The Akira class vessel was first commissioned in 2365 and built at the Antares IV and Utopia Planitia fleet yards. The Akira class is one of Starfleet's most heavily armed starship, designed during the Cardassian war and further developed to fight the Borg. The Akira class differs from many of Starfleet ship designs in that the hull is basically a catamaran type hull and not the more usual saucer\engineering hull. However, this hull design does allow for a more rounded shield bubble to be made.

The warp nacelles are attached to the main hull by a 'wing-arm' which runs across the rear of the the vessel, which is attached to the main hull via the two 'tail' hulls. Also mounted centrally on this arm is the main weapons pod, which 'sits' above the top of the hull.

The Leviathan-A was brought into service in late December 2383, to replace the original Leviathan. The Leviathan was a test-bed vessel for the relatively new quantum slipstream drive and although originally assigned a ten year mission to the far side of the Beta quadrant, was recalled after just two, to be replaced by the Leviathan-A.

The Leviathan however never returned to Federation space, being destroyed at Limerus IX whilst attempting to rescue several of the ships crew from a race known as the Bariens and a rouge Starfleet Admiral.

The remaining crew returned to Deep Space 9 and joined the Leviathan-A, before returning to Limerus IX and rescuing the crew. These actions however provoked the Bariens to declare war on the Alpha quadrant.

The conflict involved Federation, Klingon and Romulan vessels, plus a race known as the Nuans who were already fighting the Bariens, but ultimately the Bariens were destroyed.

Whilst escorting the heavily damaged USS Ronin, a Defiant class vessel back to Deep Space Nine for repairs, both vessels were transported to the Andromenda-Cirrius galaxy by a female member of the 'Q' continuum. This particular 'Q' had taken a liking to Captain Devore, much to the annoyance of Counsellor Sierra Devore, the wife of Captain Devore.

Whilst in the Andromenda-Cirrius galaxy, the Leviathan-A discovered a planet identified as Moria in the Starfleet database. Since the Andromenda-Cirrius galaxy had never been thoroughly explored by Starfleet, this was deemed odd.

It was later found that infact Starfleet had arrived in this galaxy over a hundred years earlier, when two vessels conducting early transwarp tests were lost, arriving close to Moria. Before being forced to crash-land on Moria, they managed to transmit information on the area, which after travelling nearly eighty years were received by Starfleet.

The planet was actually home to a malevolent force known as the Z'Terul brood. This biological entity came in many forms including creatures capable of warp travel.

In an attempt to find an ally against the brood, the USS Ronin made contact with another race known as the Proletarians. Although at first they seemed to be allies, it soon became apparent that all the Proletarians were interested in were the crews of the two vessels, which they hoped to enslave.

The two vessels eventually managed to escape when the Proletarians and Z'Terul brood both found the Starfleet vessels and started to attack each other.

The USS Ronin was eventually returned to the Alpha quadrant by the 'Q' in exchange for the Leviathan's first officer who volunteered to go with the 'Q' in the place of Captain Devore.

The Leviathan-A was left to find it's own way home, which after months of searching came in the form of an inter-dimensional wormhole. This wormhole appeared to be a black hole and almost destroyed the Leviathan-A, but the vessel was able to pull away from it after the vessels systems were released from a nanite virus introduced by a Section 31 agent aboard the ship, who was also the Leviathan-A's Intelligence officer.

Travelling through the wormhole however caused major damage to the Leviathan-A and also resulted in a mirror version of the Leviathan-A (Suffering almost as much damage as the USS Leviathan-A) to be 'brought' into 'our' universe.