The anticipation and activity here and abroad is reaching a crescendo as the inexorable conflagration at sea nears. The strategic officers have been just as busy as the junior field officers and their troops, as there is a constant stream of information and status reports which necessitate reevaluation of all levels of plans on an almost constant basis. While neither I nor our nation can guarantee a result, it can most assuredly be said that if we don't prevail it will not be due to a lack of effort. It can also be guaranteed that the losing alliance will suffer a severe psychological blow regardless of the degree of loss, and both will be harmed if there is no victor. This great question by all of Takomen's people must be answered unequivocally, and I believe it is more likely than not that we will at least marginally prevail.

There has been one benefit to the extremely large degree of mobilization both sides have undertaken to prevail over the other side at this one zone: most of the rest of the world has lapsed into a state of peace. The Central Front has seen further progress by our forces, and the Western Front along the coast has been quite ablaze on a regular basis, but neither side can afford to do much besides prepare for the campaign. Even the bombardment of our industrial and transportation infrastructure outside the naval zones has lessened, so great is the demand upon Wesitaria's and Bengaria's industrial capacity from the naval campaign and arms race. The only times most of the zones fall quiet for such a long time are due to acute exhaustion after a long campaign. We're not fully sure what other things they are diverting capability towards or in what proportions, but, much of Kantaria's remaining capacity has been diverted to the great panzer offensives I had envisioned and brought before the staff recently. Between rushing production of warships and the new torpedoes, sustaining limited offensive operations in the Center, and keeping up with attrition to munitions and weapons from the continuing aerial campaign, we cannot do anything more than an occasional raid here or there.

Speaking of the planned land offensives, we still aren't well situated to carry them out even if the combined enemy fleet is decisively defeated. We don't have enough reserves of fuel and ordnance for so many panzers of both nations to go on such a long and sustained drive, and we cannot achieve those levels for a while after this. We also are aware of the possibility we will lose the naval battles and thus be unable to meaningfully facilitate such a campaign from the sea, which would mean a greater need for bombers and artillery, which would mean more industrial capacity having to go to those things to generate the necessary numbers before invading. Either way, we hope to begin our invasions by the end of the month. Our nation would psychologically be in dire need of a panzer-led success on land if we, a nation renowned for naval strength, do not prevail at our own home base. If we do prevail there, we also would need to attack quickly, to capitalize on our success, but that would still require some time as well. 

Some of the officers consider my grandiose plans for the future rather far-fetched and not very realistic given how difficult things have been for us last year. A very small fraction of the officers, as well as vast numbers of Terrans, were also offended I introduced the idea by invoking the speech of a very famous human rights person from decades ago from the nation of America. I thought my introduction of "Like Martin Luther King, I have a dream, of a harmonious future! Only, instead of achieving it through non-violence and justice, it will be achieved by offensive operations on an unprecedented scale!" was extremely humorous. The only one in attendance whose race and nationality were the same as him and the rights being fought for, Supreme Marshal Perredine, was actually quite appreciative of the comment, his laughter reverberating through the chamber while my remark registered with everyone else. Terrans in general seem easily offended over trivial matters, though, so media coverage of the comment (the plan itself is actually top secret) was widespread and commentary hostile. They know little about racial justice and equality and have damned little cause to complain about a society that has mastered this, but I cannot change them and I have my paws full with the war, so I have ignored it.

The naval bombardment campaign has continued unabated, and it has been highly effective at reducing the enemy's effective net output, while also maintaining a high morale. While we want them to come at us soon, we also want more time to increase our chance of success by having more of certain things such as the recently invented Long Lance Torpedoes and the close-range stealth offensive vessels, so we have been effectively delaying their invasion with these attacks. Our navy's superior speed and maneuverability- along with other factors- allow us to attack locations in force before the enemy can fully respond, while minimizing the window of opportunity for them to counterattack our own structures and networks. On many days there have been massive and spectacular battles in the air and at sea, with allied naval and ground-based warplanes sometimes exceeding 1k in a zone and prompting equally spectacular levels of flak and airborne laser fire. The enemy has opted for a reverse strategy: limit the number of attacks they conduct and consolidate their positions along the coast. They have more advantages on the defense than they would on the offense generally unless they fully deploy, and they realize this. They seem content to respond to us defensively until they cross some sort of threshold, and at that point they will go for our jugular.

The ferocious series of battles at sea and on the coast between opposing warships and warplanes and the like have had the aforementioned material advantages and have helped invigorate the troops and citizens of both nations (particularly ours), but significant concerns and costs have arisen from this preliminary campaign. Obviously it consumes a huge level of capacity to maintain levels of ammunition and planes when large conflagrations are happening in multiple locations at least every other day for weeks on end, though we're exceeding attrition thresholds. What truly concerns us, however, is Likuria's capability and commitment. They aren't as nimble as we are and thus they are hindered somewhat operationally. But, their leadership seems excessively reactive to fears and changes of circumstances or information, and they have been for the entire war. On some days either our raids were less effective or were fewer in number because the Likurians were hesitant to commit the expected number of vessels and planes. The 7th was especially severe in that regard, and we lost far more than we needed to since their assistance was not forthcoming. The day before that we acted on intel from them that was completely faulty, which also led to far inferior results. We were set back more than the enemy due to our expectations from our ally and their failure to meet them, and officers started becoming openly frustrated.

However, they've also been of great assistance on other days, sometimes on their own and sometimes after our somewhat impatient prodding. The rapidly rising antagonism and distrust was mostly counteracted on the 8th when Likuria deployed their entire heavy/strategic bomber force and dropped a couple of high-yield nuclear bombs along with thousands of conventional ones on the hapless Bengarians. This combined with our own aerial and naval attacks on other sites caused a great deal of damage to forces and infrastructure and renewed our sense of progress. We expect the enemy to launch their thrust on Marietta relatively early next week, and we very much hope the Likurians will respond with a sufficient level of force and speed to our call. Our strategic officers generally agree (including me) that we have little chance of a resounding victory if reinforcements are few to non-existent, and we have a great chance of defeat in that scenario. They seem to concur with this assessment, but they seem so easily frightened that some erroneous intel or a simultaneous land offensive might dissuade them from sending half or more of their fleet.

Of course, we have to maximize our effectiveness with or without their help. When the fleet is not bombarding the enemy or patrolling our coast or resting, they have been engaged in drills. It is absolutely imperative our forces know exactly what to do at a given time and how to do it with maximal haste. Our general strategy is to do a huge amount with comparatively few vessels, and that is achieved through successfully conducted sets of maneuvers. Of course, these maneuvers assume certain conditions which might not happen, and such complex choreography can only be done by a highly experienced force after extensive preparations. Obviously, senior officers need to direct these maneuvers and tactics, so everyone from me to the lowest naval crewpeople are drilling every day. Between talking to the troops and conferring with the council and leading the fleet on practice deployments, for the last two weeks I have barely had any time to myself aside from sleeping and other necessary functions. 

Our panzer forces have also been conducting drills, but far less intensively. We don't even expect it to be feasible to send them right away, but there is a chance the enemy could be so badly mauled that further preparation would be unnecessary. There's also a chance the enemy will surprise us and invade first. As panzers need fuel to move anywhere and we are still attacking on the Central Front, their drills on the Western Front are far less extensive and urgent. We do have currently half a Likurian panzer army in the area, though, so they've also been practicing along with us. As our grand ground offensive entails 5 thousand Likurian panzers and we have 1,200 here (and half of the envisioned 10k Kantarian equivalent are here), such an adventure is a long ways off.

I don't expect to make another entry until late next week. Assuming our intel isn't faulty, the great battle will probably transpire before then. I and the rest of our nation fervently hope that we will have carried the day, that we demonstrated clearly that this year will be radically different from the previous. During my many meetings with common personnel this week, I shook the paw of an infantryman of a low rank. He was extremely honored to meet me, and he said with an admiring smile and tone, "I hope I and my unit can do what it takes to win this." I shook my head as I firmly held his paw with both of mine, "If we fail and there is anyone who can be rightfully be blamed, it would be me and my staff, not you all. You all do more than any sapient creature should ever be asked to do." Let us hope neither officer nor mishap thwart us.