Austin

Austin
One of three confirmed photographs of Austin, from a station camera in the Northern Dominion, 2047
Known for	Founding The Brass Concord; organising the 2049 Sylvaris Transit Corridor Bombing
Born	c. 2009 (estimated)
Status	At large; believed to be on Ulquelquel
Former occupation	Systems engineer, Civic Registry Authority
Organisation	The Brass Concord (2041–present)
Wanted
Wanted by	Unified Orylian Pact, Sylvaris, Cohesive Global Concord
Charges	842 counts of murder; terrorism
Reward	40 million Concord marks

Austin (/ˈɒs.tɪn/) (born c. 2009) is the founder and leader of The Brass Concord, an anti-technocratic militant organisation responsible for the 2049 Sylvaris Transit Corridor Bombing, in which 842 people were killed. A former systems engineer who helped build the automated public-administration systems he later attacked, he founded the Brass Concord as a protest network in 2041 and led its turn to violence later in the decade.^[1]

Austin claimed responsibility for the Sylvaris bombing in an audio message released in February 2050. He is the most wanted man on Orylia, charged in absentia with 842 counts of murder, and is believed to be hiding on Ulquelquel, a remote island continent claimed by no state, where several attempts to locate him have failed.^[2] Only three confirmed photographs of him exist.

Little is known about Austin's early life; his family name has never been confirmed, and investigators believe he was born in the Northeast Reach around 2009. He trained as a software engineer and from 2032 worked for the Civic Registry Authority, where he was part of the team that built the automated eligibility and identity systems later adopted across the Cohesive Global Concord.^[1]

Former colleagues described him as quiet, meticulous and increasingly troubled by the systems' errors, which wrongly cut off benefits to thousands of people. He resigned in 2039 after an internal complaint he filed was dismissed.^{[citation needed]}

In 2041 Austin published the first of his Letters from the Brass Age, essays arguing that government by machine had made ordinary people invisible to their own states, and calling for a return to "brass" institutions: slow, human and accountable. The letters circulated widely, and the network that formed around them took the name The Brass Concord.^[3]

For its first years the movement held protests and occupied registry offices. After the 2046 data privacy scandal, which revealed widespread unauthorised monitoring by security agencies, Austin's letters became openly militant. Investigators believe he personally directed the group's shift from property damage to attacks on people, beginning with the bombing of a registry office in the Northern Dominion in 2047 that killed nine.^[2]

On 14 November 2049 coordinated attacks on three transit sites in the Sylvaris metropolitan area killed 842 people, including 127 first responders, and injured more than 3,000. In February 2050 Austin released a recorded statement claiming responsibility on behalf of the Brass Concord, describing the dead as "the price of a machine that never counted them".^[2] The statement was condemned by every government of the Concord.

Ulmarkan state media had blamed the attack on followers of the Cult of Landon, using it to expand the Hand Trials. The Ulmarkan Empire did not withdraw the accusation after Austin's claim, and the trials continued at their increased rate.

The Unified Orylian Pact Task Force traced the Brass Concord's communications to relay stations on Ulquelquel, a sparsely inhabited island continent outside any state's jurisdiction. A raid on its northern coast in 2051 found an abandoned encampment, printing equipment and a draft of a further letter, but no sign of Austin.^[4] He has released two recordings since, in 2052 and 2054; analysts disagree on whether the second was made by him.^{[citation needed]}

Austin's whereabouts remain unknown. A reward of 40 million Concord marks is offered for information leading to his capture.^{[citation needed]}

The bombing transformed security policy across the Concord, leading to expanded surveillance, the very outcome Austin's letters had protested. Scholars of political violence cite him as an example of an insider turned radical by the systems he built. Survivors' groups have campaigned against the continued circulation of his letters, which remain banned in Sylvaris.^[3] The victims are commemorated at the Sylvaris Transit Memorial Garden, opened in 2051.^{[citation needed]}

• The Brass Concord
• 2049 Sylvaris Transit Corridor Bombing
• Ulquelquel
• Letters from the Brass Age
• Veridian Spire
• Krylos Fabrication Zone