'North of 49' Author: Hugo "Animal" Chikamori E-mail: hchikamori@yahoo.com Rating: PG-13 Classification: Webb/Other R; Harm/Mac R; Animal/Meg R Spoilers: None, except whatever comes out of Animal's demented mind... Summary: Harm and Mac and their friends end up in Nanoose Bay Weapons Range Author's note: This is a story that I've always wanted to do. Harm and Mac in Canada. :) And what better place to put them but in Nanoose Bay, that hotly contested little Canadian Armed Forces and US Navy jointly owned Navy weapons testing site in British Columbia. Captain Stephen Hanson is a true to life living, breathing person and actually is serving in the Canadian Armed Forces with the 12 Escadron de Radar. He has been a friend of mine for as long as I've known and is still one of my best friends. Disclaimers: The characters Harm Rabb, Jr., AJ Chegwidden, et al. belong in concept if not name) to CBS/Bellisarius. No profit is being made from this story, nor is any infringement intended. **************************************************************************** JAG HEADQUARTERS FALLS CHURCH, VA MAY 31, 1999 1730 ZULU "Lieutenant Commander Rabb, Major Mackenzie, a word with you..." the Admiral walked past the offices heading towards his own office. "Yes, sir." Lieutenant Harmon Rabb Jr. and Major Sarah Mackenzie replied in unison as they looked at each other wordlessly and followed Rear Admiral AJ Chegwidden into his office. "Rumor has it, that the Province of British Columbia has been seeking to strong-arm the weapons stockpiles located at the weapons facility in Nanoose Bay." Admiral Chegwidden said." It seems as though we may have an international incident on our hands. The Canadian Federal government has ordered the Nanoose Bay seabed to be annexed, but the facilities themselves are on British Columbia soil and could be annexed by the British Columbia provincial government." "Is this a legal matter, sir?" Mac asked."I would think that the State Department would have more to do with this than JAG." "Hi, Rabb...Mackenzie." came a very familiar voice. "Webb..." Harm said in disgust."What's the State Department gotten it- self into this time?" "Well, just that we need a quiet JAG investigation into the going-ons at the Nanoose Bay Weapons Facility. CINCPAC has asked for JAG's top investigators and well, your names came to the top of the list." Clayton Webb looked at Harm and Mac who had identical expressions of distaste in their eyes. He continued. "It is a Naval facility jointly governed by the Canadian Navy and the United States Navy, so hence your names were submitted to SecNav." "Defence Secretary John Weisman has asked that you see what is going on at the facility. You are to obtain the appropriate papers for travel to a foreign country. And you will be asked to register yourselves in the nearest United States Consulate for diplomatic visas which would be in Vancouver, then report to CFS (Canadian Forces Station) Jericho Beach to hop the nearest helicopter to Vancouver Island." "Oh, just lovely..." Mac said sourly. "Well, that does give us a good excuse to go visit Canada, right?" she aimed that comment sarcastically at Webb. "It just so happens that your favorite friend, the nutcase...is over in Comox for Maple Flag, right now..." Webb looked at his itinerary,"Or is scheduled to be deployed to Comox, British Columbia right now." "Well, at least we'll know someone there..." Mac sighed. Harm just groaned. VF-41 BLACK ACES SQUADRON MAIN BRIEFING ROOM MAY 31, 1999 1830 ZULU "Burrows, how many times do I have to tell you?" Commander Hugo Chikamori, callsign Animal, growled at his long-time 'friend' or more like annoyance, Lieutenant Philip 'Metalman' Burrows. "You don't shoot down a bogey...without ID'ing it and making absolutely sure it's a bandit." "But it was just a training exercise and I hadn't fired a missile in so long of a time. I was starting to get rusty." "Don't...Don't start...Burrows. When you talk, I get annoyed, and when I get annoyed, me and annoyance do not make a good combination." Animal snarled. "Just don't do it AGAIN...Understand?" "But, sir..." "Burrows, what part of N-O...don't you understand?" "Uh, the N part, or the O, I never really could get..." "Shut up, Burrows, Just shut up..." Animal shook his head and looked for something light and lethal to throw at him. "I want you to safe every thing on your aircraft. Understand? When we go to Maple Flag...I don't want anything unauthorized coming off your aircraft and that even means oil drops don't FALL off your aircraft without prior orders to the affirmative." Animal glared at him. "Yes, sir, understood, sir...would you like me to call the moving van? sir?" Metalman grinned an infuriating grin. "A moving VAN? What for?" Animal gave him an incredulous look of dis- belief. "Well, sir, you don't want falling parts and other assorted parapher- nalia falling off the aircraft so I presumed the safest method of transport for this particular aircraft would be via moving van, sir." Metalman explain- ed; he still had the aggravating grin on his face. Animal counted to ten- million, grinding his teeth. It was all he could do to keep from exploding, "Metalman...you're very ingenious in your methods of keeping the needs of the Navy ahead of your own, however in this particular case, NO. You will fly the aircraft, you will restrain yourself from accessing the trigger mechanism in your aircraft to your numerous weapons, no matter how appealing it would be or how particularly rusty you may get in your skills. The Navy and its very loyal personnel follow orders without questions, without second guessing, and no matter how much you may consider the senior officers to be cluster-fucked idiots, you will follow orders to the letter, do you under- stand what I am trying to tell you or is this floating past your ear-drums at a very rapid rate without appropriate comprehension?" Animal said amiably, the calm visage belied the fact that at any particular moment, the young commander could explode. "Is this a multiple-choice question?" Metalman blinked. "I said, do you understand what I am saying, you little INSIGNIFICANT WORM!!!" Animal growled. "JUST SHUT UP AND DON'T TOUCH THE FIRING MECHANISM ON YOUR WEAPONS IN YOUR AIRCRAFT!!!" Animal thundered. "Yes, sir..." Metalman knew automatically, that he had pushed the commander as far as was tolerated by the commander. Any more aggravation and Animal would quite possibly demote him for insubordination. "And wipe that damned grin off your face. I'm getting sick and tired of looking at it." "Uh, one question...sir." Metalman asked. Animal cringed inwardly as he said... "What is it...Burrows." It was more a tired statement than a question as if he didn't want to hear the question (which he really didn't, but that's besides the point). "When are we supposed to be at Maple Flag, sir?" Metalman asked. Animal sighed in relief. Sometimes it was aggravating to have a conversation with this particular imbecile. "In two days. We leave to- morrow at 1000 ZULU." "How many of us are going?" Metalman thought to ask. "6 crews including you, myself, Maverick, Kimber, Iceman and Wolf and our RIOs. Does that answer your question?" Animal said. "Yes, sir..." "Dismissed." Metalman nodded, and about-faced to exit the room. Animal growled, "Hey, Metalman..." "Yes, sir..." "When we get to Maple Flag..." "Uh, sir?" "Kick some ass up there..." Metalman was the next best pilot to Animal in the fleet. {AN: "Sorry, geez, just give my character a little credit... he's a MiG Killer...[shot down 20 aircraft -OK...imagination is getting away on me, but who cares...right?] and yes...the character is a hotter pilot than Harm...and Keeter, No way? YES WAY...} Metalman grinned,"Yes, sir..." VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA CANADA JUNE 1, 1999 2030 ZULU 1230 PST (PACIFIC STANDARD TIME) Harm and Mac collected their luggage at the ground floor International Arrivals Level and immediately headed for a taxi when a man in a suit stop- ped them with a "Lieutenant Commander Rabb, Major Mackenzie." Many people had stopped to stare as United States Navy and Marine Corps uniforms were uncommon in Canada. "Yes..." Harm and Mac turned to face the hailer. The man looked like a non-descript diplomat. Owlish features and a sharp beakish nose completed the picture of a ground-hugging boot-licking diplomat, whereas that notion was quickly dispelled by the grin that the diplomat displayed. "Lieutenant Commander, Major, I hope that you had a nice flight. I'm Chris Medley...with the United States Consulate in Vancouver. We have a ride for you over to the Consulate building. Your visas are being processed by the Canadian Consul and should be approved by this evening. Did you happen to see the sights in Vancouver?" "Sorry, never been here before." Mac said. "The closest I've ever been to Vancouver is to Bremerton." Harm said," That was during a naval investigation." "I know..." Mac said,"Kate and Meg told me about it. I don't think you ever want to get close to one of those suit-case bombs again...do you." Harm snorted. "Yeah...whenever I feel the urge to end up becoming a lantern without lightbulbs required, I'll think about visiting Bremerton again." The drive to the United States Consulate on West Pender Street was very quiet, but scenic, if one called going up Granville Street with 6 lanes of traffic and numerous buildings scenic. Mac grinned,"So, did Animal ever tell you about Vancouver?" "Hmmm, not much. Just that he was happy that he was in the States and a US Naval Aviator. I guess he doesn't reminisce much about this place any more. Don't know why, it's pretty nice." Harm thought glancing up at the tall buildings. "There are nice places around here..." the consulate bureaucrat stated as he mentioned Mission, Maple Ridge, Pitt Meadows, Ruskin."This is urban sprawl, but when you get out into Maple Ridge-Mission area, it's lovely rural countryside." "Maybe we should get Animal and Metalman to show us around some of the places that they've been." Harm suggested."Of course after we finish up this investigation and after they finish up with Maple Flag." Mac sighed, the countryside was an especially heart-warming view for her. After years of living in the city and rarely getting a chance to go for a real honest-to-goodness vacation in a rural setting, it would be panacea for the soul. The plain-clothed Marine security at the consulate was a stark con- trast to the uniformed guards at the different embassies around the world. In any case, this was symbolic of how relaxed the consulate was around Vancouver. Harm and Mac's uniforms were sharp contrast to the comfortable atmosphere that pervaded over the United States Consulate. The Head of the Consulate welcomed them to a private office,"Well, as you can see, the British Columbians seem to feel that any warship of the United States Navy carrying nuclear weapons in this area is a violation of their nuclear-weapons free zone. Now, we all know that the Nanoose Bay Weapons Testing Range is a jointly governed military installation. Both the Canadian Armed Forces and the United States Navy use the installation to test their conventional weapons. We have clearance to test our SUBROC and ASROC nuclear tipped anti-submarine stand-off weapons system, however, we do not like to test them here due to the diplomatic fallout that would more than likely happen." "Do you still test them with conventional warheads?" Mac asked. "Yes, we do. We still have the Mk. 46 homing torpedo. Which we have used on numerous dummy submarine targets that we have planted along the Strait of Georgia seabed. We have had relative success with the warhead, but lately we have been having more and more demonstrators in rubber dinghys stray purposely into the testing site and we have had to tighten security at the range." "How have you usually tried to keep the demonstrators from entering the restricted area?" Harm queried the Consulate officer. "We've usually kept them out by megaphone. But they are starting to get braver and venture in between patrols. We have asked however for a test of a W55 warhead in the area..." "Which is...?" Mac looked at the Consulate officer sharply. "A nuclear tipped depth bomb, which we are planning on testing." "And what is it's yield?" Harm asked. "It's a 1 kiloton weapon." Harm and Mac looked blankly. The diplomatic officer continued,"It has a destructive range of over 8 miles." "And how wide is the Strait of Georgia..." Harm asked another probing question. "It's about 50 miles." the diplomatic officer replied. "So, you're planning on irradiating about 1/6th of the width of the Strait of Georgia." Mac said,"I don't blame the British Columbites for get- ting ticked off." "Columbians..." Harm said. "Excuse me?" Mac asked. "British Columbians." Harm replied."That's what residents here are called." "Oh..." Mac said."Really..." she gave Harm a sarcastic look as if to say,'Alright smartey-pants.' "Yes, really..." Harm grinned at Mac." So, sir..." he returned his gaze to the diplomatic officer,"what would you like us to do." "I'd like you to go over to Nanoose Bay and find out what is going on over there. I've heard some strange going ons over there and I'd like to know what the heck is going on." the diplomatic officer said. "And who do we report back to." "Me...I'm Cliff Menzies with the Foreign Service." the man stated perfunctorily. "And now, Lieutenant Commander and Major...I believe you two have a hotel room to stay in and your diplomatic visas should be approved by morning. You'll be catching a UH-1 Helo over at CFS Jericho Beach. Enjoy your stay in Canada." NANOOSE BAY NAVAL TESTING RANGE NANOOSE BAY, BC, CANADA 0325 ZULU Canadian Armed Forces Navy Sub-Lieutenant Mark Myers grinned as he looked over the latest supply sheets. The US Navy was bringing in an SUBROC W55 warhead. Which meant that security was to be tightened up at the Naval Testing Range facility. After 10 years of being in the Canadian Armed Forces Sub-LT. Myers wanted out. He hadn't had an exceptional conduct record but that still didn't keep him from being refused his resignation until 15 years service was completed. He was locked in. His friends in the military were feeling the same way. After 10 years of service, the Canadian Armed Forces should be able to let him go. But they had insisted that he serve out his full term of service. This new wrinkle in his desire to get out left him embittered and grasping at straws on how he could be induced to leave the service early. Sub-Lt. Myers looked over the spec sheets of the SUBROC weapon. The SUBROC was a depth bomb, but it also had a remote detonator which meant that it would possibly be able to be remotely detonated, depending on what the safe mechanism would be. He had been waiting for just the right opportunity. He knew that the yield on the weapon was 1 kiloton, and had a surface blast radius of 4 miles. The diameter of the devastation would be at least 8 miles if used underwater. He picked up the phone,"This is Sub-Lieutenant Myers, I'd like to have Master Corporal Severn, CPO 2nd Class O'Grady, and Master Seaman Davids in my office immediately." "Yes, sir." the assistant said. A FEW MINUTES LATER As the ranks filed in, Sub-Lieutenant Myers growled, "I want you to shut the door." "Yes, sir." CPO O'Grady said as he hastened to comply. "This is classified information. The Americans have decided to test- detonate a W55 warhead on a SUBROC in the Strait of Georgia. I want you to keep your eyes and ears open. I want to grab that weapon. It's a chance that we won't get. Gentlemen, our retirement investment is here..." VIRGIN RECORDS BURRARD STREET VANCOUVER, BC CANADA 2245 ZULU Harm and Mac, almost bored out of their minds, trudged wearily through the enormous record shop, as they awaited confirmation that their diplomatic visas were approved. "You know. I've never been in a Virgin Records store until now." Mac observed dryly as she looked at the three levels located in the store. "Movies upon movies, CDs upon CDs...how many more items can they cram into a store?" "I don't know, any more and they wouldn't have space to move around." Harm muttered as he stepped around a pair of Japanese exchange students who were busy discussing in loud Japanese about how good a particular movie was or whatever the heck that they were talking about. Their backpacks seemed to extend into the aisle and block about three quarters of it. "Excuse me." he said as he slipped past. "What time is it..." Harm thought to ask. "2250 and 14 seconds ZULU, 2:50 Pacific Standard time, now 21 seconds ..." Mac replied instantaneously. "Did I ever tell you that you could possibly work for a automatic time retrieval service?" Harm quipped."Once you get out of the Marine Corps, that is." Mac grinned at him, and said in mock-shock, "Now why would I do a thing like that? Get out of the Marine Corps, that is." "Just some weird musings..." Harm admitted. "Once a Marine, always a Marine, Harm." Mac replied as she picked up a video on Guadalcanal. Mac's cell-phone rang. Eyeing it she saw the ROAM feature on. 'Sur- prise that it even worked.' she thought. "Major Mackenzie." she said. "Major Mackenzie." Senior Diplomat Cliff Menzies' voice was clear though the cellular connection. Ah the wonder of electronics. Menzies did not elaborate other than to say,"Your diplomatic visas have been approved." "Great..." Mac said, and hung up. "At least we can now get out of here." she said. Harm and Mac found the escalator and headed up to the main floor of the Virgin Records store. Finding the Burrard Street exit, they hailed a north bound taxi to the US Consulate. 2320 ZULU Upon retrieval of their diplomatic visas, they headed towards CFS Jericho Beach. This was in the West Side of Vancouver near the University of British Columbia. The diplomatic envoy's vehicle stopped in front of the green and white building of the Canadian Armed Forces Station and let them off. The Canadian Armed Forces Jericho Beach detachment was a small base with about a thousand personnel. It was even very lightly guarded. Anyone could get on base and off without being hailed or stopped. Harm just shook his head. Security was very lax in Canada. If one tried to get onto a military installation in the United States, one got one or two hails almost immediate- ly and if one didn't stop, they got a 5.56 steeljacketed round between the second and third ribs on the left side. Harm and Mac walked up to the front desk. "Lieutenant Commander Harmon Rabb Jr, and Major Sarah Mackenzie, US Navy/Marine Corps JAG." Harm and Mac flipped out their IDs at the officer at the front desk. "Yes, sir." the Master Corporal at the desk replied as he punched a button on a telephone,"Sir? Two JAG officers are here to see you." "Yes, I know...The US Consulate advised me, send them in." "Commander Rabb?" "Yes..." "Captain Hanson will see you now." Harm and Mac were ushered into a room where a man sitting down in a desk wearing a light blue Canadian Armed Forces shirt and a greyish-blue set of pants sat. The shirt was offset by blue epaulets with two gold braids on each along with the requisite gold embroidered 'CANADA' lettering. The man had an aquiline nose and dark brown eyes, and his black hair was cut short and was slicked in a casual way across his head. His uniform was kept crisp and neat and there was an air of professionalism about him that Mac instant- ly detected. "Captain Stephen Hanson, I presume?" Mac asked. "Yes, Ma'am." Captain Hanson said,"We have a Huey ready to take you to Nanoose Bay...the pilot should be warming up the engine right now. I pre- sume the United States Navy sent you here to figure out what was going on? Ma'am." "Yes, Captain." Harm replied this time for Mac who was busy looking at the numerous paintings of Canadian Armed Forces aircraft depicted on the wall. "They did..." "Well, isn't that just great." Captain Hanson grinned,"Well, the De- partment of Defense just asked me to be your guide. We'll be catching that Huey very shortly so I hope you have your gear packed and ready. Nanoose is not really that suited for dress blues and all that. Hopefully you have your khakis in a separate bag. We can lock up your gear over here." Harm didn't really care for that idea, but given the fact that cond- itions over in Nanoose Bay would probably not do good things to his uniforms, he reluctantly acquiesced, handing his uniform bags containing his other uniforms to the Master Corporal who had miraculously appeared out of thin air. HELICOPTER PAD JERICHO BEACH DETACHMENT JERICHO BEACH, KITSILANO VANCOUVER, BC CANADA 0015 ZULU "This is Lieutenant Pete Burns..." Captain Stephen Hanson yelled over the noise of the rotors turning."He'll be flying us over to the Nanoose Bay Weapons Testing Facility." "Great..." muttered Harm,"Did I ever tell you that I hate helicopters ?" he muttered to Mac. "C'mon Harm, Let's go." "Give me a F-14 anyday." complained Harm as he reluctantly got into the UH-1 (AN: I don't know the C.A.F. designation for these Hueys so BIG DEAL. When I find out, I'll write it in.) The helicopter lifted off as soon as Capt. Hanson sat down. CANADIAN FORCES BASE COMOX COMOX BC, CANADA 0015 ZULU "Fast Eagle 101, Comox Approach, VFR landing clearance Runway 2-9." Animal radioed, clipping his MBU-12 to his HGU-33/P flight helmet. "Roger that, Fast Eagle 101, Say your type?" "Roger, Fox One Four." "Welcome to Comox, Fast Eagle 101...Cleared for runway 2-9" came the reply. Metalman was flying 'welded wing' all the way in. The two Tomcats touched down almost simultaneously. The six F-14s, once on the ground, taxied over to the main tarmac and shut down. They were instantly eyeballed by a bunch of Canadian CF-18 Hornet jockeys. "Say, dose are a nice set of wheels." the lead CF-18 jockey by the name of Captain Lucien DeLarme, who had a slight Quebec tinged accent. "Thanks." Animal said as he walked by accompanied by his fellow F-14 pilots. "Mebbe, we could, buy a flight in one of dose Tomcats..." Capt. De- Larme asked. "Yeah...how much you got?" Metalman retorted. "Er...15 do-llars..." The Canadian Forces fellows hooted with derision. Animal turned to them and said,"Sorry, If you had 2 million, then we might be able to start talking. But 15 bucks, sorry, save it and go buy yourselves a Labatts Blue..." he still remembered that much. He preferred Coors. "You know that we know Canadian terrain a lot better than you Yankees ." One of the others grinned."Heck, I flew with the Snowbirds. Nothing beats flying over Cold Lake, inverted." "How about in-to Cold Lake, inverted..." snorted Kimber. Metalman snorted,"They know Canadian terrain...Ha ha ha...I'd hope so." He snickered at Maverick,"Nothing like a farmer's wife waking up in the mornin' to find a stray CF-18 in her back yard...'uh, say, do you know which way Cold Lake, Alberta is...EH?'" "Hardy har har, Yankee...we're gonna kick your asses." the Canadian CF-18 pilot replied. Animal grinned ferally at the Canadian fighter jock,"We'll see...about that, won't we?" he shot the Canadian fighter pilot a harsh look. It was just about that time that the Canadian fighter pilots noticed the silver embroidered oak leaves on the shoulders of his flight suit, and their brains equated the silver oak leaves with 'Commander'. Their combined looks were comical as they stood up straight. "Sorry, sir." they chimed as they stood at attention. "As you were..." Animal said, used to the fact that no-one seemed to take him seriously as a commander. He was young for the rank but he didn't mind. He kept a tight squadron. Such was the tradition of the Black Aces. As the first F-14 squadron to get kills, the onus was on them to keep up the standard of excellence. The Canadian pilots were no pushovers, and hence the U.S. Navy sent their best squadron to compete against them. As did the USAF with their 555th FS now flying the F-16Cs. The US Marines sent the VMFA-314 Black Knights with their F/A-18Cs. This would be an all out mock war. No holds barred. Animal knew that they would be flying from Comox to Cold Lake. The engagements would take place over Cold Lake, but it would make it seem like a carrier air strike, if they departed from Comox every day of the Maple Flag contest. The Aggressors were to be based at CFB Cold Lake. The other aircraft of Blue Force were to be based at CFB Comox. **********TO BE CONTINUED********