BattleTech: Emerald Sword (A BattleTech Novella) - BattleTech Novella, #33

WIN OR FALL.For Douglas, Jade Falcon Elemental cadet, there is no choice-he must succeed in becoming a warrior or die trying. Unfortunately, he is perilously close to falling-right out of his sibko. Consistently at the bottom of his class, everyone around him-from his trainers to his fellow sibkin-believes he will not survive his Trial of Position, and should quit before he is killed. But Douglas knows he is destined to be a Jade Falcon warrior.
And when he meets a man with a checkered past who promises to show him the true ways of the warrior, Douglas embarks on a dangerous path that might bring him the victory he craves.or utterly destroy him in a brutal trial where sudden death is everywhere.