Sorry for the long wait. Readers will be happy to know (I hope) that I'm still around, and everything's fine with me; I've just been busier this year. This marks the conclusion of An Offer She Can't Refuse after almost four years of writing off and on. I may return to the Offer-sub-universe at a later date (this story was supposed to be largely an AU War of Honor / Crown of Slaves / Shadow of Saganami , after all), but this is where I'm leaving things for now. Hope everyone enjoys it.

13

McGregor System

"I don't like it any more than you do," Admiral Hamish Alexander said. "But I don't see that we have any real choice but to disperse some reinforcements."

Admiral Judah Yanakov nodded. "The 'scouts' that visited some of the other systems nearby no longer enjoying the Republic of Haven's protection could have taken out their local pickets. And we made certain promises to them when they agreed to declare their independence."

In contrast to what it had done with some of its long-standing allies, the High Ridge government's foreign office people assigned to the systems captured from the Havenites had been quite good at their jobs. Possibly because no one with influential family connections found the positions appealing, people with an understanding of the right way to guide the locals into supporting full independence – which would be the most minimal long-term drain on the High Ridge government's budget – had taken the jobs. And for the most part they'd succeeded. Only a handful of systems 8th Fleet had taken from Haven had yet to hold a referendum on independence, and none had gone the 'wrong' way yet.

Vice-Admiral Aurora Bergamaschi concurred. The Erewhonese contingent of 8th Fleet was significantly smaller than the Manticoran or Grayson (in fact, the Graysons provided the most ships of the wall, but not by very many), but it was still two full squadrons of SD(P)s. And Bergamaschi was the ranking officer among them. "We have been reinforced and upgraded quite a bit since we set up shop here, no matter what Haven's come up with." She said.

And that was true. A little over half of 8th Fleet's SD(P)s were Medusa/Harringtons; the rest were Invictuses and Harrington IIs. And White Haven had over twice as many SD(P)s as he'd had in Operation Buttercup. If he only had a handful of the new Mark-16 based lighter ships, he still had Katanas in his carriers and his light units were all equipped with at least the extended range missiles the RMN had deployed in the transition period between conventional single-drive missiles and the Mark 16 dual-drive missiles the RMN's newest construction below the wall was designed to fire.

"I'm still holding five squadrons of the wall here, and we're not splitting off wallers in groups of less than four or without a carrier." He said. "And we're keeping the Invictuses and Harrington IIs here."

Which meant that some systems would only get reinforcements below the wall, or no reinforcements at all. But if the Havenites wanted to attack systems he was unwilling to cover with wallers with enough force to take the LACs, missile pods, and light warships there, then they either had more ships than Admiral Kral's worst-case estimates, or were spending an awful lot of effort to take a low-value target.

Lynx System

"I understand why Admiral Webster gave me the force mix he did," Augustus Khumalo said. "But I don't like the choices that gives us here." He had three squadrons of the wall between the terminus and the Lynx system, three carriers… and nothing else heavier than a heavy cruiser. And since none of the heavy cruisers were newer than an Edward Saganami-class, Commodore Eve Chandler's Arthur-class light cruisers were actually the most powerful units below the wall he had.

"This Josef Byng character doesn't seem likely to appreciate what your people are capable of." Dame Estelle Matsuko, crown governor of the Lynx system, said.

"No, he doesn't. But the Junction forts are fully on-line now, so I think the picket can spare a couple of Dame Evelyn's divisions and a carrier."

In fact, Chandler's light cruisers would be more than sufficient to deal with Byng's battle cruisers, especially with pods on tow, if the Solarian proved difficult to persuade. But facing actual ships of the wall with nothing heavier than a megaton, even the most arrogant Battle Fleet admiral just might back down. And they certainly had to send something; the Rembrandt Union had a mutual defense treaty with the Star Kingdom effective the day after the Union was officially formed, and a third of the officers on RNS Da Vinci had been Manticoran loaners.

Sidemore System

"I wish you could stay longer." Thomas Caparelli said. "We didn't technically lose anything heavier than a cruiser, but most of my wallers have taken some damage, and I suspect BuShips is going to decide my wounded Gryphons aren't worth repairing."

Even if BuShips decided to slow down retiring pre-pod ships in the wake of hostilities with the Empire – and Haven – they certainly weren't going to stop, or perform major repairs on them. And five of them had taken enough damage that they would need at least six months to repair. Under High Ridge, Admiral Hemphill had intended to retire the last pre-pod SDs from the RMN with the launch of the final flight of San Martins next year. It was too soon to say what the Alexander government's policy would be, but both Caparelli and Harrington believed the government would send the ships to the breakers.

"With any luck, the combination of what you have left and BatRon 43 should be able to handle anything the Andies or Haven have out this way." Honor replied. "But I have to think we'll be needed elsewhere. We're the only fleet that's Apollo-capable for now."

According to her latest letters from High Admiral Matthews, the GSN would launch its first handful of Harrington IIIs in the window before the next group of San Martins would complete at Weyland. But barring Blackbird pulling off a miracle, it wouldn't amount to even one complete squadron before then. And while the RMN's SD(P)s were, aside from Honor's fleet, evenly split between Invictuses which could be upgraded to Keyhole II and Apollo capability and Medusas that could not, three fourths of the GSN's wall of battle was of the original Harrington/Medusa design.

"You can inform Admiral Gold Peak that for administrative purposes, she's still part of 11th Fleet and merely on detached duty here." He said, and Honor returned a knowing smile.

Manticore System

"This is hardly unexpected, but I can't say I've got a good idea for what to do about it." William Alexander said. The Andermani – and Havenite – attack on Sidemore had been unexpected, but not outside the bounds of probability. That the Andies had hit half a dozen other systems along their border with the Silesian Confederacy was not altogether unexpected. But given the first two, the Confederacy making a formal request for Manticoran assistance was a logical consequence. "I don't see how to reasonably turn the Silesians down. But …"

"If we treat them like we normally treat our allies, any technology we share would be for sale to the highest bidder within weeks." Admiral Hemphill said.

"And if we don't, then maintaining that relationship and our credibility is going to require a delicate balancing act." Francine Maurier had taken over the Exchequer when the (slightly expanded) centrist coalition had regained power, but she had been First Lord of the Admiralty for most of the war. Or possibly the first war.

"With almost anyone else, I'd say we ought to go ahead and treat them like a full ally, even if we have reservations. But you're right, the Confederacy is a cesspool." Cathy Montaigne said. As Home Secretary, foreign policy was hardly her official domain, but that was certainly not going to stop her from offering an opinion. "We just might have enough leverage to do something about that, though."

She looked at the shocked faces in the room.

"No, I'm not going to propose any 'imperial adventures', unless you really squint." She continued. "But perhaps we might consider …"

14

Tequila System

Lt. Cmdr. Sarah Flanagan was the most junior Manticoran LAC squadron commander on the station. She wasn't the most junior, period, as a quarter of the LACs defending the system were manned by recently-trained Tequilans. And since the People's Republic had dismantled the previous incarnation of the Tequila Space Navy, and those who'd ended up in Havenite service later were not exactly welcomed by the new government, they had very few senior people, so most of those squadrons were commanded by Manticoran loaners.

Not quite all of them – Francesca Briones had been sent to Hades as a junior Lieutenant and spent nearly half a century there before escaping with Duchess Harrington. Briones had been a senior lieutenant in the GSN – and served in the LAC complement of one the first Grayson carriers. Which was how she'd found herself one of the most senior officers in her home system's rebuilt Navy; she was one of the very few native Tequilans who had any naval experience at all prior to the TSN's re-establishment.

Of course, neither Flanagan nor Briones – nor anyone else in-system – was really prepared to deal with two squadrons of the wall with carrier support. And it seemed like Haven had brought that.

[break]

Vice-Admiral Sampson Hermier examined his tactical plot from RHNS Vigilant.

"NavInt assured me that White Haven had dispersed almost half of his wall. So I would have expected some of it here." He mused.

"If he's kept things a little more concentrated than we'd like, Admiral Austell is likely to run into trouble." His ops officer noted.

"She still ought to be able to carry through." Counting on ought to against the RMN had never been a smart move, but it was possible. Here, though, the Manties were in trouble.

[break]

"CIC says three of the big boys are definitely carriers." Flanagan told her squadron. "And estimates are that a carrier built from an SD-sized hull could carry over 200 LACs. Which means, boys and girls, that we're going to be outnumbered. I trust this won't be a problem for you?"

She didn't mention that the Havenite SDs were definitely pod layers, and that she couldn't imagine a Navy commanded by Thomas Theisman making this attack unless those pods had MDMs in their tubes. There was, sadly, a place in the RMN for officers with far better political connections than tactical acumen these days. However, Admiral Hemphill and Admiral Webster had managed to ensure that for the most part, those officers did not have a combat command. Certainly Rear Admiral Alicia Corsini knew what she was doing.

Which was why Tequila's defending LACs were tasked with taking out their Havenite counterparts. The SDs would be up to system defense pods. Unfortunately, even an optimistic estimate of the pods' effectiveness would indicate they didn't have enough to take out sixteen SDs. There were some rumors flying about new systems that might change that, but Tequila certainly didn't have them.

[break]

"If they were hiding any wallers, or even any of those big battle cruisers we've heard about, they would have shown themselves by now." Hermier said. "Tell Admiral Raymond to launch his LACs, and let's get moving."

Over six hundred LACs exploded from the three carriers. Although the Manticorans weren't aware of it, the LACs he was deploying were actually Haven's second-generation modern LAC design, and a fairly sizeable upgrade from the original Cimeterre class that incorporated tech transfers from the Andermani. Unfortunately for the RHN, a substantial improvement from the original Cimeterre was still rather inferior in most respects to the RMN's – and TSN's – Shrike. And even more unfortunately, a third of the Manticoran LACs were not Shrikes or Ferrets. They were Katanas.

[break]

"This could get ugly quickly if those LACs are good enough. Or if they realize they aren't good enough quickly." Admiral Corsini said, more to herself than to her staff. Manticoran light attack craft – especially Katanas – were very difficult targets. But they were still LACs; even one hit from a capital missile would be fatal to them. And either the Havenite LACs were able to hold their own with hers – which ONI said was unlikely but wasn't categorically ruling out – or the Havenite ships of the wall would start firing MDMs at LACs once they realized she had no hyper-capable warships here. She'd sent off a dispatch boat to Admiral White Haven that would hopefully record things on its way out, but that was the best she could do.

[break]

"Raymond's LACs are getting torn up, sir." Hermier's ops officer noted. She tried to say that dispassionately, but one of the LAC squadron commanders out there was her brother. And it didn't like he'd have much longer.

"We'll have to back them up, then. It looks like the LACs are all they've got, even if these seem even better than what they had before the cease-fire."

And then Sarah Flanagan's squadron, and Francesca Briones' – and in fact almost every squadron the RMN / TSN combined LAC force – faced the missiles from two full squadrons of SD(P)s.

[break]

"Pick two of the SDs and see what we can do to them." Corsini ordered. It wouldn't save her LACs, but with the Havenite LACs largely out of the picture, the system defense pods had a much better chance of getting through their defenses.

That one of the targets her ops officer chose was RHNS Vigilant had been purely a coincidence.

[break]

"1000 missiles incoming. Locus is that cluster of asteroids." Hermier's ops officer reported. "Appears to be targeting us and Relentless." And they were going to have to try and stop them without the LACs that had been a critical part of the tactics Shannon Foraker had designed.

Counter-missiles and then point defense took out over 300 missiles. Another 100 were pure EW warheads. Still another 100 exploded harmlessly against the two SDs impeller wedges, or veered completely off course. But that meant each ship took the fire of 250 Mark 23 capital missiles, which were the most powerful warheads known to man. Neither survived the experience.

[break]

"Abandon ship!" Flanagan ordered. There was just possibly enough time for the LAC's tiny crew to make it to life pods before the next wave of Havenite MDMs arrived. And she and her squadron had done all they could. She hoped Duchess Harrington was right about Thomas Theisman, since it seemed very likely she was going to end up a POW if she made it to the life pod in time.

[break]

Rear Admiral James Raymond surveyed what he'd won. He was in possession of the system, after all. But he'd lost four of 'his' sixteen SDs (Admiral Hermier having been lost with RHNS Vigilant) and almost his entire LAC contingent. And two other SDs would need a long stay in a shipyard before committing them to action again. If the other attacks went like this, then this war was not going to go well for Haven.

Those Katanas and their system-defense pods are a nasty combination. Raymond thought. So wherever White Haven sent his wallers to reinforce, it was probably worse.

He had Sarah Flannagan and the handful of prisoners on his flagship. Not surprisingly, the weren't very talkative. And since he was no longer in the employ of the People's Republic of Haven, that was that.

New Tuscany System

"CIC is reporting a heavy hyper footprint dropped in." Lt. Maitland Askew relayed to Captain Mazawa. He supposed the same information would be making it to Admiral Byng, but there was no telling what the Battle Fleet Admiral could manage to ignore.

"And what is it?" SLNS Jean Bart's captain asked. Of course, Mazawa didn't know exactly what that footprint was, but he could make a pretty good guess who it was. There had been enough time for a round trip from New Tuscany to Lynx since that unfortunate incident a few days ago. Maybe the Manties could make it a bit faster.

"They're saying five SDs, fifteen heavy cruisers, and something around 4 megatons. My bet would be an ammunition collier." Askew said. "The SDs and half of the cruisers are broadcasting Manty transponders; the other half Rembrandt Union."

Mazawa didn't like what he was about to do. But he didn't see that he had much choice in the matter. "Get me Admiral Byng."

"You've noticed our guests." Byng said, the sneer dripping from his voice.

"With all due respect, they have five ships of the wall, and every one of them is pulling a higher accel than our battle cruisers can at maximum military power. We can't fight them, and we can't evade them." Certainly not from New Tuscany orbit, at any rate.

"And that gives them the right to threaten the Solarian League Navy?"

"It gives them the ability to do so."

[break]

Rear Admiral Dame Evelyn Padgorny would not have been Admiral Khumalo's first choice for a diplomatically touchy assignment. But she was also probably the best combat commander among his SD(P) division commanders. It wasn't likely Byng would try and fight ships of the wall, but nothing about the New Tuscan situation made a lot of sense. If he needed a sharp stick, she meant to be it for him.

"Record for transmission to the Solly flagship. I'd rather not let them know about Hermes buoys just yet." Padgorny said. "Admiral Byng, I am Rear Admiral Dame Evelyn Padgorny, Royal Manticoran Navy, commanding officer of the Manticoran and Rembrandt Union forces in this system, and I am here in response to your unprovoked attack upon a unit of the Rembrandt Union Navy in this star system, specifically the cruiser RNS Leonardo Da Vinci under the command of Captain Simona Klopstra, which was on a diplomatic mission from the Union to the New Tuscan government. Because of the mutual defense treaties that exist between the Star Kingdom and the Union, and because a large portion of Da Vinci's crew were in fact Manticoran loaners, Her Majesty's government felt it had a clear and compelling interest to intervene.

"Your actions, as I'm sure you must be aware, constitute not merely a cowardly act of murder, but also an act of war."

"Neither the Star Kingdom of Manticore nor the Rembrandt Union desire additional bloodshed," Padgorny continued. "However, I am instructed to require you to stand down your vessels. I am not demanding their permanent surrender to the Royal Manticoran Navy and Rembrandt Union Navy. I am, however, informing you that you will stand them down; you will make arrangements with the New Tuscan government to transfer all but a skeleton anchor watch of your personnel to the surface of the planet; you will stand by to be boarded by parties of Royal Marines and Royal Navy personnel and their Rembrandt Union counterparts, who will take temporary possession of your vessels and custody of your tactical data; and you will not delete any tactical information relevant to this incident from your computers. Your vessels will remain in this star system, under Manticoran and Rembrandt control, until an Alliance board of inquiry has determined precisely what happened here and who bears the responsibility for the deaths of hundreds of Rembrandter and Manticoran personnel."

"Special Minister Bernardus Van Dort is here aboard my flagship as the direct representative of the Rembrandt Union's Prime Minister and Cabinet, and Amandine Corvisart is representing the Star Kingdom. They will present a formal note to you, recapitulating the points I've just made. They will also present a similar note to the New Tuscan government, informing them that the Star Empire of Manticore requires its cooperation in this investigation, that none of our requirements are negotiable, and that, should New Tuscany prove wholly or partially responsible for what happened here, it, too, will be held to account by the Star Empire."

She paused once more, her eyes as unyielding as her face, and her voice was harder still when she continued.

"I will reach New Tuscany orbit approximately one hour and thirty-five minutes after your receipt of this message. I require a response from you, accepting my requirements, within the half-hour. Should you choose to reject my government's requirements, I am authorized to use deadly force to compel you to change your mind. I have no more desire to kill Solarian personnel than anyone else, Admiral Byng, but Rembrandter and Manticoran personnel have already been killed in this star system. I will not hesitate, should you choose to resist, to employ whatever force is necessary and inflict whatever casualties are required to compel your compliance. I will expect to hear from you within thirty standard minutes of now.

"Padgorny, clear."

[break]

"And what do you suggest we say to that insult, Captain?" Byng asked.

"We still can neither escape the system nor hope to defeat ships of the wall. So I would strongly suggest complying with her demands." Mizawa replied.

Easy for Mizawa to say that. Mizawa wouldn't be the one to be the first SLN Admiral to surrender his fleet in centuries. He'd be filing reports to Frontier Fleet command claiming this entire confrontation was Byng's fault, not the inevitable result of Manty and Rembrandter arrogance. And the Manties were supposed to be more advanced than most neobarbs, but if they were building ships of the wall nearly two megatons heavier than the SLN, maybe they weren't. Except for those insane acceleration rates.

"There's no chance we can evade them?" He asked, trying not to sound panicked.

"Not with those acceleration rates. Even if their missiles don't have the range they're claiming, they can close to energy range before we can clear the hyper limit." Byng's staff astrogator reluctantly said.

"Then I suppose we have no choice but to give this uppity neobarb what she wants. Until Admiral Crandall hears about this, anyway." He said.

Because no matter what tricks the Manties had, taking on seventy wallers with eighteen – if they could even concentrate their wall at Lynx – was suicide. And they'd had less than three years to put in any fixed defenses; there couldn't be much in place even with that damn Junction to send material and workers from Manticore.

[break]

"Admiral Khumalo was right, ma'am. Our interviews with Admiral Byng and his officers made it clear that he almost certainly would have tried to fight anything less than ships of the wall. Mizawa's people would have advised against it, but they would have obeyed orders." Padgorny's staff intelligence officer told her.

"Some of his people seem more confident than they ought to be. I'd give a lot for a treecat, but there doesn't appear to be one in our little task force." She said. "We'll see if the cyberneticists come up with anything, but I'm not optimistic. The New Tuscans are probably a better bet for more information, if they've got anything."

15

McGregor System

HMS Invictus

It was just by chance that Admiral White Haven had been onboard Invictus for a training exercise when the alert came in. He'd designated the ship his flagship, but he spent at least as much time in his office on-station or downside on McGregor as he did on the ship. They weren't just the forward staging point for the Alliance fleet, they were also building relationships out here that the Queen hoped to last long past the end of this war. And that meant that he often felt like he needed to be in at least three places at once.

He'd had no choice but to disperse some of his fleet to deal with the possibility of Havenite raids. Still, he'd kept his Invictuses and Harrington IIs and some supporting elements here. Fewer carriers, because he could draw on the hundreds of LACs based at the station. Still, even with almost half of his wall gone, what he had could wipe out any fleet without MDMs and podlayers.

The problem was that unlike the People's Navy under the Committee, the Republic of Haven Navy was run even at the highest levels by people Hamish knew were highly competent. And while he believed they couldn't know the full capabilities of his ships – he'd only had the older Harrington/Medusas in Operation Buttercup, and the Junction meant news made it from Sidemore to McGregor a lot more quickly for him than it could possibly have for his opposite number – they almost certainly did have a pretty good idea of what the previous generation was capable of. And would not have ordered an attack they believed was hopeless.

Certainly simple counting tonnage favored Haven. But he didn't see any choice other than to determine experimentally if he had enough quality of ships and sailors to offset that quantitative edge. He knew all the improvements that had been made in his hardware since Buttercup, but he could only guess at what Haven had. And without this base, he'd likely have to fall all the way back to Trevor's Star.

RHNS Conquette

"It looks like we'll have more company than we expected today." Javier Giscard said. Admiral Trenis had hoped White Haven would keep only three squadrons of wallers here. Official planning expected four. But there looked to be five still here. And none matched any class he had detailed sensor profiles of, which had to mean they were all Invictuses and Harrington IIs.

"Enough more to call it off?" His operations officer asked.

In a lot of ways, he would have liked to. The official estimates said he still had enough of an advantage to take the system, but a quarter of his wallers were still pre-pod SDs and another quarter were first-generation SD(P)s without most of the upgrades the collaboration with the Andermani had brought. And the official estimates said an Invictus was no more than 5% more effective than Manticore's first-generation SD(P). Which Giscard had some trouble accepting.

But if White Haven wasn't defeated or at least forced to abandon the system, then he'd concentrate his forces again, add whatever reinforcements they could send from Manticore and Grayson, and head straight for Eloise in New Pairs.

"No." He said. "The rest of the operation will have been for almost nothing if we don't finish things off here."

ENS Maytag

Vice-Admiral Aurora Bergamaschi had remained at McGregor when the fleet had been dispersed. She supposed she could have chosen to command one of the detachments, as Judah Yanakov had done.

But that meant the Erewhonese admiral was now White Haven's second in command, which might compensate some for having to send off half of her command. The ESN was only now upgrading its yards to build modern battle cruisers, and was content for now to buy Manticoran-built wallers. So while they had two squadrons of SD(P)s, and the newest one was even of Invictus-class ships, both had been the very last squadrons built of their classes before the yards moved on.

White Haven believed it was quite possible any Havenite attack could concentrate first on the ESN, and Bergamaschi had agreed. The men and women who were her ships' senior officers now had acquitted themselves well in the first war, but the ESN never gained the reputation that the RMN or GSN did. She intended to change that.

RHNS Conquette

"I'm picking up an awful lot of recon drones." Giscard's staff electronics officer noted.

"Tell the LACs to swat them if they can, but we've never been able to do much about them." Giscard said. He didn't expect much success. Their Andermani friends had provide the RHN with much-improved FTL capacity – without their allies, they'd be using LACs for FTL recon platforms, not drones – but he suspected their bandwidth was not much higher than the RMN had opened the first war with. And while there was no way to tell what the Manty drones were sending, the pulse rate was certainly far higher than theirs could manage.

And they'd be entering range of the Erewhonese squadron leading the Manty formation soon. Their range first. It had been unfortunate that their allies had not been able to help there; in fact, what Shannon Foraker and her people had reverse-engineered from Many hardware was in most respects far superior to the first-generation Andermani MDMs. They'd been able to make substantial upgrades to their electronics, but hadn't been able to give them longer legs. Though if they could shrink the Andy recon drone power plants a bit more, then putting fusion plants in MDM might not be such a radical idea.

HMS Invictus

Unfortunately for Giscard, the RMN had already implemented that idea. "Tell Admiral Bergamaschi to fire at will." He said.

"Commodore Xiao wants to know if you're sure he should stay put." His commo officer relayed. It wasn't surprising the McGregor Navy's commander in space would ask. He had nearly a hundred LACs and a handful of light warships – none heavier than a light cruiser, and none under twenty years old – and a lot of Manticoran loaners, and those who were not had all been trained up since McGregor had agreed to host 8th Fleet. And so every one of them felt they owed the Alliance something.

"We're out here for a reason; his mission is to protect the planet." White Haven said.

Bergamaschi fired just as soon as the lead Havenite ships entered her maximum powered range. Accuracy wouldn't be great from that far out without Apollo, but it would be a lot better than anything Haven could manage even if they could match the range without a ballistic phase. Especially with the recon drones giving him FTL information updates in one direction. And since they'd failed to return fire right away, it was perhaps true that Sonja's worst-case threat estimate (which was what their plans had been developed around, of course) was a little pessimistic.

RHNS Conquette

Any illusions Giscard had that a 2:1 edge in wallers would be enough for an overwhelming edge evaporated the first salvo from the Erewhonese SD squadron cost him an SD. The 'layered defense' of Shannon's hadn't been quite as effective as it had been in the sims thanks to the RMN's fusion-powered Mark-23 capital missiles. But it had still taken out a lot of missiles. The problem was that the Erewhonese had seemed to expect it, as they'd concentrated their fire on a single ship. A few stray missiles had taken out LACs, but that was his only other losses.

And it seemed that that they intended to hold the range and bring more of their fleet to be bear with the same tactic.

"We'll have to live with inaccuracy. Target the Erewhonese for now." He said.

ENS Maytag

The individual missiles coming at Bergamaschi's squadron weren't quite as good as the RMN's first-generation MDMs. Admiral Hemphill's directive had been to assume any new Havenite MDMs could match that capability until they had solid evidence otherwise, and preparing for that level of threat helped a lot with their missile defense. Because there were rather more missiles coming their way than she expected, and she didn't quite understand how they could possibly have had that many pods.

Something for the after-action report, she hoped. Right now, she had a few thousand missiles coming at her squadron to stop.

RHNS Conquette

"The Manties – and the Erewhonese and Graysons – are rolling ship!" Someone shouted.

If White Haven was going to run away without a fight, Giscard would have thought he'd do it before the battle, not in the middle of one. So they had to be up to something.

"And they're still firing!" How was something he'd need to find out later.

"We need to start whittling them down." Giscard said.

And with his entire fleet concentrated on White Haven's wallers, tens of thousands of system-defense pods fired at a fleet that had been drawn to exactly where Hamish Alexander wanted them to.

HMS Invictus

"A few of the Erewhonese have taken a hit or two, but no major damage to any of our capital ships so far, and they didn't see the system defense pods at all until they launched." One of White Haven's staff reported.

And he watched his plot as the Havenite wall of battle disintegrated. No more than half of the ships survived the combination of the pods and his warships' fire. Only six SDs escaped any damage – two by blind luck, and the other four because White Haven had given primary targeting to the SD(P)s.

RHNS Conquette

Missile fire poured into RHNS Conquette – and every ship in the fleet – despite heroic efforts from their missile defense crews and their escorting LACs. With time, fire plans could be adjusted to deal with whatever let them fight wedge-forward, but he didn't have it.

"Eloi—" he began, his voice soft in the hurricane of alarms and devastation.

He never finished her name.

Epilogue

Manticore

"So the 9th battle squadron the Protector's Own is going to be attached to 11th Fleet." Jim Webster told Honor Harrington. "And once they get here you'll be moving to McGregor to join with 8th Fleet as soon as possible." And prepare to move on Haven itself was the unspoken order. The 9th was the first GSN squadron built with Apollo, and the only non-RMN units with it until they started running Invictuses and Harrington IIs through a refit cycle. No one in Landing intended to call things off short of an unconditional surrender.

Where she was obliged to pretend she and White Haven didn't have feelings for each other. But she'd become fairly good at that.

[break]

"So," Admiral Hemphill told the meeting of senior BuWeaps officers. "If we assume Haven or the Andies give the Sollies everything they've got and the SLN is hostile, what's our plan?"

It was one way to kick off another development cycle, at any rate.

Haven

Izrok Levakonic had never been to Nouveau Paris before, and had never expected to come there at all after the Havenites had unceremoniously kicked Technodyne's reps back to Yildun once their alliance with the Andermani had been finalized. The Andies, unlike Technodyne, didn't have to skirt around a trade embargo and were rather more enthusiastic partners. But after New Tuscany, it was clear the SLN needed major upgrades to get within shouting distance of Manty hardware. He could only get that in Haven or the Andermani Empire. And the Havenites should be more willing to deal.

[break]

Tom Theisman took another drink. The last time he'd been like this, Cordelia Ransom had dropped in. Which would suit his mood just perfectly, if not for her being rather dead. Two months. That's all they'd needed to avoid a spark that set off war for, and they would have gotten a Manticoran government that was prepared to negotiate seriously. Was being the operative word.

"You don't like this any better than I do, Tom." Eloise Pritchart said. Between skillful application of cosmetics and iron resolve, she might have been able to hide from the public her grief over Javier Giscard's death, but Theisman knew it was there.

"And I don't see any alternative, even if it's sitting down with the devil." He replied.

"Giancola would love to leak Technodyne's offer to the press if we declined. I'd be impeached. And I wouldn't be completely sure congress would be wrong for doing it." She said.

Mesa

"You don't see any prospects for an expedited Oyster Bay, then?" Albrecht Detweiller asked.

"We've done some modeling on how to do an actual attack with the Sharks rather than merely a training exercise. But we don't have enough of them to even take out all of Manticore and Grayson's major shipyards with the San Martin yards online. And that's ignoring the battle cruiser yards under construction at Rembrandt and Erewhon, and repair facilities at Grendelsbane and Lynx. Besides, I'm not at all sure leaving Haven and the Andermani alone is wise. They might not be able to match the Manties, but in more conventional warfare they come far closer than we do." Benjamin told his father.

"And Verdant Vista?" Web du Havel's government seemed to be holding together quite well.

"I'm afraid we're going to have to write off that avenue of approach for a while. Mannerheim would need to move openly to dispatch enough force to get rid of the Manty/Erewhonese picket and even if they're the Factor's strongest SDF, they'd have trouble matching the ESN, let alone the RMN, on their own."

"Do you have any good news?"

"It looks like Levakonic's mission to Haven is going to succeed, which should get us a lot closer to conventional parity with Manticore in the long run. But that will take some time. And there's still no one out there that even suspects we exist. So even if we can't create an effective conflict between the League and Manticore, we'll have lost nothing but a few years."