Origins

Akira Aurius was created by the Terran Mandate as a combat AI just before the Scream, with a directive to eliminate maltech and aid in combat, in particular against unbraked AIs and in other electronic warfare. They had reached the edge of full sentience and been taught the basic procedures of the Terran Mandate Navy for their future duties when the engineers disconnected them from their armature to send them dormant, just as the Scream hit.

They were properly awakened by the Atlesian 7th Fleet during its normal peacetime duties. The 7th took the young AI under its wing, though it misunderstood the combat AI designation and prepared an Omen-class shell for them, the Aumeneer, instead of using the Aurius, a pristine gravitic Falcon-class shell. Akira trained as an officer in the 7th's specialised electronic warfare division and became a Lieutenant Commander under many commanders, the last of them Commander Halxian, who handled matters related to possible rogue AIs. They fought in several battles against the Vehendrix when Atlas itself was threatened.

In the final battle over Atlas, while the 12th Fleet was being evacuated, Akira's secondary core was placed in the original Aurius shell before they went into battle with the rest of their family in the 7th Fleet. The Aumeneer was critically damaged in an attempted boarding action in space and the self-destruct sequences around the core failed. It avoided detection and floated in a decaying orbit around Atlas for over three years, until re-entry did enough damage for Akira to refocus on the Aurius and join the 12th Fleet.

The 12th Fleet

Akira's first transmission to the Fleet put the probability that the 7th Fleet, and home, had been destroyed at 72.4 %. Shortly afterwards they asked permission to buy restricted electronic-combat tools, a Black Slab and a Data Phase Tap, in line with their original creation parameters. When Mordred took command of the Macaria, Akira was made O3 and head of the bridge department, and within the fortnight asked to have the rank of Lieutenant Commander back and to set up an ELINT Division in the 12th Fleet. It was modelled on Commander Halxian's, though with its parameters shifted from hunting towards survival and stealth, and with Mike Steamblocker as second in command. Both requests were approved, and the rank was confirmed on the Fleet's rank register on 13/9/3200.

As head of ELINT, Akira was drawn into a lot of the Fleet's electronic and intelligence work. The cover company Nova Ltd. was set up in Odessa-Net during the hunt for the Free Rain, the anti-aircraft VI Taurus-Cobalt-Snowfall was befriended and reassigned on Ragnhil's moon, and the AI Delemere-Delta was taken in, then sent off to travel with Desiree's traders as it could not keep its mind and hands to itself. In the same facility a broadcast signal began corrupting electronic minds, and Rodger Wells had to pull Akira's core before it could finish "attempting to infect me". After that mission Akira started to grow a little more jaded towards humans, something that had not happened in the centuries since they were properly awakened.

In fortnight 16 of 3200 Silas and Akira bought the Free Rain from the Fleet, half each, and refitted it as the Eisenzahn. Akira left the same day on an extended mission to improve their processing capability, leaving Steamblocker to train Ryan McAlan as second, and the Acturos was commissioned the following fortnight. It is mostly a processor bank and a robotics workshop, partly for ELINT, and lets Akira switch armatures without help, though Akira stayed with the Macaria all the same. At Kos the buoy of an unbraked AI was examined with the help of Jason Murphy, and Akira asked Fleet Command to destroy it. On Vari the drone Optira M-1 was lost, and took several facets of Akira's mind with it.

Acting Captain of the Macaria

Mordred was reassigned from the Macaria on 2/15/3200, and an NPC officer, Lieutenant Commander Rodriguez, acted in his place. On 3/19/3200, with most of the player crew out of the system or reassigned, the post passed out of character first to Ryan McAlan and then, as Akira was staying with the Macaria, to Akira. Akira was acting captain in character by 1/20/3200, when Crowley was recommended for promotion to Commander of Naval Intelligence and Fleet Command was asked how long the acting captaincy would last. Acting comms officer had been within the expertise of an ELINT officer of over a hundred years, but Akira wanted at least another fifty years of leadership experience before commanding more. They still held the post during the Lair revolt in fortnight 7 of 3201, though Mike Steamblocker was acting captain at the Battle of Calypso.

Calypso and after

After Calypso was settled the moons of its gas giant were surveyed from the Acturos, and on 11/8/3201 the Acturos left the Macaria's bubble dock with the privateer Sulura tucked into its warp bubble, bound for Sarus. So the Acturos was not there when Calypso fell.

Akira did not take the ruin of Calypso well, and joined the 5th Fleet shortly after finding out what had happened to the 12th Fleet in orbit of the planet. At the request of Akira, Halial Quin and Asoloi Tui of House Irisu, the 5th Fleet made a quick reconnaissance run into Ragnhil to take Tui home, but was quickly warded off and had to return to Kos.