The Nellus Academy Incident is a serialized novel in 25 parts by Jennifer Brozek that was first published online on BattleCorps between 29 July 2012 and 15 December 2013. It is Brozek's debut publication in the BattleTech universe.
The novel was later republished as a single ebook volume in EPUB format outside of BattleCorps on 26 January 2014, and as a Print-on-Demand edition on 4 March 2018.
An audiobook edition of the novel, narrated by Liisa Lee, was released on 14 July 2021.
The battlefields of the 31st century are ruled by the BattleMech; twelve-meter-tall, 100-ton bipedal engines of pure destruction. Piloted by MechWarriors, commanded by neo-feudal officers, owned by national governments and bands of mercenaries, these 'Mechs make every other ground combat vehicle obsolete. This is the warfare of fusion-powered giants.
Allegra Greene is no stranger to the military; her father is a general, after all. But when she enters the Nellus Military Academy, she find far more than she expected. She finds a group of friends that will keep her going, challenging training, and instructors that push her to the edge and beyond.
Unfortunately, that's not all she finds, and soon the endemic politics and warfare of the Inner Sphere reach the Nellus Academy. And when their spaceship is hijacked and crashlands on a remote moon, Allegra and her friends find themselves in a life-or-death struggle just to survive!
A news item on the INN section of the BattleCorps site ("New Author, New Story"[1]) announced it as a serial aimed at a somewhat younger audience than the usual adult-fiction content, with the protagonist being a student instead of a "50-year-old infantry sergeant". However, the level of violence and suffering throughout the serial is arguably quite high; many of the protagonists die over the course of the story.
BattleCorps changed their format midway through the publication of this serial. As a result, the first five parts have roughly twice the page count of the subsequent parts although the word count for all parts remains similar.
Young Allegra Greene begins a new term at the Nellus Academy on Nestor in the Free Worlds League. Her father, a FWLM hero, has been reassigned. What will she find there?
As Allegra and her friends prepare for their off-planet mission, they can't help feel both excited and scared. What will they find outside Nestor's atmosphere?
Everything Allegra has been learning, doing and practicing since she arrived at Nellus has been leading up to this: a mission off-planet. What will they find?
The ruined DropShip has crash-landed, and the General is seriously injured. The cadets' only hope of survival is to find the hijacker and get word to the jump point.
Book Four of the Nellus Academy Incident begins here! In Part 1, the cadets must deal with their recent losses and muster up the courage to do what must be done.
Things are finally starting to look up, but will the cadets' luck hold out long enough to escape? Find out in the exciting conclusion to Book 4 of the Nellus Academy Incident!
The final act of The Nellus Academy Incident is here! In Part 1 of Book 5, the cadets need to keep their wits about them if they're going to find a way out of the base alive.
The Nellus Academy Incident comes down to the final few chapters! In Part 3, the cavalry arrives, but the cadets have no means of identifying themselves as friendlies.
In the penultimate chapter of the Nellus Academy Incident, the cadets must fight for their lives to escape. But can Cadet Allegra overcome the shadow of the past?
Allegra Greene, two years from graduating from cadet training, begins attending a new school, the Nellus Academy on Nestor. Her father, war hero ColonelSeamus Greene, has moved to Nestor to command a brand new refueling station. Before normal classes even start, she, along with seven top students, is shunted off to a special group, sequestered for a special job: a media event trip with GeneralGurald Eichner in honor of the new refueling station. The cadets suspect something more is going on, their parents and teachers being unusually tight-lipped. Their investigation secures an initial briefing from Eichner: their role is truly to help catch a Lyran Alliance spy.
Aboard the DropShip Requirement, the cadets' role changes. On 24 October 3067, right after a jump, hijackers sent to capture General Eichner, the Lyran-hired Bloody Stoats, make their presence known by taking over the DropShip. Their leader, Baron Deimos von Schetzle, pulls Eichner away and leaves the children guarded. The cadets start planning an escape using the Nellus Academy hand signal cant, but their plan breaks down when cadet Kirk Nolan is pulled out of the group and murdered. Instead, a more spontaneous uprising ensues, and the children take control of the ship, capturing Deimos. However, one surviving hijacker, left alive to help pilot the Requirement, shoots cadet pilot George Hawthorne instead, and the injured George cannot avoid a crash landing on a nearby planetoid. George dies in the crash.
The survivors are left burdened with a prisoner and an injured General and left without a clear way to get home. Soon, they realize that they are not alone. Deimos calls the planetoid Phobos, and says that his mercenaries have a base there, something the cadets confirm. His noteputer indicates that Phobos is to be the launching ground for a Lyran invasion through Nestor. The children start to plan to raid the base and call for help, but again their plans are forced forward: mercenaries arrive at the wreckage, recapture Eichner, and rescue Deimos. On his way out, Deimos murders the unfortunate guard on duty, cadet Lily Orit.
The children's raid is forced forward, four of five cadets participating. The remaining cadet, Aster Holloway, is left behind due to injuries from falling from a tree, and is left to create a distraction. As Aster sets off explosions near the DropShip wreckage, the other cadets slip into the base, hijacking communications to get a distress call out and finding General Eichner. Eichner, unable to fit through the only safe route available, sacrifices himself to let the kids escape.
In the base, the cadets also find a Commando, Deimos's own. They steal it, giving it to their best MechWarrior, Joseph Robson. He protects the cadets from ground forces as a League DropShip arrives, and soon enough, almost all the survivors are aboard the Peregrine. Allegra is slowed by traumatic flashbacks to a years-past attack on her former home of Thermopolis, but is shaken out of them just soon enough to get aboard, leaving only Joseph remaining outside. When the DropShip is marked by Target Acquisition Gear, Joseph sacrifices himself to allow the survivors to escape, blocking the artillery strike with his 'Mech.
Aboard the DropShip, the survivors are told that they will be given honors, the dead will be recognized, and that they will be given cover stories; the League intends to control what is known about this crisis. Lyran mercenaries killing a League general in a botched kidnapping attempt and League forces entering Lyran space mark an unofficial end to peace - conflict is coming.
By 27 October, Deimos's father Rayner, examining Phobos, holds three League prisoners from the conflict. He orders Eric Nagel to find out what really happened, and to determine whether Deimos survived.
^ The total PDF page count (133) has been adjusted to reflect the large number of story parts which all include a front page.
^ Some technologies appear before their known introduction dates. A COM-2Dr Commando, complete with MML, appears almost a decade before the Master Unit List declares the variant available and a year before the MML is in full production. The same is true of the Jihad-era Lyonesse-M1.