The fortunes of war have reversed yet again, this time favoring us and our ally rather than our enemy. Likurian naval forces achieved a surprising but delayed victory over the Wesitarians at sea and negated their painful victory a few days before. A new round of upgrades to the Procyonidae are close to being fully researched and will be available within a month. Our hurriedly partially restored naval forces sortied and caused substantial damage to the enemy. As I write this, Kantarian and Likurian warships are bombarding a coveted site for a new home port as a prelude to marine landings. Artillery on both the Western and Central Fronts are fully committed and saturating the opposite side of the lines. If another reversal is not forthcoming, the Western Front could be trembling and alight from our panzer and naval units within a week. Takomen's peoples have entered a renewed state of anticipation and intensity as the seemingly inexorable climactic battles that will decide the course of the war become imminent. 

We ultimately decided we needed to repair our naval forces as hastily as our industry would allow, rather than carefully weigh priorities and make that one of many to be catered to. Of course, our 1st Fleet almost always receives priority, so its condition was restored very rapidly. The vessels that could not be quickly repaired (hull breaches, shortage of component type, etc) were sent to secondary bases while those which could be immediately worked on and repaired took their place. By 5 February, the 1st Fleet was 75% repaired, the 2nd and 4th ~50%. Excluding the vessels with serious internal damage, everything could be mended in 8-10 days. Of course, production of other things such as bombers and panzers plummeted while the navy got so much attention, but such is the reality of hyper-prioritization. Meanwhile, the enemy was lagging behind due to degraded infrastructure and a lack of proficiency in this process. 

With 190 warships fully or nearly fully restored and another 80 well enough for me to dare to send out, we decided to, as I like to characterize it, break things in a few places where we sensed a lack of preparedness or strength. The remnants of the 5th Fleet and our submarines were used as frontline recon on the flanks rather than offensively, so that we had no additional surprises from the enemy navy. The Likurians lent us 30 ships, which would have been an offensively low number had they not stressed they wanted to use the remainder to launch their own attacks on a slowly regenerating (but still formidable) enemy at sea. I was less dour on the 5th than on the 2th and thus less pessimistic about the chances of success for Cometai's plans, but I still opted to invest most of my mental energy making plans as if they failed. I wished them luck and they us, and we departed on yet another adventure only 72 hours after being soundly bested.

Rather than continue making raids on the Western Front, I wanted to cause confusion and panic by assaulting the Eastern Front instead. The ever-stationary front hasn't seen any action from either side in months aside from occasional sniper fire, and I thus felt it was time to at least give the illusion we had plans for the area. The Kleintrin Fortress blocks the unforested corridor that lies between the forest and the sea and is substantially fortified, but this didn't stop me from directly engaging their capital cannons with our own. If these shells weren't so deadly I might have been highly amused at such antics. We caused moderate damage to the base and surrounding infrastructure and suffered marginal damage in response. We moved about 100 km north and proceeded to cause destruction there. We did come under substantial attack from warplanes and some vessels were putting up flak, but we were not seriously threatened during the time we were there.

While we were causing the Bengarians consternation off the eastern coast, we were apprised by the Likurians of a great victory they achieved at sea against the Wesitarians near the fortress of Brekmaere. About 200 enemy warships had departed on a course to our continent in reaction to our sudden resurgence, some of them still in a state of disrepair from the great battle three days earlier. They and the majority of the undamaged Likurian Navy collided with each other. Worse still for them, the better part of the Likurian 2nd Fleet happened to be behind the enemy when the two sides discovered each other. The results were tragic for the enemy and entirely unsurprising. Barely half of the force made it back to base at all, and most of those will need a great deal of work to fully restore. It was an unmitigated disaster for Wesitaria that erased our poor results earlier in the week, probably more than that. 

Though our ship was actively exchanging fire, I decided to report the news of our near-miraculous reversal from our flagship after working out what I should say. While my talented subordinates were making decisions pertaining to incoming and outgoing capital ordnance, I joyfully imparted to Kantaria the developments and what they meant for us. These episodes demonstrated we are very powerful alone, but really need the help of our allies if this war is to be won in some acceptable period of time. Likuria crushed the enemy in a serendipitous encounter and their absence made us unable to attain victory days earlier. Their collective efforts over the last two months had a drastic effect on the strength and condition of both alliances both on land and at sea. Maybe our panzer-led drives would be successful without our allies providing artillery or panzers, but we wouldn't likely have enough to try in the first place if we had to divert everything to naval production all this time just to keep up at sea. Of course, I also reminded our people of our own capabilities and progress, and how far we have come compared to a year ago. The scale of our plans and the assets which will be used to carry them out are much greater, yet the percentage of industry and revenue going to the war effort are somewhat lower. The people responded with jubilation at the news.

The sorties on the 5th and 6th were more hit-and-run in nature, something which would more safely cause attrition, but not cause great damage and clear the way for invasion. We were quite eager to resume actions in the latter category, but we felt it best to allow a few more days for repairs to both the fleet and to the flagship in general. While we took the time to further regenerate, we had successes on other matters. A couple of medium-scale raids supported by naval gunfire on the Western Front caused more damage to the integrity of their obstructing defensive line. On the Central Front, a couple of imposing hills overlooking the Kotorei River fell to regular and paratrooper forces with surprisingly few casualties, though we had to wait a good while to seize such an opportunity. We promptly positioned Commander panzers and field howitzers on these positions to stave off the numerous and generally forceful counterattacks, and combat engineers have started entrenching the area hastily to make the gains less assailable. The level of shelling on these hills fluctuates between serene and torrential frequently and abruptly, and there's no guarantee they won't take them back even with our best efforts. 

On 10 February, we decided to take the fight on the water to the enemy again. 85% of our surviving fleet (mostly those without armor failure) was fully repaired, the remainder requiring further drydocking and will trickle in over the next two weeks. The defeat at Brekmaere had caused excruciatingly severe repair backlogs and caused available enemy strength to fall around 25% relative to what they should have been able to field in the absence of that. The guerrila-type sorties worsened their service issues. We decided it was imperative to mount a massive assault on an outlying series of fortified islands 300-400 km from Kalobol. If the enemy fleet did not sally, we would destroy the turrets and other defensive structures, a very strongly desired condition for marine invasion. If the fleet did sally, we probably could maul them further with acceptable losses and facilitate future invasions that way. 

In weather that was so frigid only an arctic canine would have been appreciative, we departed for the target. A variety of problems caused us to barely arrive in the area when we had expected and diminished our element of surprise. The enemy deployed substantial naval forces in response, but the opposing fleet was rather anemic and was hesitant to venture far from the coast. As we did have to contend with warships and large numbers of heavy bombers, we were not able to fatally suppress most of the batteries of the fortress and other defensive infrastructure. However, we were not chased away from the target like we were the first time, and attrition in general somewhat favored us. We do not retain the capability to fight at full intensity for more than a day given our ships' limited magazine capacity and field resupply being prohibitively dangerous in the absence of overwhelming superiority, so we retreated after several hours. We would have to conduct large-scale shelling and fleet attrition over several days to make invasion on the scale we intend a feasible option.

Since these islands would likely be the location of a new home base for the 1st Fleet and the Navy in general (assuming the war doesn't rapidly conclude in the wake of a breathtakingly effective series of offensives), I took a personal interest in the name of the fortress and main island. I disliked the name it already had, and since I generally have unilateral naming authority and like the name of my plushie, I decreed it would be named Kaleusthes, much to the displeasure of some of the council. Perredine and some others felt it was hilarious the site of the planned new home base for the best navy on the planet was going to be named after an adorable stuffed raccoon, while many others felt something glorifying our country or some ideal would have been appropriate. A minority is furious with my tendency to give frivolous, self-aggrandizing, or otherwise unsuitable names to warships and places. A couple of officers pointed out I already named our combat propulsion system after him (though that was a fitting name given the meaning of the word that inspired his name). The vast majority really didn't feel passionately enough to prolong discussion on it or argue, and behaviors of mine such as putting Kaleusthes on my head and scritching his belly probably communicated to everyone I would never be dissuaded from that decision anyway.

While the periodic sorties have placed more strain on our flagship's structure, it is being repaired more quickly than it is being fatigued. Everyone involved with the ship's design and repair emphasized it was imperative the ship at least have its combat actions reduced by 50-75% for the first couple of weeks, and that is what I have done. The structural integrity of our ship has steadily but slowly improved, and the greatest and most demanding part of the repair scheme has been completed. I have been cleared to deploy our flagship to up to 70% of its normal combat schedule, though the closer to that limit I order the more time it will take to fully restore it. I am just pleased it no longer needs to be drydocked for days at a time to conduct further internal repairs.

The nation and its military are experiencing an intense and optimistic mood as more and more locations light up and setbacks to the enemy start accumulating. 12,000 panzers are on the Western Front and are conducting more intensive drills and plan rehearsals, the time of their great offensive possibly being as early as tomorrow. The strength of the enemy defenses along the coast on the Western Front is continuing to deteriorate. Panzers and artillery on opposing sides of the Kotorei River are ferociously sniping at one another, and the path to a limited general offensive that would take us right up to the river's edge could be cleared in as little as a day if all goes extremely well. Thus, the stage has been set for a series of great celebratory gatherings and events across the country. There is a planned allied meeting and colossal parade in our capital of Mirukan, and such plans on a smaller scale and more oriented to naval and marine forces are also in the works in Marietta. Marshal Larien, of course, would be the one responsible for orchestrating such celebrations in addition to his primary duties of fortifying the base and setting right our ships after each adventure. Our conversation on the matter was typical for ours: ludicrous and facetiously adversarial.

"Oh, wonderful. I have to undo the damage to your stupidly named flagship and the rest of the fleet, AND you want me to throw some parties as well? Oh, sure, I can do all of that, especially with all the frivolous crap you've filled one of the depots here with. While we're at it, I can also have Lucien perform naked for you and the other pederasts you're inviting from across all of Takomen." he retorted with his usual acerbicness.

"Oh, wow, can you?! That would be so very appreciated if he would help with the festivities like that!" I responded in my equally idiotic fashion with a level of apparent sincerity that would be convincing if one didn't know all the background information.

Larien growled and clenched his fists in mock outrage, "I wasn't being serious, you deranged lunatic! I don't know how we are winning this war with you at the helm, and if you were on Terra you would be executed more than once after being castrated!"

"That's a lovely image... We should do a comedy routine together for the event. It takes us at least 5 minutes to have a serious conversation with each other and multiple people now have expressed fear you're on the verge of attacking me." I gleefully retorted, the last sentence expressing a legitimate idea.

"Yeah, I suppose our arguments are that convincing. I'll probably be too busy trying to keep this place and the fleet together to do that, assuming that idea of yours was real. Even I don't know for sure whether it was."

"It actually was, haha. Anyway, I need an actual assessment from you. Can what I want be accomplished by 20 February?"

"I need more personnel and the base needs to be less at risk of attack with a combination of more thrashing of the enemy on the coast and increased defensive presence here. Give me both and we should be able to manage them."

"I think the enemy might be so preoccupied soon that the base will be amongst the last things they will attempt to bomb. With marines landing on side and panzers and mounted infantry attacking from the other and paratroopers in the rear, they'll be quite busy."

Next time I return here, I hope I am able to comment on the grandest series of offensives this planet will have ever seen, rather on why there are further delays. I am sure they will transpire eventually, but I very much wish we are ready to launch them sooner rather than later. It will also be almost exactly a year since our first campaign on this front which was at the time a great achievement for any nation of Takomen. While it is lamentable everyone has become more capable at the profession of warfare in that time, it simultaneously is a source of pride our capabilities now would put to shame what we conducted last year. Last year we were moderately successful against a very strong opponent, but couldn't even come close to collapsing the front. This year, I believe we will meet that aspiration. 