May 5, 1896
Shubra El-Kheima, Dominion
The fort here is massive, I mean it puts the one back at Al-Arroun to complete and under disgrace. The mountains that rise up around it are truly a sight to behold. The dunes almost hide this fortress from approaching forces, but thankfully scouts provided by Lawrence were able to guide us into position outside the range of the guns. Those coastal batteries from Qift were moved here. We only learned of that after destroying the munitions depot in Arish. That was a beautiful explosion if I say so myself.
Generals Snow and Halphen along with the forces of Field Marshal Lajoie are set to arrive tomorrow. A siege will likely ensue as we attempt to take the fortress and then march into the interior of the El-Kom state. That’ll give us a clear shot at Sais. Once we have that I don’t know what we’ll do. I guess that’ll be discussed when that objective is taken.
Ollie and Alistaire I think are in love. They watch one another’s back, sleep together and quite frankly they seem inseparable. Not sure how that came about but I’m not about to break that up. I’d rather them be as happy here as they can be given the circumstances.
Following the destruction of the depot our forces linked up and the beach head was safe enough to bring in another hundred thousand men. That brings our total to five hundred thousand, nearly all are Republican forces. Wakoku and Sizhou are supposedly still mobilizing and I know I’ve heard rumors that Mattoran Army elements are beginning to land in far east of Transnura now. That won’t be good if we can’t make it to what Lawrence says are the “central mountains” well past Sais to the east. Once there we would have to take a line of fortresses so as to deny the enemy reinforcements into this part of the nation.
The Kingdom forces back west are making good progress. They’ve pushed the Free State and what remains of the Dominion forces back to the start of the war’s borders and seem to be preparing for an advance into the Free State itself. One less front would allow us to focus our forces here. Gods above know that is precisely what we need.