within the carrier which the warhead will they launch and impact against.
The one beauty of this carrier? It can be operated by a single person. Everything is fully automated within the ship, even the fabrication of replacement parts and repairs are automated. The ship also is fitted with a special radar, one that detects interstellar travel. Like now, for instance.
A warning light flashes within the carrier. On the screen, text filters through.
INTERSTELLAR WARP TRAVEL DETECTED. TARGET LOCATION THEORISED. IMMEDIATE EVACUATION ADVISED. FORWARDING MESSAGE TO CENTRAL COMMAND.
The message is received.
"My Lord! Message from Epsilon! They are coming!"
Butchery, evisceration, torture.
"How long until they arrive?"
Anguish, despair...regret. Pain...suffering.
"No more than one hour and ten minutes until their fleet drops out of warp drive. After that, I suspect it will take them about half an hour to get into position."
I have witnessed atrocities and bloody murders committed. Over the centuries I have done the exact same thing too.
"Sound the evacuation. Get as much through the warp portal as possible."
"But, my Lord! Our world..."
"It is lost! If we do not leave we will all be slaughtered! She has spent many decades gathering shares from across various dimensions and worlds in order to attack us today. Her forces are too vast for us to possibly defeat...I care about our world too, but we must go! Why do you think I ordered this planet to be strip mined of natural resources over forty years ago? I had to prepare for this day to come."
"Yes, sir..."
"She will not stop if she slays me. All of you who follow me, you'll be her next targets. We have to leave for the world of Gamindustri if we are to rebuild and destroy her."
"But...there are four goddesses there already. Surely somewhere else..."
"NO! Gamindustri is the best world for us to settle on. Those four CPUs and their Candidate sisters are nowhere near as strong combined as she is. We haven't spent years building a settlement there already to just give up and go somewhere else!"
"Yes, my Lord. The evacuation...has been sounded."
"Good. Activate the automated defences and get my carrier through the sea portal, then destroy it. We can't allow anyone to know where we have gone. Divert all available power to the force field around the power plant - the longer those automated defences are active, the more we can evacuate. Those who are too far away, unfortunately are already dead. Tell them to evacuate or fight. It is a horrible fate for them, but one that is unavoidable."
"What will you do about her, my Lord?"
"Meet her in battle, of course. Delaying her advance will aid us more than anything else could do."
Location: Oil refinery fifteen kilometres from base portal.
"Sixty triple nine, you are clear for departure. You have permission to disregard the fifteen mile per hour speed limit and go at twenty-five. One clear, go as fast as possible!"
"Roger tower. departing now. Good luck."
The driver of 60999 looked out of his driver cab window at the approaching monstrous vessel that hung in the sky. A veritable fortress of unfathomable power, only heard from the stories of Lord Grey Heart himself. A chill ran down his spine as the ship loomed ever larger. He had to get through to the portal, not only for himself, but this locomotive was a personal favourite of Lord Grey Heart, not to mention the thousands of gallons of refined oil it was hauling too. Losing this cargo would be a bitter blow to the god.
'Just need to make it into the tunnel and then I'll be clear for most of the journey.'
The trip between the refinery and the portal consisted of a one kilometre tunnel followed by a six kilometre deep cutting which would help protect the train from unwanted visitors, however, once the cutting finished it was flat terrain until the portal where there was some very minor hill cover, against ground targets but not airborne. The only protection until then was just prayer that the enemy would be too busy to realise what was rumbling down the line at 80 miles-per-hour.
The driver opened the cab side window and looked behind him to see when the final tank wagon was clear of the points. There were three other locomotives there but none were ready for departure. As the final wagon rolled onto the main exit track, the driver throttled up and sighed. A feeling of guilt overcoming him, knowing that everyone behind him would be dead shortly.
The roar of airborne engines started to fill his ears, shortly by the sounds of bullets being fired. It had begun.
The field of battle. How I hate this. My beloved planet is in its death throes.
"Give it up, Grey Heart! Die like the mongrel of a god you are!"
"Crimson Heart, you are the biggest scum I've ever laid eyes on. Goddesses are nothing more than warmongers! Your life will end soon, I shall avenge the gods that you butchered centuries ago!"
The clash of swords echoed, followed by the sounds of lasers firing and missiles being launched in the background.
"I'll give you credit for evading me for so long. You knew I'd find you eventually, but your planet is doomed now! I'll wipe all of you out in one attack! I'll tear your precious planet apart and those who don't die can freeze to death!"
"You think that big hulk of metal you call a spaceship can break a planet apart? What do you plan to do? Crash it into my planet?"
"Ha ha ha ha! No, you bumbling old fool. While searching for you, I came across some wonderful weapon plans in another dimension. I'm going to launch a warhead of vast destructive power right into the largest volcano. I've known you have been here for the last decade, so I had my scientists run hundreds of simulations and that is the one to aim for. The explosion will cause a massive tectonic destabilisation and literally shake your planet to pieces and leave it a broken, icy husk! With all your followers dead, you'll have no shares and your powers will wane, leaving you defenceless for me to slay!"
"Are you mad? You'll kill everyone here! You'd go so far as to kill your own followers just to have a chance at taking me out?"
Metal clashed repeatedly as the two CPUs fought each other.
"If needs must. A few troops lost on my side pales compared to finishing off the last god in existence. You are a relic of a past era, one that should have ended thousands of years ago, and I intend to finish it this very day!"
There was an ominous firing sound from above. As Grey Heart looked up, he could see the smoke trail of a large missile heading towards the volcano that Crimson Heart had talked about.
"You are everything I despise about goddesses! You show why your kind can never be trusted! The gods gave you all the benefit of the doubt for so long...perhaps committing genocide against your kind would have been the better evil for the greater good of the entire universe."
It was an intense affair. As the two CPUs battled each other, the automated defences were working overtime in keeping the goddess' forces at bay from attempting to lay siege to portal. Grey Heart would take any opportunity presented to him to aid the defences with snap shots using his laser rifle. Each time he attacked something else, however, it would momentarily leave him vulnerable to attack from the goddess.
Out of the corner of his vision, Grey Heart saw movement - something long moving relatively fast along the ground. Given no defences attacked it, it had to be something that had escaped from Crimson Heart's forces further afield. Stealing glances, he was able to make out the black tank wagons - an oil train. No doubt filled with refined oil from the refinery down the line. Earlier he had seen a large explosion from the general direction of the oil refinery and presumed everyone had perished.
Crimson Heart lunged forwards, Grey Heart rolled and smacked her down to the ground. He quickly checked the device on his arm - a timer - and it showed three minutes and thirteen seconds left. The timer was counting down until the power plant had burned through all the coal left in the stockpile and the shield generator would be forced to deactivate in order to keep the defences online.
A few roaring noises overhead caused Grey Heart to look at the sound. Several of Crimson Heart's airborne attackers were aiming for the oil train. Grey Heart chased after them, firing his laser rifle in an attempt to destroy, or at least make them break off their attack run. One laser blast sheared the tail off one of the fighters which inevitably caused the pilot to lose control and the plane smashed into the ground and exploded. A few of the remaining drone fighters engaged several more of the attackers and a nearby flak cannon started taking shots at the rest. One flak shell exploded right next to the cockpit, killing the pilot outright and caused his plane to lurch to the right and descend where it crash-landed.
Despite the best efforts of Grey Heart's forces, a couple of fighters started unleashing bullets onto the tanker wagons. The thick protective metal was able to withstand the bullets on most of the wagons as the planes used strafing runs to try and find a weak point. Crimson Heart re-engaged Grey Heart and the two CPUs clashed again as the defending forces began to dwindle. One of the tank wagons on the oil train was eventually punctured and oil began pouring out along the side of the track. Shortly afterwards a second and third wagon were punctured and more oil sprayed out alongside the track.
The timer reached zero and the shield surrounding the coal plant died down. A second timer activated, set at fifty three seconds. When this reaches zero, the coal plant will have run out of coal to burn, meaning all defences will go silent. Grey Heart glanced at the massive cooling towers to see there being a distinct lack of smoke being billowed out of them.
A quick plan formulated in his mind - he managed to get Crimson Heart between himself and the oil train and, with well aimed shot from his laser rifle, fired at the goddess. She deftly swayed out of the way and the shot travelled towards the train and collided with the coupling between the last undamaged tank wagon and the first damaged tank wagon, destroying the coupling.
The last of the fighters were shot down by the flak cannon mere seconds before all the defences went dark. With the train safe, albeit with just over half of the cargo it was pulling, he focused on using the remaining wagons to escape. The train made it through the portal in a sea of noise; screeching brakes pulled to the emergency braking setting to be precise.
Grey Heart thrust his sword forwards to make the goddess block. With his rifle he shot off one of her shoulder processor units and then slammed his adversary into the ground. While it was tempting to try and finish her off now, time was not on his side as he flew over to the remaining tank wagons and shot at the wheels to derail them so they wouldn't get through the portal. There was a loud rumble followed by a violent shake, one that persisted for a good half a minute. In his original plan, he would have set off explosives to destroy the portal as he went through it before the power plant expired, but now he picked up the crude explosive device and tossed it into the small pool of oil that was now forming next to the portal. Armed with his sword, he slashed open all the tank wagons to create a huge pool of refined oil.
"Farewell, you bitch. Mark my words - you WILL fall the next time we meet."
Crimson Heart recovered to see the god fire at the pool of oil as he flew through the portal, igniting the oil as he disappeared, the inter-dimensional travel structure shutting down afterwards and the explosives detonating in the raging inferno, turning the portal into nothing more than a memory in a giant crater.
"Dammmmmnnnnn youuuuuuuuuu!" Crimson Heart roared as loud as she could.
Grey Heart landed on Gamindustri and observed his new surroundings and was quickly approached by members of his military command group.
"What happened, my Lord? What was that earthquake?"
"That damn bitch destroyed the planet. The plate tectonics were ripped apart and the planet has shaken itself apart. I guess the earthquake passed through the portal..."
"Yes, my Lord. Good thing all our buildings here are made to resist earthquakes, otherwise we'd be in serious trouble."
"The buildings might be fine, but the vehicles aren't. Get every vehicle upright and put all construction efforts into our defences. If those tremors were felt on this planet, then it will be only a matter of time before the goddesses here find us. What nation is closest to us?"
"Planeptune, my Lord. Despite this though, our agents are certain that it will be Leanbox's CPU that will come here first. Lastation is a bit further away while Lowee is a long way away from us."
"Okay, get me all the info you have on Leanbox's and Planeptune's CPUs. I must be ready to face one or both of them in battle when they inevitably arrive."
'Four goddesses live here. Heh, either I'm a complete fool or a genius. Time will tell on that front. Sooner or later, time will tell.'
To Be Continued.