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.

155. Our awry attempt

Chapter 155: Our awry attempt

Our attack on the Evelyn Residence has reached the next phase, both in specific location and in the method, though while the former is a positive thing, due to reduced distance, the latter is a negative thing, and this is due to it going awry.

It is awry because it seems as though we have been compromised. Nevertheless, we can only keep going for it has bound to have happened sooner or later, due to the position of the enemy troops in which it's not easy being able to keep tabs on them all, especially when it's inside in which vision is better, and they'll have the advantage of elevation, along with knowledge of the layout of the building.

I quietly order my troops to rush through the fog and fire a barrage of crossbows at areas where the enemy is most likely to be, before switching to shotguns and only using them if they see any actual enemies. I do so as calmly as I can despite thoughts of the hostages and my Noire and Uni being harmed, and having to endure the consequences of such catastrophic events occurring plaguing my mind.

Amazingly, nothing happens, but that offers little comfort considering the little time we seem to have, along with the fact that there is the possibility of the remaining enemies waiting for us to leave the fog, and approach them before they open fire and mow us down.

Annoyingly time is too low for us to properly check, and we can only rush in with shotguns in our hands, even if it risks us getting killed, or at the very least them having more urgency to slay the hostages they have.

Once again, the best possible outcome has occurred as they're all dead, but there is no time to breathe a big sigh of relief, because this could all be for nothing, if us spending time composing ourselves for the next part is the very thing that ensures the fate of the aristocracy here, and my siblings and friends are sealed.

I quietly order my troops to pick up their weapons and to hold flash bangs, to switch their Night Vision Goggles off, and to head up the stairs, open the door up there and to throw a few flash bangs in there, before charging in and taking out the enemy soldiers inside.

While predictably thoughts of concern run through my mind once again, such as the size of the room we'll be entering, which could affect our ability to cover the area with flashbangs, along with not knowing the exact location of the enemies and hostages, assuming of course they are there until we get in, not to mention if they are there they'll be deaf and have compromised vision for a while because of our flashbangs, I cannot allow these thoughts to get in the way of my objective at hand.

We quickly rush up the stairs, open the door while throwing a few flashbangs in, in hopes that this will shock them long enough that before they think to respond the flash bangs will have got them, before barging in.

After this, I feel like I'm on automatic as I quickly scan the room for enemy soldiers killing them as I spot them, in which it's effortless thanks to them being stunned by the flash bangs, and the rest of us do the same thing.

We then deal with enemies rushing in through the doors, in which we manage to mow them down before they can appreciate what's going on. I wonder if this is because they are fatigued, inexperienced, or perhaps stunned that we are in the main building itself.

It is now that I can finally take a proper look at the room, as we secure our current position.

The room is bright, well lit up, stunning, extravagant and a marvel to see, and is large which relieves me immensely that we were able to clear it without any casualties from our side. It is even better than I expected such a grand place to have.

The walls are completed covered by a continuous massive painting, in which it consists of a marble stone wall at the bottom, with red rectangle outlines and gold branches with leaves in them. Above this are gold and red marble pillars of a distinct design, and between them are paintings of people wearing distinctive clothes of a certain era, even though because of my amnesia I wouldn't know what it was.

Those pillars support a large marble beam with decoration of a distinctive style on the top, and on top of that are oval shaped holes, in which the painting depicts blue skies with people of other costumes of a distinctive era, and surrounding these holes are marble statues, which also look distinctively familiar.

The ceiling is also covered by a massive painting in which it consists of a golden decorative border, and in the centre is a large oval, in which each corner has a curved piece with gold and red border surrounding it, and the centre of those pieces have gold ornate feathers and branches with leaves, as if they are symbols of the aristocracy. The oval consists of a large gold highly decorated border of a distinct design, and in the oval is blue sky surrounded by clouds, and it's full of people with wings wearing unmistakable clothes. I get the feeling that they're meant to be angels in heaven, though I can't be sure.

The grand room has a few entrances to it, in which each one is surrounded by a large arch made of marble, and above each of the entrances are two pieces of marble sticking out in an ornate way, on each side of the elegant doorways. On top of those arches are a large piece of marble in which it consists of ornate feathers stuck together with a crown on top of it. Above the doors and beneath the arches are pictures of a double headed eagle and some sort of coat of arms at the centre.

There are also two tall windows which are arched at the top and are surrounded by large marble arches which are painted on the wall, and above them are a couple of figures, presumably angels judging by their attire and their wings.

The floor consists of white marble tiles with black diamond shapes that are distributed evenly, and on one of the walls are a couple of marble fireplaces with marble borders around it and paving, in which on the top are gold busts of different individuals presumably important family members, and in the fire place itself are 2 small black iron decorative ornamental pillars on each side, which look like crowns supported by extravagant pillars in which they are layered.

The room consists of four relatively small tables in each corner, in which they all consists of large golden legs that are very ornate and highly decorated, and they support a marble top in which sitting on them are two ornate vases along with marble statues, that appear to carry chandeliers of very bright lights.

Along with this, there is a massive table big enough for 10 people in which the legs and what they support are of the same extravagant materials, and surrounding this table are 10 chairs in which the legs are of similar design, and the seats themselves appear to be red velvet in which there's flowery patterns on them. On top of the table are fancy red velvet mats large enough for large plates, and all the surrounding cutlery in which it's golden and ornate ,and wine glasses of various size in which they're highly decorated and look rather expensive.

The centre of the table also has large gold candle stick holders in which they look more like chandeliers, and there's various large gold serving stands with numerous plates. There is no food at all there, though I get the sense that the aristocrats that live here would eat luxurious food for every meal, and use all the cutlery there is there, in which there's a few spoons, knives, and forks of different sizes, for each person for different courses and purposes.

I'm not sure if I remember seeing a place like this let alone being in it. It's unbelievably amazing, stunning, astonishing and breathtaking, and were it not for the circumstances it would be nice to take in the surroundings, perhaps wander around and to have a grand meal here with the hostages. It's a pity that this place is held hostage by someone who cares little for nice places such as this, in which architects and artisans and craftspeople of such high quality, put their best into making these places really beautiful and attractive tourist attractions for people around the world to visit and enjoy.

Speaking of the hostages by sheer amazement of luck, they're all here and they're still alive. Although their arms in which they wear arm length gloves and diamond bracelets are tied with tape, and they're tied to the chairs with lots of tape by their legs and their chests and heads, in which they wear extravagant dresses, long capes, diamond earrings and diamond necklaces, like Noire and Uni did for the disguise, along with how they are all blindfolded, they are still alive.

We quickly respond to the pleasant news with some of us rescuing the hostages, while the rest of us guard the entrances to keep the enemy away, and I activate the signal for the radio jammer to be switched off, and I then call for reinforcements. The flashbangs will have disorientated them and they'll be deaf for a while, and I'm concerned that they won't be able to walk well, due to them being tied tightly, which could slow us down significantly and perhaps lead us to our slaughter. I'm significantly concerned about this considering the limited ammunition we have, and the amount of enemies there'll be, in fact they could even have special soldiers under their command as a result of their heinous experiments they have perhaps done.

As part of our strategy to keep the enemy at bay, we use flashbangs and throw them out periodically in hopes that it can buy us some time, and to speed up the means of making the hostages mobile. As a result of this, we just undo the tape that binds them to the chair, and leave the tape around their hands until we're at a better position.

If we can just hold the enemy off until the hostages are able to walk, and if we can just get to the cemetery, and hope that the Britannian allies of ours can arrive quickly enough to provide reinforcements, and the means to get out of this place, then we should be able to escape with the hostages in one piece, and we can then capture and deal with Neptune at our leisure.

The situation becomes tense, considering how at first the enemy appears to be limitless and relentless in their pursuit to enter the room we're in, only for them to then not approach which unnerves me due to them having a potentially new strategy in mind of taking us out.

But before anything can happen from the enemy, in which I got the sense was any second, I find that the hostages have been freed and I can get a proper look at them as we head out.

Noire and Uni are there, as are Veronica, Belle, Alice and Demetria the aristocracy who they have kidnapped. Interestingly enough while they wear the same sort of clothes and jewellery as Noire and Uni, and they appear to be reasonably tall, with hour glass figures and are attractive, the colour schemes and hair colour is different, as two of them are blonde, one of them is brunette and the other is red in which their hair is really long and shiny, and decorated nicely to reflect a certain era. One of them a blonde, appears to be middle aged while the other 3 are in their late tweens.

The brunette wears white with red sashes, the redhead wears blue with white sashes, the younger blond wears white at the top and green at the bottom, though her dress consists of a red dragon on top of it, and the older blonde, Veronica, wears white but there are two large red strips in which one is horizontal at her waist and the other is vertical in which they meet in a cross at the centre.

I couldn't help but notice that apart from Uni who seems to resemble Lastation, their dresses seem to resemble flags in which Noire's is Britannian but for the 4 Ashford's despite recognising those flags and perhaps being of this place, I wouldn't know what the flags are meant to be, and perhaps this is down to my amnesia.

Despite being tied up tightly for who knows how long, and no doubt being hungry and thirsty and going without the ability to see for such a long time, not to mention the thoughts of dread and suspense of what their captors are going to do to them, and probably something too horrific to imagine, they are pleased to be rescued even if they can't hear well.

They do their best to not be bothered about what has happened to them, but the body language does suggest that they clearly are distressed from it all to say the very least. While they seem optimistic that we'll get them out, I can imagine they'll be having flashbacks of these times and feel dread about the things that could have happened to them, had it not been for us rescuing them.

The thing is, I find myself constantly thinking about getting them out safely (along with us retreating for the night to gain energy so that we can fight them better at a later time with less stress, due to there being no hostages to free then), as while we have found the Ashford family and this in of itself is an immense relief, there is the matter of heading through the secret entrance and getting out of the grounds, all while the enemy is aware of our presence, not to mention escaping through the fence in which that will be hard without having the means to do it, unless we go around to the main entrance in which that will no doubt be crawling with enemy guards.

At least there is one thing we can do to buy us some time for the former hostages to be able to move normally again, and for us to create distance between us and the mansion, and that is for us to block the door to the room via the secret entrance with fallen enemy soldiers. The thing is though even with that, I am concerned that the enemy could actually attempt to flank us, and there could actually be enemies in this very passage we're in right now.

I can only order our troops to call out when we get to each corner, and if there's no response we then open fire at the other side and rush, even if it would use up some of our ammo, as even with the ammunition from dead enemy soldiers we can use, I cannot be certain that it will be enough. I just know that standing between us and a night's rest along with our success in rescuing those innocent benevolent members of the good aristocracy, will be a deadly firefight in which they'll have more ammo, more troops and perhaps soldiers of more significant strength.

Yet again I don't feel like this situation is in our hands with regards to whether we'll succeed here or not, as this is all down to where the enemy is, where the allies already here are, if they're still alive, and where are our reinforcements, assuming they would have heard all this kick off. The thing is as always, we can only do our best as we fight our way through with our weapons, our skills and our wits.

We will win this, no matter how impossible it may seem to do so. We are fighting to preserve our heritage, our right to be proud of who we are, our right to exist, we are fighting for those that love, for those that care, and those that do charity. We are fighting for our ideals, in which we value the individual, freedom, prosperity and innovation, along with rights, and I have to say that despite the limited time I had to do so, seeing that room and the aristocrats and what it represents, has encouraged me more so to be optimistic, to continue the struggle, and know that our victory is inevitable.

Surprisingly though maybe not because the enemy forces could be too busy, or it could be that the enemy due to the situation doesn't think to attack us from behind, or even have a unanimous appreciation that their hostages are gone, or even a combination of those reasons, there are no enemies in the secret passage.

That doesn't mean that there aren't any enemies waiting for us at the other side, and so I order the troops to cautiously check so that we don't get ambushed.

The thing is once again, there are no enemies present there at all, in fact there are no enemies present in the cemetery at all. There aren't even any when peeking out. It's as if it's all clear and we'll be home and dry soon, and yet it would be if we can get everyone out over the fence, and if we can be certain that there won't be anyone to shoot at us if we tried to go over the fence, which we can't guarantee right now.

We'll just have to wait for our backup to arrive, along with the means to get out. In the meantime, I give the order for the troops to take the best positions possible and to guard the cemetery on all sides, with most of our troops facing the side furthest away from the fence, since it'll be harder if not impossible for allied reinforcements to take them out, at least not until they can cross the fence to the grounds.

I meanwhile will initially stay with the former hostages in the structure where the secret entrance is, and remove the tape tying their hands allowing them to be free from the pain and discomfort, as well as to be able to pick up a weapon and fight with us, in which my troops have kindly offered several of their guns and ammo for them. After which myself, Noire and Uni will assist the troops on the line parallel to the fence while they stay behind and keep an eye on the secret entrance.

As I untie their hands, their body language show much gratitude towards me, with Noire and Uni eager to give me a hug.

"Thank you ever so much for rescuing us, your soldiers have done ever so well to be able to reach us." Veronica said with a huge smile on her face, sounding rather posh and friendly.

"You're very welcome, it's an honour. You've done so much good work including research into curing blood related diseases, being able to reproduce blood without depending on donations. There's also your immense philanthropy, in which massive amounts of money are spent helping people throughout the world, and personally insuring that it helps, and you do plenty for the local community too, helping the locals out on any issues, and your extravagant estate has often been available for weddings and honeymoons.

You are very intelligent, successful caring people, people like you should be emulated, and admired not murdered in the name of insane experiments." I respond to them with a smile on my face, sounding happy to be here.

"Thank you very much for your kind words. I am pleased that we are able to fulfil our duties as members of the aristocracy, in helping out other people in whatever ways we can. It'll be an honour, no a privilege to treat all you soldiers to a week's stay in our glorious estate, with the opportunity to do all sorts of fun activities, and to eat the finest banquets we have available, and our highly paid enthusiastic servants will be more than happy to offer their assistance too, and offer services including room service, cleaning and washing their clothes." The lady in blue replies in a similar tone to the blonde lady in white.

"My pleasure. Do any of you ladies need any medical assistance at all?" I ask them calmly.

The four Ashfords shake their heads while smiling, before one of them speaks to me.

"I think I speak for all of us when I say I just need to rest, apart from that I'll be fine." The lady with the dragon on her dress responds, her body language showing appreciation for my concern regarding their well being.

"OK, Me, Noire and Uni will head out to assist the soldiers who'll protect you no matter what happens. You should be safe here, but I suggest keeping an eye out for the secret entrance in the building, the enemy may come out. Please try and give me a signal if they come, and we'll try and provide assistance. Pardon my question but do you know how to use these weapons?" I say to them calmly.

"Yeah. Thank you very much for looking out for us, I'm confident that we're safe in your hands and that this will all be over soon." The brown haired lady says with a smile on her face.

"Excellent, we'll be back here before you lot know it. This will all be over soon." I say to them in response.

The four of them blow kisses of gratitude towards us before the three of us head out quietly and cautiously to assist our line, in which I fear doesn't consist of sufficient numbers of troops, considering they needed to be spread out to cover each angle. Saying this, I do my best to remain optimistic, especially as the four Ashfords believe in us, plus which we have the advantage of cover, experience and NVGs, not to mention the fact that hopefully soon enough, we will have allied reinforcements, and perhaps even air superiority, which should be able to take them out with ease, even any possible monsters that they may use assuming that they have them.

As the three of us head to our positions to reinforce, we pick up extra ammunition from fallen enemy soldiers, as we'll need every bullet we can get if we are to survive while waiting for the enemy to come.

While there is the possibility that the enemy may not come due to them being busy or perhaps not being aware of us or both, I believe in being prepared for them, and for what it's worth as long as we can survive, I wouldn't mind them coming because then it means that there's less enemies in the estate for us to deal with tomorrow, where they'll have the advantage of cover and familiar terrain, whereas with here we have that very advantage.

Just as I suspected would happen though, enemy soldiers appear armed with AK47s with torches attached at the barrel of those weapons, and they're rushing towards us, eager to secure the area and deal with any of our threats towards them.

There are a significant number of them, in fact they outnumber us by at least a few times, though I like to think that we can mop them up before they are even aware of any of our positions.

We then commence our attack against them and it is as predicted, they fall quickly thanks to our guns being able to cover a significant area with one clip pretty quickly. We reload soon afterwards which doesn't take long at all, especially considering this is likely to be their first wave. I get the sense that they know where the hostages are, considering the location we are at, or at least they do not wish to take the chance of us getting away due to that possibility.

Whatever the case, we can only wait and see whether they actually end up sending in more troops, and if so what will the numbers be, and will they send any of their own special units to our location at this time if they have any, and if so how difficult will they be to defeat? I just have to… no I need to be optimistic we can deal with it, and this will help in making a difference in reducing the difficulty tomorrow's fighting will bring. Allied reinforcements are coming to help us, we just need to hold on, and to rely on our cover and our element of surprise.

As predicted, more enemies come, and in bigger numbers than before, and not only this but there are enemies among them that appear distinctively different, as their clothes are bloodied and dirtied. They don't have guns but axes, clubs and even boulders and they can move a lot quicker, plus which they appear to have parts of their own flesh missing in different parts of their body including the arms and face, and their mouths appear open and massive. They seem to be mutants or zombies or something like that, though I get the sense that they could have unique abilities. We can only do our best against these guys and perhaps deal with them first in the head, as they're probably more dangerous, as we wait for our reinforcements.

We open fire again when these ghouls of theirs are in front of the regular soldiers, but not close enough to overwhelm us, before taking cover and reloading, as we don't have enough bullets to kill this entire wave of enemy troops without needing to reload.

It's hard to know for sure if we slayed all the ghouls in this wave, because we found ourselves spraying and praying, to avoid getting hit in return by the enemy, and we can only reload our weapons while keeping our bodies low as enemy bullets whistle past around us.

"Good news, Britannian reinforcements have arrived at the fence near the cemetery, and an armed helicopter is en route to your position." A soldier informed me via radio.

I thank the soldier before requesting via radio to the Britannian troops on the grounds guarding the cemetery, to reinforce our line as soon as they're able to, and for the reinforcements by the fence to deal with the enemy waves trying to attack our position through those directions those lines were covering.

This news fills me with optimism in that while we still need to hold this position, it won't be for too long. We then spray and pray from where we are again, so that we can bleed more of their numbers and reduce the chances of us getting killed by them.

While in response there's more bullets whistling past us, in fact they're closer than before, I refuse to let this get to me.

When the enemy bullets reduce in intensity and when we've reloaded, we spray and pray again, even though this time instead of reloading, we'll switch to pistols because of how close they're likely to be at this point.

Because of not daring to look due to the risk of getting shot, I cannot be sure as to how many of them there are left in this wave right now, though I'm certain that there's still a significant number of them to pose a threat to us.

It is then that I realise that there is a possibility that the enemy could stop at the trees and then peek around and defeat us that way, or even spray and pray at our position and kills us without us seeing them.

At first I thought about spraying and praying with our pistols but the troubling thing, is the firepower is not strong enough to kill them, and they could hide by the trees away from our line of fire, and yet us hiding wouldn't guarantee us being safe from their bullets, but then I had a new thought and this is for us to move away from the trees, so that we can wait for them to approach, or for them to try and spray and pray at us.

I then lead the troops away from the treeline for a little bit before going prone, while facing this line itself with our guns ready, and my thoughts thinking about aiming for the head to guarantee a quicker kill, and to reduce the risk of being killed by them.

Soon afterwards, I see an enemy soldier between two trees, who happens to aim their weapon and fire at where I originally once were. In response I shoot his head and breathe a sigh of relief that this tactic has saved us. This seems to be the case for most of us, and it is now that our line has been reinforced, and as a result we move back to the tree line and reload fresh magazines for our acquired rifles.

There's another wave of attackers, though this time the entire wave consists of those ghoulish creatures, with a significant number of them shrieking loudly, in which I suspect that if they shriek at us while being close enough to us, we could get stunned and disorientated and be finished off by the others.

I'm not concerned about this though, not when we have the advantage of range and have extra troops on our line this time around.

We quickly open fire and mow them down. It is quite unnerving considering how close they got due to fast they can run, but fortunately they can be killed with just a few shots, and we are all doing alright, especially when we notice the strength of this wave rapidly decreasing until it has gone completely.

The thing is even though we have managed to eliminate who knows how many enemies and have done who knows how much damage to the strength of the enemy garrison here, something tells me they have more than this, perhaps something more dangerous.

Just as we've finished reloading and look to see what enemies there are, I then see just one that appears significantly taller than the others, and is completely covered in armour, wears a gas mask and carries what I think is a bardiche, a big long axe sort of weapon.

I know who this figure is, it's Chariot from House of the Dead, it's slow but deadly and difficult to kill due to the armour, and with the armour that thing has, I predict it will be bullet proof. While there's just one of them compared to all of us, and we can distract it and hopefully be able to get away, I get the feeling that there could be back up soldiers to help that thing out.

We just have to hope that the helicopter comes with rocket launchers, considering the fact that I remember in one of the video game, players used an RPG to break through that armour. I'm sure the chopper will considering the need to prevent Neptune escaping by vehicle.

That's the only thing that will probably make the Chariot a challenge right now, the armour, though once the armour has been destroyed that thing should fall to all of our bullets.

I order our troops to not attack this monstrosity due to potential concerns of them wasting ammunition, but I fire a magazine's worth just to see if that thing is bullet proof, only to find that it is. I then order our troops to keep an eye out for other soldiers that wish to assist it only to find that no one is. Hmmm, this is baffling unless of course they plan on waiting for us to flee before sending in troops to mow us down.

Despite the Chariot moving closer and closer to us despite it's armour slowing it down, we remain calm and we only intend to retreat away once that thing gets close enough, and even then we'll keep an eye out for enemy reinforcements. I keep watch outside the line we're protecting and while I see no signs of anyone else, I know I cannot take it to mean that it's just that monster despite what it seems.

As I keep looking, an allied soldier informs me of the helicopter in the distance in which a quick glance confirms this. This relaxes me significantly, as now all we need to do, is to wait for the armour to break before we can shoot it and kill it, while keeping an eye out for enemy reinforcements who'll perhaps pounce on us, knowing that their plan has gone awry.

I notice shots being fired at the Chariot, and as predicted it does nothing, but then not too long afterwards, a missile is fired at it causing a significant explosion and knocks the thing flying away a fair amount.

Now we just need to wait for it to get up, before we can mow it down, since while the helicopter initially fires at it with machine guns, the chopper then turns to enemies further away who wish to assist.

It doesn't take long at all for the Chariot to get up, and if anything just like in the games, it's much quicker when it's armour is damaged or in this case destroyed. As soon as it got up, it makes a dash towards us with it's weapon in it's hands tightly, ready to swing at the right moment, but because of it's size and it still wearing armour it isn't, as fast as those ghouls, and it ends up dying pretty quickly due to the immense bullets fired at it from our weapons.

With the reinforcements and the helicopter keeping the enemies surrounding the cemetery at bay, I decide to head back to the secret entrance with Noire, Uni and a couple of others to check on the Ashford family. Right now I feel immensely relieved, because despite all those enemy patrols we had to navigate through, and the potential concern of us being compromised, along with dealing with those waves without initial reinforcements, we have managed to rescue the aristocrats, they're in a safe place and there's nothing standing between us and our means to evacuate the area.

This is excellent, most excellent, once again we have stopped that nasty Neptune's dastardly plans involving something vile and nefarious to masses of innocent people, and this one in particular is terrible and awful, turning aristocrats into vile horrific terrifying monsters of various deadly abilities, which would have resulted in catastrophic consequences leading to the deaths of countless people, for the aristocracy that provides much tourism and charity to be abolished, due to their reputation being tarnished by a foul phony actress, and for there to be tyranny, injustice and poverty because what would stop those monsters after who knows how long of perfection apart from her who'll perhaps just merely send them away and pull of engineered heroics, so she can be adored by the public for doing absolutely nothing but her favourite hobby which causes plenty of collateral damage.

The Planeptune short purple haired witch would certainly be furious, be losing it, and her morale would be shaking after losing the most vital part of her plan, and she must know that we no longer need to be stealthy in our actions, we can go all in and take this estate back room by room. She cannot escape for she is surrounded, and this will be her resting place before she is forced to leave this nightmare and let us do the same.

I then hear the radio go off, ready to hear the news and to respond to it appropriately as best as we can.

"Good news, all the servants have been rescued and while we've suffered casualties, we are currently evacuating the area." A soldier says to me sounding cheerful to be able to report such news.

"Wonderful news, I wish to report similar things regarding the dogs." Another soldier says to me sounding pleased.

"Yes, despite the tragic fact that it seems that we're the ones to alert them, in which we're extremely sorry to do so, we've managed to rescue all the servants, but not without significant casualties, though we are able to leave here soon enough." A different soldier says though with much regret.

I then reply to them.

"It's alright, you have all done well under difficult circumstances, the building is crawling with the enemy and it's going to be very difficult to take them out silently without alerting their presence, especially when you have to rely on quiet methods and some of these enemies will be extremely difficult to deal with. We have managed to rescue the aristocracy, and should be able to leave soon.

All units, evacuate the area, if any of you are unable to please let us know and we'll come and rescue you. This part of this mission is a success. I repeat this part of this mission is a success. I am proud of all of you for a job well done. Hopefully the next part will be easier without having to worry about hostages." I say to them with much enthusiasm and joy in my voice.

Hearing this is such an immense relief and I can imagine the Ashford family to be really pleased that their servants, horses and dogs are all alright, and will be safe. It pleases me too because they won't be victims of theirs, and they will neither suffer death or horrific unpleasant unethical experimentation at the hands of those vile inhumane sadists. They won't be turned against us, in which I get the feeling that if they were to be, they'd be more powerful than normal people due to the significance of these people.

Without a doubt this is the happiest I've been in this nightmare, the most optimistic. I can get my hands on Neptune and punish her even if it's just a nightmare, we can humiliate her, hurt her and be able to return to the world where we can carry on our quest to liberate Lowee, to eventually liberate Leanbox and to confront Neptune for real.

We rush towards the Ashfords with smiles on our faces, but before we can make it there, they send a distress call from the radio, and in fact I hear gunfire coming from there. I quietly tell them we're coming and we rush even quicker towards the place with our guns held tightly ready to assist, hoping that the enemy has not managed to kill those royal ladies despite what it seems to be.

I try not to be enraged about how I may have lost them now, after all that we've been through and even being able to see them and bring them here, but it's hard not to. We've put everything in to rescuing them, so that we can still be free, but it may not be enough.

I can only think to get there carefully, to deal with the enemies here, and to properly observe the situation and learn what has actually happened. They could still be alive, just struggling to deal with the enemy and need our help urgently.

Before we know it, we're near the building itself and so we surround the entrance such that the enemy can't see us, before taking a peek from cover and opening fire on the enemies in which while there are a significant number of them both regular soldiers and ghouls, they are on the stair case to the secret entrance, and thus we're able to mow them down.

The thing is more of them still come, which frustrates me since while it means less of them to deal with tomorrow, it is a struggle being able to continuously mow them down because of the issue of reloading and the size of our magazines.

Eventually we run out of bullets for our rifles and we have to switch to shotguns and pistols, in which I doubt they'll have the same effectiveness, but just in time I notice the enemy being mowed down by lots of bullets and I look to see it's Britannian reinforcements who have come over by ladder, and are armed with AR18 assault rifles and M60 light machine guns, ideal for dealing with these sorts of enemies.

I then call out to the Ashford family in there to see if they're ok only to find that they are, and they then stand up and carefully head towards us. They're panting immensely as we are deeply in shock about how close they are to dying. I can't imagine what it must be like for them to be threatened with death by a cruel ruthless enemy, and having to aim, fire and reload and to to do so well to ensure survival.

I can't imagine them forgetting about this event, about how close they were to dying and perhaps having to see those ghouls up close in which their faces are very horrific to look at. I'm the same since their deaths would have affected us greatly, not least in that it would have resulted in failure for us, and having to face unknown, unimaginable but extremely unpleasant catastrophic consequences, which I cannot bear to think about what that would be.

While I should be immensely relieved that even after that, the Ashford family are still in one piece despite what they have been through, and our evacuation is inevitable and will happen really soon, I am now concerned.

I am concerned about what we'll face tomorrow considering what we have seen. Despite them not getting round to harming the hostages, they have still managed to create horrific creatures with special abilities that can harm us if we're not careful. They have managed to create powerful monsters, which required significant technique and effort to defeat. They will be able to create more of those things, and unleash them on this land unless we stop them and stop them soon.

Despite there being no hostages to rescue tomorrow, there is still a time limit to this, and there is still immense difficulty. They have the advantage of the terrain both in knowledge and in who it favours, and the advantage of strength in their monsters, and the only thing that's in our favour is our superior soldiers, tactics and perhaps numbers and firepower in our weaponry at least.

All we can do for now is to focus on getting out of here alive, to sleep, to recharge, have a good meal, and to plan our next move, as well as to be optimistic considering we have for the most part survived what they threw at us, and take pride in the fact that we must have wiped out a significant portion of their forces. If we can surround them and advance cautiously depriving them of space and the size of their garrison, then we can win this.

We have successfully started our mission against Neptune here, and dealt a heavy blow to her outrageous operations, we can finish this and deal that witch the much deserved and needed killer blow so that we can save this place, this home and get back to saving our place and our home.