The Interstellar Outlaw, Manuel McCrae

Quotes

“I could use a good ol’ penguin steak right about now. Momdroid used fix’em up real good…. Aww shucks...Now I miss Momdroid….derrn...” Manuel McCrae feeling homesick on Praxima-B

Description

Manuel McCrae is a man of average build and height. He is of Hispanic heritage, has a medium-dark complexion, and is about 35 or 40 years old. Manuel tends to dress in a Hollywood depiction of an ancient west cowboy or desperado. He even goes as far as having two relic revolvers on his hip, mostly for aesthetic reasons, but they are in perfect working order. Mr. McCrae goes to great lengths to keep these museum pieces functioning and uses them every once in a while. His two prized possessions are his copy of Lonesome Dove and Daniel Bowie's Bowie knife that he stole from the San Antonio ruins, both he keeps on his person at all times. Manuel is a cyborg hacker with a prosthetic left eye, and his left arm is also prosthetic. As a hacker, he is gifted with all things Tech.

He has no great love affair with the EXOGEN corporation, although he occasionally refers to them as his patrons. He also has no great objection to the war on Proxima-B. If anything, he seems to enjoy it because this is just a frontier battle, like in his favorite movies. He was forced on this planet, but he doesn't care. This Outlaw is happy as a clam as long as he can keep his collections.

His personality is quite extreme and sometimes delusional. He can be quite obnoxious because he keeps referring to things around himself in 19th-century terms. Manuel also keeps on quoting movie lines from Old West films. He even forced himself to develop a traditional Texan accent, ultimately losing his original Trash Heaper accent. His people skills aren't the greatest, but he can get along quite well with androids since they are machines. He doesn't particularly like aliens because he has difficulty fitting them into his internal western narrative. If it wasn't for his warped persona, his intelligence could have been used to create great new wonders of technology, but this will never happen. He enjoys long walks on the beach, whiskey in the evening while painting, and the act of thievery.

Early Life

Manuel was born an orphan on Terra in the Antarctic Trash Heap. Since he was orphaned, he didn’t have a last name. The boy didn’t know if he had parents or was a clone; all he knew was his name was Manuel. As a young child, he spent his day rummaging through the refuge that was his home for sellable scraps. Early on, it was evident that Manuel had a knack for technology. He would use this gift to fix broken items for resale and, at 13, had reassembled and reactivated a discarded android. This android would act as a servant for young Manuel, who had a decent income for Trash Heapers standards. Manuel would affectionately refer to this cobbled-together Android as “Momdroid” to fulfill the lack of parents in his life.

One day he stumbled upon old holo tapes of old Hollywood western films. From the moment he finished his first movie, he was hooked. He watched movies and shows such as “Good, The Bad, and the Ugly” to “Yellowstone” and everything western. The young wannabe cowpoke yearned for the yesteryears of the old west and the highly romanticized depictions of cowboys on the range. He desperately wanted to kiss the girl and then ride away on his horse into the sunset, never to see her again. Manuel began collecting old memorabilia and other western items strewn around the continent-wide landfill. His obsession led him down the dark path of thievery, and he first stole when he was around 15.

The Outlaw

One day, an air-barge ship landed to unload trash from North America. Since the ship was American in origin, it sparked Manuel’s interest. He would hack the security system of the vessel to see if the load had anything of interest to add to his collection. While scanning through the security feed, Manuel noticed that the captain’s quarters had a bookshelf full of books, a rarity in this day of age. Out of curiosity, he focused the feed on the tower of books. Then he found it. It was a very thick ancient tome with the title of *Lonesome Dove.* Manual had to have that book.

    In Manuel’s collection of media, there were several times the book was mentioned. He even learned there was a mini-series of the old story, but he could never find a copy that was not corrupted. Digital copies of the book didn't seem to exist anymore, and finding a printed copy was downright impossible. To find one on a trash barge drove him mad with envy. While he was looking at the book, he began to hatch a plan.

Manuel hacked one of the androids on board the ship, and it just so happened that this particular Android piloted the barge. Just as they were taking off, Manuel caused the ship to crash into one of the trash Spires. The crash was not enough to destroy the vessel, but it immobilized it long enough for the android to retrieve the book from the captain's quarters. Manuel finished the ancient tome in one night when he got hold of the book. After he finished all 858 pages, he adopted the last name McCrae after his favorite character Augustus McCrae. Thus was born the famous Pistolero Manuel McCrae.

Later in life, he would stage several robberies on banks or museums with his posse of androids. He programmed the androids to say famous one-liners from western media whenever they had a heist. However, not all the heists went smoothly. When he was robbing the Neo-Smithsonian, an automated flame turret burned the left side of his body, causing him to lose his left arm and right eye. With his androids' help, he installed a new prosthetic arm and eye. All of this trouble was just for growing his collection of memorabilia.

           Manuel would become the most famous Outlaw on this side of the Milky Way spiral, and eventually, The EXOGEN corporation took notice. He was becoming a real pain to their operations in several different colonies. The final straw was when The EXOGEN entertainment division was filming a western holo film. Manuel kidnapped the director, took his place, and used nanomachines to make the cast believe he was the director and made his movie. The movie was loosely based on Manuel's exploits but in a more traditional setting. However, not all contemporary terminology translated well into a 19th-century aesthetic, but the film did well at the box office. Despite the overwhelmingly positive reviews, it wasn't very pleasant for EXOGEN when Manuel McCrae, the famous outlaw, was listed as the director in the credits. Ultimately this controversy would force EXOGEN to set up a special task force to capture Manuel McCrae.

Capture and Imprisonment

After a long manhunt and several years of dead ends, the EXOGEN special recovery units captured Manuel McCrae. They immediately took him to the penal colony on Titan. However, the loose organization of the penal colony allowed Manuel to create a moon-wide gang that controlled the whole penal system. EXOGEN fearing Manuel would escape, offered him an ultimatum. Either the company will execute him, or he will take his skills and help the war effort at Proxima-B. Manuel McCrae, the famous interstellar Outlaw, chose the latter and is still fighting.