General Rated Ability Computer Integrated Engineer

[New Dornalia]

The standard Avatar of the General Rated Ability Computer Integrated Engineer, as found on most current People's Navy vessels.

The General Rated Ability Computer Engineer, known colloquially as "Gracie" among the servicemen of the People's Navy, was developed during the Workers' State's early attempts to get into space.

Dr. Robert Jones, a computer science expert at the University of California, had been concieving of creating an Articifial Intelligence for some time before First Contact. However, the limited computing power available to a post-apocalyptic society, no matter how much it recovered, was a major obstacle for his work.

Then, he was contracted to work for the Commissariat of Science, which was busy backengineering technologies and researching equipment acquired from abroad, notably the Huntarian Empire and later the Eshirian Sovereignity. Acquiring a grant from the Commissariat and access to whatever parts he needed to make his technology possible, he was commissioned to make, "an Artificial Intelligence Unit Capable of Assisting in the Command and Control of People's Navy Vessels." The irony was that the good doctor, like most scientists, was a pacifist at heart, but he presented the project to the Commissariat in this way in order to get it funded.

Initial tests went well, and the parts backengineered from the acquired equipment proved to be a major asset. Before long, Dr. Jones had an AI, he just needed a personality.

That came with the death of his daughter, Gracie Jones, due to a car crash. Initially, the AI's personality was to be male. But upon Gracie's death, Dr. Jones decided to recast the AI into the image of his daughter, who had been traditionally cheery, and energetic, and yet very headstrong. The result was the first GRACIE unit we know today, Jones making up General Rated Ability Computer Integrated Engineer as a backronym.

Initial tests were not promising, as when MacIntyre was shown "Gracie," for the first time, he was not impressed and in fact threatened to take away funding from the project. However, timely intervention from the Doctor and several Science Commissariat agents ensured the project was saved.

The result was that the first Gracie unit was put onto the Mao Zedong, New Dornalia's first interstellar battleship. Thus, Gracie came of age.

Since then, Gracie underwent a series of upgrades. In addition, Gracie later had a series of protocols known as the SeaQuestian Protocols and Asimov's Three Laws installed to help augment her existing safeguards in order to prevent a "Skynet." In addition, she was brought to 2.0 status via the EVA Project, which gave Gracie units control of most systems on ships save for tactical systems and direct navigational control and allowed them to field drone units to help repair and maintain the vessels they served on, and later command of Nanobots for repairing vessels.

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Personality/Functions--

Gracie, as of version 2.0, is meant to control all systems except tactical/combat systems and direct navigational control. She does have indirect influence over these systems, but it is limited by the Safety Protocols installed in her, a combo of the SeaQuestian Protocols and Asimov's Three Laws with several hard-wired failsafes.

In emergencies however, Gracies can be allowed more functions, per permission of the Ship's Senior Commissar and the Ship's Commanding Officer. Most notable of these is the Emergency Command Protocol, which is activated in case the Ship's Commanding Officer is disabled by death or injury--this was first used during the Battle of Aritash against Liberatarian forces by the Abraham Lincoln Brigade flagship "Christopher Walken," where the ship's Gracie unit siezed command of the Vessel when Admiral Ma was incapacitated by a bombardment. Another instance was access to Communications, during the Konoha Relief Mission.

Gracies are AIs, and as such, grow and learn with combat missions and information they feed, creating potential solutions and such. Notably, the Gracie on the "Walken" was able to somehow take command of the system without permission from the Commissar....a circumstance that is still unknown, though it was presumably due to an earlier build of the system. Presumably, it could also have been from the slightly more radical and free-thinkingness of the International Brigadiers around her....that aside, Gracies are often used as advisers by Command Staff onboard vessels, owing to their access to information collection methods and their capacity for problem solving.

Gracie units, modeled on their creator's deceased daughter, displayed her personality traits. Initially, these were more reserved, and Gracie units tended to be more businesslike and calm. However, as Gracies were given more responsibilities, served on more vessels, served longer, etc....people began noticing a process of intensification occurring with the Gracies. They weren't going to revolt anytime soon, and they were certainly loyal to their bosses.

However, many of them became the digital equivalent of Stereotypical Anime Teenage Girls. Energetic, cheery, helpful, and yet sometimes irritating and even obnoxious with a tinge of rebellion, the Gracies were surprisingly allowed to develop in this regard by the JRCCC in San Diego. An internal report by the JRCCC suggested that, as the Gracies had not yet committed crimes against humanity and remained loyal to the Workers State, they could be trusted with their emotional development. In addition, their creator and several prominent scientists within the Commissariat of Science concurred as well, saying that by allowing Gracie to develop, she would be a better, more responsive AI who could understand the needs of her crew. The result is that now, the Gracie units you'll find generally will match the characteristics mentioned above.

One thing to note is that Gracie herself is represented with an "Avatar," the picture represented above. The Avatar's uniform and mannerisms will change, however, depending on the job assigned to her.