Our great offensive on the Central Front has ended in failure, yet our military in general is not badly demoralized because we have been making steady and very substantial progress on the Western Front instead. Most definitely, the Kotorei River gamble caused us a horrible loss of both living and inanimate resources, and there cannot possibly be another attempt before mid-autumn. Our river-crossing units have been badly mauled, our combat engineers have incurred as a whole absolutely horrifying casualties due to their deployments on two fronts, and a hideous amount of ammunition was expended for rather little effect along the river. However, we have succeeded in catching the Wesitarians by surprise on the Western Front with the assistance of Likuria, and even now we continue to advance. As painful as our defeat in the Center was, our overrunning of defensive lines and encirclements of garrisons close to Kalobol would not have been possible had the enemy been so distracted and fearful of a breakthrough. Our people can savor victory somewhere rather than contemplate only defeat. As the one ultimately responsible for prosecuting this war, this consolation is at least as important to me as it is to the common soldier on the frontlines.

I was able to depart Kaleusthes on the morning of the 29th during a lull in the bombardment, hopping on a specialized shuttlecraft the moment we saw a 10-minute window and arriving at Mirukan's Supreme HQ as quickly as was practicable. My faithful and diligent Perredine had taken over in my stead and made whatever decisions he needed to which couldn't await my return, and reassured various officers while not making a  public spectacle of the ordeal. Kaleusthes continued to have problems with communications over the next few days, the task of restoration made no easier by the enemy's persistent bombardment. However, unlike in March, the archipelago was extremely well fortified and prepared to resist the assaults, and thus the destruction to the facilities was far less substantial. The garrison finally succeeded in restoring the primary arrays on 31 May, and then reinforced the system on 1 June so that it wouldn't likely be knocked offline again. This was a well timed reversal, as we would need the base to be fully operational to support offensive operations of our own.

Our offensive over the Kotorei River continued to stagnate. Our forces had to adopt a defensive posture while they awaited resupply and reinforcement, which was extremely difficult due to the limited number of bridges and the enemy's prudent fixation on said bridges. Our combat engineers had restored underground facilities which were sabotaged or necessarily rendered inaccessible by our own forces as quickly as they could. They incurred appallingly high losses operating in such bitterly contested areas for so long, sometimes having to work above ground initially to make the subterranean defenses serviceable. However, their extraordinarily hazardous efforts allowed many more of our field infantry units to shelter in Bengarian-constructed fortifications than would have been possible in the same space of time, granting them invaluable resistance to the incessant bombardments and counterattacks.

This seemingly useless bloodshed and misery on the Central Front was causing forces on the two adjacent fronts, especially our naval and marine forces, to become increasingly agitated and desirous of assisting. Despite Perredine's discretion, me being entrapped in our own primary naval base quickly became common knowledge in the military, and my predicament actually engendered indignation within the ranks. They were upset at my ordeal (I suppose delicate prancers enjoy that response more than average), they were upset at the terrible sacrifices their comrades were making across this damned river, and they were upset they were just watching all of it. Our naval and marine officers started to clamor for SOMETHING to be done in the Western Front even if it wouldn't directly help the Center. I and other senior personnel told them we were logistically and industrially badly strained right now trying to hold our bridgeheads at Kotorei, and that temperatures were becoming highly dangerous to our zooanthro and even our human soldiers, and the general response to these reservations from those branches was essentially, "Fuck the supply shortages and heat! We want to get involved, and we want to get involved NOW!". Even Marshal Kepler was agitated and demanding we do whatever we needed to properly supply a simultaneous Western offensive, and he's generally indifferent emotionally even to being shot at.

Thus, I spoke to my Likurian counterpart about this almost spontaneously generated plan, informing him a large number of our officers were demanding an offensive in the West, that I saw this was feasible if they would contribute much of their fleet and all of their available naval transport capacity to the task, and that it would have various positive effects which would outweigh the negative. Cometai had great reservations about this sudden addition to our strategic planning. I had to apply substantial pressure on him for over an hour, and I was about to resort to cuddling my plushie and pleading almost as a distraught cub might in a supreme act of blatant emotional manipulation before he acquiesced. While both of us fully mobilized various ground units and the necessary logistics units in the coming days, their 2nd and 4th Fleets would join our naval forces and begin a series of shore bombardments and fleet engagements. After causing sufficient damage to both coastal defenses and fleets, MAC forces would be embarked and sent behind a formidable fortified line less than 100 km from Kalobol. They would attack in concert with regular ground forces and an appropriate number of paratroopers. While they wouldn't be directly attacking the Kotorei River defenses, they would likely draw away many of the defenders there- maybe enough to facilitate a breakthrough. Either way, a victory here would pave the way for the planned besiegement of Kalobol during autumn or perhaps winter, as we almost certainly would not be able to overcome all of the remaining lines and perimeters in one offensive no matter how long we prepared.

On 1 June I boarded the flagship, addressed the fleet, and ordered the fleet to deploy to the planned areas. As we expected, there was substantial naval resistance in those areas, and thus expansive maelstroms of shells and beams quickly ensued. A large proportion of our naval forces were sortieing from and resupplying at Kaleusthes, which was immeasurably beneficial to our naval campaign by itself. Progress would have been much slower if most or all of the fleet had to come from Marietta. Because over half of the warships committed were returning to Kaleusthes, the enemy naval forces had minimal reprieve between assaults and minimal opportunity to strike back, and were systematically destroyed or driven from the field over a period of many days. The many capital turrets at the base also provided a steady stream of outgoing shells in much of the battle area. After about 48 hours of this intensive attrition on their fleets and coastal defenses, it was decided to start landing marines, much to the satisfaction of these highly truculent troops and officers. As the enemy alliance had deemed it absolutely imperative to throw every available resource into the endeavor of forcing a general withdrawal or better at the river, there was an abnormally low number of divisions the marines and field armies had to contend with. Additionally, it became increasingly apparent that they had dismissed the possibility of us launching a significant ground offensive due to how badly overextended we were and how much the Likurians were already providing, and even 24 hours into the offensive they seemed to underestimate what we were committing and sought to take.

Soon after our ground offensive began there, I had to address the Kantarian people on this matter, specifically why we had opened a second front while this supposedly all-consuming and critical offensive at the Kotorei River was not only in progress but stalled out. Without divulging details which the enemy wasn't already aware of, I explained why this being done and how this was not going to harm our chances of success at that river. I disliked being in that position, since it seemed superficially that we were undermining our own efforts in the more important area. I would have done this anyway since our people deserve an explanation for this behavior, but it was absolutely critical I justify this to them because of what I had to tell them immediately afterwards. Even with Likuria committing as much logistical support as they could and with both our systems being pushed to their limits, we were running out of supplies at the frontlines. Our factories could actually make enough material now to supply so many units simultaneously, but we just didn't have the trains and trucks to haul what we needed. Thus, I invoked emergency mobilization powers and commandeered a large portion of the civilian freighting capability, something which has very rarely been done and is especially detrimental on our population. The people were exhorted to conserve and to utilize existing products to the greatest degree possible, and within 15 days the vehicles would be returned to the population regardless of outcomes. There was simply no choice if we had any hope of ending the war by the end of the year, though another year seemed realistic at this stage. I had to tell them days later why we were withdrawing in the Center regardless of everything I authorized, an utterly detestable obligation.

There was cause for amusement for me during this very unpleasant business. Terrans and Takomenians alike had taken to making their own versions of our parody-inspired parody, though the Terrans tended to do this much more often since there are more of them and our language is foreign to them. Apparently there was some upset within furrydom regarding an art site's abrupt reversal of policy amidst very questionable circumstances. Some small faction evidently organized mass demonstrations against this site's allowance of underage pictorial and literary erotica and tampered with a vote that had a critical exploit, causing their faction to appear far larger than they were and persuading the site's leadership to very quickly ban such content. While this reflects very badly on a subculture which has given us a high proportion of volunteers (as well as many vehement detractors), it was a superb opportunity for some enterprising Terran to make a parody in which I appear to be furious over this policy. The subtitles alone would have been highly amusing, but what made this uproariously humorous to me and many staff was the fact I extremely conceivably would have carried on in precisely the same manner had I been one of those affected. "If I couldn't have understood what we were saying I would have needed a medic to save me!" Perredine remarked in between bouts of somewhat painful laughter. Aside from the language issue, it was a perfectly marvelous fabrication. Never interfere with a Kantarian's porn consumption!

While our efforts in general had been proving to be moderately successful, we had a very unexpectedly fortuitous development on the 5th. A section of the Wesitarian line was essentially undefended, and a couple of our divisions happened to be tasked with attacking and passing through this section. When the divisional commanders reported their position and status, we actually thought we misheard or they misspoke, so we asked them to repeat themselves. We don't know how this oversight happened, but it did. We hurriedly sent in whatever assets were available through this gap in the defensive line and set out trying to encircle large formations. I unenviously envisioned my rival Taneru hearing of the situation and somewhat losing her composure while ordering whatever they could to intercept our spearhead. This precipitated days of each side feverishly trying to outpace and overpower the other. The Wesitarians and Bengarians actually counterattacked very effectively and caused the disaster to be less massive and rapid, but they were unable to compensate well enough to stop us from driving forward at a rapid pace and cutting off many divisions over several days.

It was fortunate indeed we had these successes on one front, because we had to accept we had been defeated on the other. During our senior staff meeting on 7 June, Supreme Marshal Shinkema gave a very bleak assessment of the situation. Our forces on the northern side of the river were not able to be supplied and/or reinforced nearly to the extent they required to either breakout or hold off the innumerable attacks indefinitely (and they couldn't fully repel them anyway, as we were losing territory), and at this point the assortment of units were too disorganized and degraded from weeks of attrition to achieve much even if they did break through. As they were burning through supplies much more rapidly than they were being replaced, the bridges we had established were repeatedly being struck and needing repairs, and new bridge construction was pathetically slow, our armies would be destroyed far sooner than the supply rate could catch up. There was no feasible alternative to a general withdrawal while it was still possible. This very unambiguous and dire report had extinguished all hope of at least remaining indefinitely on the northern side, which meant not only would the war continue for at least several more months but that the venture was a colossal waste of lives and material with little to show for it. I was so overcome with frustration and rage at this realization I hurled my pad across the room and stormed out of the meeting. Perredine later informed me he translated this to the officers as a command to withdraw, and that I was furious with the situation rather than Shinkema. He was correct on both counts of course. Had we not been advancing elsewhere as a result of this terrible mess, I'm sure I would have been out of commission for the remainder of the day at least.

Fortunately, any presence we had at the northern side necessitated a massive enemy presence in response to ensure our eventual withdrawal, maybe even an envelopment if they were lucky. It seems they were highly fearful I was conducting a feint or would order a resumption of the offensive upon any presented opportunity, which made their perceived need for strength much greater than reality. Thus, even as 100k troops became encircled and the entire original front line was either overrun or threatened, reinforcements did not arrive in numbers which ordinarily would have been deemed sufficient. To compensate, the Wesitarians brought most of their very formidable bomber force to bear on our formations both on water and land. Their firepower from fortifications and their dwindling numbers of warships took their toll as well. The objective for the enemy was attrition, and for us it was fortified territory to use for ourselves and deprive the enemy of the same. As the offensive persisted into a second week, both sides were doing a respectable job in meeting objectives, though we were faring better and were able to contend rather well with attrition.

The somewhat impromptu campaign has brought more substantial developments in its second week which are generally favorable to us. Gallant and ferocious though the improvised Wesitarian counterattacks were, they were unable to do more than impair our spearhead's speed. Garrisons and field units in large numbers were encircled and besieged. Many of the garrison units stubbornly remained in their fortifications and forced us to keep cordon forces around them or storm them, and some attempted to breakout. By the 11th most of the forward line on the western half was captured and much of it made serviceable by engineers, substantially aiding our and Likurian forces in various ways. On the same day, after yet another series of naval sorties which had by now substantially degraded coastal defenses and naval forces, several more marine divisions were landed behind the second line and started advancing east. A few divisions of paratroopers were deployed at various points to aid in encirclement and disrupt response capabilities. They were, of course, supported from the south by multiple field armies which were quickly becoming exhausted. The Wesitarians counterattacked the marine and paratrooper formations very severely on the 13th and temporarily brought them to a halt. That limited success was greatly overshadowed by the seizure of two major fortresses and most of the eastern half of the primary line near Kalobol.  

We are about to launch a massive offensive on the central-eastern section of the Western Front, with the goal of capturing the city and logistics hub of Lilleshar. Our withdrawal has freed some divisions for this task and the necessary defensive maneuvers during the offensive, but this also will free an extremely large number of enemy alliance forces as well. Most of the units that returned are in terrible shape and not very fit for offensive operations anyway, so they will not need relocation, whereas most of the enemy has yet to be transported. Also, most of our offensive units are already there. Thus, we are well positioned to make our move, and it is imperative we do so while they are off balance.  

On the Central Front, the retreat across the bridges was not as harried as we had expected. It seems that the Bengarians were content to keep bombing and shelling the crossing points and apply massive pressure on important positions in our lines, but moderately exert themselves in general. Officers reported that morale as well as general unit condition were badly degraded, but the withdrawals were orderly and properly done, causing as much destruction to the defenses as could be effected with our amount of time and the circumstances of the area. We did not have quite as much time to destroy the subterranean defenses everywhere we stood as we would have needed for optimal destruction, so I ordered the troops and officers to concentrate on those closest to the river- the ones we would need to first confront again and those we'd have the most time to sabotage. When and where it was feasible atomic ordnance was used as demolition charges, though sometimes even they weren't very effective. The evacuation has lasted approximately a week, and concluded tonight. One bridgehead was dissolved upon the last units swimming across several days ago, then another last night, followed by the remaining three today. The primarily lutrine riverine troops were critical for orchestrating the withdrawal, though this rearguard action must have been psychologically brutal on those same units who sacrificed so much establishing those bridgeheads last month. And they will comprise much of the vanguard in the next attempt months from now, too, though I don't understand how people could volunteer for that after this bitter failure.

Kantaria is not a country that fares well in battles of attrition of people, weapons, and supplies. Likuria has granted us several hundred thousand troops, various weapons platforms, and vast amounts of ammunition and various materials and the transport capacity for such, so that has helped substantially. However, we have had to scale back production of replacement weapons and divert that capacity to ordnance and miscellaneous ship components just to keep up, which means things like panzers and planes and ships- things we are losing many of every day- are not being replaced. Of course, the enemy is having similar industrial concerns because they also have overwhelming supply needs. However, since we are aspiring to be on the offensive, such losses in equipment disproportionately hurt us. Additionally, a higher percentage of our industry has to be used to meet supply demands, which just exacerbates our attrition problems. We have been and still are systematically destroying our military trying to progress, and it will take months to replenish our various branches to their state at the start of May, and possibly until December to return to our levels in mid-February. We have some steam remaining and intend to pursue the Western campaign until the end of the month, but we're wrecking even our elite forces to achieve all of this.

On both fronts, there have been two distinctive features. Firstly, our combat engineer units have incurred casualty rates that would be considered appalling even for paratrooper units. Virtually half of them became casualties of some sort- generally wounded. Many of our engineers also were casualties in our Progress Line construction not long ago. Neither side a year ago had nearly as many combat engineers in general or exposed to harm as have now. This war has become very akin to Terra's First World War, with massive systems of trenches being erected very quickly, backed with hardened subterranean afterwards with enough time, and fully armored facilities ultimately appearing if the nation really wants to hold a place. The front line being deep in Bengarian territory and a few other factors have made it both feasible and desirable for the enemy to have redundant systems of fortifications. This often causes battles to unfold in ways counter to our doctrine of maximal mobility, and it's now as much a war of engineers and static defenses as it is panzers and vehicular infantry and blitzkrieg.

The second feature is the horrible weather. It has been unusually warm on this continent for virtually the entire previous year, and that trend has continued into May and June. Kantaria is 80% zooanthro, and thus we have the worst endurance for summer weather overall. While thermostatic drugs greatly assist our troops when they're fighting or marching in excessive heat, they will not prevent heat casualties if the effective temperature is over 37 C and they're charging or sprinting, even if the troops are human, let alone furred. We have had record numbers of heat casualties from these massive and terrible battles, but especially during June. The marine and paratrooper forces are more resilient due to the standards for those branches, and the panzer and mounted infantry divisions are pretty much immune. However, our regular forces, especially our zooanthros, have incurred dreadful numbers of casualties just from heat. As many as 55% of a unit's losses have been from heat- a few of those are fatalities. No one should even be milling around in these temperatures, much less engaging in mortal combat in it!

We very much hope there is a critical failure in the enemy's defensive system between now and the end of the month. Of course, now that they no longer need to defend the river, they will have much more to send against us and further reduce the likelihood of such a failure happening. We will only know the result by making the attempt, so, make the attempt we shall.