The Console Wars

by BlackNoire

The CPUs are at each other's throats, but not in Celestia but in Gameinudstri. This is not done from Neptune's perspective or any CPU for that matter. A male arrives in Gamindsutri who appears to be from somewhere else. All is not as it seems as this is not from the Neptunia universe but a general gaming universe. This is a fanfic unlike any other. Rated M for violence.

97. Sending The Supplies Home

Chapter 97: Sending the supplies home

As I have driven in the trailer on my way to the base, catching up with Oichi who has headed back after seeing me safe and sound, various thoughts were running through my mind. These different thoughts conflict and I'm not sure how to feel, because while I should be happy to have achieved such a victory, I keep thinking about whether this victory will mean anything? Will it be a step towards the end goal or is it just an obstacle we have overcome, only for there to be another obstacle that we fail to overcome?

Despite finding myself deep in a lot of thoughts, I do my best to look around and keep watch to see if there are any enemy troops who have yet to show themselves. While none of them have shown up, I do get the feeling that we have not seen the last of them yet with regards Viridian Forest, and something tells me that this will be their last attempt at getting those supplies, but I know it won't be their last attempt to stop us from retaking Kanto, not by a long shot.

Considering what I have seen before, it is quite bizarre to see that there are no enemies patrolling the area anymore. It's all quiet on this front but I know this to be a calm before the storm. I know that there will be plenty more difficult battles to come in hopes of taking the two locations: Pallet Town and Viridian City, and this is assuming that I can survive in my nightmares tonight. Still I realise that I'm better off if I can rest for as long as possible, being as how I'm not in a battle right now and my body has cried, demanded me to rest, so I might as well make the most of it.

After a short while has passed with me thinking lots of thoughts yet seeing no enemies, I finally arrive at the checkpoint that has been so significant and so important in the battle that we have just won. White is then revived and we are both given extra ammunition for our weapons, as well as healing medicine for myself.

I see in the camp all of the soldiers that have fallen being revived, and I see them cheering on how well we have done while they load the large crates, which contain various parts of the missiles onto the jeeps. After seeing those soldiers being happy and celebrating while working, I realise that regardless of what will happen in the days to come, we should celebrate today as well as how we've done so well in keeping Leanbox at bay, as well as Neptune when she tries to get into my nightmares.

Even if Team Rocket somehow manages to defeat us to the point where we're unable to send any more troops to Lowee, or worse that they manage to cause a war between Lastation and Team Rocket, or even if Leanbox defeats Lastation or perhaps worst of all, that I end up being brainwashed tonight and be forced to kill Noire and destroy Lastation, we must be proud of what we have done so far in defending our land, our principles and our beliefs. More still is that as long as we keep fighting, I'm sure that there'll be a way through this before we eventually at some time in the future, even if it's not known when, that we'll finally liberate Lowee.

For now we should definitely celebrate our good progress, and be happy to have reached a significant stage in liberating the first city in Kanto from Team Rocket hands for good. The trouble is, even if we are no longer under any threat for now, there is still plenty of work to be done and that is to deliver the missile supplies so that Team Rocket won't be able to use them. The thing is as soon as I see that there are at least 3 jeeps that are full of crates in every seat but the driver's seat, Uni then speaks to me.

"Congratulations again on your success in keeping the supplies safe, now it's just a simple matter of taking the supplies to the landing zone where our stealth plane will pick up the jeeps. The thing is Pewter City and Viridian City have sent in a couple of dozen jeeps from each city, and are heading for the checkpoint.

However their intention is not to invade but rather surround the area. They intend to wait until they can get a bigger army than before, which fortunately for us will take quite a while for them to do as their priority is keeping Viridian City safe, as they hope to attack the checkpoint in a pincer attack, and they're relying on supplies via the sea which again will take a while for them to come.

They know that the Loweeans and Team Rocket grunts will not be able to assemble the missiles or launch the missiles, and so as far as they're concerned, our only hope will be to get them out of here into the drop off point away from Team Rocket, where they will be taken by our stealth plane and delivered to Lastation where they will not be able to use them.

I propose that just you, White and Oichi take the jeeps for now so that the route can be secure, because what concerns me is that if we just send in our regulars, they could get killed and if we lose a single jeep, they can then capture it and take it to Viridian City which is something that we must prevent from happening at all costs. Then depending on whether there are any more enemy jeeps, you'll either be taken to the plane or you'll continue to deliver supplies until the enemies have been defeated.

With luck, when the missile supplies will be out of here we can then leave the checkpoint and position our army around the border between Viridian Forest and Pewter City and reinforce it there, and come up with an excellent strategy of preventing the supplies from reaching Viridian City via the sea. Once the supplies from the sea get stopped, then hopefully we can build up an army with enough troops and take not just Pallet Town, but Viridian City as well and then we'll have a good portion of Kanto under our control.

I wish you luck Black, I am certain you will succeed and on behalf of myself and our friends and family, I look forward to seeing you back on the stealth plane." Uni says to me via mind talk.

"Thank you very much and with regards to just the three of us, I was thinking of the exact same thing myself. I cannot wait to see you again, and hopefully Oichi can cure both mine and White's brain washing because it will be horrible if we both fall after doing so well here, I just hope that Oichi is the key to the brain washing somehow." I reply to her sounding excited to see her, and hopeful that the Azai lady can help.

It pleases me so much to hear more of the plan in liberating Lowee, and it's so good to see a long term strategy being used, as it is a shame that Lowee won't be liberated soon but if we can liberate it bit by bit, then surely this is a good thing. I only hope that this doesn't get reversed as I know that Team Rocket are not beaten yet, not by a long shot and I know that it's going to be tough as I am certain that Team Rocket will have a fleet of ships full of thousands of troops, which are perhaps as I think being assembled ready to reinforce and supply Viridian City, and unless they're stopped I fear our campaign in clearing out Viridian Forest of enemies, will be for nothing and the supply route will go back to Team Rocket control.

It is indeed frustrating that despite our victories it is easy for them to be for nothing unless we can keep them up. We cannot afford to lose anything at this stage, even now while it's just a matter of us 3 against a few dozen enemies in jeeps.

And yet with these thoughts all we can do is our best, best in the knowledge that it has done us well so far and that at least when we have finished, we will get to return to our friends and family via the plane, and I'll also get to meet Stealth and perhaps see if I can learn more about him. At the very least he'll be a good ally for us, and I look forward to seeing our next stage in this fight for fairness and equality.

I know that the plans that they come up with are excellent and usually work, in fact the only failure I've seen was Pallet Town and even then that was only due to not being able to supply many troops and resources, as well as having to see to the Leanbox invasions, and since then we have progressed and have won numerous battles which have got us to this point, this point where we have managed to secure Viridian Forest from most of the enemy.

And so the three of us get into the driving seat of the jeeps, so that we can finish off the remainder of them. With my pistol in hand I look around while driving as quickly as possible, yet keeping close with the other 2 jeeps to see if the enemy jeeps are nearby. Initially despite driving for about a minute or so, I don't see any which I find to be rather odd because I would have thought they'd surround the area, but then soon afterwards I see one jeep positioned there, almost as if it was waiting for me and ready to pounce on me.

Already I see the three grunts in the jeep try to take action: the gunner tries to shoot at me, the driver tries to ram into me, and the other one tries to radio for help while hiding as best as he could while shooting me at the same time, and yet the thing is before a few moments passes, they're all dead.

Note: Readers please listen to Need For Speed Pursuit Theme 1 while reading this:

Ok that's one jeep down, but I know that there are plenty more of them from where that came from and indeed I see more of them approach us, a few of them in fact, and so they like us shoot at each other but because of us having lots of health compared to them not having much health at all, they all die pretty quickly allowing the three of us to drive past them without the concern of being rammed by any of them.

Though I find it so effortless to defeat these enemies, I know I mustn't let my guard down and something tells me that there'll be at least a boss or two and that they might even ambush us with foot soldiers as well as jeeps.

Indeed I get proven right as suddenly, I then see about half a dozen troops in a line standing up and opening fire against us. This does not worry me however, as then I hide behind the steering wheel considering how one of the enemies have a Type 100 sub machine gun. When they are forced to reload, we then shoot them all down as we see their faces show panic that their weapons have done little damage to us, but the thing is this proves to be a distraction as I look to my right to see a few jeeps try to ram us. They're quite close and even though I'm trying to drive away, they're trying to drive towards me so that they will hit me.

Luckily, I notice this just in time and I manage to shoot the drivers first before killing the rest of them in their jeeps, while slowing down time with my special ability. The thing is, this too proves to be yet another distraction as I then see a few more jeeps charging towards us, firing their machine guns and sub machine guns forcing us to take cover as we do our best to engage them.

Just like before however, we manage to shoot them down when they were forced to reload their weapons. This is looking very good, as while we're at near full health, the enemies have lost a quarter of their forces and we're getting closer to the pick-up point and with luck, we will be able to continue with being able to defeat the enemy.

As we drive past those jeeps, we then see that there are a group of soldiers armed with Arisakas with bayonets a fair distance behind them. My only guess is that their intention was to assist the jeeps when they rammed into us, of course it didn't work as now all they can do is shoot at us while we shoot each and every one of them down.

When we do shoot them down and turn to the front so we can focus on driving to the drop zone, there is yet another few jeeps charging towards us in an attempt to ram us, but the thing is while the machine gunner tries to shoot at us, meaning we can shoot him as soon as he has to reload, the other two people in each jeep tries to hide as best as they can, making it harder for us to kill them. I guess they've changed strategy from trying to shoot at us directly, to trying to wreck our jeeps so that they will be able to capture the supplies and take them to Viridian City. This concerns me quite a bit.

Worse still is that they're all close together meaning that it will be difficult to dodge them without driving next to the trees on my right, and I'm worried that by driving close to the trees I could get ambushed by the enemy foot soldiers there. In fact I see them hiding amongst the tree tops with their Arisakas, waiting to jump down onto the jeep and try to kill me with their bayonets.

Indeed as I manage to dodge the incoming jeeps, the enemy troops then jump down in hopes of landing in various areas of my jeep, of course I shoot them down before they even land but then as I drive past the enemy jeeps, they then pursue us and I know that unless they decide to stop hiding in the jeeps, there is no way we can just spend all the ammunition we have on destroying the jeeps, they're just too strong and even trying to wreck them will do no good because we're heavily outnumbered.

All we can do is to just try to avoid being rammed by the jeeps and ensure that we are able to drive to the point where we can just defeat them there, perhaps that's what we need to do, to lure them there and defeat them all. I know we can do it, but we just need to be careful and do our best.

As the three of us then continue to drive on despite being shot at repeatedly by the jeeps behind us, I then see with my visions that there are more jeeps behind us trying to join them in the distance. I then look to see that there are others in front whose intention is to ram us off the road, and to make sure that our vehicles are wrecked so that we can be surrounded and eventually killed, so that our supplies will be taken to Viridian City.

Although I knew that there would be many jeeps patrolling the area, I didn't think they'd be right here, trying to stop us now. It's as if they knew we'd be here but how did they manage to come here so quick? I'm not really sure to be honest. At least there are some of them in front who aren't hiding and try and shoot at us more accurately, so that they can be taken down easily, but the frustrating thing is that some of them don't meaning that we cannot kill them so easily. I guess rather than it being a simple shoot out it's becoming more a case of survival against these numerous jeeps.

At least with regards the jeeps that drive towards us we manage to drive around them, but that feeling that we will crash soon is growing bigger and bigger in my mind, as they try harder and harder to stop us in our tracks. Still we keep going and now we've passed the half way point, but it does indeed astonish me as to how there are still a good number of troops here, but at least it's not at the same levels as before.

Yes it does indeed surprise me as in front of us I see about a dozen troops getting up from the floor to a kneeled position, and begin to open fire against us with their Arisakas. Although we manage to shoot them down, this proves to be a distraction which I saw coming, but this distraction is quite significant as suddenly, I see a good number of jeeps travel towards our path from both the left and the right, but rather than drive towards us, they try to form a road block even though as opposed to one line, they're scattered all over the place though it is clear that their intention is to slow us down just enough, so that the pursuers can ram us off, block us and then kill us.

I then see that the roadblock that they have put up consists of not just soldiers in the jeeps shooting at us, but also soldiers who were hiding amongst the ground so that when the jeeps drive in, they have cover. Worse still is that I see coming from the left and the right a dozen troops on each side rushing in, in hopes of reinforcing their roadblock.

I quickly look behind me to see how far away the pursuing jeeps are, but it's not very reassuring to know that they are fairly close to us. And so as I continue to shoot as many enemies as possible like my two female allies, I try and do my best to find the ideal route around this roadblock, so I can maintain as much of my speed as possible.

At least we manage to kill a good number of them that guard the roadblock, especially those that try to reinforce it but there are still those like from in the jeep, who try not to expose themselves too much from our fire, making this quite a sticky situation to say the least, but despite the concerns I will not give up, not now after all that has happened and after all that we've been through.

Inevitably we reach the point at where we have to navigate around these jeeps, and it becomes the moment of truth as to whether we can still drive quickly enough so that we don't end up getting rammed in the rear by these relentless pursuing jeeps. While I manage to drive past the first jeep in front of me, I had to slow down to such a speed that the pursuers manage to ram into my rear. At least I'm still able to carry on but this worries me as they may be able to ram into me again, and be able to stop my jeep all together.

I then succeed in driving past the second jeep which is to be the final line of the roadblock, and this time it is without being rammed in the back. This relieves me as despite their determination to stop us in our tracks, we are still mobile and even if their remaining jeeps are still able to approach us, and I'm certain that they will, I'm confident that they won't be too difficult to avoid, but I am concerned about how there will be plenty of enemies to defeat when we reach and defend that point.

The thing is that they try again to stop us with the remaining jeeps that have yet to join in the pursuit, though this time they come from both our left and right and try to drive towards us in hopes of causing a head on collision, so that then our cars can be pinned and we will then be defeated. This worries me because with the amount of jeeps that approach us at once and at different directions, I'm concerned that even if only just one of us crashes, we could end up in big trouble. We cannot afford to be pinned down because if we do, then they'll just be able to kill us.

The unfortunate thing is, is that although I am successful in dodging the incoming jeeps as does White, it was just barely and it's only really thanks to our abilities of slowing down time and being able to dodge out of the way, unfortunately however, Oichi gets rammed head on by one of the jeeps and this concerns me deeply as she'll be trapped.

We have no wish to abandon her here whatsoever and we wouldn't dream of it, as she is our ally and we leave no allies behind no matter how difficult it may be to rescue them, and so both myself and White do a complete U turn and at the risk of getting pinned ourselves, attempt to rescue Oichi from the enemies who are trying to get into her jeep despite her doing her best to keep them at bay, with her pistol and sub machine gun.

Upon facing Oichi's jeep, we then see that some of the pursuing jeeps tried to ram into us but we dodged out of the way, and so after agreeing on our strategy by mind talk, I do my daring manoeuvre of ramming into the jeep that keeps Oichi pinned down at the front, even if I see other jeeps trying to steer into mine so that I can be pinned down with my female Azai ally.

I know that this is a need for speed as I need to ram into the jeep, kill the enemies in it and reverse out of here before I can be pinned, so that Oichi will be able to push the jeep away even if it's slowly, and be able to then drive off where we can head for the drop zone and hold off the enemy, so the supplies can never fall into Team Rocket hands. I need complete concentration and I only hope that I'll be able to shoot the enemies in the jeeps who would try and ram into me, though if what I've been seeing earlier is any indication, I doubt it.

I suddenly see an enemy jeep heading straight for me, in fact there's two of them and this worries me quite a bit, as although I am able to shoot the gunners, stopping the drivers in them won't be easy as they've hidden behind the wheel. I guess all I can do is as soon as I'm able to, slow down time when it's finished recharging as unfortunately not only does this ability last for a short while, time has to pass before I can use the ability again. The thing is that by the time I can actually slow time down, there is not much time as the enemy jeeps are almost at the point where they are able to collide into my own, and prevent me from saving Oichi.

With the time slowed down, I turned to face the drivers and try my best to aim and shoot at them, as even with the extra time from time being slowed down, there is not much of a window of opportunity for me to kill them. I know I need to make two shots in a short amount of time and there is not much of a target for me to shoot, but still I have to try for the sake of my ally Oichi. I then fire one shot doing my best to ensure that my shot will be a head shot, and then I quickly aim at the other one and do my best. I don't even bother to confirm that my shots are a head shot, as I fear that will take too much time and that could make the difference between success and failure.

The time is no longer slowed down and my ability is used up and needs to be recharged once again, I quickly look to see that the jeeps have just barely stopped in front, but before I can think about how close that was and appreciate how lucky I am, my jeep collides with the one in front of me. I have no time to waste, and so I quickly stand up and kill the enemies in front before trying to reverse as quickly as possible, allowing Oichi to finally be able to push the jeep as the driver is no longer accelerating towards Oichi's jeep to keep her pinned.

I manage to reverse a fair distance and so I begin to do a reverse 180 but just as I start to do so, I'm rammed in the rear by an enemy jeep. This worries me as not only I could potentially end up being pinned, Oichi may not be able to free herself either. I just need to do my best to ensure that I do not get pushed back into Oichi's direction, though it would be better if those enemies in the jeep who just rammed me could be shot by myself.

It quickly becomes a battle of attrition and all the while I hope that White won't get pinned down, as she's driving around a lot doing her best to prevent herself from getting pinned down by the enemy jeeps, even though all she can do is to just avoid the enemy as opposed to shoot them, as they refuse to expose themselves so that they can get shot.

At least despite all of this struggle with me trying to keep the jeep at bay while not facing the jeep, as well as from Oichi trying to push the jeep out of the way so that she can then drive off successfully, the lady of Azai finally succeeds in this task and this means that I can just drive off and get away from being pushed into the jeep. I then see that White is able to drive alright and so with the three of us now free, we drive off to the drop zone which is quite close now, hoping that we can defeat the rest of the enemies and hoping that we can send these supplies to Lastation where they belong, as well as to wipe out the remaining Team Rocket forces in Viridian City.

It's not long before we reach the drop off point, and so now it begins. The three of us then do a short turn before stopping, the intention being to form a make shift barrier so we can use the jeeps as protection against the enemy. I then see the enemy jeeps doing the same thing where they turn to the side, in an attempt to form their cover.

We all hide behind our jeeps and start shooting at each other as best as we can. If this was to be just them and that's the only tactic that they will use against us, I do believe that we can defeat them, but somehow I get the feeling that they maybe just buying time, time for reinforcements to arrive, and Uni indeed then confirms my concerns as she then speaks to me via mind talk.

"I have some bad news Black. There are dozens of troops in the area who are assembling and about to attack your position from the rear, they intend to perform a pincer movement and the enemy troops will attempt to ambush you from the trees. The good news is that I will be able to inform you at the exact moment when they are about to, and hopefully you'll be able to defeat both the enemy jeeps and the enemy reinforcements. I know you can do this, after all you have done ever so well in rescuing Oichi and in preventing the enemy from pinning you and defeating you." Uni informs me sounding rather optimistic.

"Thanks a lot Uni, I really appreciate how you always keep my morale high." I say to her via mind talk.

We begin to do the best we can in opening fire on the enemy, though it isn't very easy this time around with how there are numerous enemies shooting at us all at once. In fact none of us want to risk getting shot too much, and so we are forced to hide as much as possible, and to shoot while hiding and hope that we can kill a few enemies, though many of them are doing the exact same thing. Although we do succeed in killing them, it is only the occasional few and for the most part they are proving to be very difficult to kill.

After killing a few more of them still, Uni then informs us of the enemy infantry from our rear about to open fire on us. I appreciate her informing us on this, and as we quickly hide under the jeeps, it concerns me deeply that we have not really managed to kill that many enemies from the jeeps, and it worries me that while we're distracted by the foot soldiers, what's to stop them from doing a pincer attack? This isn't good as we do not have the numbers to take them all down, and while at least our jeeps provide us cover while the enemy tries to shoot at it, it will only be a matter of time before the jeeps get destroyed and we eventually die.

I guess there's nothing for it but to do the best we can, and so even if it won't be very effective due to range, we shoot back at the enemies trying to ambush us, and amazingly we manage to shoot a few enemies down.

The thing is, I then see the enemies on both sides resorting to banzai charges towards the three of us, and so we do our best in shooting as many of them down as possible, before they get to our location.

There's just far too many of them though and while we manage to wipe out a good number of them, it isn't too long before they reach our jeeps and then try and crouch down as best as they could, and try and stab us with their bayonets. It's now becoming more and more difficult to fight these enemies due to being stabbed repeatedly, and each stabbing hurts me even more.

Eventually after doing my best to keep firing at all of the enemies attacking me, and reloading when appropriate despite the pain from the enemy attacking me, we then manage to wipe all of them out, and this includes a few bosses as well.

We then look at our surroundings to see that there are no more enemies and then towards each other, relieved that we have survived the banzai charge, though not without losing a fair amount of health and being in pain. Uni then confirms that all of the enemies in the area are defeated, and she praises us on our success. This news pleases me as now, even if it is for now, we have complete control of Viridian Forest.

And so with this confirmation, we all get into our jeeps and wait for the invisible container to be lowered onto the ground, so that we can then drive into the container and then the container can be lifted up into the stealth plane, where finally we can have some well-earned rest and relaxation with our friends and family, as well as with our new mysterious ally Stealth.

I look forward to meeting them, as it's been a long tough couple of days fighting to secure the supplies as well as Viridian Forest, and I'm glad to have finally succeeded despite such odds, especially from fighting lots of grunts, dealing with deadly bosses as well as spending a fair amount of time from being close to death, and in a lot of agony and pain.

I know I need to make the most out of this short time on the stealth plane with my loved ones, as this war is not over yet and I only hope that Oichi can help me in my fight against my nightmares tonight. Because if not then I cannot begin to imagine what it will be like for me, to not just be unable to continue to assist in the fight of liberating Lowee, but to then be forced to fight my friends and family as well as to destroy all the hope we have in this world.

In any case, despite the concerns and what the outcome may be, I along with my allies in Viridian Forest have earned our victory, and we deserve some rest and relaxation, and I look forward to spending the sunset, the evening, and the night on the plane with my best friends and family members doing wonderful things together, and making the most out of these magnificent moments that I'm very lucky to have.