Nastasha Romanenko

"Shove a Stinger missile up his butt!"

- Nastasha Romanenko

Nastasha Romanenko is a support character in the game Metal Gear Solid. Nastasha is agent Solid Snake's Nuclear expert from Nuclear Emergency Search Team, kept in constant contact with him via the Codec, communication device. Nastasha is highly concerned with what a Metal Gear could mean for the world as it is a mobile tank armed with Nuclear warheads and thus volunteered for the Shadow Moses Operation to retrieve/destroy Metal Gear.

Background
Nastasha Romanenko was born in the Ukrainian in 1976, At the age of ten Nastasha witnessed the Chernobyl Nuclear disaster of 1986, her parents were part of the clean-up team and would pass-away from radiation sickness four years later in 1990. Since the tragedy Nastasha has become obsessed with Nuclear power and the danger it posses, even for testing purposes in "safe" environments. Nastasha moved to the US to be checked for cancer and treated forms of Nuclear poisoning, she joined the DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency) and NSA (National Security Agency) once she was given a clean bill of health. While in the NSA she met another agent named Richard Ames, whom she fell in love with and would go on to marry. As the two disagreed over nearly every political issue including the touchy subject of Nuclear deterrents and unable to move past their disagreements after a while ended up getting divorced shortly after the marriage. Since the divorce Nastasha has resigned herself to a life alone as the only people she was likely to be romantically interested in were those smart and involved enough to have an opinion about politics but Nastasha would never be able to agree to disagree about anything involving Nuclear weapons.

In 1996 Nastasha attended the Canberra Commission on the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, in Australia as an adviser on the project and shortly after was picked up by the Nuclear Emergency Support Team as an analyst. Since then Nastasha has done all in her power to eliminate Nuclear weapons whenever possible and remanded those handling them but due to various form of red tape having to do with international policies Nastasha frequently found her hands tied.

Operation Shadow Moses
In 2005 Nastasha was brought on to a team formed by the Department Of Defense to aid an agent they were sending into an Alaskan base known as Shadow Moses. The agent's code name was "Solid Snake". While Snake had years of combat training, missions and even ties to previous missions against the war-machine known as Metal Gear, he had little to no know-how when it came to Nuclear disarmament/handling, for this Nastasha was brought on. Metal Gear had been a serious threat but with it armed with a Nuclear payload it had gone from dangerous war-machine to doomsday device, and however else Nastasha felt she would make helping deactivate the threat a top priory and thus could be trusted as a mission contact.

Nastasha is available on the codex under frequency 141.52. She is more than happy to help Snake anyway she can an regrets only being able to offer advice. Nastasha can be contacted for history lessons on Nuclear weapons, information on the logistics of what Metal Gear could do and expert information on heavy weapons. During exposure of fellow contacts with alternate agendas Nastasha is just as shocked as Snake is and both she and Snake need to alternatingly remind the other that conspiracies are a concern for another day and all that immediately matters in stopping Metal Gear.

In the Darkness of Shadow Moses
In the Metal Gear Solid II game Nastasha is mentioned by Snake and Otocan as a major financial backer of their group Philanthropy, dedicated to destroying copy Metal Gears once plans for it leaked to the internet. Other than the brief mention of Nastasha in-game she is not heard from save for a book available under the game's library feature called In the Darkness of Shadow Moses: The Unofficial Truth. The books summarizes the events that Nastasha was exposed to on and leading up to the Shadow Moses mission. The book goes into Nashtasha's view of events as the unraveled. As many of the event were classified, covered up or simply lied by officials to the public the book provided startling in-depth detail on the situation. Nastasha ended up black-mailing the book into being published by using a variety of information her ex-husband left her to keep her safety. The states, among many other things that Nastasha herself was blackmailed by Ames, or rather the shadow government known as The Patriots, whom he represented when he approached her for the Shadow Moses mission in the first place. Nastasha resented being used and given no choice but she also genuinely wanted to stop Metal Gear and so capitulated and became part of the project. Ames was certain he was to become a casualty of the Patriots soon enough and with little left to lose wanted to ensure Nastasha was safe, as such after Snakes mission Nastasha received a copy of the schismatics for Metal Gear, one no one, not even the Patriots, knew existed, assuming all other copies had been destroyed. With the data Nastasha was able to keep herself safe from retribution for the book and links to Solid Snake, but she also needed to leave her home and go into hiding. Theories on how the device described would work soon yielded working design models for Metal Gears and leaked onto the net, however with Nastasha still in possession of the original specs she is remains both a person of interest and needs to remain in hiding for her own safety. She is one of Snake's few original contacts that can not reunite with him in the game Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.

Personality
Nastasha very passionate about anything to do with Nuclear weapons and devoted to wiping them out wherever possible. She is one of the few contacts that is more aggressive than Snake but just as surprised/outraged by finding out about "friends" who were lying to them. Nastasha seems certain that Ames was either dead or set to be killed for entrusting her with his secrets and laments his assured death regardless of their disagreements. Nastasha is rightly paranoid about her safety and refuses to make public any appearances from Shadow Moses onward, he old California home was abandoned and she is likely has no longer has a permanent place of residence. When revealing her intimate background with seeing the effects of Nuclear radiation Nastasha speaks with a heavy heart, however her past only seems to strength her conviction to help Snake. Nastasha favors swift and decisive actions to resolve a situation, whether political or tactical. Ironically though she hate Nuclear weapons as a concept she is in favor of just about all other heavy explosive and in particular the Stinger Missile launcher.

Trivia

 * As both Nastasha and Ames expected he was killed by the Patriots in Metal Gear Solid 2: Guns of the Patriots.
 * Raiden states he had read In the Darkness of Shadow Moses: The Unofficial Truth and viewed it as a real eye-opener.
 * No mention of Natasha is made in games following Metal Gear Solid 2, despite the fact they Nastasha's data would be essential for any further Metal Gears.