Middle Eastern tyrants

Chapter 2 Nukoshir Outpost

"Damn, my head is a little fuzzy from the fall."

Lu Lin pretended to be dizzy and had tinnitus, and said somewhat angrily.

“Maybe you’re terrified, Amir,” Lieutenant Khalid said understandingly. “My mind is a mess right now too. It’s a miracle we survived the Zionians.”

Lu Lin looked somewhat embarrassed. Just then, a small black dot flew towards them from the sky.

"Air strike!"

Someone shouted something out of nowhere, and the already nervous refugees collapsed onto the ground again in a chaotic mass.

Lu Lin's nerves tensed up instantly. He had initially thought that the Phantom III had returned, but soon he realized that he had been worrying for nothing.

Because the small black dot was moving quite fast, it quickly approached from afar and turned out to be a falcon. It circled above the crowd for a while before locking onto its target.

"That's your eagle!"

Lieutenant Khalid called out in a low voice.

Upon seeing Lu Lin, the falcon flapped its wings and landed. Lu Lin stretched out his arm, and the majestic "fighter jet" found its landing pad, its thick claws firmly gripping his forearm.

The falcon has smooth, full feathers that shimmer in the sunlight. It has an extremely long wingspan, a sharp beak, and streamlined wings, making it look young and strong.

At this moment, it was staring intently at Lu Lin with its amber eyes, and uttered a call that was difficult to understand.

Then he started using his beak to pull off the mask wrapped around his face.

Lu Lin originally wanted to stop the silly bird's actions. He reached out and slapped the falcon's head, but the moment he made contact, his vision spun, and then a bird's head and the face of a young Arab man appeared in front of him at the same time.

This left Lu Lin somewhat bewildered, but as his body movements matched his vision, he quickly realized that the Arab man in front of him was himself, and then it dawned on him:
"Am I sharing vision with this falcon?"

Lu Lin was shocked. Had he transmigrated into Assassin's Creed Odyssey? And inherited Cassandra's abilities?

The visual dizziness made him slightly uncomfortable, so he closed his eyes and saw a line of words in the lower left of the falcon's field of vision—Enzidu, which he guessed was the bird's name.

Is this eagle called Nzidu?
Then who am I, Gilgamesh?
He mentally grumbled as the falcon ripped the cloth off his face and started pulling his hair. Lu Lin's eyelids twitched in pain as he spoke:

"Stop, Enzidu!"

Exiting visual sharing only requires a thought. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that Lieutenant Khalid's expression had become much more normal, and he thought to himself, "As expected, that's the name of that idiot."

But the falcon didn't stop, continuing to peck at his hair with strange cries.

"hiss--"

“It’s probably angry, since we didn’t take it with us this morning to avoid revealing our whereabouts,” Khalid interjected. “You might have forgotten to feed it. Maybe we can buy some meat from these refugees to feed it.”

"It only eats fresh meat, not dried food or jerky."

Lu Lin clearly understood what the silly bird meant and said helplessly, "We have to set off now so that I can save my hair."

Seeing that more and more refugees were looking at them, the two did not delay any longer and quickly returned to the camp.

At 14:30, Lu Lin returned to the Nukoshir outpost, which is known in Arabic as the "Palm Guardian".

Thanks to his memory of the direction the silly bird had flown from, he was able to deduce the way back and avoid further embarrassment in front of Lieutenant Khalid.

Several M3 fully tracked troop carriers were parked around, with M55 quadruple 12.7mm machine guns mounted on them. These troop carriers, produced by the United States, were widely used by the Allied forces during World War II. Initially, the M3 was a half-tracked model, but logistics found that this design had too high a failure rate, so it was changed to a full tracked model. After World War II, the United States sold the vehicles to Shuangzhi and other Middle Eastern countries.

(M3 half-track version)

This should be considered one of the few practical items that the Shuangzhi royal family bought from the United States at a high price.

The M3's full-track design is well-suited to desert environments, making it less likely to get stuck in the sand. It can also be used as a tow truck when necessary, transporting more than a dozen soldiers at a time, making it at least more useful than camels.

At that moment, a group of soldiers were hiding in the shadows of the vehicle, smoking and chatting. When they saw Lu Lin and Khalid return empty-handed, some of them started jeering:
"What's going on, little Amir? Didn't you discuss this with your eagle?"

"Perhaps he forgot to remove the eagle's blindfold."

The others burst into laughter upon hearing this.

Lu Lin ignored them and walked past the soldiers with a stern face. The soldiers assumed he was in a bad mood because he hadn't caught any prey and continued smoking and chatting.

He walked into the command post, where he was greeted by a middle-aged man wearing a red beret and a sallow military uniform. Upon seeing Lu Lin return, the man merely glanced at the latter before speaking:

"Our hawk-walking major is back. How was the day's haul?"

Lu Lin noticed the two gold horizontal bars and two small silver stars on the other person's shoulders, indicating that the other person was two levels lower than him. So, he decided to take the initiative and see if he could get away with it:

"I encountered a Zion Mirage III during my patrol. The enemy has violated our airspace. I request that this situation be reported to headquarters immediately."

The middle-aged man's expression was slightly surprised, as if he were taking him seriously: "If you're talking about the one from four hours ago—yes, it flew right over our heads." Judging from the man's tone, he probably didn't care about him deserting, or perhaps he simply thought he had gone to falconry, which relieved Lu Lin.

It seems I don't have to worry about being sent to a military court and executed.

However, he then recalled how he had almost been blown to pieces a few hours earlier, and frowned, saying, "So we're just going to let them get away like this?"

The man retorted, "Then what do you want to do? Are you going to use our Bofors anti-aircraft guns and M55 machine guns? Those are second-generation supersonic fighter jets; a slight tremor from the pilot could send our sights flying into the sky!"

Lu Lin suddenly remembered that modern Saudi Arabia was in the early stages of military transformation, with relatively weak overall strength, mainly consisting of lightly armed troops and a "symbolic" air force, and the troops were also filled with aristocratic young masters.

It can be said that they lack both equipment and discipline.

He himself is a typical example.

The middle-aged man seemed to realize that he had been somewhat disrespectful to his superior, and softened his tone: "I have already reported the specific situation. The instructions from headquarters are for you to continue your mission of resettling the refugees and wait for Tabuk's mobile armored forces to join us. At that time, you can return to the rear."

Lu Lin nodded, thinking to himself that it was good to be able to return to the rear, and then asked:
"Who is the highest-ranking military officer in this camp now?"

The middle-aged man looked slightly surprised, then replied, "Theoretically, we are now under the jurisdiction of Major General Talal, a high-ranking official in the border region, but you are the highest-ranking officer in the camp at this border post."

Lu Lin said, "I need a list that includes the armed forces and personnel configuration of the outposts."

The middle-aged man was even more surprised: "Huh? Why are you suddenly interested in military affairs?"

Lu Lin didn't speak. He had managed troops before, and he simply told the man what to do with his eyes.

So the middle-aged man put down what he was doing and said, "Okay, I'll find the list you need first."

But Lu Lin actually just wanted to figure out the time and place, and ideally, to know which historical point he was in.

While the man was looking through the list, Lu Lin checked the documents on the desktop and saw the name "Ahmed" in the signature area. He then remembered that it was the middle-aged man's name.

A moment later, Ahmed returned: "This is the outpost's internal report. I don't know what you're here for, but take a look."

Lu Lin glanced at the list and saw that his own name was at the top of the list.

"Major Amir bin Mohammed bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Operations Commander of the 3rd Regiment, 1st Armored Division of the Royal Army of the Sangha."

Next to him was a photo of a young man, which matched his impression of a Middle Eastern prince.

And he was indeed the highest-ranking military officer at this outpost.

Including logistics personnel, the entire outpost has more than 200 soldiers. In addition to the usual personnel and weapons, they also have two mortars.

As Lu Lin turned to the last few thin pages, he couldn't help but say, "That's all? We're an armored force on the border!"

"That's because our mission is to resettle refugees."

Ahmed was losing his patience: "Generally speaking, it would be enough to place refugees with machine guns as a deterrent. The fact that we have two mortars is because of your father's special consideration."

My father?
Lu Lin was curious about his own identity.
Could he really be a prince?
When will Tabuk's armored forces arrive?

"It will take at least two days."

Lu Lin walked to the huge map hanging on the wall. They were now at the northernmost outpost in the Tabuk region, which bordered the Kingdom of Hashim and Zion to the north. It was an important node in the Twin Will Desert defense system.

He quickly memorized this information. Just then, a guard entered and saluted Ahmed, saying:

"Lieutenant, there's an officer among the refugees who escaped from Hashim. He claims to be a captain from the Military Intelligence Bureau and says he has important intelligence about Zion!"

"Attention!" Ahmed frowned, then said, "Major Amir is here. Remember to salute your highest-ranking officer first!"

The guard was taken aback: "Uh? Didn't the major say that you were in charge of all affairs at the sentry post?"

Ahmed glared at the guard, then said to Lu Lin, "The other party is an officer from the Hashim Intelligence Bureau. You should go and take a look, Major."

In front of outsiders, he even added honorifics.

Lu Lin noticed this detail, and recalling his own playboy status, he figured that this veteran was probably sent to be his nanny.

In terms of his career, this guy is quite unlucky.

He also became interested in the guards. What he needed most right now was all kinds of information and intelligence, and he didn't expect them to come to him on their own initiative.

He was just about to agree when he suddenly realized he knew nothing about it and was afraid of revealing his ignorance, so he asked, "What questions should I ask?"

Ahmed paused for a moment, then said, "I don't know either. You can ask me."

Lu Lin was relieved after hearing this and nodded:
"Then let me go see this captain from the Military Intelligence Bureau."

(End of this chapter)