After a period of recuperation from the previous battles, our continent once again has experienced a great amount of violence and movement as three nations have maneuvered, attacked, and counterattacked over a period of three weeks. We had hoped the enemy would have been less resistant in the aftermath of the catastrophic losses we inflicted upon Wesitaria previously, but somehow Taneru and the Bengarians have rallied and mobilized well enough to greatly frustrate our efforts. We have been unable to repeat our performances from February-March, but we have prevailed appreciably on two fronts after nearly incessant fighting, and we are planning and preparing yet more offensives on each front for early next month. All of us hope what we have accomplished now combined with our next offensives will trigger a second horrific defeat which will cause a rapid implosion and bring into reality our hope of forcing Bengaria's capitulation by the next solstice.

Our flagship had to undergo emergency repairs for a few days after a reactor was showing signs of instability and fragility. There were several other fatigue-induced problems that needed addressing as well, so it was decided to send it back to Marietta for repairs. The adventures from before had caused a host of problems for our naval forces in general, and thus our fleet was generally fit for only defensive tasks for several days. Of course, the Wesitarians took what advantage they could from this. Several new fortresses and large-caliber turrets had been installed on defensive lines which were very much to the rear before our invasions, and started raining down heavy artillery fire on our comparatively exposed positions incessantly. This was causing us painful attrition and would continue to for as long as they were allowed to operate or we kept so many assets in the Center. Thus, when our fleets and our flagship were made seaworthy again, we endeavored to silence those guns with artillery counterfire and direct assault by heavy panzer units. As we were unable to make Kaleusthes a suitable forward fleet-serving base due to overwhelming defensive concerns and commitments in so many places, we had to mobilize many ships from Marietta instead.

Over a period of 48 hours from 8-10 April, our naval forces and an assortment of heavy ground assets bombarded the offending artillery emplacements and other assorted targets. As expected, the enemy mobilized their available assets and contested our endeavor. I commanded the overall operation from the Procyonidae, sometimes directing fire upon other ships and sometimes at our main ground targets. Taneru and her forces proved too much for us by the evening of the 9th, something I much disliked but quickly admitted when it was apparent. I ordered our forces to withdraw and recuperate before we suffered more damage. Soon after the withdrawal order was issued, our intel and special combat forces discovered a major potential vulnerability in the defensive network around Kalobol which may eventually be exploited, but the discovery wouldn't have impacted the course of the battle and merely buoyed our spirits in the face of moderate defeat. Some batteries had been temporarily disabled and a few destroyed, but upon our departure the remainder resumed their withering barrage on segments of our Western Front.

The fortification and expansion of Kaleusthes Archipelago alone was a substantial project costing us much resources. The large-scale assaults over the last two weeks consumed a great deal of our money and industry, and the ones we planned later would consume much more. After a great deal of deliberation and analysis of data, I expanded and hastened the fortification of our Central Front, which obviously would consume a tremendous level of our capabilities. Our factories could not provide sufficient output to allow all of these projects to be simultaneously completed at the rate our personnel and general military infrastructure could achieve, and thus something had to be downgraded in priority. That something was Kaleusthes. Up until mid-April, Marshal Larien had what he needed to proceed at a maximal pace with the personnel at his disposal and supplies being ferried in. After that, progress abruptly stalled. By this point, the base had a very formidable system of defenses, the terraforming had been completed, and some ship service buildings had been erected and enlarged to supply and repair sub-capital ships. However, it did not possess very large warehousing capability, had no means of repairing Tier 4s let alone the flagship, and couldn't supply at nearly the rate we would need in full fleet mobilizations. He and his personnel suddenly had little to carry out despite having been told how important the place was to our war effort. While Larien was appreciative my prediction about the bombardment of the base came to pass and he could thus come and go as he pleased, he was unhappy with feeling useless.

"Hey, ringtail pervert! Where are my construction supplies?!" he casually exclaimed with a hint of actual anger as he walked onto the bridge, the crew having been exposed to so much of our conversations and my general zaniness that the demand only prompted momentary glances.

"That's not a proper way to address your superior officer, rudderbutt!" I retorted after turning to face him with a mischievous grin.

"It is when you're the superior! I'm serious, though. I need more supplies delivered to me if you want your fancy new base with the absurd name completed. Or, do you think I am SO proficient that I can build without materials?" he rejoindered, his frustration immediately perceived by me despite the humor.

My countenance and tone became sincere and serious, "You don't have enough supplies to proceed at 50% capacity at least? I thought that was roughly what you would be provided due to the needs of the new line in the Center."

"50%? I can't do even 20%! I might as well send most of the engineers assigned to me back to the pool so they can be sent there, we have been so inactive! There are only so many entrenchments that can be dug there, only so many things needing routine inspection and repair, and more buildings and hardened defenses require materials! I cannot make a fleet base until the new solstice at this rate!" he replied with palpable exasperation.

"I wasn't aware the shortages were that severe. There's nothing that can be done besides do what you just proposed. The new line takes precedence and we can't change factory allocation from what it is for at least a week. We're not currently planning major naval offensives for the month, so the shortages shouldn't be so acute for long."

"How could you have not known the reprioritizations were causing this? You started as an industrial and supply officer! Have you just been fornicating with Lucien for the last week and not bothered with monitoring that?" he remarked with astonishment at my oversight.

I gave him the most gleeful and lecherous grin I could muster and retorted with, "He's just so adorable when he's wearing the clothes I bought him, and even hotter now that he's starting with erotic modeling! I can't be faulted for abandoning my post!" Larien predictably growled and clenched his fists in feigned disgust at my ludicrous response (though a few would have actually assumed I was being sincere, I am sure), then I continued, "But, no, I have had so much to monitor, tweak, and formulate. Overseeing over 3 million combatants, 2 million support staff, the civilian personnel, and 10s of thousands of all sorts of weapons in periods like this guarantees I will miss things."

"The base is named after your plushie! I thought you would... Ugh, well, I will release 75% of the engineering battalions and wait for the line to be finished if they are needed elsewhere. They're not doing much more than sleeping and yiffing and masturbating right now."

"Ahhh, I'll redeploy half of that number. We might have to change priorities or are able to rectify some of this after I look into the matter." I decided as I ran my paw through my bangs in strategic contemplation.

"Great, fine. I have another question, speaking of masturbation. Lucien's occupation is causing people to do that, and that's a legitimate profession I'm sure. However, can you explain to me why a 12-year-old amateur erotic model is making half as much showing off on camera several hours a week as I am, the one who is fighting off Wesitarians and building your base and repairing your navy full time?" He seemed genuinely dissatisfied or envious.

I nervously chuckled and grinned, "I'll add pay raises for naval officers to the agenda for the Council forthwith! However, ahhh, even if we double your pay, be prepared to make less than him rather soon. He's probably going to be the most popular cub in that industry by summer. He's near-perfect in every way for the hebephiles who like bashful types."

"I know... I know that very well, working under you. Blasted prancers."

We mitigated the effects of the shelling as best we could. Large numbers of troops were sent to rear fortifications and we went utterly on the defensive, both to reduce casualties and industrial needs. Work on the decided line of fortifications increased greatly, and this became our main priority overall for the latter half of this month. The Army of the Kleintrin Forest had been fully restored and was slowly prepared for another offensive, and naval repairs were being completed. Just as demand started to slacken, we had a new problem to contend with. The Bengarians had taken notice of our construction project, and started mounting concentrated bombardments and limited ground assaults here and there to disrupt it. We of course responded with counterattacks and redeployments and suspensions of work. The level of resistance continued to escalate, which meant our responses had to as well. The Bengarians were not launching a real offensive, but a series of opportunistic and disruptive attacks. This was logical for them to do, of course, since it greatly complicated our consolidation endeavor and gave them the feeling they were actually doing something to us rather than just the other way around.

We deliberated extensively on the 17th on whether we should launch a general counteroffensive with the aims of encircling and destroying large formations, rather than merely protecting our engineers and giving them space to complete their projects. It was deemed too risky to attempt this for three reasons. Firstly, we did not have many panzer divisions amassed there to spearhead any attack. Secondly, we would be exposed to fire from the Kotorei Line at point-blank range while having to deal with a desperately determined enemy. Thirdly, we had other demands on our industrial capacity and a general offensive would thus disrupt all of our other strategic plans for the month. For these reasons, I and most of the strategic officers deemed such a venture temerarious at that stage.


Unfortunately, as the days passed, an actual offensive seemed to materialize without them having planned to take it to that level. The attacks prompted us to counter, which encouraged them to attack with greater numbers, which caused us to do the same, and so on. What had been the occasional fight between two armies or divisions transformed into substantial efforts by grand armies over time fighting over high ground and static defenses. Both sides brought in numbers of artillery which might well be unparalleled even in our world war, and by the fourth quarter of the month an awe-striking level of howitzer fire from fortresses and regular forces was sent across the frontlines. The landscape across the front was hideously marred by the extremely intensive cannon fire. Field armies and panzer divisions by then were routinely sent after their enemy counterpart to either seize/destroy or protect our inchoate fortifications, and casualties and needs for industrial allocation skyrocketed as a result. Fortunately, the Wesitarians were dealing with their own problems on their continent and ours, and were not able to provide much assistance via direct reinforcement or pinning down many of our Western Front forces with a general offensive.

While Takomen watched tensely the intensifying maneuvering and bloodshed on that front, there was a substantial diversion our planet could enjoy (and Terra could be indignant over) due to a press conference that was being held. Those who are even moderately familiar with me know I have a propensity to execute malevolent tirades against Terran cultures and customs whenever some news item from there is brought to my attention. Those who are highly familiar with me know I can become so loud and affronted when speaking of them that I frighten and distract those around me. Thus, I do not monitor developments on Terra and people usually refrain from apprising me of them when I am at my post, but sometimes reporters will deliberately ask me about one of those matters, usually just to hear me excoriate our hated cultural enemies. I and Perredine were conducting a briefing to the press in general on the progress of the war and why so many people were fighting and dying for seemingly no purpose, so they had the chance to trigger this. One of them decided to capitalize on the opportunity presented to them by asking me of my sentiments on some especially egregious example of the inferiority of Terrans even in one of their modernized nations. My response would become legendary for its vulgarity and extreme contempt for the average Terran, causing cheers of admiration here on Takomen and extremely antipathetic repudiations from our inferiors on Terra.

"Recently, a province in America passed a law which criminalized the use of bathrooms not corresponding to their birth gender in government-run facilities, banned ordinances in cities which gave sexual and gender minorities protection from that and discrimination in general, and banned ordinances that increased their minimum wage to over their federal one. The bathroom aspect is receiving the most attention from both factions, and a gender-progressive company is currently being blacklisted by 100s of thousands for their bathroom policy. Do you or Kantaria have a position on these developments?" was the question from a Kantarian reporter who probably was in a mischievous mood that afternoon.

Answering both for myself and our nation's people in general, I responded: "This is why we don't have non-emergency diplomatic relations with Terrans. They have terrible problems with poverty, homelessness, and a myriad of other things. America is the most industrialized and modern nation over there, and yet their people and lawmakers are fixated on what genitalia people have when using the bathroom. This is the BEST that craphole of a planet can offer. They'd rather argue over whether homosexuals can marry, who should use what bathroom, and other incredibly moronic shit! I'm surprised they're intelligent enough to have not provoked us enough to begin bombing them. And, don't doubt for a moment I would enthusiastically give the order if those wretches dared to challenge us directly!"

"Males are supposed to use one bathroom, females the other? What? Why? Why can't both shit and pee in the same damned place? Where are prancers supposed to go if they could pass as either, or do they get to choose? I hate these morons! Over here in our troubled but enlightened nation, here on Takomen in general, males and females and intersexual people empty themselves in one place! I used the public bathroom here in our base a few hours ago. There were a couple of females in there and some child whose gender I don't remember, and I just strolled in with my very large male genitals and defecated in the appropriate place, washed my paws, and just as casually left. No reports of casualties or rape were reported despite me shitting near those with female genitalia! I haven't ever heard of that or children being molested in our base's facilities in all the time we've owned it."

By this point, not only am I gesticulating wildly while I describe my experience of defecating in a public bathroom, but Perredine behind me erupts in uncontrollable and uproarious laughter. No one would have even conceived the grand strategist for a country and his deputy saying and doing this on interplanetary television, let alone believe it was a possibility even if they had. Of course, no one was surprised it was us when this did occur. We have nearly zero inhibition and are notorious for lack of formality and professionalism above strategic competence. We weren't nearly done with offending the American Terran population and the Terrans in general.

"Yeah, and you don't molest children in bathrooms, anyway. You take them to your quarters or house first." Perredine interjected between fits of laughter.

"Lucien was so pretty this afternoon and he was asking for it. How could I refuse? And who would choose a bathroom over a bed to molest children, anyway?" I responded with a completely shameless grin and similar body language, which just caused my subordinate to laugh even harder at this entire affair. Judging from facial expressions, the reporters from Kantaria and Likuria generally seemed to range from indifferent to amused to jubilantly proud, though a few seemed highly surprised. In contrast, the Terrans sometimes were stoic or fixated as they diligently took notes on our performance for their report, but usually were in some state of horror and revulsion. A few left, presumably due to extreme disgust.

"But, anyway, no, this concept is idiotic. Which bathroom am I supposed to use? I'm highly androgynous unless I'm naked or aroused. I have pawed or sucked on heterosexual males and homosexual females on numerous occasions, because I can plausibly be either! Maybe us prancers would be given our own bathrooms? We generally fixate on actual problems over here rather than inane garbage some imaginary deity is offended by. Why is the transgender community demanding only the right to use the other one? They should be demanding an end to gender segregation instead. They're just perpetuating this stupid status quo. Transgender... We don't even have such a movement over here! There's no need for one! Of course we label ourselves this and that just to accurately define ourselves, but we don't need a cultural movement to protect categories of people over here. Such shit from these people- all of them! Gah, if we ever have to invade these people, one of my first commands will be they all must pee and shit together!"

"The religious people anger me the most, though, by an extraordinarily large margin! We might have to bomb or invade this country if their retarded electorate vote in the Republicans. 'No, gays will undermine military morale!' 'People should act like how they were born and there are only two genders.' 'No, we won't allow you to allow your people to use the bathroom they prefer or order businesses to pay their workers a decent wage.' 'We should be allowed to raise our children how we wish.' Ahhhh! These infernal buffoons, I just want to eradicate them! We have homosexual prancers as infantrymen over here! Tell one of them they are bad for morale and sinful and see how far they shove their boot or bayonet up your tailhole, you insolent vermin! Tell ME that and I'll probably do the same! Don't think I can't cause damage, or that I am not revered by the greatest and most courageous fighting force of Takomen!" During that part I was especially venomous and infuriated in both body language and verbalization, which probably would have terrified the average subordinate but only served to amuse and impress Perredine further.

"And both of these sides are arguing over bathroom rights as if that is more important than general worker welfare. They can't even enforce this breathtakingly stupid concept, yet the transgender people and conservatives decide that's more important than proper wages and having medical care and all the other basic things an enlightened society grants or ensures for its citizens? Of all the things in that law you stated, the wage levels everyone just ignores! Even those I am on the same side with on the gender and sexual matters I can't stand because they seem virtually as dumbfoundingly idiotic as their enemies. They're all like this everywhere on the planet, the only differences being technology level and degree of depravity. Our Terran volunteers, I don't understand how they didn't commit suicide before coming here. I surely would have!"

I have been told that Kantarians who were able and apprised ceased what they were doing virtually en masse and watched this, with only a slightly less intense reaction in Likuria AND the enemy nations. Even the Terrans in very large numbers switched to their news channels, the channels generally either airing the whole thing in real-time or declaring it an urgent matter and suspending regular televisation. Kantarians were generally extremely supportive of me, my sentiments, and my proclamation of the superiority of Takomenian cultures, while the other three nations' populations were the same but a bit more likely to disapprove of my total abandonment of composure and professionalism on air. Bengaria's chief strategist elected to ignore the incident as far as we could tell, while Wesitaria's publicly lamented I wasn't fighting for them and endorsed everything I said despite her government having embraced to a degree Terran nations and people who are unworthy of our respect. It seemed as if the entire planet forgot it was fighting a world war for a day, they were so mesmerized and enthralled by the impromptu event.

In contrast, my theatrical and scornful tirade was so effective the Americans through our emergency diplomatic communications apparatus asked for our assurances we were not planning to go to war with them, which were quickly but tersely given since we had no such plans. Their president made a public address to his people to console them and relay our response to their inquiry. Aside from the very rare exceptions which exist in any given issue or question, the Terran reaction was universally negative, the only differences being the nature of the reaction, primary issue, and intensity. As I predicted, despite me actually qualifying for a gender minority and sexuality minority, their LGBT groups disapproved vehemently, the transgender ones more vociferously so. I've only been apprised of general assessments as I don't care to know who reacted in what manner. If I read everything said about me and our planet I would be in a constant state of militaristic agitation with these people and would never get anything accomplished.

Terrans periodically do have great comedic ingenuity, however, and that is often brought to my attention by Terran volunteers. One innovation of theirs is changing subtitles to a very historically accurate movie depicting Nazi Germany's and Hitler's final days in their last world war (if we have our own second world war we shall have utterly failed as a society on a planetary level), so that instead of flying into a rage over the failure of his ridiculous counteroffensive, he is apparently upset he cannot afford a fursuit from his preferred artisan, or that they lost a game of one of that planet's premier turn-based strategy games, or that his staff condemn him for watching My Little Pony (another great innovation of their generally pathetic planet). I routinely play amusing videos on our bridge's main viewer while we're at port, as I see no reason not to. Not long before my epic performance, Perredine and I were laughing hysterically at the first version on the bridge, especially when he apparently invades Poland to fund his fursuit. The second one resonated with me in a unique way because I am our nation's supreme strategist just as Hitler was theirs, and I am so notorious for antics and anti-professionalism that it would be entirely plausible to the average person that we would be so bored with an actual world war that we'd play out a fictional one and argue over it in our HQ. I actually wish to have made a video along similar lines made of us pretending to be more preoccupied with a game war than with our real one, and then present it to the world as a gift of humor. Of course, we do have actual military business to attend to and most of my free time is spent alone or with friends, so that won't be done for some time.

The situations on two fronts during this last week is anything but humorous, especially for the soldiers there. With our navy fully restored, we resumed our attempts to silence the offending turrets that had been plaguing our units there for weeks. We decided against landing marines or paratroopers to assist due to their destruction being highly likely, so we returned to trying to overcome their naval and ground-based artillery with our own. From 24-29 April, we once again had to trade fire with the enemy's still-formidable naval forces and at least keep them preoccupied while artillery of all calibers were formed into grand batteries and commenced firing. As many of the targets were less than 50 km away and thus often were able to circumvent our point-defense capabilities, this allowed us to use panzers as improvised short-range artillery, and we had more of them to use now. When appropriate, regular units were sent out of our frontline defenses and against theirs, but generally they were used only defensively. The conflagration caused serious damage to both sides, and our logistical units were being run ragged trying to adequately supply this and the offensive on the Central Front. We did have a modest contingent of Likurian vessels stream in to help, and to hear their praise and adoration upon the Procyonidae's arrival was reassuring at a time we were consistently outnumbered at sea. The next day a flotilla of Likurian ships arrived and assisted us with dismantling the fortifications at or near our main points of attack, which was unexpected and psychologically significantly helpful. We finally completed yesterday what we had intended to do for over a month: neutralize the forwardmost capital turrets to end the constant attrition and to make preparations for a new offensive feasible once more.

The main spectacle was the seemingly unrelenting assaults from both sides on our new line of defense and the nearby terrain on the Central Front. We hadn't even named the new line until near the end of the mutual offensives, so we kept referring to it as "the new line" and similar other names. We opted not to name it after the river it was near since the Bengarians already named theirs such and ours was still ~100 km from the river. Usually lines are named after cities, but there are no major cities in this general area. Various other names I conceived didn't appeal to me, and the council was too preoccupied with keeping our exhausted military from breaking down to bother with contributing ideas. As we had been fighting over this region for so very long now and it was very difficult for all but us strategists to see we were making progress, I decided to remind everyone of this by naming it the Progress Line. Many of my fellow strategists were surprised I didn't name it after a plushie or use some other name that didn't make sense to anyone but me.

I could not blame the average frontline troop for not readily believing we actually were making progress, as there was such terrible fighting in the last several days. We dared not attempt deep operations due to their Kotorei Line and fear of encirclement, and the enemy dared not attempt the same because of our Raeltan Line and the risk of encirclement. There was thus a zone of approximately 20 kms which infantry and panzers were actively fighting within and for, and in the event one side succeeded they just stayed there or withdrew depending on which was appropriate. Many combat engineers became casualties, much materiel was destroyed, many points had to be repaired or entirely rebuilt, and much manpower was spent repairing terrain. The whole affair was dismayingly reminiscent of the legendary battles of Terra's World War 1. We might have finished the project 5-10 days before today had the Bengarians remained withdrawn. Instead, we finished erecting the last of the capital turrets only this evening after much lost production, 28k fatalities, 14k captured, and 135k wounded. Over 15% of our forces on the front were temporarily or permanently lost, and artillery losses in percentages are comparable. The Bengarians are estimated to have incurred the same percentages of casualties but significantly higher plain numbers. The ABC's reported usage of ammunition is almost as dispiriting as the casualty reports. The artillery units collectively went through over 10m shells in a week.

Despite the dreadful losses and ordnance usage, we actually are actively planning a second offensive in less than a week. No decision from me or the other officers has been made. Now that we have a fully active and very strong line of offense to buttress us in either role, advancing past the zone we so bitterly fought over is less dangerous. The Bengarians have proven to us and themselves they're still very capable, but are more disorganized and unbalanced from this unusual and erratic campaign than we are. Whatever we decide we can or should do, we are currently impotent due to extreme troop exhaustion and weapon fatigue and have no intention of substantial adventures for a few days. We're all happy the grand project I commanded has been completed and can better aid in its own defense now. Perredine was not very supportive of either the fortification project or the great exertions to allow its completion, and he remarked the other day in an uncharacteristically subdued manner, "I hope this line is worth all the concrete, shells, and blood. We could have made Kaleusthes fully functional by now had this not been rushed." I doubt this was the worse decision to have made, but it's difficult to justify the expense with all these circumstances at play at this point.