« Lieutenant Fusilier in the Farthest Reaches » Erika Chappell

Sergeant Theodora Fusilier, serial number 110552, is one of the hundred thousand war machines in the army of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Beyond that share her name. She was programmed to protect innocents, battle alien threats, and obey her human officers. It’s all she’s supposed to need.

But Dora’s always been a rather ambitious machine.

After decades of saving, an expensive officer’s commission is finally within reach, but it won’t be easy. Faced with the foreign drama of human aristocracy, rebellious troops and incompetent subordinates, and battles both internal and very real, Lieutenant Fusilier finds herself thrown headlong into an unfamiliar world in more ways than one…

An expanded and edited version of the 2020 web novel, Lieutenant Fusilier is a frankly bizzare alternate history retrofuture military sci–fi story, a bit Napoleonic war fiction and a bit reverse portal fantasy. It’s a story about responsibility, imperialism, and being out of place, starring a useless gay robot working very hard not to live up to the legacy of her red uniform.