We can import characters? Woot! **Grabs a zillion dvds and downloads them**
But seriously, I use characters from books I read:
The pilot Lonewolf is based off a character in a series of books written by Harry Turtledove.
If Kusari space wasn't so <strike>Fraking</strike> empty I could use a ton of good ideas from the enlighten anime of our time. (Ghost in the shell for example).
It's funny to see how many Outcast and Corsair pilots use the same names. Ay Dios Mio!
At least Death.Runner is original. Insane yes, but still unique. I hope he doesn't kill me for this...