The Neptunia Chronicles

Missing in Action and A Preemptive Strike

Andrew was still carrying Neptune across the forest floor, trying to put as much distance between the two of them and Jose's mercenaries as he can. However, he too was running out of energy.

"How far... does this forest go?" Andrew muttered, breathing heavily.

"I don't... know. Can we stop for a bit?" Neptune asked, her eyelids getting heavy. Andrew stops and scans the area. To his right was a cave entrance at a distance of, he guessed, 30 meters or so.

"Well... how about that?" Andrew asked, as if luck was working for him. "I found a cave entrance. Not much further, come on now." Andrew said as he practically dragged Neptune across the ground.

"No more... please no more..." Neptune cried, fighting to stay awake.

"Come on, Neptune. Just a bit more." Andrew said, pepping his CPU wife to stay awake long enough as they entered the cave entrance.

"I can't take no more." Neptune muttered tiredly, not bothering about her grammar at this point. Andrew laid the tired girl on the rock wall of the cave interior, before laying down next to her, sweat dripping from his hair.

"Well... I think I burned a lot of calories after that..." Andrew said, panting heavily. "You did good for a girl with no energy left. Now I guess is a good time to get some rest." Andrew said as he stared outside at the setting sun, before leaving to gather wood. He returned half an hour later with plenty of wood for a fire.

Andrew set up a campfire with the wood from outside and a tinder set that came with his survival kit, and throws a lit match on the wood. "Let there be light." Andrew said jokingly as the fire catches, the cave interior beginning to glow and warm up. Neptune laughed tiredly in response. After that, Andrew huddles up with Neptune and they begin to fall asleep, keeping each other warm against the cold stone.

------

Noire, Histoire and Nepgear stared at the screen as it showed live footage from orbit, looking at Andrew's and Neptune's signal. They had found it just an hour earlier, and apparently they had been on the move. The problem wasn't that they were wasting energy, far from it. The problem was the twelve red dots slowly following them. They stopped about twenty minutes ago to camp, but Everyone was still worried.

"They're far from safe, we'd better act fast." Nepgear said.

"Lets hope that those commandos arrive in time." Noire muttered under her breath. Lance and Lucas were among those sent for SAR, and have been prowling the forest like wolves.

------

Ludwig Schneider was sitting on a log next to a campfire, talking with his men over a hearty meal of pork and rice. Having been tasked by Jose with the capture of Neptune and Purple Shield, he and a few others in his twelve-man group were on edge.

"I guess my team and I are lucky to be the ones going after Neptune and Purple Shield. We've activated the HDD jammer just moments after they touched the ground, so they can't fly out. They may be crafty, but we'll catch them." Ludwig thought.

"...and then this bloody hellhound runs up, snarling as if I was a threat to its very existence, before trying to take a bite out of my left arm. I dodged left and, with my trusty AK-77, punched holes into the little bastard's skull faster than it could blink!" a mercenary shouted, telling a story he had about a fight with a hellhound while he was on patrol during the crisis with Arfoire. Others followed with laugher and pats on the man's back.

"Cunning little bastard. It's stunts like these that earn my respect." Ludwig thought to himself as he laughed alongside his men. For a mercenary commander in Jose's private army, one would think he had the honor of a commander in one of the five nations' military forces, which wasn't exactly untrue, given that he followed his orders to the letter, didn't let bullshit get in his way, and - unlike other mercenary commanders in Jose's forces - actually cared about the soldiers under his command as if they were his own children. It was why, despite being contracted to Heaven's Bane, he was respected among Allied Forces personnel.