It’s been five years since I stepped into the BattleTech arena as a writer. Over ten since I wrote my award winning YA BattleTech novel, The Nellus Academy Incident. I’ve never written a one-off BattleTech short story. Now I’ve written two…and one of them is currently available for free on the Catalyst Game Labs “free download” page.
For August only, “Praise for the Honored Dead” is available for free, and it takes place after about a week after the events of The Nellus Academy Incident, and thus will have many spoilers for the novel. Gotta admit, I’m in love with the cover of this short story.
“GET READY FOR THE WORST TIME OF YOUR LIVES.”
The press is calling it “The Nellus Academy Incident.” For the cadets that fought against and survived a brutal mercenary assault intended to spark a war between the Free Worlds League and the Lyran Alliance, it was only the beginning.
Now, they must navigate the gauntlet of appearing in public…and dealing with what happened on Phobos. Barely days past risking their lives—and seeing their fellow classmates sacrifice themselves for the others—the four remaining cadets must come to terms with what has happened…and lay their friends to rest while under the pitiless glare of government cameras that record their every move…
Rereading The Nellus Academy Incident more than 10 years after I wrote it was interesting. I had some genuine moments of “Oh, that’s good” and “Damn, I don’t remember writing that. It really works.” Of course, I had a couple moments of “I could’ve written that better.” But not many.
It was like bumping into an old friend after a long absence and realizing, yeah, they were cool and you’re glad you know they and met up again. There is joy in realizing that, yeah, you do do good work. I hope you enjoy returning to the Nellus Academy for a brief dip back into the cadets’ lives.
