Mission of Honor

Mission of Honor is the twelfth book of David Weber's series of novels and short stories chronicling the adventures of Honor Harrington. It was released by Baen Books on June 22, 2010.
Timeframe: December 1921 PD – May 1922 PD
== Cover Summary ==
:The Star Kingdom of Manticore and the Republic of Haven have been enemies for Honor Harrington's entire life, and she has paid a price for the victories she's achieved in that conflict. And now the unstoppable juggernaut of the mighty Solarian League is on a collision course with Manticore. The millions who have already died may have been only a foretaste of the billions of casualties just over the horizon, and Honor sees it coming.
:She's prepared to do anything, risk anything, to stop it, and she has a plan that may finally bring an end to the Havenite Wars and give even the Solarian League pause. But there are things not even Honor knows about. There are forces in play, hidden enemies in motion, all converging on the Star Kingdom of Manticore to crush the very life out of it, and Honor's worst nightmares fall short of the oncoming reality.
:But Manticore's enemies may not have thought of everything after all. Because if everything Honor Harrington loves is going down to destruction, it won't be going alone.
== Plot ==
After the destruction of the Gamma Center, Mesa launches a propaganda campaign to discredit Anton Zilwicki as a mass murderer, while the secretive Mesan Alignment Navy prepares for the execution of its long-planned Operation Oyster Bay. Meanwhile, Admiral Honor Alexander-Harrington is sent to the Haven System to once again offer peace talks to the Republic of Haven. And in the Talbott Quadrant, Michelle Henke tries to strengthen the Star Empire of Manticore's position as the coming conflict with the Solarian League looms over the horizon.
Fleet Admiral Sandra Crandall arrives in the Spindle System with the Solarian League Navy's Task Force 496, demanding Michelle Henke to be turned over for what she did in the Second Battle of New Tuscany. Henke and her Tenth Fleet, however, are prepared for the Sollies and thoroughly beat them in the Battle of Spindle; dozens of ships and a total of almost 400,000 prisoners of war fall into Manticoran hands.
While Honor continues the peace talks on Haven, Queen Elizabeth III of Manticore, upon receiving the news of what happened in Spindle, orders all termini of the Manticore Wormhole Junction to be shut down for Solarian commercial traffic, as the Star Empire is now in a de facto state of war with the Solarian League.
Some time later, Operation Oyster Bay finally strikes: graser torpedoes and missiles are launched against multiple targets all over the Manticore System. The space stations Hephaestus, Vulcan, and Weyland are destroyed, and the debris hitting the planet surfaces beneath them causes terrible damage. On Sphinx, seven and a half million humans and almost one percent of the entire treecat population are wiped out. The attack has catastrophic consequences for Manticore's economy and military strength: most of the workforce trained to build ships of war is gone, as is most of the missile-building capacity. Twelve million people have been killed, and no one even knows where the attack came from. Queen Elizabeth, however, makes it clear that she will not allow her Empire to fall before its enemies.
Honor is recalled to her home system, where she learns that a large portion of the Harrington Clan was killed when the city of Yawata Crossing was hit by debris from HMSS Vulcan. Other loved ones among the casualties include Andrew and Miranda LaFollet as well as the treecat Farragut. Stricken with grief, Honor swears in the comforting arms of her husband, Hamish Alexander, that she will not rest until she has found and killed the ones responsible for what happened.
However, things continue to get worse: Yeltsin's Star has also been attacked, and while the damage is limited to the outlying Blackbird Yard, High Admiral Wesley Matthews is among the casualties. Judah Yanakov is recalled to Grayson to replace him. At the same time, First Space Lord Thomas Caparelli takes full responsibility for the Navy's inability to protect Manticore, and offers his resignation to Earl White Haven and Queen Elizabeth; both of them refuse to even consider replacing him.
Back on Earth, the Solarian authorities are preparing their response to the Battle of Spindle, and news of what happened to Manticore only encourages them. A force of hundreds of ships of the wall under the command of Fleet Admiral Massimo Filareta is dispatched to the Manticore System to crush the Star Empire once and for all. Meanwhile, an ammunition shortage forces the RMN to recall some of its more modern weapon systems from the Talbott Quadrant. Both Haven and Manticore learn of the Solarian attack from a high level source on Beowulf.
At the Mesan Alignment Navy's secret headquarters in the Darius System, Albrecht Detweiler congratulates his officers for the successful execution of Oyster Bay, and announces that their long anticipated march to dominion over all of humanity is now at hand. With the destruction of the Manticoran space stations, one of the Alignment's most powerful enemies has been as good as neutralized. Soon, the centuries-old Mesan plan to destabilize the Solarian League and give rise to a new star nation under their control – the Renaissance Factor – will be put into action.
Yet, at the same time, Victor Cachat and Anton Zilwicki return to Haven, and with them comes Dr. Herlander Simões, a Mesan defector who can give testimony to many of the Alignment's secretive plans. President Eloise Pritchart begins to realize that the assassination of James Webster, the death of Yves Grosclaude, the outbreak of the war, and possibly even the very rise to power of the Legislaturalist regime, may actually have been elaborate Mesan plots.
In May of the year 1922 Post Diaspora, word of the upcoming Solarian attack on Manticore gets out. Queen Elizabeth addresses her subjects via holovid, and announces that if the League wants a war, it will get a war.
A few days later Haven One arrives in the Trevor's Star System with President Pritchart and much of her cabinet as well as Victor Cachat and Anton Zilwicki aboard. The long delayed first meeting between the Queen and Empress of Manticore and the President of the Republic of Haven takes place in Honor Harrington's quarters aboard her flagship. Elizabeth III learns the truth about the Mesan threat, and within hours, she and Eloise Pritchart decide to not only end the Second Havenite-Manticoran War, but to also form a military alliance against the Solarian League and whatever other enemy may come their way.
== Background ==
The Shadow of Saganami and Storm from the Shadows both focus primarily on the events in and around the Talbott Cluster, while Crown of Slaves and Torch of Freedom focus on the covert war between Torch and Mesa, as well as the moral issues of genetic slavery. Mission of Honor weaves events from both of those areas together and advances the general storyline.
David Weber posted a first snippet of the book in Baen's Bar on December 24, 2009.
=== ARC release ===
An unedited ARC version was released electronically on February 3rd, 2010. This version still includes a number of typographical and at least one rather obvious factual error: Henry Prestwick is described to have retired from the office of Chancellor of Grayson around 1920 PD; this character, however, died in the destruction of HMS Queen Adrienne in Ashes of Victory.
==References==
===Characters===
Tyler Abercrombie | 
Danielle Abrioux | 
Malachai Abruzzi | 
Dominica Adenauer | 
Alexandros Adriopoulos | 
William Alexander | 
Hamish Alexander-Harrington | 
Honor Alexander-Harrington | 
Emily Alexander-Harrington | 
Raoul Alexander-Harrington | 
Daud al-Fanudahi | 
Engracia Alonso y Yáñez | 
Joachim Alquezar | 
Aldona Anisimovna | 
Gervais Archer | 
Ariel | 
Victoria Armstrong | 
Joshua Atkins | 
Marguerite Attunga | 
Mira Badmachin | 
Isabel Bardasano | 
Henrietta Barloi | 
Oravil Barregos | 
Pépé Bautista | 
Andre Beaupré | 
Antoine Belardinelli | 
Benjamin IX | 
Anthony Berkeley | 
Evangeline Bernard | 
Queen Berry | 
Chris Billingsley | 
Luke Blackett | 
Jessup Blaine | 
Édouard Boisvin | 
Helga Boltitz | 
Ninon Bourchier | 
Evangeline Bernard |
Harper Brantley | 
Mercedes Brigham | 
Ishmael Browne | 
Joseph Buckley | 
John Burrows | 
Josef Byng | 
Jennifer Cabeçadas | 
John Cabeçadas | 
Laura Cabeçadas | 
Miguel Cabeçadas | 
Serafina Cabeçadas | 
Victor Cachat | 
Rafael Cardones | 
James Candless | 
Thomas Caparelli | 
Frederick Carlson | 
Lyman Carmichael | 
Michael Carus | 
Sterling Casterlin | 
Hansen Chamberlain | 
Ambrose Chandler | 
Julie Chase | 
Darryl Chatfield | 
Hai-shwun Cheng | 
Anastasia Chernevsky | 
Genevieve Chin | 
Marjorie Chin | 
King Clinton III | 
Theresa Coleman | 
Jennifer Colenso | 
Thomas Colombo | 
Jerome Conner | 
Walter Corbett | 
Lucien Cortez | 
Amandine Corvisart | 
Raoul Courvosier | 
Chikosi Cottolengo | 
Sandra Crandall | 
Martin Culpepper | 
Chantelle Da Silva | 
William Daniels | 
Evelyn Danko | 
Lilian Danver | 
Paulo d'Arezzo | 
Severino Deangelo | 
Lewis Denton | 
Elaine Descroix | 
Albrecht Detweiler | 
Alexis Detweiler | 
Benjamin Detweiler | 
Collin Detweiler | 
Daniel Detweiler | 
Evelina Detweiler | 
Everett Detweiler | 
Franklin Detweiler | 
Gervais Detweiler | 
Dicey | 
Wilton Diego | 
Tabatha Dombroski | 
Lamprecht Doyle | 
W.E.B. Du Havel | 
Allen Duncan | 
Dominique Duncan | 
Tang Dzung-ming | 
William Edwards | 
Queen Elizabeth III | 
Stephen Enderby | 
Jessica Epstein | 
Lavinia Fairfax | 
Claudio Faraday | 
Jackson Fargo | 
Sebastián Fariñas | 
Farragut | 
Felix II |
Kyle Fernandez | 
Massimo Filareta | 
Charlotte FitzCummings | 
Ansten FitzGerald | 
Sheila Flynn | 
Karaamat Fonzarelli | 
Shannon Foraker | 
Walter Ford | 
Clement Foreman | 
Benjamin Frankel | 
Arnold Giancola | 
Javier Giscard | 
Patricia Givens | 
Adam Golbatsi | 
Stan Gregory | 
Yves Grosclaude | 
Aloysius Gruner | 
Thomas Guilford | 
Mateo Gutierrez | 
Shona Gyulay 
Berend Haarhuis | 
Abednego Haftner | 
Raymond Halstead | 
Alicia Hampton | 
Julius Hanks | 
Rachel Hanriot | 
Klaus Hauptman | 
George Hardy | 
Frances Harper | 
Francine Harper | 
Spencer Hawke | 
Horace Harkness | 
Alfred Harrington | 
Allison Chou Harrington | 
Benedict Harrington | 
Leah Harrington | 
Sarah Harrington | 
Abigail Hearns | 
Sonja Hemphill | 
Michelle Henke | 
Vivienne Henning | 
Allen Higgins | 
Roman Hitchcock | 
Junyan Hongbo | 
Albert Howard | 
Marcus Howell | 
Lieselotte Hübner | 
Stanley Hurskainen | 
Efron Imbar | 
Luciana Ingebrigtsen | 
Dunston Iwasaki | 
Manitoba Jackson | 
Sylvester Jackson | 
Edward Janacek | 
Andrea Jaruwalski | 
George Jefferson | 
Willis Jennings | 
Baltasar Juppé | 
Sharon Justice | 
Aikawa Kagiyama | 
Nikomedes Kakadelis | 
Naomi Kaplan | 
Oxana Karpova | 
Barnabas Kew | 
Augustus Khumalo | 
Winston Kingsford | 
Francine Klusener | 
Innokentiy Kolokoltsov | 
Felicidad Kolstad | 
Henri Krietzmann | 
Joan Kubrick | 
Andrew LaFollet | 
Miranda LaFollet |
Anthony Langtry | 
Ron Larson | 
Dunichi Lazlo | 
Cynthia Lecter | 
Denis LePic | 
Alice Levinsky | 
Ginger Lewis | 
Stillwell Lewis | 
Victor Lewis | 
Hector Lindsay | 
Anthony Lister | 
Reynaldo Lucas | 
Adrian Luff | 
Nathan MacArtney | 
Motoyuki MacDerment | 
Stilson MacDonald | 
William MacFarlane | 
James MacGuiness | 
Baruti Maddox | 
Nathalie Manning | 
Madison Marcos | 
Evgeny Markiewicz | 
Martin | 
Estelle Matsuko | 
Wesley Matthews | 
Francine Maurier | 
Anastasia McGillicuddy | 
Clifford McGraw | 
Samson McGwire | 
Alistair McKeon | 
Vince McMahon | 
Esther McQueen | 
Timothy Meares | 
Hayden Milne | 
Monroe | 
Catherine Montaigne | 
Atalante Montella | 
Rebecca Monticelli | 
Leslie Montreau | 
Travis Mueller | 
Samuel Mueller | 
Carissa Mulcahey | 
Franklin Musgrave | 
Leslie Myerson | 
Amal Nagchaudhuri | 
Aldonza Navarro | 
Tony Nesbitt | 
Gilderoy Neukirch | 
Nimitz | 
Keeley O'Cleary | 
Audrey O'Hanrahan | 
Milena Omelchenko | 
Kalidasa Omprakash | 
Shulamit Onassis | 
Manfred O'Neill | 
Wanda O'Reilly | 
Gregor O'Shaughnessy | 
Karol Østby | 
Valery Ottweiler | 
Zhing-wei Ou-yang | 
Michael Oversteegen | 
Valencia Pabst | 
Clifton Palmarocchi | 
Lydia Papnikitas | 
Michèle Péricard | 
John Pettigrew | 
Lindsey Phillips | 
Robert Pierre | 
Anton Polanski | 
Martinos Polydorou | 
Tom Pope | 
Eloise Pritchart | 
Omosupe Quartermain | 
Shigematsu Radhakrishnan | 
Rajampet Rajani | 
Cordelia Ransom | 
Steren Retallack | 
George Reynolds | 
Jacqueline Rivera | 
Marcelito Roelas y Valiente |
King Roger III | 
Angelina Rousseau | 
Luis Rozsak | 
Oscar Saint-Just | 
Samantha |
Nicolette Sambroth | 
Walter Sanderson | 
Franklin Sands | 
Victoria Saunders | 
Hago Shavarshyan | 
Terrence Shaw | 
Loretta Shoupe | 
Utako Shreiber | 
Sandra Staunton | 
Evelyn Sigbee | 
Herlander Simões | 
Hosea Simpkins | 
Ericka Stabolis | 
Heinrich Stabolis | 
Tobias Stimson | 
Vincent Stone | 
Brian Sugihara | 
Andrew Sugimatsu | 
Roderick Sung | 
Kunimichi Taketomo | 
Kyrillos Taliadoros | 
Paul Tankersley | 
James Tanner | 
Robert Tarantino | 
Jasper Taylor | 
Irene Teague | 
Robert Telmachi | 
Jeremiah Tennard | 
Aivars Terekhov | 
Maxwell Tersteeg | 
Thomas Theisman | 
Sheila Thiessen | 
Karl-Heinz Thimár | 
Karlotte Thimár | 
Hieronymus Thistlewaite | 
Randall Timmons | 
Irena Thomas | 
Frederick Topolev | 
Lester Tourville | 
Wilhelm Trajan | 
Warren Trammell | 
Prescott Tremaine | 
Linda Trenis | 
Alice Truman | 
Travis Tsau | 
Margaret Truman | 
Jeffrey Tullingham | 
Waldemar Tümmel | 
Voitto Tuominen | 
Yael Underwood | 
Yvonne Uruguay | 
Kevin Usher | 
Bernardus Van Dort | 
Jacomina van Heutz | 
Lorcan Verrochio | 
Aubrey Wanderman | 
Astrid Wang | 
Adrienne Warshawski | 
Samuel Weaver | 
James Webster | 
Bruce Wijenberg | 
Selma Wilkie | 
Harland Wingate | 
Ruth Winton | 
Agatá Wodoslawski | 
Judah Yanakov | 
Tina Yeager | 
Yelland | 
Gerald Younger | 
Truida Verstappen | 
Joseph Zachariah | 
Anton Zilwicki | 
Helen Zilwicki | 
Justin Zyrr-Winton
===Starships===
* GS Paul Tankersley
* HMS Aetna
* HMS Alistair McKeon
* HMS Artemis
* HMS Barbarossa
* HMS Bollard
* HMS Canopus
* HMS Fearless
* HMS Gauntlet
* HMS Goblin
* HMS Hercules
* HMS Hexapuma
* HMS Hippogriff
* HMS Horatius
* HMS Imperator
* HMS Inconceivable
* HMS Ivanhoe
* HMS Jessica Rice
* HMS Longshoreman
* HMS Madelyn Hoffman
* HMS Mauna Loa
* HMS New Popocatépetl
* HMS Nova Kilimanjaro
* HMS Pegasus
* HMS Quay
* HMS Quentin Saint-James
* HMS Reprise
* HMS Rigel
* HMS Saladin
* HMS Star Dance
* HMS Star Witch
* HMS Stevedore
* HMS Trebuchet
* HMS Tristram
* HMS Troll
* HMS Truculent
* HMS Vesuvius
* HMS Wayfarer
* HMS Yamamoto Date
* RMMS Starlight
* RHNS Haven One
* MANS Apparition
* MANS Chameleon
* MANS Genesis
* MANS Ghost
* MANS Mako
* MANS Wraith
* SLNS Alfred Wegener
* SLNS al-Kawarizmi
* SLNS Andreas Vesalius
* SLNS Anton von Leeuwenhoek
* SLNS Archimedes
* SLNS Avicenna
* Dispatch Boat 17702
* SLNS Charles Babbage
* SLNS Gregor Mendel
* SLNS Hipparchus
* SLNS Joseph Buckley
* SLNS Joseph Hutton
* SLNS Joseph Lister
* SLNS Leonardo da Vinci
* SLNS Marie Curie
* SLNS Max Planck
* SLNS Wilhelm Roëntgen
* Bolide
* Dahak
* Foxglove
===Stations===
* Blackbird Yard
* HMSS Hephaestus
* HMSS Vulcan
* HMSS Weyland
* Darius Prime
* Giselle
===Planets===
Dresden | 
Earth | 
Flax | 
Gamma | 
Grayson | 
Gryphon | 
Haven | 
Manticore | 
Mesa | 
New Potsdam | 
Sphinx
===Nations===
*Republic of Erewhon
*Republic of Haven
*Star Empire of Manticore
** Star Kingdom of Manticore
** Talbott Quadrant
*Mesan Alignment
**Democratic Republic of Thrace
**Directorate of New Orkney
**Kingdom of New Madagascar
**Line System
**Marquisate of Denver
**Maxwell Association
**Republic of Comstock
**Republic of Mannerheim
**Republic of New Bombay
**Second Chance Republic
**Visigoth System
*New Tuscany
*Protectorate of Grayson
*Solarian League
*Kingdom of Torch
===Other===
Act of Annexation | 
alpha line | 
Apollo | 
Aprilist | 
Attorney General | 
Audubon Ballroom | 
Barony of High Ridge | 
Barony of Medusa | 
Barony of Morncreek | 
Barony of Selleck | 
Battle Fleet | 
Battle of Lovat | 
Battle of Manticore | 
Battle of Spindle | 
Biological Survey Corps | 
Black Rock Clan | 
Brinks Fargo | 
Cabinet (Republic of Haven) | 
Case Lacoön | 
Cataphract | 
ceramacrete | 
Chancellor of the Exchequer |
Chief of Naval Operations | 
Clarke's Peerage | 
Committee of Public Safety | 
Conservative Association | 
Constitutional Progressive Party | 
Corporate Conservative Party | 
Coup de vitesse | 
Darius System | 
Deneb Accords | 
Earldom of Gold Peak | 
Earldom of Maiden Hill | 
Eighth Fleet | 
Edward Saganami-C-class | 
Foreign Office | 
Frontier Fleet | 
Frontenac Estuary | 
Frontenac Falls | 
Garronne River | 
Gamma Center | 
gamma line | 
genetic slavery | 
Ghost-class | 
Green Pines | 
Harrington Clan | 
Harrington Steading | 
High Ridge government | 
Home Secretary | 
House Foreign Affairs Committee (Haven) | 
Hydra-class | 
Imperial Governor General for the Talbott Quadrant | 
Invictus-class | 
Keyhole | 
Legislaturalist | 
Leonard Detweiler-class | 
Leveler Uprising | 
Limoges Mountains | 
Lynx Terminus | 
Madras Sector | 
Mannerheim System-Defense Force | 
Manpower Incorporated | 
Manufacturing and Prototyping Command | 
Matagorda System | 
Maya Sector | 
Mendel | 
Mesan Alignment | 
Mesan Alignment Navy | 
Meyerdahl First Wave | 
Meyers System | 
Minister of Industry (Manticore) | 
Minister of Trade | 
Minister of War (Talbott Quadrant) | 
Monica System | 
Mount Royal Palace | 
Neue-Stil Handgemenge | 
Nevada-class | 
New Conservative Party
New Democrat Party | 
New Tuscany System | 
Nike-class | 
Nouveau Paris | 
Oceana System | 
Office of Frontier Security | 
Office of Naval Intelligence (RMN) | 
Office of Naval Intelligence (SLN) | 
Office of Public Information | 
Office of Strategy and Planning | 
Operation Beatrice | 
Operation East Wind | 
Operation Oyster Bay |
Operation Thunderbolt | 
Operation Winter Forage | 
Owens Steadholder's Guard | 
Paul Revere | 
Péricard Tower | 
Permanent Senior Undersecretary | 
Plaza Falls Hotel | 
Protector's Birthday | 
Rampart-class | 
Renaissance Association | 
Renaissance Factor | 
Republic of Haven Navy | 
Rhône River | 
Rochambeau | 
Roland-class | 
Royal Manticoran Marine Corps | 
Royal Manticoran Navy | 
Scientist-class | 
Secretary of Biosciences | 
Secretary of Commerce | 
Secretary of the Interior | 
Secretary of State | 
Secretary of Technology | 
Secretary of the Treasury | 
Secretary of Urban Affairs | 
Secretary of War | 
Senate Foreign Affairs Committee (Haven) | 
Shark-class | 
Silesia Station | 
Society for Creative Anachronism | 
Solarian Gendarmerie | 
spider drive | 
Spindle System | 
streak drive | 
Supreme Court of the Republic of Haven | 
Systems Development Command | 
Talbott Cluster | 
Talbott Station | 
Tanners Port | 
Tannerman Ocean | 
Tasmania Sector | 
Technodyne Industries | 
Tenth Fleet | 
Theisman Coup | 
Tester | 
Vega-class | 
Veyret Ocean | 
Visigoth Wormhole Junction | 
War Harvest-class | 
Western Hemisphere (Earth) | 
Yawata Crossing
== External links ==
* Mission of Honor on Wikipedia
* David Weber's Authorial Note at the beginning of the Storm from the Shadows preview
Category:Honorverse material