GATE: Thus the Empire was Nepped!
Prologue: Thus It Begins
It was a beautiful day in Gamindustri; the sun was shining, the grass was green, the horsebirds were... neighing? chirping? They were making whatever noise an equine-avian hybrid made. The point is that everything is peaceful and there aren't any megalomaniac's trying to destroy the world, in fact things have been pretty calm since Rei Ryghts' rampage almost a year ago. Apparently a lot of monsters had been caught in the crossfire while Rei was going nuts. This meant that the CPU's have had a lot of free time, there was still paperwork of course and the monsters had begun to regenerate again, but their workloads were a lot lighter than usual.
And what do the Goddesses do when they don't have any work?
"Eat my dust Noire!"
"Neptune, you're in last place."
"You're not doing much better than she is Noire."
"It doesn't matter what place any of you are in. You're not beating me at a Lowee racing game."
What else? They gather in Planeptune to hang out and play games. Now there was technically a professional reason for the other CPU's being in Planeptune; officially they were there for an annual diplomatic meeting where they discussed the state of their nations, proposed new policies, and conducted similar political discussions. But what most people don't know is that, more often then not, these meeting could be summed up as "everything's good, fire up the console." They could always talk politics later.
Which is how we got to where we are now.
Seated on the couch in Neptune's living room were the four CPU's of Gamindustri: the elegant and well-endowed Vert, the petite and explosive Blanc, the friendless tsundere Noire, and last but not least the Embodiment of Randomness herself: Neptune, Devourer of Pudding and Destroyer of the Fourth-Wall. Unfortunately Neptune's Protagonist status didn't seem to be helping her in this particular scenario as she was indeed in last place, and no matter how many lightning bolts she threw at the other racers she couldn't manage to pull ahead. Noire was doing slightly better, but every time she gained ground she'd lose it to the bot racers a few moments later. The real stars of this race had been Vert and Blanc, with the latter obviously having a home-field advantage and the former fiercely holding on to second place.
But Vert had a plan to change that; every couple seconds she shifted in her place, and each time she shifted was an excuse to perform her famous "Vert Bounce." Noire and Neptune didn't pay any attention beyond the occasional glance, it was just Vert being Vert after all. Blanc on the other hand was sporting a twitching eye, bulging vein, and was holding her controller in a death grip.
It wouldn't be long before Mt. Blanc erupted.
"It won't work." Blanc said, though her voice had a dangerous edge to it.
"What won't work?" Vert asked innocently, feigning ignorance while once again bouncing her chest.
"Don't play dumb, you know what you're doing." Blanc shot back, grinding her teeth in frustration as she tried to ignore the blonde CPU's attempts to rile her up.
"And what am I doing~?" Vert drawled, leaning in closer to the smaller goddess so that her well endowed chest was right next to Blanc's head.
If you listened closely you could probably hear Blanc's patience snapping as a shadow fell over her face and her left eye began glowing red.
"KEEP YOUR DAMN MELONS OUT OF MY FACE THUNDER TITS!" Blanc roared, dropping her controller and furiously jumping up in her spot and turning to face the green themed CPU.
And completely forgetting about the game.
"Goodbye." Vert said with an elegant yet cheeky smile as her racer pulled ahead. Blanc, realizing that she'd fallen for Verts trick hook, line, and sinker, immediately picked her controller back up, but unfortunately she wasn't quick enough to stop her kart from driving off the edge of the track. There was no way Blanc could catch back up with her, not when they were on the third lap with such a short distance between them and the finish line.
Vert smiled contently as she neared the finish; soon victory would be hers, nothing could stop her now!
"Hyah! Neptune outta nowhere!"
Which is why it came as an absolute shock to everyone when Neptune suddenly drove up and stole first place from Vert mere seconds before she crossed the finish line. For a few minutes the three goddesses stared at the results screen in silent shock as Neptune smiled with satisfaction. After the CPU's recovered they fixed the purple haired girl with a collective glare that demanded she explain her unexpected come-back.
"What did you expect, I am the main character after all." Neptune replied with a big smile as she flashed them the peace sign.
"Ugh, of course you use that as an excuse!" Noire huffed in exasperation.
"Indeed, it has become rather tiresome." Vert agreed with a sigh.
"Typical Neptune." Blanc added with a small scowl.
"Don't hate the player, hate the game." Neptune replied. The CPU's all glanced at each other and, after coming to some unspoken agreement, looked back at Neptune with mischievous smiles. "Uh... what's with the serial killer smiles guys?" Neptune asked, her smile becoming nervous at the other CPU's sudden change in attitude.
"Well, we realized you were right; you're not the problem, the game is." Noire said in a sarcastic tone.
"Thankfully it's a problem that has a simple solution." Vert continued, her pleasant tone making the situation even more sinister.
"We're going to put in a new game." Blanc finished with her usual flat tone, which thankfully killed the tension but it didn't do anything to explain why they seemed so pleased with themselves about putting in a new game. Didn't they know her main character status applied no matter what game she was playing? No matter what game they put in she was always going to-
It was at that moment that everything clicked and the lightbulb appeared above Neptune's head. As in she pulled out her phone, looked up a picture of a lightbulb, and held it above her head.
"You three are gonna pick a fighting game and gang up on me like in the prologue for Victory and Re;Birth 3!" Neptune declared with a dramatic finger point worthy of a certain Lowee attorney.
"I assumed you would admire the simplicity." Vert said with an amused chuckle.
"It isn't very complicated." Blanc agreed with a small grin.
Noire opened her mouth to give her own witty comment, but then she closed it and leaned forward slightly, squinting her eyes and looking at Neptune in a way that made the purple haired girl wonder if she had something on her face. "Uh Neptune, it looks like you missed a message from your sister." The black themed goddess informed her. Neptune looked at her inbox and saw that she did indeed have a message from Nep Jr. This entire scene had been loaded with event triggers so far, and it was a fair bet that something had happened while they were-
"Holy Moe!" Neptune exclaimed with overdramatized shock as she saw the picture that she'd been sent. The other CPU's were behind her in an instant, eager to see what had caused her reaction. It was a picture of Nepgear and Uni; they were standing in front of a claw machine in what appeared to be a Planeptune arcade, their arms around each other's shoulders and a large stuffed bear, presumably won from the claw game, held between them. Both of them had sheepish but happy smiles on their faces, which were colored pink from light blushes.
"Oh, that is simply adorable~! You must send this to me immediately Neptune!" Vert nearly squealed.
"It is very cute." Blanc agreed with a small smile.
Noire didn't say anything, she simply glanced over to Neptune. Ruby met amethyst as Neptune looked back and their eyes met, though only for a moment.
Nepgear and Uni's relationship had been a source of joy for all four of the older CPU's; not just because they were an adorable couple, but because it gave them hope that their sisters would not share in the same dark history that they had, and that something like the Console War could never happen again.
And then a sudden fit of giggles from Neptune ruined the moment.
"Seriously Neptune?" Noire deadpanned.
"I was just thinking; wouldn't it be funny if Nep Jr. was trying to send this picture to Uni but she also sent it to me by accident?" The purple themed girl giggled at thought.
"That's ridiculous; there's no way either of them would make such a stupid mistake!"
"And sent!" Nepgear said happily as her N-Gear beeped. Uni smiled at the picture she'd just received.
"Now remember; you can't share this with anyone, not even Neptune." Uni instructed, doing her best to look stern despite the blush on her face.
"Don't worry; I may love Neptune, but I do keep some secrets from her." Nepgear promised her girlfriend.
Her girlfriend. Even though it had been almost a year since they got together it still made her feel all tingly to think of the Lastation Candidate like that.
"Come on, lets go find Rom and Ram." Uni said, snapping the purple haired Candidate out of her thoughts.
The four Candidates had been given the day to relax while their older sisters "negotiated," but after a while Rom and Ram had gone off on their own, with Ram saying that they didn't want to catch cooties... Kids were mean.
After a few minutes of walking through the lights and noise of the arcade they spotted the twin Candidates and began moving towards them, and as they got closer they noticed the twins were accompanied by a familiar figure. Just as Nepgear was about to call out to them Rom turned around and noticed the two.
"Miss Nepgear, Miss Uni, look at who we found!" She said happily as she pointed at the newcomer; a young girl with light purple hair who was wearing what looked like pajamas and slippers.
It was Plutia; the CPU of Planeptune from a parallel dimension and, when she transformed, the scariest person any of the Candidates had ever met. She was nice enough in her human form, though her sadistic side still shined through every now and then.
"Hello there Uni, Neppy Jr. it's been a while." Plutia greeted in her usual drowsy but happy tone, pleasantly smiling at the two Candidates.
"Hi Plutia." Nepgear returned the CPU's greeting with a polite smile and a nod.
"So what are you doing here?" Uni asked.
"I came to visit Neppy, but this city is soooo~ big and Neppy usually comes to visit me, so I don't know my way around very well." Plutia explained.
Nepgear sighed, of course Neptune wouldn't tell any of her friends that she was unavailable today. Either that or Plutia had decided to show up unannounced, which wasn't as bad but it was still rather rude.
"Sorry Plutia, but Neptune and the others are in the middle of an important meeting. She won't be able to play with you for a while." Nepgear explained, though a part of her did want to tell Plutia that these diplomatic meetings were just a cover so the CPU's could get together and game.
Plutia didn't seem upset by the news she couldn't see Neptune, if anything she looked incredibly surprised, her eyes widening and her hands moved to her mouth as she gave a slow and drowsy gasp.
"Neppy is actually doing work? Is the world ending?" The drowsy girl asked.
Nepgear opened her mouth to tell Plutia that they were not on the brink of the apocalypse for once-
Then the ground started shaking.
Saying that Rei Ryghts was a nervous person was an understatement, it was more like she was a shambling pile of nerves in the shape of a middle-aged woman, and today she was especially nervous. It had been one year since she had attacked Planeptune City, though she was struggling to wrap her head around how she'd done that in the first place, and she'd finally finished helping with the repairs. The only thing she had left to do was one final meeting with her parole officer.
Her very large, very grumpy parole officer.
Rei fidgeted nervously in her chair, eye's glued to her feet as the man in front of her examined the the form, silent except for the occasional grumble.
"Alright Ms. Ryghts," Rei's eyes snapped up as the man spoke, and she jumped little on the inside when she saw his huge form barely fitting into his uniform. She could never get over how tall he was. "Everything seems to be in order and the damage to the city has been almost completely repaired." He slammed a stamp down on the form he'd been examining, causing Rei to jump again.
"I don't want to see you in here again, ya hear?"
Rei barely squeaked out a meek "yes" as she grabbed the paper and rushed out the door, ducking between people in the hall as she made her way out of the building. It wasn't until she reached the street that things finally started to settle in; her year of community service was finally over, she was finally done with the back-breaking labor of repairing damaged buildings and broken roads.
As the realization dawned on her a feeling joy began to build in her chest, something she had rarely felt before. Rei could barely contain her excitement and, in very out-of-character moment, jumped for joy. It was finally over, she was finally free!
Her impromptu celebration was cut short when a deafening boom filled the air and a blast of wind threw the white-haired woman to the ground. For a few moments Rei simply curled into a ball and lay there, her hands covering her ears and her eyes sealed shut as the ground shook beneath her and the wind howled past.
After a few moments things seemed to return to normal and Rei cautiously began to move. She pushed herself up and adjusted her glasses to take in her surroundings. The street was wrecked; cars were overturned, windows were broken, signs had been blown off of buildings, and street lights had been knocked over or even ripped out of the ground by the force of the wind. Rei looked back to the origin of the blast and found a that an apartment building at the end of the street had been completely reduced to rubble.
A new feeling began welling up inside of Rei: rage. She'd spent months putting the city back together, and now some random explosion was just going to tear it apart?! And even worse, she'd spent the last month working on this particular block!
"Oh come on! I just finished fixing this place!" The snow-haired woman shouted in another moment of uncharacteristic boldness, angrily stamping her foot on the ground and throwing her arms in the air in exasperation. She stood their panting for a few moments as her rage died down, and as her rational mind took over she realized that their had probably been people in that building when it had collapsed.
Despite what many people thought she was a good person; she'd become an activist to help people after all, and she had acquired a lot of experience with moving rubble. She didn't even have to think about it, her legs were already moving in the direction of the collapsed building.
When she arrived a crowd had gathered around the blast site and the police were setting up barricades.
"Do you think it's an attack, like ASIC or something?"
"Maybe it was an accident?"
"Didn't that crazy witch live in this place?"
Rei absentmindedly listened to the gossip of the people around her as she slowly moved to the front. She was hoping to get a look at the damage, but as she got closer she heard more people seemed to be more confused about what had happened. When she reached the barricade she found out why.
The building had been reduced to rubble, as she'd expected, but standing atop the ruins was a massive structure, reminiscent of an ancient Basilicom. The front of the structure dominated by a large open gateway that was completely shrouded in darkness...
But Rei could swear she saw something moving in the darkness.
Titus Em Varro had been ready for anything as he and his army marched through the Gate, or as ready for anything as a man could be. They were invading another world after all.
But nowhere in his wildest dreams had he been prepared for what he saw: towers of silver and purple that reached to the sky and roads that seemed better constructed then the great cobblestone highways of the Empire. This city far surpassed the majesty of any he'd seen back in Falmart: Rondel, Bellnahgo, even the great capital of Sadera paled in comparison!
"The legends were true." He whispered in awe as he continued to stare up at the massive towers. "We were promised a land of wealth beyond measure, but even I never imagined..." His voice trailed off, lost in wonder.
"Your orders sir?" The voice of his aid, a bald man by the name of Felix, pulled him back to his senses. He looked down to see his soldiers already moving into battle formation between himself and the... calling the locals before him an army seemed ludicrous, they looked more like a gaggle of commoners gawking at the glory of the Imperial Army, separated only by a flimsy wooden barrier.
Titus felt uncertainty stirring within his gut; these people could build structures that reached the clouds, yet they had no warriors to oppose the Empire. That felt wrong, and not just because it robbed him of a glorious victory over the new lands army.
Titus pushed the concerns from his mind, at least for the moment, and produced a scroll from his saddlebag. It was a message given to him by the Emperor himself and bore the seals of both the Imperial family and the Senate. It was a declaration of war. Titus drew in a breath and turned his gaze to the gathered crowd.
"All you savages listen well: we, the Saderan Empire, in the name of his Imperial Majesty Molt Sol Augustus, declare conquest and dominion of this world!"
Trumpets blared, drums thundered, wyverns roared, orders were shouted, war-cries unleashed.
The Imperial forces charged.
And thus the Battle of Planeptune began.
The four CPU's sat in complete silence. They'd been happily beating the stuffing out of Neptune's avatar when they'd felt the ground shaking. Now earthquakes weren't unheard of in Gamindustri, but they typically only happened during a major Event or a sudden, large shift in Share Energy. There was typically some kind of warning.
"So..." Neptune broke the silence. "Ya know how this chapter has basically been one giant event flag? I think it just triggered." Before the other goddesses could answer the door suddenly flew open and a panicked Histoire flew in.
"EVERYONE! EMERGENCY! WE HAVE AN EMERGENCY! TURN ON THE NEWS!" The living tome cried, frantically waving her arms. Vert, Noire, and Blanc immediately began scrambling to grab the remote, while Neptune simply sat there looking unamused. She'd seen this particular sequence plenty of times when in Plutia's dimension and it had gotten really old by now. After a brief scuffle Vert grabbed the remote and changed the TV over to the local news.
Every scene was one of utter chaos: hoards of monsters and men in armor were running amok, destroying everything and killing anyone they could catch. Large monsters armed with giant hammers smashed through groups of people, wyverns dived down and unleashed torrents of flame, the police were doing their best to stop the invaders but their light weaponry meant that they could only do so much before they were overwhelmed by the sheer number of foes that they were facing.
Noire's mouth fell open, Vert covered her mouth in shock, Blanc remained silent but clenched her fists in rage, Neptune just sat there, stunned by what she was watching. The CPU's were no strangers to war, in fact they'd spent most of their lives fighting for dominance in the Console War, but that was hundreds of years ago. The closest thing to a war that had occurred since then had been the conflict against ASIC, and that was nothing compared to this slaughter.
"What... what is happening?" Noire broke the silence, her voice was barely more than a whisper.
"I do not know; I detected an unknown disturbance around the same time as the earthquake several minutes ago, but before I could investigate I found... this." Histoire explained sadly. It was clear that she was unhappy both with what was happening and her lack of information on the situation. A message appeared in the corner of the TV screen, informing the goddesses that Nepgear was trying to contact them.
"Thank goodness you answered." Nepgear said as her face appeared on the screen, she seemed relieved that Neptune and the other CPU's were safe.
"We're fine, how are Rom and Ram?" Blanc asked before anyone had a chance to speak, her voice was a mixture of concern and anger from worrying about her sisters.
"Don't worry, everyone is fine and Plutia is here to." Nepgear reassured them, turning her N-Gear's camera to show her companions; Rom and Ram were huddled close together while Uni stood behind them and Plutia stood off to the side.
"We're okay Blanc, we're not scared at all." Ram said, though the slight tremor in her voice made it clear she was lying. Rom didn't say anything, she simply held her sister even tighter. Plutia wrapped her arms around both of the twins, doing her best to comfort them.
"What the heck is going on, it sounds like the city is under attack or something?" Uni's question didn't receive an answer, but the silence and depressed looks were enough to tell her that she'd guessed correctly. Nepgear reappeared on the camera.
"Neptune, what do we do? Who the goodness is attacking us?" Nepgear asked, eyes wide with panic as she waited for her sisters orders.
Neptune just sat their, still seemingly in shock from everything that had suddenly happened. Everyone was looking at her, waiting for her to snap out of it and take charge of the situation, but she just continued to sit there and stare blankly at the screen.
"Alright, enough standing around. Let's get out there and crush these assholes!" Blanc shouted.
"We can't just rush in when we know nothing about our enemy. That's how we lost at the Graveyard." Vert countered.
"We can't do anything; this is a Planeptune issue, so legally we can't get involved." Noire intervened, ever the professional.
The room was consumed by a flash of light before the argument could continue, and when it faded Neptune had been replaced by Purple Heart. The CPU of Planeptune stood up from the couch and inhaled, preparing herself for everything that was to come.
"Alright; Histoire I want you to contact the police and tell them to get as many people out the enemies path as possible, contact the closest military forces and bring them up to speed on the situation, and have the Guild help however they can." Purple Heart ordered. Histoire nodded in confirmation, clearly happy to see this more mature side of Neptune. With that done Neptune turned her attention to her sister. "Nepgear; you and the others need to transform and get back to the Basilicom ASAP." The TV screen went white as the Candidates entered their HDD forms.
Unfortunately that also meant Iris Heart had come out to play.
"Don't worry Neppy~. I've said before that no one hurts any of you but me, and that rule still applies." The sadistic goddess said in her usual sultry tone, causing the Candidates to eye her nervously as the call ended. With that done Purple Heart turned to the other three CPU's.
"I don't want to ask any of you to get involved; like Noire said this is a Planeptune issue-" She was cut off when the three transformed.
"Save it, you know we wouldn't let you go into battle alone." Black Heart said.
"Indeed, this is more a matter of human decency than national interests." Green Heart Added.
"Come on! Lets go smash these bastards!" White Heart shouted. Other goddesses all cheered in agreement and the stepped out onto the apartment balcony.
They took off into the air, flying into battle with hearts filled with righteous fury.
A.N. And thus this chapter comes to an end.
Okay, before I say anything I have to give a MASSIVE thank you to my Beta reader Porpol, who has been a major help with writing this story and with my confidence. Check out his profile when you have the time.
I've been wanting to do a GATE fic for a long time now and I've had a bunch of ideas for different stories and crossovers. In the end I decided the lighthearted world of moe adorableness that is the Neptunia series... welcome to FanFiction.
Okay, joking aside I really love both of these franchises; Neptunia never fails to make me laugh and as a military enthusiast I love how accurate GATE is, hence the reason why I've been trying to create a story for so long.
One thing I do want to clear up for the Neptunia fans: this story takes one year after the end of Victory/Re;Birth 3, but I will be mixing in some elements of the anime. The anime added some depth to the world that I really like and it would be a waste not to use them. None of the story has been changed, I'm just adding some stuff.
The same goes for GATE as well; both the manga and the anime do stuff I like so I'll be mixing them together.
In the next chapter we'll see the Battle of Planeptune: a glorious clash between the forces of the Saderan Empire and the CPU's of Gamindustri... Yeah, I couldn't keep a straight face while writing that. We're gonna see the CPU's turn a bunch of Imperial soldiers into ketchup.
I will also respond to reviews at the end of each chapter, so if you've got questions then you know where to put 'em.
That's all folks, I'm gonna start writing the next chapter and prepare for the reviews demanding I nuke the Empire that plague every GATE fic.