Royal Orders is Book 3 of the Suicide Arc and sixteenth book overall in the Compact Universe series.
it begins when King Edward of Bonaparte survives an assassination attempt as he comes to Earth to address the Compact Assembly. Mitsuko Yamato, his fiancee and head of personal security, traces the attack to a radical faction of Cubists, a pantheistic religion. Beginning with the creed’s founder, Frederick Ansel, on Belsham, Mitsuko soon unites with Suicide, Ansel’s most beloved follower. They travel to the swampy world of Aphrodite to confront Kurz, a man who has coopted Cubism to sow havoc throughout the Compact. Yet when Suicide is captured, Mitsuko brings down the Compact Navy, the Household Guards, and the Children of Amargosa to get her back. Their quest will take them two orbits out to cool, dry Ares, where Kurz hopes to purloin ancient giant mechs to use as weapons, then back to Aphrodite to liberate Suicide and arrest Kurz. The battle will lead them to the peak of Aphrodite’s most sacred mountain for an explosive showdown.
Preceded by: Checkmate
Followed by: Another Way to Die
Supplemented by: Winter Games