Book excerpt: CADETS UNDER FIRE… Jasper and Nadine Roux are cadets at the Ritza MechWarrior Academy…the only thing stopping a megalomaniacal Draconis Combine general with aspirations of claiming a piece of space as his own—starting with their home planet. Emporia is at war, and cadets are now frontline soldiers as Tai-sa Takeji Yoshizawa shifts tactics in a brutal effort to subjugate their entire world. It’s up to the siblings and their friends to stop the madman bent on conquest, but while Jasper believes Nadine is too reckless, Nadine believes Jasper is still living in the past. As both struggle to do what they think is right, the Ritza Academy comes under assault once more. It takes a shocking sacrifice to make them both see the true face of the enemy. Reunited by the same purpose, Jasper agrees to Nadine’s audacious plan to make Emporia too much trouble for the leader of the Seventh Ghost Regiment to conquer. Unfortunately for them, Tai-sa Yoshizawa has his own secrets, and nothing left to lose. And even if Nadine’s plan works to perfection, the cunning general has one last trick up his sleeve that could bring about the end of everything Nadine and Jasper hold dear…