the requisite rank for the position. Her team develops the tactics and doctrines necessitated by the revolutionary new weapons Manticore has developed. These are adopted by the Eighth Fleet, under Admiral Alexander, in its new offensive using the new technologies of Ghost Rider, LAC strike carriers, and pod-superdreadnaughts. At the end of Ashes of Victory, Harrington maneuvers her private intrasystem yacht to stop a missile strike targeting one spaceship, saving Queen Elizabeth and Protector Benjamin, but cannot save another ship carrying the star nation's prime minister and other high-ranking officials. As a result, the Manticoran government falls, and the new government is made up of a coalition of parties hostile to Harrington and the Queen, with no real interest of settling the war with Haven, and the new management in the Admiralty put Honor and Admiral White Haven on half-pay, so the two become the voice of the loyal opposition in the upper house of the Manticoran Parliament. Honor the politician The new government is corrupt and venal, looking for ways to take money from military projects and under the slogan of 'building the peace', divert the same tax base to pet projects where they can have minions siphon off funds to contributors and personal wealth, while simultaneously maintaining the state of emergency that prevents an automatic election because of pending changes in the House of Lords due to the annexation of Trevor's Star into the Star Kingdom. Having become a political thorn in the side of the government for over three years, the government concocts ways to smear Honor and Hamish Alexander, depicting the two as sexual partners. Despite Alexander's pre-existing marriage, the pair defuse the situation by entering into a polygamous marriage, something that is commonplace on Grayson. The government then decides the deteriorating situation in Silesia warrants sending Honor in command of a fleet to check expansionist activity by the Andermani Empire. War of Honor details this political backstory and the military build down by the corrupt government which is also antagonizing its allies as well as the new Haven government under President Eloise Pritchart, which is trying to make a peace settlement. Haven becomes tired of being put off in the peace talks and, having received technological upgrades from a secret research and development program and observed the many blunders of the Manticoran government which have weakened the RMN, decides to attack. Hearing that Honor is