Chapter V
Year 5 of the reign of empress Lim-Kiririsha, 9th day of the month of Abu
Naram-Eil and his remaining adherents in the Assyrian Liberation Army, around three hundred of them in total, were on their way to flee Assyria. They had been informed by the KIA that an extraction team was awaiting them at the Hittite-Assyrian border, and so, seeing that the EC was closing in on the ALA, Naram agreed to leave the country under the protection of the Egyptians. He gathered his remaining loyalists, though not all of them, as some had been left as bait for the Assyrian authorities, and headed west, through the lightly patrolled desert region in northern Assyria, near the Kingdom of Lullubum.
At the start of the month of Abu, they had passed Harran and continued moving northwest, to the agreed to meeting point with the KIA. Eventually, they reached a mountainous area, through which they had to pass to finally leave the country. This was rough terrain, but the Assyrians agreed to take this route, as they had been told that the more southernly crossing point, one on more equal terrain, was more highly patrolled. Many of these travelers were somewhat suspicious, but Naram assured them that the KIA would honor their deal and extract them to Egypt, where they could enjoy a quiet retirement with no repercussions for their actions during the prior years in Assyria. Thus, everyone continued on, knowing that turning back to Assyria would lead them to a much worse fate anyways.
In the morning of the 9th day, after packing up their camp, they began their supposed final day of the trek and finally saw the end of the pass, as it led to a small clearing where a few dozen men and women, most armed like the Commonwealth operatives, were waiting for them.
“Greetings, my good friends!” Naram-Eil proclaimed to them. “I am very glad to see you here. However, I did not expect the KIA to send so many agents to lead us out. The pharaoh must really care about this operation, huh…”
“He really does, you know. Just not in the way you had hoped,” one of the men stepped forth and said.
“What do you mean? And where is Antef? He was the one writing to us, I expected that he would meet us.”
“Antef is, unfortunately, no longer with us.”
“Is he dead?”
“This line of work has its risks.”
“Huh, I didn’t know he got killed. But that means… No, no, wait…”
A group of agents emerged behind the Assyrians, blocking their path back now as well.
“What? What is the meaning of this? Who are you?” Naram-Eil said frantically as he began drawing his sword.
“I am commander Rashaken of the Kemet Intelligence Agency. And these are some of the agents under my command. Here, in front of you, behind you, above you, everywhere around you.”
“This was not an extraction operation, was it?”
“I’m afraid not, Naram.”
“Fuck! Fuck, fuck, fuck! Why have you forsaken us like this, Ashur?!”
The Assyrian soldiers drew their swords and awaited a command from Naram-Eil.
“I wouldn’t advise doing that,” Rashaken said. “There are a few hundred Assyrian and Hittite soldiers behind us. We were just sent to intercept you first, since we caused this mess, so it was decided that we should take care of it.”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
“Why did you betray us? Why did you yield to these degenerates?” Naram shouted.
“That is not for me to answer. I just execute the missions I’ve been given, nothing more. But I can’t say I disagree with the authorities above me on this occasion.”
“Surely we can come to some kind of agreement, right? We don’t have to go to Egypt, we can go to Hatti, or even some uncivilized land in the north. Just let us pass and we will take care of the rest ourselves.”
“That will not be possible.”
“I can pay you! I’ll give you everything I have!”
“You don’t have anything anymore. All your accounts have been frozen, all your properties confiscated. You have nothing, major.”
“I don’t want to die, man! Fuck this, I don’t give a shit about Assyria enough to die like this. Please, just let me go and I’ll give no further trouble to anyone! Shit, you can even take the others, just let me go alone. I’m sure no one will notice, right?”
“No, Naram, your body will have to be delivered as well. There’s no escape this time.”
“I can’t believe my life has come to this… Gods! Gods, please save me! I beg you! Please, don’t let me die like this! Please!” Naram screamed.
“You have sown the wind, and you shall reap the whirlwind.”
On this command, the agents pointed their guns at the Assyrians, from both sides of the pass as well as from above, and fired them. Tens of Assyrians were killed immediately and fell on each other in the cramped space. The remaining ones tried to charge the Egyptians to break through, but they were blocked by the dead bodies, and in a couple moments the Egyptians had reloaded and fired another salvo. Another followed shortly afterwards. By the seventh one, there was no one left standing in the pass, and so the agents holstered their guns. A few went through the pass with some spears, stabbing the dead bodies to make sure no one had survived. After this was confirmed, the agents left the area, going back to Hatti and leaving the bodies for the Eastern Coalition’s soldiers to collect.
“Oh, hey there, Uk!” Yawbail Nirari, an ECSS agent who had led a team investigating a potential ALA connection with the Lullubi, said as he saw Uktannu Kuttimu in one of the bars in Ashur and sat down next to him.
“Yaw. Didn’t expect to see you here,” Uktannu took a gulp of his beer.
“How’s it going, man?”
“It’s alright. You know how it is.”
“Oh, sure. So, you still fucking Nidintu, right?”
“And you’re still fucking the cheapest whores in town?”
“Hey, they are far from the cheapest. I can afford a lot more now.”
“I’m glad to hear that.”
“Anyways, what are you doing here?”
“What do you think? I’m working, dealing with some paperwork, you know. I assume you too?”
“Yeah, some boring ass shit like this. They are really keen on keeping us here for as long as possible, it seems.”
“Well, what can you do, can’t spend all the time cutting off fingers and beating prisoners to death.”
“That’s true. Did you see that display of bodies in the city yesterday? They really got all who remained of the ALA by the looks of it.”
“I believe that. Good thing we finally got rid of those nasty motherfuckers,” Uktannu finished his beer.
“Yeah. But still, like, that’s it? The OFK is still standing, and nothing happened to them. I think we should have given them a good old-fashioned beating as well, if you ask me.”
“Good thing no one is asking you on these matters.”
“Oh, come on, man. Don’t you believe in justice?”
“We have justice. The terrorists are all dealt with. And the OFK helped us find their leader and dispose of him. Plus they sent some gold. Seems like a pretty decent deal to me.”
“You sound like an executive of some Babylonian conglomerate now. Is it all just a matter of money to you? Don’t you put value on anything else?”
“The ALA were killing people, so we put an end to that, and finding out that the OFK was helping them made sure that the terrorists stopped receiving any support and were completely cut off. Starting another Levantine campaign and razing cities there, not to mention starting another great war, isn’t much of a solution, especially now that the problem is nonexistent as well.”
“But come on, man, really. You were the one investigating the OFK connection, right? Don’t you want more to be done? Don’t you want your work to have been more important? You could have become a renowned hero who started to make things right, and now you will be a footnote in history, if even that.”
“That is fine by me. And I am comfortable with what my work has led to. If you want to take part in a war, you joined the wrong department. Try the army instead, I’m sure they have plenty of barbarians for you to fight,” Uktannu stood up to leave. “But let me give you a tip, Yaw. Don’t bet on any major wars starting anytime soon. Not in our lives, not in the lives of the current rulers. These are different times, and you better get used to them.”