Uncompromising Honor

The story occurs in 1922 and 1923 "Post Diaspora," or 4025/4026 CE. The Grand Alliance of the Star Empire of Manticore, the Republic of Haven, the Protectorate of Grayson, and the newly independent Directorate of Beowulf, among others, are at war with the Solarian League as a consequence of a conflict triggered by the Mesan Alignment.

The Alignment, a secret society, is determined to conquer the galaxy to remove all opposition to its plan for the genetic "uplift" of the human race. A series of previous events — though designed to destabilize Manticore and other nations — instead led to the defection of an agent with full knowledge of the Alignment's basic organization and goals. The Alignment thus caused almost all of its most dangerous enemies to league together for the express purpose of defeating it; in response, it ruthlessly accelerates its plans, leading to mass-casualty atrocities across the galaxy.

In the Solarian League, five career bureaucrats (the "Mandarins"), who control almost all government affairs from "Old Chicago" on the League's capital, Planet Earth, continue to reject Alliance claims that the League is being manipulated by the Alignment; indeed, they deny that the Alignment even exists. In the belief that the formation of the Grand Alliance is meant to displace the League as the galaxy's preeminent power, but recognizing that the Alliance possesses an almost insurmountable military edge, the Mandarins order the Solarian League Navy (SLN) to conduct a series of hit-and-run raids on star systems friendly to the Allies.

League commanders are ordered to indiscriminately destroy the civilian infrastructure of any independent system that trades with the Alliance; this abuse is later extended to any League system attempting to secede as Beowulf did. Certain to cause countless innocent deaths, the plan is in truth an Alignment plot planted within the League's doctrine to destroy its legitimacy, while also allowing the League to damage the Alliance as much as possible. The Royal Manticoran Navy annihilates one League raiding force in the Ajay System, before a smaller Manticoran force barely beats back a raid on the Hypatia System, at the cost of 90 percent casualties. Later on, the Alignment accelerates "Operation Houdini" on Planet Mesa itself, which has been occupied by the Alliance; dozens of nuclear charges are detonated across the planet to erase evidence of the Alignment's existence and frame the Alliance for the deaths of millions of civilians.

Events come to a head when the League invades Beowulf with the Alignment's covert assistance. Though Alliance defenses are sabotaged by a secret Alignment weapon, the defenders nonetheless nearly wipe out the attacking League force and preserve most of the system's industrial and military infrastructure. However, the Alignment, a centuries-old enemy of Beowulf, smuggles nuclear weapons aboard its massive orbital habitats. The detonations kill more than 43 million people, mostly civilians, but also large numbers of Alliance government officials. The bombings occur well after the total defeat of the League force, because of a timing error by the Alignment's agents, conclusively proving that the Alignment is real and a dangerous threat to the entire galaxy.

In response, the Alliance decides to put an end to its conflict with the League and force its government to come to terms with the threat. Admiral Honor Harrington destroys more than 2,000 years of built up infrastructure within the Solar System and imposes surrender terms on the League. Military and political leaders on Earth, having uncovered the Alignment's infiltration of the League, use the opportunity to depose the Mandarins and promulgate genuine reform. Having lost many friends and family in decades of war, Harrington vows that her military career is over, but Empress Elizabeth of Manticore remains confident that if the need arises, Honor Harrington will answer the call of duty.

Uncompromising Honor debuted at #9 on the New York Times Bestseller List.[4]