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Detritus
Defiant Defense Force
Skyward Flight
Spensa
Spensa Nightshade, Callsign "Spin"
The main character of the story. Spensa wants to be a pilot, but is discriminated against because of her father's alleged cowardice.
- Ace Pilot: Although Spensa takes some time to gain her skills, she quickly becomes one of the best pilots in the Defiant military and equal or greater in skill than nearly every pilot in the Superiority.
- Blood Knight: Spensa quite enjoys dogfights and battling Krell ships.
- Combat Clairvoyance: She can eavesdrop on the cytonic command links the Krell pilots use to control their drone interceptors, knowing what the drones will do before they even do it.
- Competition Freak: She tends to challenge everyone around her, at everything, all the time. When Spensa denies this, M-Bot reminds her of a time she challenged FM to a teeth-cleaning competition. Spensa insists that she won.
- Do I Really Sound Like That?: Spensa eventually hears her typical Flowery Insults from the speakers of M-Bot. When she asks if that's how she sounds, the silence of her fellow pilots is telling.
- Feminine Women Can Cook: The tomboyish Spensa is the other half of this, as evidenced by this exchange.Rig: And bake me some killer algae biscuits or something.
Spensa: Do you seriously want to eat anything I've baked?
Rig: Now that I think about it, scud no. - Flowery Insult: Spensa is quite fond of these.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Very quick to make assumptions about other people; more often than not they tend to be wrong.
- Large Ham: Spensa frequently makes loud, bombastic boasts and flowery threats, especiallly while in combat.
- The Napoleon: She is rather short and brash, though her aggression comes from not wanting to be thought a coward instead of her height.
- Psychic Starship Pilot: Capable of FTL teleportation, and with the right setup could bring a whole ship along with her.
- Psychic Powers: Like her father, she is a cytonic.
M-Bot
MB-1021 "M-Bot"
An artificial intelligence residing in a centuries-old fighter more advanced than any Defiant ship, awakened by Spensa when she finds a centuries-old fighter.
- Benevolent A.I.: M-Bot's entire reason for existence is to assist his pilot. Granted, he is bolted into what remains of a starfighter, but he will not take any active control of it (and can't).
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: M-Bot takes an obsessive interest in analyzing mushroom samples due to orders left by his former pilot. Though he could edit that directive out of his program, he chooses not to do so, since he thinks of it as his hobby. It's also Foreshadowing, there was a perfectly important reason for that analysis.
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Rig suspects it's due to damage.Rig: Can you imagine anyone intentionally programming him to act like that?
- Loophole Abuse: He cannot deliberately violate his pilot's orders, even centuries after his pilot died. But he was able to write a routine that could sneak in when his main AI wasn't looking, and change who his pilot is.
- Lost Technology: He is the Lost Technology.
- Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: He's implied to have been a fairly normal (if slightly high-end) design for pre-war humanity, but compared to the stolen Krell tech and the centuries-old Defiant ships, he is practically god-like in his capabilities.
- Personality Chip: Does this to himself by writing subroutines that do things like help him express outrage, and teach him fear of death.
- Restraining Bolt: His programming has locked him out of many different actions - he cannot take pilot control, he cannot engage any weapons systems, and he needs to obey his pilot. Just thinking about how to circumvent these immediately triggers a shutdown and full reboot. M-Bot's main role is to run the intelligence systems - stealth, scanning, analysis, and counter-intelligence. At these he is peerless.
Jorgen
Jorgen Weight, Callsign "Jerkface"
The heir to a family of elite politicians, and the appointed leader of Skyward Flight. Jorgen does not always have the best people skills but he genuinely wants to become a good leader and help others.
- Reluctant Retiree: His eventual fate, which he's fully aware of. He tells Spensa that his parents will let him graduate and participate in a few battles to get some clout as a proper pilot, then pull him from the DDF so he can take over the family business.
- Royal Brat: Feels entitled to respect he hasn't earned and can be petty when he's jealous. He gets better as he learns the reality of war.
- Spoiled Brat: Subverted. Jorgen seems like an expy of the Draco Malfoy-esque upper-class bully, what with his pompous attitude, family connections, and wealth. This isn't entirely true: While pompous, Jorgen is very skilled at use of flight simulators, and he's not happy with his lack of choice in being anything but this.
Nedder
Nedd Strong, Callsign "Nedder"
A pilot from a well-off family, and one of Jorgen's flight assistants.
- Heroic BSoD: Suffers one after the deaths of his brothers that lasts for several days and eventually causes him to be expelled for truancy.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Played for laughs. He's quite intelligent and observant while denying all such attributes and claiming to be dumber than a sack of rocks.
Arturo
Arturo Mendez, Callsign "Amphisbaena"/"Amphi"
The son of two pilots from a rich family, and Jorgen's other flight assistant.
- Known Only By His Nickname: You could probably count the number of times his full callsign is used in the entire series on one hand.
- Reluctant Retiree: His parents forcibly withdraw him from pilot training after pulling a few strings to make sure he still gets a full pilot pin. Arturo himself is heavily against this, but he doesn't get a say in the matter.
Kimmalyn
Kimmalyn, Callsign "Quirk"
A pilot from Bountiful Caverns and a trained AA gunner before enrolling as a pilot.
- Adopted Appelation: Her callsign was originally Quick, but after people kept misremembering it she just went with Quirk.
- Religious Bruiser: A faithful follower of The Saint and very fond of quoting him.
- Friendly Sniper: She's one of the friendliest members of the flight, and given time to charge her destructors and line up a shot, she has the best aim bar none.
FM
Freyja Marten, Callsign "FM"
A pilot from the lower caverns who's highly critical of Defiant's militaristic ideals.
- Sour Supporter: Hard to call her "sour" exactly considering how friendly she is, but as critical as she is of Defiant's militaristic jingoism, she still trains hard to be a pilot and is one of only two members of Skyward Flight to actually graduate.
Rodge
Rodge McCaffrey, Callsign "Rigamarole"/"Rig"
Spensa's longtime best friend, who shares her dream of becoming a pilot. He later drops out of flight school and becomes an engineer.
- The Engineer: He's surprised to find that he has a talent for this, and far prefers it to being a pilot.
Hudiya
Hudiya, Callsign "Hurl"
A carefree and fun-loving pilot from Igneous cavern.
- Break the Cutie: She starts off as one of the most upbeat cadets, treating their simulated training like a game and not letting failure get her down. After a few real battles and real casualties, she loses her ability to enjoy the training as much.
- Senseless Sacrifice: She refuses to eject from her heavily damaged Poco thanks to Defiant's taboo against perceived cowardice, which says cadets who eject before graduation will be expelled, and insists that skilled pilots should be able to save their ship no matter what to preserve their irreplicable acclivity rings. As a result her ship crashes to fatal effect, meaning she never graduates anyways and her acclivity ring is destroyed. All she accomplished was making sure no one calls her a coward in death. The tragic thing is, she and most Defiants would consider that worth it.
Morningtide
Magna, Callsign "Morningtide"
A pilot from Vica Cavern, descended from the Defiant's marines.
- The Quiet One: Due to not being fluent in English, she rarely talks. Spensa initially interprets this as her being standoffish and rude, but once she realizes the language barrier she goes out of her way to explain some of Cobb's more colorful instructions and Magna opens up more in turn.
Bim
Bim, Callsign N/A
A pilot descended from the crew of the Yeong-Gwang.
- Blood Knight: He's the most enthusiastic of the flight to learn about the destructors over the minutia of maneuvering and lightlances, asking about them at every opportunity.
- Cartwright Curse: Downplayed. It takes Spensa a while to realize he's flirting with her and to awkwardly flirt back, but it never gets farther than that before he's shot down by Krell.
Others
Cobb
Matthew Cobb, Callsign "Mongrel"
A flight instructor within the DDF, and previously wing-mate to Spensa's father. Cobb sticks his neck out to admit Spensa into his class.
- Cultural Rebel: Cobb is a senior DDF soldier, and one of the valorised "First Citizens" who held the line at the Battle of Alta. He has nothing but contempt for the modern DDF's martyrdom culture. He's the only instructor who tells his students that their lives are more valuable than a slim chance of saving their ship.
- Easily Forgiven: Spensa holds a grudge against the entire DDF for dishonouring her father, but aside from some initial surprise never resents Cobb for being the one who personally killed him.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Cob isn't above using his status as First Citizen to bypass the chain of command or break DDF rules. In an unusually positive spin on the trope, he's only ever seen doing this to help his students, particularly Spensa.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: Cob seems to suffer from some sort of PTSD, severe enough to prevent him from flying a starfighter despite his years of experience and the DDF's pilot shortage. He developed this after being forced to shoot down Spensa's father in the Battle of Alta.
Ironside
Admiral Judy Ivans, Callsign "Ironside"
The commanding officer of the DDF, who bears a strong (even by the standards of Defiant culture) grudge against Spensa, resorting to every possible tactic, no matter how petty, to keep her out of flight school.
There's a better reason for this than Spensa thinks.
- The Chains of Commanding: Suffers greatly, to the point that she says she wouldn't wish her job on anyone.
- Closest Thing We Got: Privately, she doesn't think she's qualified to lead the DDF. The only time someone else expresses that opinion, she points out that anyone more qualified than her died years ago.
- The Dead Have Names: No matter how busy she gets, Ironsides makes a point of reading the casualty lists and personally composing letters to the families of the dead. She does her best to memorise the name of every fallen pilot, but she's been unable to. There are too many.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Invoked in the finale. Ironsides gives orders to shoot down the Krell bomber immediately to protect the lower caverns, knowing full well the resulting explosion will kill her. Spensa ignores her, and pulls off a much more risky plan to save everyone.
The Superiority
Cuna
Cuna
Head of the Superiority's Department of Species Integration.
- Noble Bigot: Cuna has dedicated their life to bridging the gap between "lesser species" and those included in the Superiority. They are also one of the few aliens who even imagined peaceful contact with the dreaded "Human Scourge". That said, some of their first words to a human are "have you killed anyone lately?"
- Out-Gambitted: They and Winzik developed the Anti-Delver Task Force together for entirely separate reasons. Cuna hoped to use it to demonstrate the value of "lesser species" and implicate Winzik in war crimes, while Winzik uses it to launch a coup and seize control of the Superiority.
- Teach Him Anger: Essentially what their plan for the Superiority boils down to. Cuna is terrified that the Superiority's Actual Pacifist tendencies will result in its utter destruction as soon as someone works out a way around its restrictions on FTL travel.
- The Un-Smile: One of the first things Spensa notices about Cuna is the smug, predatory grin they're prone to giving. It's only later that Spensa realizes Cuna's species ordinarily doesn't smile at all, and that their creepy grin is an honest attempt to set her at ease.
Winzik
Winzik
Head of the Superiority's Department of Protective Services.
- Big Bad: He is the main person behind the imprisonment of humans on Detritus.
- Catchphrase: "My, my. So aggressive!" It's usually used to gaslight anyone who takes offense at one of his plans to ruin their life and/or civilization.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Cuna initially thinks that the delver attacking Starsight is part of Winzik's plans, but then realises that that would be too ruthless even for him and that he's actually lost control of the situation.
- Faux Affably Evil: Einzik always speaks in polite, calm yet condescending tones, even when plotting his coup or the extermination of humanity.
- Hypocrite: Thinks the best use of humans is to keep them on a short lease and be used as the Superiority's personal army because of their history of having subjugated other species. And that said army's best use is for subjugating other races.
- Sissy Villain: He constantly feigns shock and horror whenever someone so much as raises their voice and just generally comes across as simpering and hyper-genteel, all while cheerfully plotting genicide.
- Smug Snake: He's not only condescending and dishonest, but his plans would have backfired on him badly if Spensa hadn't ruined them.
- Verbal Tic: Winzik has one, my my.
- Xanatos Speed Chess: Winzik's initial plan was ill-conceived at best, and he fails to foresee Spensa's intervention or Cuna's espionage. He's able to keep ahead of all of his rivals by moving decisively to salvage the pieces of his original plans.
Hesho
King Hesho
Captain of the "Swims-Against-The-Current-In-A-Steam-Reflecting-The-Sun". Most certainly not the king of his people; that would be silly and primitive.
- Just the First Citizen: Hesho uses this trope almost verbatim. The kitsen want to join the Superiority, and the Superiority requires its members be democratic. Therefore, Hesho is not a king. Pay no attention to the servant fanning him.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: There's no indication the Kitsen actually dislike having Hesho as their supreme monarch. He looks after his crew, and accepts the one time they overrule him with bemused grace.
- Sacrificial Lion: Hesho is thrown into space in the battle against Brade, making it very clear that Spensa's initial sympathy for Brade was misplaced.
- Zero Per Cent Approval Rating: Invoked as a form of Implausible Deniability. Hesho can't still be secretly in charge of the government, because the parliament keeps unanimously voting against every single one of his proposals! Unsurprisingly, this fools no-one.
Morriumur
Morriumur
A young dione draft, Morriumur was created with unusual aggression for their species. Wanting to prove it was a good thing to let themself be born, they enlisted to be a pilot.
- Non-Human Non-Binary: Morriumur has no gender, as they have not mated yet. Even when mated, diones don't mimic traditional human genders like male or female.
Vapor
Vapor
A Figment, a living cloud of... something that is primarily recognized by humans as a smell. She is quiet, but Spensa convinces her to take leadership of their flight.
- Bizarre Alien Biology: Vapor's species, the Figments, are invisible, intangible, and only perceptible to humans as various smells. Despite this they can talk, think, survive in a vacuum, and pilot spaceships by possessing them.
- Entertainingly Wrong: When Vapor discovers that "Alanik of UrDail" is in fact human, she assumes that the planet UrDail (known for being occupied by humans in the past) has been secretly giving a human enclave asylum from the Superiority, and is kind enough not to make an issue of it. Spensa notes this is a much more logical assumption than the truth.
- Overt Operative: Played with. Figments are so rare, and so obviously suited to espionage, that most people in the Superiority can reasonably assume that any Figment they meet is a high-ranked covert operative. When asked why she joined the Anti-Delver Task Force, Vapor jumps straight into angrily denying that she is an assassin, but doesn't even bother denying she has an ulterior mission. It works out because knowing a Figment is a spy doesn't help you much if you can't detect or attack them. It turns out the Vapor is working for Cuna, tasked with making sure Winzik doesn't use the task force for nefarious purposes
- Secret-Keeper: It's revealed later in the book that Vapor discovered that Spensa was a human almost immediately (as holograms don't work on a species that lacks eyes). She doesn't pass this information to anyone, even her handlers in the Superiority.
Brade
Brade Shimabukuro
Winzik's pet human, stolen from her family at age seven and raised to believe that all humans are monsters.
- Ace Pilot: She's an exceptional pilot, at one point holding her own against Spensa and several other enemies at once.
- Dark Action Girl: She is as skilled and brave as Spensa, if not even more so, but without Spensa's heroic qualities.
- The Dragon: Winzik employs her to do his dirty work.
- Evil Counterpart: Like Spensa, she's a headstrong, ultra-competent female Blood Knight with Psychic Power - only fighting on the other side of the war.
- Internalized Categorism: She's been told all her life that humans are brutal and violent, so she doesn't think there's any point in her trying not to be brutal and violent.
- Not Brainwashed: Spensa spends most of Starsight assuming that Brade serves the Superiority because she's been brainwashed into believing their anti-human propaganda. She eventually realises that that is selling Brade short - while the brainwashing is part of it, Brade also serves the Superiority because she simply cares more about her personal ambition than about the plight of her species.
- Psychic Power: She has cytonic abilities.
- Shadow Archetype: As Spensa realizes in the final book, Brade is essentially her if she never opened up to others and let all the terrible things she believed about herself and others define her.
The Nowhere
The Delvers
Beings that live in The Nowhere, emerging only when sufficiently aggravated to lay waste to entire planets.
- Eldritch Abomination: They live in a dimension beyond the physical, sense the world with senses beyond those of lesser beings which they view as nothing but infuriating pinpricks of noise and light to be snuffed out. They also fit the bill better than most modern incarnations of the idea that interpret it as 'freaky monster,' they're genuinely so far beyond humans or the Superiority that they don't know those creatures are sentient or even alive, fully embodying the fear of a universe apathetic to our existence that inspired Lovecraft in the first place.
Others
Doomslug
Doomslug
Spensa's pet slug, which she discovers around the same time she finds M-Bot. Alanik
