Title: JAG/Sims 3 “Endgame”
Author: Nikkei_Simmer
E-mail: nikkeisimmer@gmail.com
Rating: M
Classification: Haruo/River; Harm/Mac; Animal/Meg
Spoilers: JAG/The Sims 3
Summary: The year is 1986. Nikolai Ryzhkov has been elected Premier of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and talks have broken down regarding de-escalation of nuclear weapons. Threats of invasion on the pretext of national defense by the 27th Congress of the USSR were made to NATO due to the encroachment of US President Ronald Reagan’s adoption of the Peacekeeper missiles in the United States on mobile tracks and deployment of Pershing IIs on European soil. Tensions between the Soviet Union and NATO boil over; Europe becomes a hotly contested powder-keg and peace has become an illusion.
In all this, in a sleepy little town called Sunset Valley, Haruo and River are in the summer of their Grade 10 year of high-school. Nuclear annihilation is far from their thoughts as they navigate their summer and make plans for the resumption of their education in the fall. But before the conclusion of their summer, world events will overtake the town. Will the survivors form a cohesive group with survival their main focus or will individualism make survival a faint hope in an ever-escalating post-apocalyptic hell-scape?
DISCLAIMER: All EA premade characters are the property of Electronic Arts and their subsidiary Maxis. All of the player-created characters are the creation of the author and their usage by third parties is subject to author’s permission being granted. No profit is being made from this story, nor is any infringement intended.
Author’s Note: This is going to be a stark alternate universe depiction of WWIII.
Personae Dramatis:
Lieutenant Toshio M. Nakamura: A naval aviator and commissioned naval officer
Lieutenant JG Rebecca "Becky" Lane: Animal's RIO (Radar Intercept Officer), 25 years old
Lieutenant JG Kelsey "K-Dog" Emerson, Harm's RIO, 25 years old
Ensign Harmon Rabb Jr. a 23 year old Naval Aviation student and a commissioned naval officer
Meg Austin: a first year 19 year old NROTC candidate.
Sarah Mackenzie: an 18 year old high-school senior in the throes of alcohol abuse who has run away from her Marine Corps NCO father who is verbally and physically abusive.
Phil Burrows: a sixteen year old high-school student
Haruo Chikamori: a sixteen year old high-school student
Bebe Hart: a sixteen year old high-school student
River McIrish: a fifteen year old turning sixteen year old high-school student
Holly Alto: a fifteen year old turning sixteen year old high-school student
Parker Langerak: a fourteen year old high-school junior high-school student
Prologue (Before It All Went To Hell)
330 Oak Grove Road, Sunset Valley, BC, 0445 ZULU
“Zapad vsegda vystupal protiv popytok Sovetskogo Soyuza zashchitit' sebya ot zapadnoy agressii. (The West has always opposed the Soviet Union’s attempts to protect itself against Western aggression.)” Nikolai Ryzhkov proclaimed as he stood on the podium of the Supreme Soviet. “My budem protivostoyat' lyubym popytkam postavit' pod ugrozu nashu natsional'nuyu bezopasnost'. (We will stand against any and all attempts to threaten our national security.)” The Soviet leader pounded the podium in emphasis as he proclaimed the United States as a threat to world security and that everyone should unite against the Western hegemony.
Molly sat in front of the TV as she watched the news once again proclaim the rhetoric that was being spewed from behind the Iron Curtain and she wondered if her daughter had a future. The prospect of a peaceful future seemed dimmer than it had ever been during the Cold War. For the past thirty five years, the world had teetered on the brink of nuclear apocalypse. With the arms race and the constant anti-West rhetoric from the Soviet Union the world wondered if when they went to bed at night that they would wake up in the morning. Nuclear attack drills were being practiced at school and most adults knew that it was just a facade. There was no way that hiding under a desk would help if a nuclear device detonated above the city hall which to most people was considered Ground Zero for an attack.
For all her party-animal traits, Molly French was a keen follower of the nightly news and despite other’s views, she had a keen mind insofar as world affairs went.
“Are you watching the daily news?” Fiona McIrish asked glancing up from her food preparation to Molly who was seated on the couch.
“Yes, it’s always the same. The Soviets are constantly saying that the West is hampering their economy and their livelihood. But they don’t seem to understand that they are committing the same actions as we are. Take the fact that they’re in Afghanistan blowing up people who just want to do their own thing.” Molly shrugged her shoulders. “And our leaders aren’t criticizing them either, at least not directly. But we’re just the little guys, the ants on the table just waiting for someone to palm us flat. Nobody cares about our viewpoints.”
Fiona raised an eyebrow. This was unusual for Molly to get that deep into politics, frankly, it was unusual for Molly to get so introspective. Most everyone thought Molly was the life of the party, someone who was as shallow as a wading pool in regards to anything that required use of the cranium. But Fiona was seeing another side of her long-time friend, the concerned mother that worried about her daughter’s future. And Fiona worried about the state of the world with regards to her own daughter.
330 Oak Grove Road (exterior) 0445 ZULU
The morning had dawned clear of clouds, the azure sky heralding the promise of a day filled with adventure for the two teens that stood out front looking at each other. River McIrish looked over at her best friend of thirteen years. She smiled as her eyes played across his face, her own green eyes scanning his almond shaped eyes with deep brown irises that turned almost black when he was in one of his irascible moods, his arms tanned almost a cinnamon bun brown with the heat of the summer sun blazing down on him; topped with a well coiffured stylish head of black hair. He hardly ever burns, she thought irritably. Considering her Emerald Isle heritage she turned about as bright red as a lobster when it came to being out in the sun. If only she could tan like her best friend.
“You think Holly and Bebe will be down at the park?” He asked. River paused in her contemplation of her friend’s features.
“They said they would be there at around ten.” she replied. “We really should get going if we’re going to meet them there, Haruo.”
Her friend glanced at his watch. “Yeah, we only have about fifteen minutes to get there if we leave now.” he crossed his arms with a stubborn jut of his jaw, “...and I’m not running.” It’s summer and I’m going to do what I want was the unspoken assertion.
“I’m sure they’ll wait for us.” River reassured him as she called out to her mother, “Mo-om!! I’m going with Haruo down to Central Park!”
“OK! Be back by dinner time!” was Fiona’s answer from inside the house. Her mom didn’t worry about River too much. As long as she was home before the streetlights came on. Free range and feral could be used to describe children.
Haruo, on the other hand, had a complicated relationship with his own mother. She hardly let him do anything and half the time he did something, he did it outside of his mother’s edicts so he constantly got in trouble with his parents. And the way that he was checking his watch indicated that this was going to be another one of those times. Mayumi Chikamori (Haruo’s mother constantly had an invisible leash on her son that he was constantly trying to snap.
“What time are you supposed to get back home?” River asked him.
Haruo let out a bitter snort. “What...you mean when they let me out?” he looked back at his home across the street from where River lived. “If I’m going to catch hell, I might as well go all the way.” his response was sarcastic, the cutting tone etched from stone, his irises turned obsidian as he clenched his fists, “Let’s go, before I get second thoughts.”
Walking down to the park invited plenty of opportunity to feel a light breeze against their skin. Air movement allowed a bit of a cooling breeze to offset the summer heat. Despite the innocence of their interactions, Haruo couldn’t help but play his eyes along the curves of River’s body. She was wearing a light blouse and shorts that accentuated her figure and he smiled.
It was at that moment that their eyes locked on each other and Haruo drew back startled as River’s eyes met his. Her left brow raised in a curious query as he shrugged his shoulders.
“What?” she asked then teased him, “Just admiring the view?”
Deflecting the insinuation, Haruo replied casually glancing around, “Yeah...the breeze, the trees…the birds” he trailed off leaving the insinuation hanging.
“...and the bees?” River finished off for him, giving him a mock-pointed stare that Haruo knew wasn’t serious in the least. Their continued walk down to the park was full of light-hearted conversation, yet Haruo couldn’t escape the feeling that River was appreciative of his glances and that she knew that he was admiring her.
As they came up on Central Park, he could see Bebe and Holly engaged in conversation. Bebe with her shoulder-length frizzy blonde hair speaking of black-white mixed and Holly, of Italian-Canadian heritage were animatedly gesturing with their hands as they were talking and Haruo looked at River. “Looks like they’re still here.”
“Of course…” River replied as she waved her hands, “Hey, Bebe! Holly! We’re here!”
“Took you long enough…” Bebe teased. “What were you two doing, necking in the bushes?” Haruo flushed with embarrassment.
“We were not.” River smirked at Bebe.
Bebe grinned at River with a sly smile. “I don’t see any daylight between the two of you.” she teased. “There must be something going on between the two of them, riiight, Holly?” she looked over at Holly who raised an eyebrow.
“I don’t know anything.” Holly raised her hands slyly grinning. “I’m in complete denial here. I didn’t see a thing.”
“Hey, River, you still hanging out with this loser?” Haruo rolled his eyes in response to the voice that just shattered his quiet morning. Yeah, Parker just had to be here. He thought to himself. What a way to ruin a great morning. He thought as he bristled.
“Don’t call my friend that.” River snapped irritably at Parker who stood there feet apart, hands on his hips with a smug grin on his face that Haruo wanted to knock off his mug. “He’s not a loser.”
“Oh, chill out...I’m just kidding.” Parker replied as he noticed Haruo bristle visibly, clenching his fists. “Hey...simmer down, Chiclets or you might bust a vein.”
“Don’t call me Chiclets, Langerak!” Haruo growled, his voice a low threat.
“So...you don’t want her…” Parker replied, tossing a thumb in the direction of Haruo’s jeans then aiming a smirk at River, “to chew on it.” implying something really disgusting.
“Parker you’re a creep!” Holly exclaimed, while River turned bright red with embarrassment.
“Hey everybody! I just got the latest Robotech comic.” All eyes turned to a sandy blonde haired lanky kid who walked over to the group of friends, minus Parker who rolled his eyes and muttered,
“Oh great the nerd convention arrives.”
Haruo asked, “Which one did you get, Phil?”, not that Robotech really interested him much, but if his friend was interested in it, that was good enough for him.
“Yeah...it’s the one where Rick Hunter and Minmei get dragged into the Zentraedi warship!”
“Sounds cool” Bebe said. “So who here’s hungry?” she said rubbing her stomach.
“Me…” Parker replied.
“Nobody asked you, Parker.” River snapped, still nettled at Parker’s insinuation that she was loose. Holly looked over with some concern at River who had her arms crossed and was tapping her foot as if she wanted to bury that foot six feet up Parker’s rear-end.
“I am.” Phil said, finally getting his head out of the comic book that he was busy explaining to his friend.
Haruo who was trying his best to ignore Parker and try to show some interest in the comic book that he was being shown, looked up with a disgusted look at Parker who was hanging around like an unwanted mosquito, probably because River was there he thought.
NAS Lemoore, California. High above the California desert, 0544 ZULU
“Keep your head on a swivel, Becky...we might have company.” Animal grinned at his RIO through the rear view mirror located on the canopy frame just north of his HUD.
“Gotcha, Animal…” Becky’s grin was visible as her oxygen mask dangled off the port receiver. “I’m not showing a blip on the AWG-9. You having premonitions again?”
Animal laughed. “Yeah...I’m getting a hard-on!” he quipped quoting Wolfman from Top Gun.
Becky grinned at him, “Yeah, that’d be a sight to see…” she purred suggestively. Becky was a tease and she was quite the RIO too; competent in the office and capable of keeping Animal’s six clear of bogeys. Not only that she could cause three-way collisions when she was on terra firma. When she was dressed to the nines, she could outshine a runway model with her blonde hair, striking blue eyes and heart-shaped face, she caused whiplash among every red-blooded male on base and off. “Well, we’re armed with fake heaters. Fox Twos, Fox Ones. And according to the gauge here, we got 14000 rounds of 20 mike mike. If they wanna come up and rumble…” she trailed off, her eyebrows narrowed.
“Knife fight in a phone booth.” Animal finished off.
“Oooh, I love it when you talk that way.” Becky smirked, then snapped into tactical mode, “Contact...two left fifteen miles. Animal, inbound.”
Animal went silent as he sized up the situation, his eyes scanning the horizon. “On it.” He snapped, “Two F-5s. Rolling in.” His left hand on the throttle moved forward applying more thrust to the equation. “Pass…” and instantly snapped the F-14 Tomcat into a left turn, pulling the stick back and left to maintain altitude, then centering it as the two F-5s crossed his three-nine, a horizontal invisible line that extended out from his wings at the three o’clock and nine o’clock position.
“We’re at a disadvantage here.” Becky said, grunting to keep the oxygen flow to her head and to keep from passing out. “2 V1 and we’re the lower number.”
Animal noted as he brought the nose around that the F-5Es were already going into evasive maneuvers to try to throw him off. Executing a barrel roll to bring his nose on the trail F-5, he noted the lead make a hard left turn, “Choices, choices…” Animal quipped, straining under the g’s. If he went after the lead, he’d chance the trail bringing it around and getting on his six. If he went after the trail he’d have a snap-shot with a Sidewinder. Trail was in the kill-box. “Fox two.” he said, snapping off a Sidewinder.
No matter how much the F-5 tried, the TACTS range-master laconically commented, “Cylon 45, you are a mort.” An irritated waggle of the F-5’s wings and Animal understood. The guy had to head for the regen station.
“Now you’re mine!” Animal saw the F-5 in the distance coming in hot again.
“fifty miles, burnin’ grease!” Becky said, “Like a pig on fire. I can see it miles away.”
“Should I call up Winchester?”
“Awww, be nice…you don’t wanna make the Ivan cry.”
“Hate to divert your attention, but we got a Mosquito five o’clock low.” A Mosquito was a slow moving helo.
“If he’s low n’ slow, then I’m not gonna worry ‘bout him. Got bigger fish to fry. PASS!” The F-5 came in hot and fast as Animal broke right this time. That put his energy above what the F-5 was going at and Animal had angle-on the F-5 Tiger II. Rolling his aircraft to keep his canopy on the bandit, Animal closed in for a rolling scissors.
“Get him to bleed off energy…” Animal grunted as he and the F-5 traded positions. Watching his airspeed, Animal went in for the kill, extending and rolling back in with his nose on the F-5 for a split-second, he pulled the trigger and watched the simulated rounds track up the F-5E’s fuselage on the HUD.
Again the TACTS range master spoke, his voice like an undertaker summoning the mourners forward, “Cylon 75, you are a mort.” Animal split-s’d out of the fight knowing that he had killed the adversary and then started hunting for the Mosquito.
“I’m reading a Zulu.” Becky said, “looks like he might have, oh...shit…” she cursed.
Animal instantaneously slammed his F-14 in a series of evasive maneuvers dropping flares. Jinking left and right he lost the Sidewinder growl. “Damn...that was too damned close.” he uttered. That was no mosquito, that was a fucking porcupine! “Beccs, I’m gonna drop to cherubs 5 and use the dunes as cover.”
“I wasn’t planning spending time with rattlers today.” Becky commented laconically.
Animal dropped his nose and brought his F-14 down practically into the sand as he maneuvered the F-14 around to bring his F-14 behind the AH-1Z Cobra who didn’t realize that there was one mad F-14 coming after him. Tracking him with the HUD display, Animal set up his kill shot. “guns...guns...guns…” He said as he hit afterburner and...
yanked hard right, instantly slamming his F-14 level and yanking back on the stick and pulling up into the vertical.
“Bronco 21, you are a mort…” The jet blast had made the AH-1Z nearly bottom out as a vehement “Shit!” came over the radio.
“35 rounds left in the chamber.” Becky informed him.
“Fast Eagle 107, Range, We are essentially Winchester! RTB.” Animal radioed as he turned his F-14 towards Lemoore.
