Checkmate is the second book of the Suicide Arc and fifteenth book overall in the Compact Universe series.
JT Austin is now a Compact Navy pilot aboard the Queen Maria Sophia, headed to a distant world called Mud. There, Compact forces are fighting a token battle against a Gelt force. While their, the ground commander, Edward Windsor, is elevated to King of Bonaparte. JT is tasked with retrieving him and taking him back to Bonaparte to assume the throne. What’s supposed to be a milk run turns into a nightmare as one starship is destroyed and terrorists use killer mechs to take over the Sophie. Now JT must escape this new, unknown enemy to get Edward home. He will leave his fallen comrades behind, play dead, and cut a deal with their erstwhile enemies, the Gelt. As they escape Mud, he’ll call on the one person he can count on, the famous pilot Suicide. But all is not as it seems, and JT may have a traitor with him.;
Preceded by: Suicide Run
Followed by: Royal Orders
Augmented by: Winter Games