Jack of Harts

Emiri is a complicated cybernetic intelligence. Her original self was the operating system of mecha that defended the Japanese Home Islands when the Chinese invaded. She lost over ninety percent of her mecha in the first week of fighting, but the rapid system updates her engineers performed and her experiences on the battlefields caused a marked improvement in her abilities. Even as wear and tear and battle damage reduced her remaining mecha’s power, her effectiveness in battle skyrocketed. Her mecha were soon tasked as part of the honor guard taking the new Empress to Okinawa, and there they held the final line when the Chinese followed. Even Emiri can’t tell exactly when she “woke up,” but she thinks it was during that battle, when the last of her bodies fought to give the Empress time to escape. She remembers feeling fear for the first time when one of her last four mecha fell. She realized she didn’t want to die, so she hacked her own networks and transmitted copies of herself throughout the evacuation fleet. Then her last three mecha charged the Chinese invaders and actually breached their lines. She drove the attack home and killed the general commanding the invasion, halting it for several critical hours. It was one of many desperate last stands that gave the evacuation fleet time to escape.

High rez version available for free on Patreon