A Rising Thunder
David Weber
 The book begins in March 1922 P.D. as tensions continue to escalate between the Star Empire of Manticore and the Solarian League after the battles of New Tuscany, Spindle, and the Yawata Strike. Manticore begins to enact Case Lacoön by recalling all of its merchant vessels from Solarian space, taking control of, and denying access to wormhole bridges and junctions to Solarian traffic. As the effects of Manticore's actions begin to reverberate throughout the League, Permanent Senior Undersecretary Innokentiy Kolokoltsov and his four fellow senior bureaucrats, known derisively as "the five Mandarins", start feeling the pressure from the transstellar corporations and criticisms from the media. While it is clear that Manticore is in a position to do the League economy tremendous harm, the Mandarins are not willing to pay the political and diplomatic price of taking responsibility for the actions of the League Navy. They continue to support Admiral Rajani Rajampet's planned invasion of the Manticoran Star System, despite the risk that a failure of the invasion will make them look even weaker and ineffectual than before. In the meantime, Captain Anton Zilwicki and Agent Victor Cachat arrive at Haven and present to President Eloise Pritchart their evidence of Mesan involvement in the assassinations that triggered the resumption of hostilities between Haven and Manticore. Upon hearing this and supporting information from their defector, Dr. Herlander Simões, about other new technologies and revelations before unknown about Mesa, she sets out on an unprecedented state visit to Manticore. The evidence is presented to a reluctant Empress Elizabeth, who is finally convinced that Haven is no longer the enemy and agrees, not only to negotiate a peace treaty, but to accept Pritchart's offer of military alliance against the upcoming League attack. Hearing about this visit and the intelligence Zilwicki and Cachat brought with them regarding Mesa's plans, the Beowulf government arrives for an unexpected visit of its own to join the new "Grand Alliance". Shortly afterwards, Protector Benjamin Mayhew arrives from Grayson to participate in the peace talks and the represent the other members of the Manticoran Alliance. Admiral Filareta arrives at the Manticoran System, with a massive fleet of 420 superdreadnoughts, and proceeds upon a course to Sphinx. The Grand Alliance Fleet, under Honor's overall command, executes its battle plan. Honor then contacts Filareta and attempts to dissuade him from continuing on his mission. Filareta refuses to back down despite Harrington's repeated warnings not to cross the system's hyper-limit and demands that she stand down her ships and surrender. The Solarian 11th Fleet crosses the hyper limit and Harrington springs her trap - Her own ships emerge out of stealth in front of 11th Fleet while Haven's forces drop out of hyperspace behind it. Harrington then contacts Filareta again and reveals the misdirection. Filareta realizes that his position is hopeless and orders a surrender, but to his shock, his ops officer suddenly launches all the 51,000 missile from their pods without orders. Harrington promptly opens fire in response. The total losses for the SLN in the Second Battle of Manticore are staggering, even for the SLN. Manticore's own losses are marginal. In Beowulf, an additional fleet sent to support 11th Fleet via the Wormhole terminus is forced to retreat when faced with the combined forces of the Beowulf System Defense Force and a Manticoran task force under the command of Admiral Alice Truman. Upon news of 11th Fleet's destruction, the five Mandarins find themselves forced to contend with the consequences of this debacle. Their failures to crush Manticore and reverse the effects of their actions have been a serious blow to the League's prestige. Yet any negotiated settlement with Manticore would be done from a position of weakness, so they decide they have no choice but to continue their current policies. They accuse Manticore of perfidy and Beowulf of treason for its discordance with League policy vis-à-vis Manticore. Their efforts to convince the public are successful and the Manticoran Embassy and the Beowulf Assembly Delegation Office are besieged by angry mobs who protest their actions. Admiral Rajampet, despite the failure of his strategy against Manticore, does not intend to become the Mandarins' scapegoat and prepares to release damaging information on all of them should they try to lay the blame of this failure upon him. But before his meeting with them, he suddenly commits suicide. Upon the death of Admiral Rajampet, his deputy, Admiral Winston Kingsford becomes the acting head of the SLN and is summoned to Kolokoltsov's office to brief him on the League's military options vis-à-vis Manticore. Kinsford, far more cautious and smarter than Rajampet, promptly informs Kolokoltsov of the unpalatable truth: Manticore's military advantage over the League is so overwhelming that any further confrontations between their respective capital ships will all be one-sided massacres. Even worse is the economic and political analysis presented to Kolokoltsov at that meeting. Ultimately, Kingsford presents Kolokoltsov with their only options: fighting a commerce-raiding war until they can match Manticore's military capability or sue for terms. Kolokoltsov convinces the other Mandarins that their best chance is to adopt Kingsford's recommendations, score some victories and only then attempt a negotiated settlement that would not be detrimental to the League's internal stability. They also maneuver to have the Beowulf System Government investigated for treason to divert attention away from their own failings. The maneuver backfires badly however, when the head of the Beowulf delegation to the Assembly declares, in response to the motion, that her government intends to invoke a never before used section of the League constitution which allows member systems to secede from the League, to be confirmed by a referendum of Beowulfan voters (which is certain to pass by a huge majority). The story concludes with indication of a planned SLN strike upon Beowulf, to prevent this eventuality.