History Awesome / HonorHarrington

* The Blue Mountain Dancing Clan of treecats in the short story "A Beautiful Friendship". They [[GondorCallsForAid come to the aid]] of Climbs Quickly and Stephanie Harrington, the first human-treecat bonded pair, and puree a hexapuma, whom Climbs Quickly and Stephanie were fighting.
** Note that Stephanie had only a vibroknife, against [[MegaNeko a rather large predatory feline]] that beggars the worst Earth felines can offer, while with a banged up knee and a broken arm.
** That was considered a [=CMOA=] in-story as well, by Climbs Quickly's tribe. A hexapuma, or "death fang" is a foe so feared that even treecats will only take one on in a mass attack by an entire clan's complement of hunters and scouts. That Stephanie Harrington, a ''child'', would take one on ''alone'' (while already suffering from broken bones!) to defend one wounded treecat instantly earned humanity an ''immense'' amount of respect from treecats. (Granted, the treecats were entirely aware that a human teenager weighs as much as five or six treecats all put together, but its still bleeding impressive.) Appropriately, Stephanie's treecat name is [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast "Death Fang's Bane."]] And the entire family basks in her inherited glow.
** And according to the narration, Stephanie ''had already killed it'', her knife had punctured the hexapuma's heart, it just hadn't stopped moving yet.
* Judith Newland. Leads an escape of [[TheFundamentalist Masadan]] women and children, to the point where they call her their Moses. So much did they believe in her that she basically became their representative on Manticore, and caught the eye of Prince Michael.

* Honor in ''On Basilisk Station''. Part of her overwhelming duties at Basilisk Station is to hold customs inspections. The NPA, the local customs agency, is mainly ex-Army and ex-Marines, so they have almost no experience finding smuggling compartments or the like. During the meeting with the head of the NPA customs, she calls in the Bosun.

**** Considering that [[spoiler:Alignment]] has its own plans upon plans, but ''does not'' know of the recent developments on the heroes' side, the whole thing just started sliding into the ThirtyGambitPileup territory really fast. Unless someone on either side is '' really'' good at XanatosSpeedChess (yes, we're all looking at you, [[MemeticBadass Vic]]) the situation may easily become a perfect illustration to the FUBAR[[hottip:NSFW:Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition]] acronym.

* ''Honor of the Queen'': Wiping out the assassination squad sent against the Protector, and then charging straight into a massively more powerful ship though she knows her ship is too crippled to do really much of anything, just because it's the only chance the planet has... with her favourite music playing over the bridge.
* Nimitz gets one in the second novel, ''Honor of the Queen,'' when he goes utterly berserk on a false security guard, [[spoiler:and thereby provides enough warning for himself, Honor, and the real security men to keep Protector Benjamin and his family alive through a very determined assassination attempt]].
** This troper theorizes that if Manticore can use their newfound signing abilities to organize treecat military units, they will be unstoppable.

* ''On Basilisk Station:'' light cruiser as sole protection for an entire start system (of contested ownership,) with an stupid armament mix, creates and maintains order in the system anyway, and finally fights off a [[spoiler:Q ship that outmasses her ship by a ridiculous margin.]]
** The mass is actually irrelevant - Q ship has huge mass because it is a merchant vessel that is converted into an armed vessel. It is basically a glass cannon - heavily armed but unarmored.
** Re: her first light cruiser - in the latest novel, Admiral Hemphill finally finds an opportunity to discuss its armament mix with Honor. Her comments boil down to 'That ship was intended solely as a testbed! Even '''I''' wouldn't be so stupid as to actually send you into ''combat'' with it!!!'

* Shannon Foraker in ''Ashes of Victory'': Her Admiral, Lester Tourville, has just gotten a message from the State Security commander which is essentially his death sentence. [[spoiler:He gets half way through his message when his ship, and ''the two full squadrons of ships'' with it spontaneously explode...because of an innocent little data packet Foraker sent over the com net as he was talking.]] And what does she have to say about this? "Oops!"

*** They do. And try as they might to do ''anything'' that could delay the inevitable, they've got only mixed results. Sure, they've got some tactical advantage, but just so happened to ''completely'' piss off several most frightening persons in their whole universe. The results are expected to be... ''[[{{Understatement}} impressive]]''.

* Honor Harrington at the end of ''Flag In Exile''. Honor has: been called a whore for most of the book, [[spoiler:blamed herself for an industrial accident which killed a group of schoolchildren, learned that the "accident" was sabotage, had her aircar shot down, and saved from a point-blank assassination when ''Grayson's spiritual leader'' [[HeroicSacrifice threw himself in front of her]], and generally [[{{Hamlet}} suffered the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.]] She finally gets to the Council Chamber, battered, bruised, limping and exhausted, presents her evidence, and names the man who's been orchestrating all of this...who promptly claims a traditional form of justice and demands to face the Protector's Champion in trial by sword combat. And guess who that is? The Protector, seeing that she's in no shape to fight, begins to back off from his proclamation (which will undermine his authority for all time), but she cuts him off:]]
--> '''Honor''': Your Grace, I have only one question. [[spoiler:Do you wish this man crippled, or dead?]]
** If that wasn't enough, as soon as she's done with that, [[spoiler:she has to defend the system from an invasion fleet which outnumbers and outguns hers...''again''.]]
** Hell, that's most of her entire career.
*** Ms Midshipwoman Harrington: [[spoiler: takes over command of her ship while not even technically an officer yet because everyone else is dead, unconscious, or out of communication, and stern rakes]][[hottip:*: the bow and stern of the warships are relatively unprotected. "rake": cross your (well protected, weapon heavy) broadside across their bow or stern, firing in sequence to that every weapon hits their vulnerable area.]][[spoiler: the attacking ship from ridiculously short range, destroying it.]]
*** On Basilisk Station: light cruiser as sole protection for an entire start system (of contested ownership,) with an stupid armament mix, creates and maintains order in the system anyway, and finally fights off a [[spoiler:Q ship that outmasses her ship by a ridiculous margin.]]
**** Re: her first light cruiser - in the latest novel, Admiral Hemphill finally finds an opportunity to discuss its armament mix with Honor. Her comments boil down to 'That ship was intended solely as a testbed! Even '''I''' wouldn't be so stupid as to actually send you into ''combat'' with it!!!'
*** Honor of the Queen: Wiping out the assasination squad sent against the Protector, and then charging straight into a massively more powerful ship though she knows her ship is too crippled to do really much of anything, just because it's the only chance the planet has...with her favourite music playing over the bridge.
*** Field of Dishonor: after [[spoiler: her lover, Paul Tankersley]] is murdered, she kills the expert duelist who was hired to do the job while he mocks her inexperience in duels. Then she [[spoiler:kills the guy who hired him, longtime enemy Pavel Young, with one shot in a duel, even though he broke the law to fire on (and hit) her first.]]
*** In Enemy Hands and Echoes of Honor: recommends a huge shift in tactical and R and D thinking in coalition with the Jeune Ecole, then gets captured [[spoiler:and apparently killed]] before it can be implemented. When it is implemented, it turns out she was right about pretty much everything. And [[spoiler: until she comes back]] about half of it gets named after her.
*** Ashes of Victory: [[spoiler: Publicly executed on video, she reappears with a fleet of stolen warships filled with jury-rigged crews from the prison planet she just broke out of.]]
**** Of course Horance Harkness must get credit for much of that, as he refuses the Parliament Metal of Valor and direct commission for his role. But [[spoiler:he does take knighthood for going above and beyond the duty in rescuing Honor from StateSec, outfighting and out thinking an entire captial ship worth of personal when he was free and in no personal danger.]]
***** he does get the PMV, honor is the one who refuses, and threatens to resign if the issue is forced.

* Shannon Foraker in ''Ashes of Victory'': Her Admiral, Lester Tourville, has just gotten a message from the State Security commander which is essentially his death sentence. [[spoiler:He gets half way through his message when his ship, and ''the two full squadrons of ships'' with it spontaneously explode...because of an innocent little data packet Foraker sent over the com net as he was talking. And what does she have to say about this? "Oops!"]]

--->''"I'm not going to ask you to betray any secrets, Bosun, but what I'm looking for are people who--from their own experience, let us say--would be intimately familiar with the best way to hide contraband aboard a shuttle or a starship.''

* Moving back a few years, [[spoiler:Admiral Thomas Theisman puts an end to the tyranny of State Security with two simple sentences: "I think we've had quite enough of those sort of trials. Goodbye, Citizen Chairman."]] Made even more awesome by the fact that those are the last words in the book.
* Adam Gerrick, in ''Flag in Exile''. [[ThisIsSparta "We...are...engineers!"]] A [[spoiler:[[DomedHometown dome]] he was building for a local middle school collapsed and killed a number of children who would have attended it. He doesn't know how that's possible, but he's bloody well going to build a mathematically sound computer model and find out. Made me mighty ProudToBeAGeek reading that.]]
** Made even better when [[spoiler:Clinkscales finally believes he can do it. "You are engineers. I was a policeman. [...] Find me the what and how and I'll give you the who and why." - and this is believed to be the worst crime ever committed in the history of their ''world''.]]
* Havenite secret agent Victor Cachat:
** In his first appearance he single-handedly obliterates a squad of Havenite State Security troops and genetically-engineered terrorists when deciding he doesn't like the current Havenite government any more. Not only does he get away with it, he cons his superiors so well as to what happened that he gets ''promoted'', even after telling the head of the Havenite State Security that he executed his immediate superior for his involvement in the fiasco.
** In his second appearance he single-handedly arranges for an entire sector's [=StateSec=] forces to be rendered impotent, undermines the local authorities, and gets the loyalty of the regular Navy forces (who don't trust him) so that when a coup takes place on Haven, the entire sector is delivered to the new government lock, stock, and barrel with minimal casualties (only [=StateSec=] personnel too stupid to recognize he's simply too awesome for them to comprehend).
** In his third appearance in the novel ''Crown of Slaves'' he manipulates one of Manticore's oldest allies to void their treaty and cease hostilities with Haven, and then is in large part responsible for a successful attack that frees a slave-planet resulting in the creation of a new nation, and despite being an enemy agent, does it with the cooperation of the Manticoran navy. Oh, and he gets to do the horizontal mambo with the HotAmazon. Victor Cachat, {{Badass}}, ladies and gentlemen.
*** At the risk of sounding like I'm trying to dilute his awesome levels of {{Badass}}, he's really only able to get away with prying Erewhon from the Manticoran alliance thanks mostly to the gross stupidity of the High Ridge government on Manticore. Cachat even admits that himself. Which is why there's no personal hard feelings between him and Zilwicki, despite both of them being deeply devoted to their nations.
** And he definitely hikes it up in the sequel, ''Torch of Freedom'', where he [[spoiler: takes on the whole world of Mesa to find information necessary to stop the war. Well, he wasn't alone, and it was mostly just an undercover infiltration, but he's just awesome in that TOO.]]
* In fact, Victor Cachat is so awesome that everyone who associates with him has Crowning Moments of Awesome even before they knew him.
** His Manticoran opposite, Anton Zilwicki, in the aforementioned first appearance of Victor, goes on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge when someone has the audacity to kidnap his daughter. Not only does so, but ends up married to a hot aristocrat who is somewhat awesome on her own. She's a self-described liberal, which previously in the Honorverse meant she'd either be [[StrawmanPolitical duplicitous, incompetent, stupid, or all three at once]].
*** Cathy is the effective leader of the opposition as well as being wild enough to have gotten thrown out of the House of Lords. After a few years of living away from Manticore, spending time on Earth and associating with crazy escaped slaves, she gets rid of her nobility and runs for a seat in the House of Commons, and pretty much takes over the Opposition while the various political bad guys are being taken apart.
** Zilwicki had previously been best known for being a widower, after his first wife threw her small escort force [[HeroicSacrifice into the teeth of a much larger enemy fleet]] to protect the civilian ships they were protecting. (Single biggest tearjerker CMOA this troper has ever seen. We see nothing at all of the battle, just Anton holding his terrified daughter in his arms and whispering, "It's okay, honey. Mommy's gonna make it safe.")
** Zilwicki's daughter, Helen, at the ripe old age of 14, escaped on her own when kidnapped, casually killing three sewer scumbags who get after her ''[[LittleMissBadass with her bare hands]]'' in the process.
** And while escaping, rescues two sewer urchins named Berry and Lars. Lars hasn't done much yet, but have we mentioned that due to Berry's associating with people of such awesomeness, she's now Queen Berry of the Kingdom of Torch?
*** Well, it's safer to say that ''Crown of Slaves'' is a nonstop CMOA from the first to the last line. For frigging ''everybody''. It's hard to point to someone who is ''not'' a certified badass in the novel. Except ''some'' Mesans.
** Oh, and Queen Berry of Torch's best friend and confidant (and a new intelligence chief)? Princess Ruth Winton. While so far her awesomeness has been due to her associating with the others on this list, she does come by it naturally. Her mother, Judith, organized an escape of a group of women from the planet Masada after stealing a spaceship, which doesn't sound like much until you know that Masada is a planet of religious nutcases who don't allow their women to even learn how to read. Judith, captured as a child, had spent years keeping this ability a secret. And when she pulls it off, ''while very pregnant'', ends up impressing a young Michael Winton, Crown Prince of Manticore, and brother of Queen Elizabeth III.
** Queen Berry's head of security, meanwhile, is the HotAmazon who is Cachat's love interest. She is the leader of an AmazonBrigade of [[SuperSoldier genetically-engineered soldiers/former terrorists]].
** And ''all'' of these people are the mortal enemies of Manpower Inc and the planet Mesa. And when you include [[spoiler: Mesa's interference to continue the Manticore-Haven War]] the Official We Are So Going To Stomp Mesa List will include Manticore's queen, who takes such things ''very'' personally, Harrington herself, Thomas Theismann (who ''Honor'' is afraid of on the battlefield), Eloise Pritchard and the rest of the Haven government who survived in the dictatorship, pulled off their coup, and restored a democracy. You'd think that if they had any GenreSavvy at all, Mesa would realize they were utterly doomed.
*** They do. And try as they might to do ''anything'' that could delay the inevitable, they've got only mixed results. Sure, they've got some tactical advantage, but just so happened to ''completely'' piss off several most frightening persons in their whole universe. The results are expected to be... ''[[{{Understatement}} impressive]]''.
**** How impressive? At the end of ''Mission of Honor'', as described below, [[spoiler:half the people on the above list (Cachat, Zilwicki, Kevin Usher, Pritchard, Theisman, Queen Elizabeth, and Honor herself) are ''in the same room''. And ''on the same side.'' Which is precisely the scenario that the Alignment spent capital like water to prevent - with the added bonus that ItsPersonal for the Manticorans' best naval commander, who's pretty much primed for a RoaringRampageOfRevenge like the galaxy's never seen, backed up by a force that might be the entire Eighth Fleet, or might be the entire Royal Manticoran Navy, and might also include a lot of Havenite heavy metal. Once they figure out where to point it all, odds are the Alignment's going to get ''disintegrated'' ... or worse.]]
**** Considering that [[spoiler:Alignment]] has its own plans upon plans, but ''does not'' know of the recent developments on the heroes' side, the whole thing just started sliding into the ThirtyGambitPileup territory really fast. Unless someone on either side is '' really'' good at XanatosSpeedChess (yes, we're all looking at you, [[MemeticBadass Vic]]) the situation may easily become a perfect illustration to the FUBAR[[hottip:NSFW:Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition]] acronym.
*** The Alignment gets in ''Storm From Shadows'', [[spoiler: Nearly everything in the last 200 years has been manipulated by Mesa in the Haven Sector. The first Haven revolution was planned by them just to keep the entire sector occupied under an unstable Haven. What's further awesome is the fact they have spent their time building new technology besides genetic modification. Including 2 engine types, one is a much faster FTL that causes everyone to disbelieve they are able to plotting, the other is a slower real space drive that doesn't use gravametrics. The book ends with the cliff hanger of a Massive sneak attack on the shipyards and possibly homeworld of Manticore.]]

* Everyone on both sides who was involved in the titanic battle at the end of ''At All Costs'', especially Honor's entry into the fight.
* The Blue Mountain Dancing Clan of treecats in the short story "A Beautiful Friendship". They [[GondorCallsForAid come to the aid]] of Climbs Quickly and Stephanie Harrington, the first human-treecat bonded pair, and puree a hexapuma, whom Climbs Quickly and Stephanie were fighting.
** Note that Stephanie had only a vibroknife, against [[MegaNeko a rather large predatory feline]] that beggars the worst Earth felines can offer, while with a banged up knee and a broken arm.
** That was considered a [=CMOA=] in-story as well, by Climbs Quickly's tribe. A hexapuma, or "death fang" is a foe so feared that even treecats will only take one on in a mass attack by an entire clan's complement of hunters and scouts. That Stephanie Harrington, a ''child'', would take one on ''alone'' (while already suffering from broken bones!) to defend one wounded treecat instantly earned humanity an ''immense'' amount of respect from treecats. (Granted, the treecats were entirely aware that a human teenager weighs as much as five or six treecats all put together, but its still bleeding impressive.) Appropriately, Stephanie's treecat name is [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast "Death Fang's Bane."]] And the entire family basks in her inherited glow.
* Queen Elizabeth and President Pritchart at the end of ''Mission of Honor'' when [[spoiler:they not only sign a peace treaty but a '''military alliance''' against the Solarian League. With hundreds of Havenite Superdreadnaughts ready to defend Manticore from an imminent Solarian attack. All you can think of is: Mesa and the SLN are so FUCKED.]]
** Hell. Considering the ship numbers thrown in in At All Cost about the Haven Navy, considering that Haven kept it's production capabilities, considering the Andermani numbers and production capabilities and whatever the Graysons and Manticorans manged to save, ThisTroper thinks it's safe to assume that, even with the disastrous losses in the en of At All Cost, the SLN navy, "the biggest, baddest navy in human space" ,is pretty much outgunned, outteched and probably outnumbered. Looking forward to the [[CurbStompBattle curb stomp battles ]] to follow.
*** Also, according to Honor, because of the events of ''Mission of Honor,'' the Mesan Alignment has enraged '''every single tree-cat in the universe,''' to the point where the ''entire species'' is dedicated to wiping them out.
**** I think that this last bit qualifies the members of the Mesan Alignment as legally dead. Let me remind you: YOU DO NOT MESS WITH TREECATS.
***** They'll ''cut'' ya, man!
* Also from ''Mission Of Honor'', featuring Queen Elizabeth: Her speech to her fellow Manticorans, in which she outlines all the primary events between ''At All Costs'' and ''Mission of Honor'', ending with Operation Oyster Bay and how it took them ''completely'' by surprise. She goes into detail about how badly they've been wounded, and how the [[spoiler:Solarian League]] is getting ready to try and pound them. Then she proceeds to assure them they ''will not'' succeed in doing so, that Manticore ''will'' stand tall, and ''will'' show the [[spoiler:League]] that they are not to be trifled with.
* Allison Chou-Harrington gets a small one when she explains her Beowulfian heritage and training, hence justifying her fixing the entire genetic problem with the Grayson population.
** It says something about the series as a whole when someone's announcement that they are the direct descendant of the two most famous medical families in the galaxy's history - people who quadrupled human lifespan and cured virtually every disease known to man, and that she is at least that skilled a doctor, rates a single sentence at the bottom of a CMOA page.
* Judith Newland. Leads an escape of [[TheFundamentalist Masadan]] women and children, to the point where they call her their Moses. So much did they believe in her that she basically became their representative on Manticore, and caught the eye of Prince Michael.

* HonorHarrington at the end of ''Flag In Exile''. Honor has: been called a whore for most of the book, [[spoiler:blamed herself for an industrial accident which killed a group of schoolchildren, learned that the "accident" was sabotage, had her aircar shot down, and saved from a point-blank assassination when ''Grayson's spiritual leader'' [[HeroicSacrifice threw himself in front of her]], and generally [[{{Hamlet}} suffered the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.]] She finally gets to the Council Chamber, battered, bruised, limping and exhausted, presents her evidence, and names the man who's been orchestrating all of this...who promptly claims a traditional form of justice and demands to face the Protector's Champion in trial by sword combat. And guess who that is? The Protector, seeing that she's in no shape to fight, begins to back off from his proclamation (which will undermine his authority for all time), but she cuts him off:]]

* Shannon Foraker in ''[[HonorHarrington Ashes of Victory]]'': Her Admiral, Lester Tourville, has just gotten a message from the State Security commander which is essentially his death sentence. [[spoiler:He gets half way through his message when his ship, and ''the two full squadrons of ships'' with it spontaneously explode...because of an innocent little data packet Foraker sent over the com net as he was talking. And what does she have to say about this? "Oops!"]]

* Another one from the ''HonorHarrington'' series: Havenite secret agent Victor Cachat.
** In his first appearance he single-handedly obliterates a squad of Havenite State Security troops and genetically-engineered terrorists when deciding he doesn't like the current Havenite government any more. Not only does he get away with it, he cons his superiors so well as to what happened that he gets ''promoted''.
*** As part of the coverup he also tells the head of the Havenite State Security that he executed his immediate superior for his involvement in the fiasco.

*** Field of Dishonor: after [[spoiler: her lover, Paul Tankersley]] is murdered, she kills the expert duelist who was hired to do the job while he mocks her inexperience in duels. Then she [[spoiler:kills the guy who hired hims, longtime enemy Pavel Young, with one shot in a duel, even though he broke the law to fire on (and hit) her first.]]

**** Considering that [[spoiler:Alignment]] has its own plans upon plans, but ''does not'' know of the recent developments on the heroes' side, the whole thing just started sliding into the ThirtyXanatosPileup territory really fast. Unless someone on either side is '' really'' good at XanatosSpeedChess (yes, we're all looking at you, [[MemeticBadass Vic]]) the situation may easily become a perfect illustration to the FUBAR[[hottip:NSFW:Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition]] acronym.

*** Hell, that's most of her entire career. Her first book has her light cruiser, with an stupid armament mix , fight a [[spoiler:Q ship that outmasses her ship by more than an order of magnitude.]] Not to mention (another book) the end of on the Field of Dishonor where [[spoiler:she shoots Pavel Young in a duel dead center in the heart, despite being shot in the shoulder]]. Not to mention in Ashes of Victory [[spoiler: When she comes back from being dead after being executed on video with a fleet of warships from the prison planet she just broke out of. Of course now she's missing and eye and has [[EyepatchOfPower a bad ass eyepatch]] - oh and they gave her pretty much every medal and honor at her funeral, then gave it again with her return including naming the new bad ass ship class after her.]]
*** Re: her first light cruiser - in the latest novel, Admiral Hemphill finally finds an opportunity to discuss its armament mix with Honor. Her comments boil down to 'That ship was intended solely as a testbed! Even '''I''' wouldn't be so stupid as to actually send you into ''combat'' with it!!!'
**** Heck, Weber didn't admit later that Honors first ship had a stupid weapons loadout. It was detailed in the very first book how bad a design it was, and Honor ends the book with being invited to a meeting with the weapons designers, most of whom expect her to tell them how smart they are. It's never shown in any of the novels, but later references to that meeting note that she was calm, polite... and absolutely ripped the designers apart as she detailed just how that loadout had cost so many lives.
***** Very first book? Try the back cover blurb of the very first book. "...and Honor Harrington has a single, over-age light cruiser with an armament that doesn't work to police the entire star system."

** That was considered a [=CMOA=] in-story as well, by Climbs Quickly's tribe. A hexapuma, or "death fang" is a foe so feared that even treecats will only take one on in a mass attack by an entire clan's complement of hunters and scouts. That Stephanie Harrington, a ''child'', would take one on ''alone'' (while already suffering from broken bones!) to defend one wounded treecat instantly earned humanity an ''immense'' amount of respect from treecats. (Granted, the treecats were entirely aware that a human teenager weighs as much as five or six treecats all put together, but its still bleeding impressive.)
*** In a later short story, it's revealed that the Harrington family's treecat name is [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast "Death Fang's Bane."]]