Manuel Richards ([Starlight])

Manny joined the military as soon as he reached adulthood to get out of his orphanage, and was quickly picked out as compatible for a new pilot program involving an advanced AI. The new tech allowed a pilot to empathetically connect with the AI Turing, and with that connection, effortlessly control the fighter ships with ease. Manny was instantly attracted to Turing, and provided to be far more compatible than originally estimated. He was immediately signed onto the team, perhaps too soon.

With his newfound freedom, Manny explored the galaxy during the off time and made many friends on the planets he was tasked with protecting. During one of the final large pushes of battle, the Chaos had sent a fleet of captured and corrupted aliens to attack the pilots. Among them was Manny's friend, Static. Unable to push forwards and harm his friend, while also afraid of his team harming him, Manny disconnected unsafely from the fleet and Turing in attempt to save Static. This plan failed, and on top of it, most of the Starlight team had ended up dying in that battle, allowing the Chaos to win and start taking over most of the planets in the area. Distraught from knowing his actions caused this outcome, Manny hid himself and his ship in a far off planet, and tried to forget the entire thing.

✦ 25 Years Layer

Manny is trying to live the rest of his life in hiding but can't help but answer the endless questions that Yukira brings him, a friend he made back when he gave her some advice after a teen heartbreak. When she brings him a key she had inherited from her family, Manny panics and tries his best to turn her away from a life that will surely only result in her death. But Yukira is persistent, bringing every piece of evidence she can find to Manny to prove she knows that there's a better life out there than what they're under now. Upon seeing a forgotten picture of his last Starlight team, persuaded by her optimism, Manny cleans himself up and leads her to the ship he's kept hidden and fixed all this time. On the ship, Manny introduces her to Turing, who has become glitchy due to years of being left derelict in space. The two are unable to access the Station Base that houses the rest of the fighter ships and Turing without having all the keys, but at least they can locate them with Turings help. Despite the glitches infecting into Manny's previous scars every time he connects into the ship with Turing, the two start a quest to gather the keys and build a new Starlight Brigade.

The initial flights after getting Turing up and running again were rocky, and Manny kept circling back to a fear of letting his team down when they need him the most. While Kazuya managed to talk some sense into him, he still managed to end up getting captured by CHAOS due to some leaked information about their base. During the rescue mission Glitch helps him fully regain his nerve and he promises to never leave the team again. He holds this promise true, even when Jones lets him know that the more, he connects with Turing for flight, the more his body is going to fail due to the trauma he caused to it in the past.

After the betrayal with his previous team, Owain is slow to accept Manny back, and they agree to start off with a friendship again. But there’s traces of the previous relationship occasionally popping up, whether or not either of them is ready to bring that up again. Upon meeting Glitch, Manny is instantly accepting and grateful for someone to have been with Static where he couldn’t. Kazuya and Manny seem to have a lot of conflicting opinions on… everything? But somehow that just means that Kazuya is one of the ones Manny trusts most with honest opinions and to tell him what happened when things go wrong. As they get deeper and deeper into the new war against CHAOS, Manny finds himself worrying more about Yukira, and whether he did enough to prepare her for the universe.

When Static finds a chance to go off on his own to kill off CHAOS once and for all, the Starlight team goes after to rescue him from his own suicidal mission, Manny is informed in the panic that his body can’t take another flight. He insists on going anyways, sticking to his promise to never abandon his team and being unable to live with himself if anything was to happen to Static. During the battle, after Static and Glitch are pulled away from the dangers, there’s an opportunity to end CHAOS still open at the sacrifice of a pilot. Knowing he’d never be able to sync up with Turing or his team again anyways, Manny takes that sacrifice, unable to live a life without that deep connection in it.