A to Z Challenge: Nichols, Louie & Nova Satori

Louie Nichols

In the second generation, Louie Nichols is part of the 15th ATAC along with Dana Sterling.  He pilots Hovertanks like everyone else, but he also likes to tinker with stuff like his weapons.  He wears funny goggles all the time instead of normal glasses.

Louie studies the Robotech Masters' ships and finds a weakness in their engines.  The 15th boards one of the ships and is able to take out the engines, crashing the ship on Earth.

In one episode he reprograms a combat simulator to target by reading the movement of his eyes.  He gets pissed when the Southern Cross military stole it and put it in all its mecha.

After the war, Nichols comes up with a modification to space-fold engines.  This allows the 15th to take Jonathan Wolfe's ship back to Tirol without any problems.  But Nichols doesn't go with the ship.  Instead according to the books he goes to Japan and creates technology like William Gibson's Neuromancer (or The Matrix).

Nichols basically becomes the head of a cult dedicated to "machine mind" or linking human minds with machines.  Louie's connection becomes so strong that he can even command machines when he's not plugged in.

Nichols goes with the Ark Angel to find the SDF-3 and helps the crew bypass the entity Haydon's defenses to steal one of his ships so the crew can get to "newspace" and rescue the SDF-3.

After returning to Earth, technology has changed away from Protoculture but Nichols continues working on his machine mind stuff to make humans into cyborgs with special abilities like telepathy and telekinesis and cool shit like that.

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Nova Satori

Nova Satori was also in the second generation series.  She's a lieutenant in the Global Military Police, the only worldwide law enforcement agency left after the war with the Zentraedi.  In the books the GMP was formed from the remnants of the Robotech Defense Force after Rick Hunter, Lisa Hayes, and the rest of the REF left.  It was a compromise to end the rivalry between the RDF and the Army of the Southern Cross.

Nova and Dana Sterling have a history--none of which is good.  Nova is basically Dana's nemesis, like the Newman to Dana's Jerry Seinfeld.  Whenever Dana screws up, Nova is there but with there being a war on and Dana's relationship to General Rolf Emerson, Nova can never get her locked up for good.

When the alien Zor Prime is captured, Nova debriefs him and tries to help him remember stuff, but eventually the brass decides to put Zor Prime in with the 15th with Dana.  In one episode an officer tells Dana he has a crush on Nova so she tries to play matchmaker.  While it doesn't work, it helps to steer Nova to a Veritech pilot named Dennis Brown.  She and Brown survive the destruction of the Masters' flagship and Nova adopts one of the clone babies on the ship.  She and Brown live happily ever after...until the Invid come.