Chapter IV
Year 5 of the reign of empress Lim-Kiririsha, 14th day of the month of Dumuzu
A couple weeks later, an OFK weapons’ shipment went out of Carchemish, headed for Harran to further supply the ALA. The smugglers took the usual route of crossing the Euphrates during the night and proceeding through the desert towards their destination. However, not even an hour into their journey over the border, they were ambushed by Assyrian soldiers, who had been tipped about this by Uktannu and his team. The weapons’ smugglers were arrested, and their wares confiscated. Now they had definitive proof that the OFK was indeed supplying the Liberation Army, as the soldiers had seen the process with their own eyes and got further confessions from the smugglers. News of this spread quickly, and the Assyrian government was informed of this development immediately, as were the other countries in the EC, including Elam in a few more days.
Following this, the civilians were informed of the OFK involvement as well, and this caused their hatred of the ALA to increase even further, and the organization lost all of its remaining public support and had no more new recruits. Some of the low-level soldiers of the ALA left as well, as they had not known of the OFK’s involvement. Many of them told what they knew to Assyrian officials in exchange for government’s pardons for them and their families, which led to Assyria gaining more information on the ALA and cracking down on their remaining bases even harder. In just a few months, the ALA lost almost 90% of its members, to defection, prison, or execution, which in total amounted to over two thousand men, more than the government could capture or kill in the previous few years combined. Naram-Eil’s identity was also revealed to the public, and his description soon became even clearer as he had been a captain in the Assyrian army before the Great Powers’ War and so some people – mostly from Nimrud and the surrounding areas, as that’s where Naram-Eil was from and so was his unit – gave more information on him to the officials. This allowed them to identify him by appearance as well as gain some insights into his personality and actions.
News travelled to the OFK countries as well, and it caused a lot of political turmoil, especially in the Commonwealth of Kemet, Kush, and Retjenu. The court officials and generals were blaming each other for allowing this to happen, investigations were being conducted on who was responsible, and solutions were being explored to put an end to this political crisis. Lim-Kiririsha even began threatening a declaration of war on the OFK, as this involvement in Assyria was considered to have been illegal according to the regulations set by the Treaty of Euphrates. It seemed like this could cause another great war between the factions, and the monarchs were being shown quickly drawn plans for the potential conflict. In an attempt to diffuse the situation, the Commonwealth pharaoh Ramesses XI sent his royal envoy Amenemheb to Susa, the capital of Elam, to meet with Lim-Kiririsha and put an end to this crisis without anyone else having to be killed.
“Greetings, empress,” Amenemheb said as he sat down on a couch across Lim-Kiririsha in one of her meeting rooms.
“Hello, Amenemheb,” she replied. “The boy pharaoh sent you to fix his mistakes again, right?”
“I assure you, he knew nothing of that operation. It was not his idea to fund the terrorists.”
“Oh, I believe that was not his idea, he is too weak to even think about something like that. But he is too weak to stop it when it is already in motion as well.”
“That’s not true. If he knew about it, I’m sure he would have stopped it.”
“Stop playing games, Amenemheb. It’s not an address to the civilians, you don’t have to lie so hard. It will be easier for both of us if you say what really happened.”
“Well…” Amenemheb sighed. “Listen, he was not much involved, I can promise you that. The generals brought this idea to him, and he hesitated…”
“But eventually approved it, right?”
“He was not informed about what it would entail. He knew nothing of Naram-Eil or anyone else in his company, and he didn’t know what would happen. He was always against these terror campaigns, bombing civilian buildings and what not. Even some generals thought it was too far. But Ramesses was busy with stabilizing Kush and containing the Libyans and dealing with other matters, and so he did not pay too much attention to this situation. It got out of hand. All this destruction wasn’t intended.”
“And what was intended then?”
“I don’t know. I really don’t. It was a top-secret KIA operation, even I don’t get full access to their files.”
“Well, in any case, someone was responsible for this, and they need to be punished for their crimes.”
“You can punish these terrorists all you want. And you’ll have Naram-Eil. What else could you want?”
“If they hadn’t been supplied, we would have been able to deal with them much earlier and avoid many deaths. Someone on your side of the Euphrates in equally responsible and so must face judgment as well.”
“We will denounce the ALA and cut all ties with it. We will investigate this situation, and the responsible actors will be punished. In our own ways.”
“That won’t do. That is simply not enough. We need them here. We need to be the ones to punish them.”
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“You already have someone in mind?”
“Of course. Your Assyrian general, Shu-Kutum. He was the mastermind behind all this, of course, wasn’t he?”
“Maybe he was. We will get to the bottom of it and we will deal with him ourselves.”
“You’re not hearing me, Amenemheb. I need him here. I need you to deliver general Shu-Kutum to us.”
“We cannot do that. You know that, it’s our policy to protect our own and not trade lives for political points.”
“You would lose many more lives if you do not comply. My armies are already being raised, and it’s not a long way to the Euphrates at all.”
“Are you threatening us, empress?”
“I’m just stating that we will not let this deed go unpunished. If you do not provide a culprit to us, you will all be held responsible, and it will be the army which will dole out the punishments.”
“You are ready to go to war for this?”
“Greater rulers have gone to wars for much less.”
“Maybe. But what would you achieve? It would be destructive for you, your whole coalition.”
“Not as much as your faction. The Mycenaeans have just elected a new wanax and it will be years before he is ready to do anything serious, the Hittites are busy campaigning in the north and still reeling from their own civil war, and Ramesses is off once again to the far west in Libya. Believe me, my advance through the Levant would be no slower than my husband’s.”
“You would have dozens of thousands of casualties. It would be extremely painful.”
“For you.”
“If you are so keen on starting another great war so soon, why allow me in here? Why not strike unexpectedly in the middle of the night, if you believe your army to be so much more prepared?”
“Well, first of all, because I’m a woman with manners, and not some barbarian. I like to do it the proper way. But also, you misunderstand me. I do not wish to have another war. I know it would be destructive for everyone involved. The economies would stagnate or collapse, cities would be razed, thousands of people would perish. I do know all of that. I don’t like war. It’s an ugly thing and far from the fantasy which the generals sell their soldiers, we both know that.”
“Yet you seemed alright with starting wars when Shilhak was in charge.”
“Shilhak had many great ideas, but sometimes he went just a bit too far. I never liked his idea of world domination too much. After all, if you have no one else left to fight, you start fighting yourself. Civil wars, revolts, and so on. I like our current situation much more. We control half the world, and you control the other half. Thus, we always have an opponent with whom we can scare our population into submission, but one which is not nearly strong enough to defeat us.”
“That’s one way to look at it.”
“It’s good for both of us. We focus on fearing each other so that we would keep stability in our home countries. That was the deal written between the lines in the Treaty of Euphrates, yet now you broke it, with your generals funding the rebels right over the border.”
“So, we want the same thing. We don’t want to fight with you, we have no need for Mesopotamia or your other lands. And I assume you don’t want ours…”
“Indeed. Hatti and Mycenae are way too barbarian for my tastes, while Egypt is too large and resilient to be held by anyone else. The Hyksos invasion some centuries ago proved that.”
“So why threaten war? Why not just let this go?”
“Because I have a reputation to uphold. I’m the queen of Elam, the empress of the Eastern Coalition. And a woman at that. My every move is being watched, and I have to act. So if you do not compensate us for this in some way, we will have to teach you a lesson. We don’t need to occupy your kingdoms, but we can easily destroy a dozen cities in the Levant and thus set your economy back by a decade. And I will do that if I am required to. You do not want to test me.”
“I know I don’t. So what else can I give you? Shu-Kutum is off limits, he is one of our best generals, the symbol of Assyrians in the OFK, and in general a very prominent and respected person. We cannot allow him to be sent over the border just so he could be tortured and executed by you.”
“I understand. Well, there are some things which I could take instead. You probably know what.”
“You want money? I suppose that could be arranged.”
“Money always helps.”
“So how much do you want to put this behind us?”
“Five hundred thousand.”
“Well, that’s-”
“Sitan.”
“Excuse me, what?”
“Five hundred thousand sitan. And it would be paid in sitan.”
“That’s a lot.”
“Your guys caused a lot of damage in Assyria. And besides, believe me, this number would seem like nothing if we invaded and began ravaging your lands.”
“I get it, you don’t need to threaten me anymore.”
“So, would you be willing to accept this deal?”
“Well, it’s a really large sum, but… it’s doable. We can arrange this.”
“It will be used for the reconstruction of Assyrian infrastructure, compensation for victims, and other similar things. Plus, a little bit more for our trouble of having to deal with this situation.”
“Right. I suppose I have to take your word for it.”
“You will see the results for yourself. But for now, yes, you do have to take my word. Just like how I have to take your word that you will deliver these payments and are not just stalling for time.”
“So is that all?”
“One more condition. You will, of course, denounce the Assyrian Liberation Army and blame one of your rogue agents for it. You don’t need to worry about that, we already have our needed culprit, now buried deep beneath Harran for a few months. He acted alone, that’s what we say. But for you to show that you are genuinely against the ALA, you need to do some work. So, you will help us hunt down the remaining terrorists and their leader. I’m sure your intel and expertise will prove to be quite useful.”
“And how would that be done?”
“You can draw them out by claiming that you want to extract them, when in reality you would get them out of hiding only to kill them all. Do that somewhere near the border in Assyria. And don’t try anything funny, our soldiers will be at the border, making sure the number of people leaving is the same as the number which arrived. Or less, if some of your people get killed during the mission.”
“Couldn’t we just draw them out and leave them to be killed by your soldiers?”
“We spent enough lives fighting the ALA. If you want to make this right, you have to start putting your faction’s ones on the line now.”
“You want us to risk our soldiers so that we would take all the casualties in this final confrontation instead of you? And, before you say it, I know, I know – there would be way more lives lost if you invaded, I got that.”
“Good. So, do you agree to this condition as well?”
“Well…”
Amenemheb took a deep sigh and thought for a few moments.
“Fine. I agree. On behalf of the Commonwealth of Kemet, Kush, and Retjenu, I accept these terms. Horus forgive me.”
“Great. Sign this, then,” she slid him a tablet with these conditions, and Amenemheb put his signature on it.
“Are we done then?”
“We are done with the treaty. But now we can celebrate. You want some wine, Amenemheb?”
“Why not. Sure, I’ll have a glass.”
A servant came into the room, gave a wine glass to Amenemheb and Lim and poured some far eastern wine for both, before setting the bottle on the table and leaving.
“To peace in our time,” Amenemheb raised his glass.
Lim raised her glass as well, “To eternal peace.”