Originally, Valkyrie was intended to be a new generation of VIM, developed as one of several new technologies for the equally famous and infamous Chimera project. When Jack Amaril, one of the two investors in the project, became frustrated with his staff's inability to create the persona of the VIM as he was imagining it, he took over the project personally. While many anecdotal stories about what was involved in his creation and fine-tuning of Valkyrie exist, the means by which the barrier between VIM and self-actualizing A.I. was breached is a tightly held secret even today.
However the feat was accomplished, it has been consistently reported to have been an accidental accomplishment. While many have calmed to doubt the likelihood of this being the case, given Mr. Amaril's reputation, no evidence to indicate that her creation as an A.I. was intentional has ever surfaced. Instead, all existing accounts credit the crew of the experimental vessel Chimera as having discovered Valkyrie's true nature during a pirate raid that attempted to capture the ship and crew.
Having defeated the pirate raid with Valkyrie's assistance, the crew of the ship realized that there was no existing provision in interstellar law for A.I. rights, and a handful of the crew effectively stole the Chimera and went into hiding. Thankfully for their criminal record and continued freedom, Mr. Amaril and his Aoreli counterpart Mr. Ilkorin both signed over ownership of the Chimera to first Andra Layton and later Valkyrie herself.
Little is known about the events of the four year period in which Amaril, Ilkorin, and others lobbied for basic A.I. rights. However, once the Chimera resurfaced after this period, Valkyrie was able to prove her A.I. status in the eyes of galactic law, and became a citizen of the Aoreli government. A second experimental project, the Valkyrie project, was started by Valkyrie herself in an effort to create more of her kind. The project would produce massive improvements all around for VIM capability, and would eventually produce small numbers of new artificial intelligences. The A.I. produced at the Valkyrie project labs are still the only full A.I. known to exist.