Ten Thousand Fleets
A78/100Web serial by David Niemitz (M0rph3u5)
Arc Sandhurst will become a mech pilot, even if it kills him. After his sister's ship is destroyed by the Pirate Queen of Nepenthe with all hands lost, Arc enters the Imperial Mech Academy on the deathworld Vidako to get revenge — the only path available to the son of a silk-worker who needs the academy's enhancements just to pilot a mech. First he must survive disagreeable roommates, hazing from upperclassmen, the friendship of an imperial princess, and the steaming jungles of Vidako. But the Imperium Stellarum will need every good pilot it can get — because empires are built on a foundation of blood, and the sins of the first emperors are about to come due. Lost fleets lurk on the edge of known space, the ruins of ancient races are spread across long-dead worlds, and enemies thought defeated are gathering their strength once more.