Mercke Lutso

"So...the truth comes out. Jedi can bleed, after all."

- Mercke Lutso

Mercke Lutso, (pronounced as, "Mer-k Loot-so") was born in 35 BBY to Mandalorian parents. Over the course of his life he has traveled across the Galaxy and been acknowledged by many as one of the most interesting characters one could meet. His exploits are recorded in the book My name is Mercke Lutso.

Early life
Mercke was born in 35 BBY to Nerant and Shadalt Lutso, on the planet of Concord Dawn. His birth occurred one year prior to the Battle of Galidraan, the battle in which the Mandalorian numbers were drastically reduced. So, in essence, he never got to see his culture at its fullest.

Mercke's father, Nerant, was a very well known Journeyman Protector on Concord Dawn. He had fought valiantly at the Battle of Galidraan, becoming one of the few Mandalorian survivors of the skirmish. In his early life he had also served under Mandalore Jaster Mereel and Jango Fett.

Mercke spent his later childhood under brutal combat training. It was at this point in his life (around thirteen years of age) that he developed his fascination with blades, and began to excel in swordsmanship.

When Concord Dawn fell to Imperial control just before the Galactic Civil War, Mercke fought extensively with the Imperial troops. After seeing his mother and father killed by Shock Troopers, he was taken into custody by his Imperial escorts. He later managed to escape from them, and wandered the planet for over a week until finding means of communication. He then left the planet with help from his friend Felome Eta.

En route to Coronet, Felome's shuttle was blasted out of the sky by an Imperial Star Destroyer. Mercke was captured and brought on board an Imperial Space Station in orbit above a desert planet. Again, he managed to escape from his prison, rocketing himself into the planet Tatooine.

The Bounty Hunting Years
After landing in the middle of the Tatooinian Dune Sea, Mercke stumbled across Tatooine's key spaceport, Mos Eisley. There, he befriended an elderly woman and found the fundings to start a career as a low-time bounty hunter. Eventually, he joined the Bounty Hunter's Guild and proceeded to take many offworld jobs, still operating out of Tatooine. He made sufficient pay and essentially began his new life. He was also trained to be a starpilot under a certain smuggler.

Involvement with the Death Watch
After a number of years in the bounty hunting business, Mercke became acquainted with a young man named Fushus Icounited. The two met in the Mos Eisley Starport ring after Fushus had made an exceptionally rough landing. Mercke asked what had happened, and the beaten man told Mercke that he had found a Mandalorian cult on Endor and been attacked. Mercke blatantly asked for the coordinates, and, overly excited, went to Endor, disregarding Fushus' warnings.

Upon reaching Endor, Mercke set out to find the cult. Eventually, - following Fushus' coordinates - he found a large ferrocrete bunker. He entered it and was immediately disarmed and taken prisoner by the Death Watch. After learning that the cult was in league with Black Sun, Mercke attempted to escape. He suceeded, but was brutally injured during the process. His left arm was severed at the shoulder by a vibro-axe. Mercke managed to barely escape the bunker. Drowsy, he jumped into a nearby river, where he passed out from loss of blood. Fushus, who had followed, rescued Mercke and took him to the Endor Outpost MedFacility, where he was given a cybernetic arm. It was here that Fushus revealed to Mercke his relation to Jaster Mereel.

The Solus Clan
Mercke then met Fushus' friend, Linzad. The three men became close friends, and together, they created a clan based around the Mandalorian remnants. This essentially establishing a small Mandalorian remnant army.

The clan was henceforth known as Solus, or "one" in Mando'a.

Linzad had a modified probe droid that aided the clan in finding recruits. By injecteing his, Fushus', and Mercke's blood into the droid, he was able to seperate the Mandalorian genetic signature and effectively track planetary Mandalorian blood. This device would prove infinitely helpful in the Mandalorian's quest for unity.

Entanglements
By the first year, Solus had acquired twenty Mandalorian Remnant soldiers. Fushus decided to lead the soldiers against the Death Watch in an attempt to wipe them out (at this time the clan only knew of fifteen Death Watch soldiers). They were soon outnumbered drastically.

During the battle that resulted, Linzad was mercilessly slain by the Death Watch leader. Fushus proceeded to call a retreat. After escaping the planet, the team had time to contemplate.

The Mandalorian Armor
Enraged, Mercke went to Endor again, using his newly-acquired Corellian YT-1300, the Hawkeye.

He snuck into the Death Watch complex in the cover of night, and infiltrated the ventilation systems in order to reach the leader's personal chambers. Once ready, Mercke entered the chamber and blatantly challenged the leader. The leader accepted the challenge, and the two fought. The resulting duel that took place betwen them was extraordinary. Both were skilled in the arts of swordplay, and it would seem that they were equally matched. At certain points in the fight the two resorted to using martial arts and physical attacks on one another. After exhausting him, Mercke eventually caught the man in a blade lock, overpowered him, and slashed him diagonally across the torso. He then took the man's Mandalorian armor and made it his own.

Rebellion sympathy
Over the course of his life Lutso had had many run-ins with members of the Rebellion. After two Rebel spies had rescued him from Imperial forces on Dathomir, Mercke decided to align with the group. He would assist them in many different skirmishes and events. He was open and challenging about his alignment - he displayed the Rebellion crest on his shoulder quite obviously, and dared anyone to question him about it.

Tatooine Conflict
"Don't worry. When we're telling this story to our grandkids, we'll be sure to let them know just how heroic and Jedi-esque you acted when you openly attacked us in a civilian starport."

- Mercke Lutso

While rendevousing with Fushus Icounited on Tatooine, Mercke became involved in a public brawl within the Mos Eisley cantina. The bartenders of the establishment called the authorities, and the two were forced to flee the building. While being pursued by the local garrison of Stormtroopers, Mercke and Fushus moved into the bowels of the city and snuck into a starship docking ring (this would later be confirmed as docking bay 64 of the Mos Eisley spaceport).

Inside the docking ring, they found an Incom T-65 marked as "Red 5". At that moment, a figure jumped down from the lip of the bay and approached Mercke and Fushus. It was then that Lutso discovered the owner of the X-wing to be none other than Luke Skywalker.

Mercke became enraged at the mere sight of Skywalker. Fushus attempted to calm him, bringing up the point that the two of them were on the same side, but Mercke refused to back down.

Sensing Mercke's intense anger, Skywalker used the force to pin the two men against the nearest wall and interrogate them. When he learned that they were not members of the Empire, he released them and offered for them to leave. However, Mercke insisted that Skywalker had openly attacked him and requested a fight.

Fushus eventually agreed, and the two began opening fire on Luke. The Jedi deflected all their blasts with his lightsaber, attempting to knock them down quickly, but the men's Mandalorian armor stopped the bolts and let them continue.

After a brief distance battle, Skywalker approached Fushus close enough to swipe at him with his blade, injuring him mildly, and then used the Force to throw Fushus across the ring into a stack of supply crates. He then focused all his attention on Lutso.

The two charged and met in the middle of the ring, where Mercke uncovered his secret weapon: a cortosis alloy gauntlet fitted to his right arm. Using it, he was able to block Skywalker's attacks.

The two fought on using their own attacks and counterattacks, brusing each other to an extent. Eventually, they strayed into a service tunnel off the north side of the bay.

Attempting to disarray Lutso, Skywalker cut the main power cable in the small access tunnel, extinguishing all lights and shorting out all the circuits. This was easily overcome by Lutso, who simply activated his helmet's infrared sensors and pressed the attack.

As they continued fighting, Mercke sustained mild injuries to his cybernetic arm.

Eventually, Mercke used his surroundings to his own advantage, as he decapitated an electrical beam and stunned Luke. He then grabbed hold of an overhead maitenance ramp and planted a double-kick to Skywalker, knocking him backwards and forcing him out of the tunnel.

At this point Luke gained the upper hand and injured Lutso, rendering him helpless. He threw Lutso against the nearest wall and pinned him there with his shut-down lightsaber pointed at Mercke's visor.

Mercke then asked for a "last request" in which Luke came close removed Mercke's helmet. Then Mercke proceeded to spit in Luke's eye, muttering "Jedi scum..."

As Luke ignited his lightsaber and came in for the kill, Lutso activated his planetary homing beacon and called in the Hawkeye from a neighboring docking ring. Flying in low, it blasted the docking ring and forced Skywalker to flee, as Mercke ran out of the way from the discharges and attended to Fushus.

Kashyyyk
In an attempt to escape from the current stresses in his life, Mercke vacationed to the Kashyyyk system. After a few days of peaceful relaxation, Mercke approached the Kwokir Forest. Apparently, he noticed that the forest was extensively malnourished and dying. He was soon intercepted by perimeter gaurds and taken to speak with the Chief Kerritamba.

The Chief asked for Mercke's help in saving his forest. he explained that the forest was home to a tribe of force-weilding creatures that thrived off, eventually killing, all sorts of plant life. As the Wookiees had no experience in fighting force-users, they were utterly helpless. Lutso agreed to try his best.

After finding the tribe's village hidden in the heart of the forest, Mercke picked off two of the creatures with his blaster and briefly fought with the remaining ones. They went down fairly easily to Mandalorian hands, and Mercke returned to the Chief, triumphant. Almost immediately afterwards, the forest began renewing itself.

Cyrans
"YOU DESTROYED EVERYTHING I WORKED FOR!!!"

- Cyrans the Unfeeling

While preparing to leave the Kwokir Forest, a man approached Mercke from the nearby brush. He began screaming at Mercke, at the top of his lungs, blaming him for bringing about his downfall, etc. etc. He then left, rather awkwardly. While walking away, he told Mercke to "watch his back".

Chief Kerritamba explained to Mercke the story of this man. He and the jungle creatures had come to the forest many years ago, seeking refuge from a discriminatory galaxy. The creatures, he said, were shunned by other species because of their bizarre fauna techniques, and the man (whom was named, "Cyrans the Unfeeling" by the Wookiees) came searching safety from an old enemy. He brought the creatures with him, killing the forest, and essentially overing him cover in a dead world.

Mercke proposed to leave the forest and spare the Wookiees any more trouble involving Cyrans. Kerritamba, however, denied Lutso's departure. He instead offered Mercke protection in the village unti lthe Cyrans issue was solved and it was safe for Mercke to leave.

That night, Kerritamba positioned his best gaurds around the perimeter of the establishment.

Mercke could not sleep that night, and decided to join the patrols himself.

While checking the perimeter, he briefly entered the structure of the Great Tree. Cyrans was wainting for him inside the building, and he attacked Lutso.

As the two began to scuffle, the Wookiee perimeter gaurds scrambled to the entrance to the great tree - but Cyrans had already blown the door shut.

Lutso and Cyrans fought briefly within the entrance room before entering the rear turbolift. As it shot upwards, they continued fighting, struggling within the confines of the shaft and damaging the interior.

Upon exiting the turbolift, the two discovered a rainstorm had begun. As they fought among the treetop disc platforms, the slickness of the rain threatened them both - in one case Lutso was left breifly dangling from the edge.

Once they reached the main platform, Lutso managed to disarm Cyrans completely. As the two stood in the rain, Lutso offered Cyrans another chance at combat. He then picked up the fallen weapon and tossed it back into Cyran's grip. Although noble, this gesture had little effect on the killer, who immediately attacked again.

The two fought extensively within the main platform. Cyrans' sword was flung off the platform by Lutso during a lock, and Lutso then lost his own blade to a kick. The two scuffled with fists until Lutso gained the upper hand by breaking Cyran's right arm in his mechanical grip. Cyrans was fazed, but used his left hand to continue. Cyrans "cheated", then scrambled for Mercke's fallen blade. At this point, Lutso had "taken quite enough of his arrogant dishonorability", and decided to cheat on his own. He fired his DL-44 into Cyrans in mid-air while he was performing a lunge toward Lutso. The shot caught him full in the chest and blew him backwards off the lip of the platform, into the forest below.

Reunited with a childhood friend
While still on tour of Kashyyyk, Mercke recieved a high-security transmission from Fushus, in the hold of the Hawkeye.

Fushus explained that the Mandalorian Probe had detected a strong presence near Fushus' current location - a small outpost in the plains of Dantooine.

Mercke went to Dantooine as quickly as possible and met with Fushus. The two then set out on their speederbikes in search of the potential being.

Soon they found a still-running swoop bike in the middle of one of the nearby flower fields. The two then split up. Soon, Mercke found the man lying in the flowers for cover. The two briefly fought with each other, until Fushus entered the fray with a stun weapon and knocked the man unconscious.

After questioning, Mercke discovered the true identity of the Mandalorian - it was his childhood friend, Levinth Orokith.

The Battle of Endor
"I'm all yours, Lieutenant!"

- Neak D'elia

After returning to his home on Talus, Lutso was contacted by Admiral Ackbar. The Rebellion was preparing for it's final assualt on the Empire.

Lutso convinced his good friend and clan member Neak D'elia to join him in the Endor excursion. Neak agreed, and the two met onboard the Mon Cal cruiser, Liberty.

Lutso and D'elia were assigned to Green Squadron. Their main priority in the battle was to help thin out the enemy fighter screen and provide protection for Gold group. Due to Rebellion fighter shortages, Neak would fly in a Black Sun fighter prototype, the Vaksai. Mercke would fly in his own ship, the Ranger.

Revenge
About this time Mercke received a message from an anonymous Death Watch member, the man stating that he had taken up leadership of the cult and that he planned to launch an attack on Lutso and his guild army. Mercke then split up his guild and ordered for the man to be hunted down and destroyed. He himself took to the skies in his fighter, searching nearby systems for any traces of teh Death Watch.

Soon he found an Imperial Dreadnaught-class heavy cruiser in orbit above the Lok system. The cruiser opened fire, and Mercke slipped away into hyperspace. He then alerted Fushus of the situation and organized a strike team to take out the Dreadnaught.

A skirmish broke out over the Lok system. Eventually, Lutso was able to dock his Hawkeye II with the dreadnaught. He and his men boarded the ship, only to find that the captain and his crew had jettisoned themselves into Lok, using two escape pods.

Fushus agreed to take half of the party to one coordinate, and Mercke would lead the other half to the second.

After finding the crashed pods, both teams engaged in large battles with the Death Watch. Mercke became engaged in a prolonged sword fight with the Death Watch leader (who just so happened to be in the second pod) and decapitated him. Eventually the Death Watch forces were wiped out by the over-trained teams.

Lutso then proceeded to Endor in the Hawkeye, and dropped a large atmospheric bomb on top of the Death Watch bunker complex.

Mandalorian Unity
Soon afterward, Mercke saw two shady looking figures in the Nashal cantina, on Corellia's moon Talus. The men conversed with the bartender of the establishment, asking him if he knew of any Mandalorian followers in the area. The bartender, who had seen Mercke around the city before, pointed him out to the men. A minor scuffle resulted. Soon the two men introduced themselves as Fenn Shysa and Tobbi Dala. The three men, along with Fushus, formed a long-lasting alliance.

Final days
Mercke was killed in space combat over Kamino at the age of 63. Accounts of his death are yet to be canonified, but as the stories go, he sacrificed himself for Fushus Icounited, throwing his starfighter into the path of a proton torpedo en route to Fushus' transport.

Further accounts are recorded in My name is Mercke Lutso.

Impact on the Galaxy
Over the course of his life Mercke made many acqauntices, and affected many different Galactic events. He also visited numerous star systems, counting nearly half of those in the Galaxy.

Meetings
According to his records, Lutso became acqauinted with many iconic figures. Some of which include:
 * Han Solo
 * Luke Skywalker*
 * Admiral Ackbar
 * Mon Mothma
 * Boba Fett*
 * Darth Vader
 * Talon Kardde
 * Jabba the Hutt
 * Baron Fel
 * * Violence

Accomplishments
Mercke is often associated with the
 * extermination of the Death Watch (Endorian branch)
 * slaying of Cyrans the Unfeeling
 * the liberation of the Kwokir Forest

Among the Mandalorians
Mercke is credited in large to the reuniting of the Mandalorian Race. His accomplishments and determination in the area were unmatched, seconded only to Fushus Icounited and Fenn Shysa.

It is said that Fushus would have never suceeded without Mercke's partnership.

It is also speculated that without Mercke, Fenn would have never discovered the Solus clan, making up roughly half of the Mandalorian population.

Appearance
Lutso usually wore a partial suit of Mandalorian armor which was adorned with his family insignia. The armor was painted dark grey, with trimmings the color of "a rusty pipe" (reddish-brown). He carried a DL-44 pistol and Vibro-sword with him at all times. His gauntlets, leggings, and boots were of custom design. For much of his life he also had a cybernetic replacement adorning his left arm, until he had it removed sometime after the Battle of Endor, due to physical strain and nerve damage.

Essentially, Mercke's wardrobe consisted of the following elements; variations would occur over his lifetime, but in a simplified list:
 * Mandalorian helmet and chestplate
 * Custom designed bracers, leggings, and boots (the bracers possibly had a cortosis content)
 * Illegally bought and modified DL-44 pistol
 * Vibro-sword
 * Various ordnances, ie. Cyroban grenades and thermal detonators
 * Small knives and other hold-out weapons; these were usually carried in the bicep/hip ammo pouches

His look was easily identified among other Mandalorians. Not only was his armor setup and color scheme unique, but he wore many details that would later be highly assosciated with him, such as a Corellian-style blaster rig on his right leg, and a Rebellion-looted bicep strap.

At some point in his life, Lutso acquired a cortosis bracer for use on his right arm. This would prove overly useful during his fight with Luke Skywalker.

Unhelmeted, Mercke sported a semi-long haircut of a strange reddish-brown color. He had bright turquoise eyes and light skin.

He was tall and lean, about 6'1"

Personality and Traits
"Are you crazy?!?" "No...I'm Mandalorian."

- Onso Jerekson and Mercke Lutso

Lutso was a cunning warrior. While more than satisfactory with a blaster or carbine, he had an unusual favoritism towards swords and other bladed weapons. He was known to use at least three combat swords during his lifetime; a long two-handed katana, a "hand and a half" sword, and a single-handed short sword. This unusual liking was most likely inherited from his father, who in addition had a favor towards the said weapon.

He also had a strange dislike for long guns and rifles. Many times he has gone out of his way to not use a weapon of the type, and it remains unknown why. He did however carry one of each weapon in his homebound arsenal, and employed them when necessary.

Mercke also had limited mastery of the art form known as Teras Kasi. He used it in the cases where he was caught unarmed, where it proved to be very effective for him, as well as the occasional standoff. Due to his honor-based and tribal nature, he often found himself in situations involving boxing. Fushus once described Mercke's hand to hand skill as "a real quick series of punches and blocks that I couldn't even count the number of. He must have hit that guy five times a second, and they weren' just smacks - every hit broke bones." Although advanced in the art, he was by no means a master of it when compared to other Teras Kasi enthusiasts, such as the Echani (who he would later confront, and although holding his ground sucessfully, sustained major injuries).

Mercke spoke in a Concord Dawn accent. By all means his voice sounded similar to Jango and Boba Fett's, but it wasn't as thick. Fushus Icounited simply stated, "He had a different voice. It was like what you would hear comin' out of a clone Trooper or somethin'. He actually sounded alot like me grandfather. But, it was less thick and had simpler sound to it. His voice was totally recognizable."

Lutso's personality was described as being extremely noble, justified, and somewhat peculiar. He had many odd preferences and quirks. Iheb Arokt descrbied him as follows: "Lutso was easily the most eccentric of all our [thirty-five] members. At times his quirkiness would be necessarily correct, and at other times it would be just downright annoying. Either way, he wasn't any type of crazy person that couldn't control his actions or anything like that. Quite the opposite, actually - he had perfect control over his thoughts and actions, but most of the time he knew his own mind and just let his instincts do the work, because he knew he was right about them. He rarely made mistakes in that regard. I remember a Kalatos Altarian finding Mercke's behavior during a skirmish to be particularly annoying enough to sacrifice the team's location to the enemy, just for the sake of yelling at him."

Mercke took to the habit of always allowing his opponent to make the first move in battle. In fact, he makes several obviously self-flattering references to this in My Name is Mercke Lutso, which would insinuate that he was very proud of that trait. This could ocassionaly be linked to obssesive behavior in that he would blantantly risk his life in more than one instance for the satisfaction of letting his opponent make the first move.

Vehicles

 * Hawkeye - Corellian YT-1300
 * Hawkeye II - Corellian YT-2400
 * Ranger - Cutlass-9 patrol fighter
 * Mobquet Overracer swoop

Affiliations

 * Fushus Icounited
 * Linzad (surname not given)
 * Neak D'elia
 * Iheb Arokt
 * Levinth Orokith
 * Fenn Shysa
 * Tobbi Dala
 * R2-L6

Friendship with Fushus Icounited
"Just follow my lead. This is where the fun begins."

- Mercke Lutso to Fushus Icounited, regarding a current skirmish

Lutso and Icounited had an almost inseperable bond. After years spent fighting alongside one another, they knew each other's tactics well enough that they could effectively "work as a single mind".

This would prove invaluable in many circumstances, including the short duel that Mercke and Fushus would have with Luke Skywalker around 3 ABY.

The Lutso/Icounited conenction runs even deeper than pure acqauntice. In the days before the Clone Wars, Mercke's father, Nerant, was a Journeyman Protector who worked directly under Fushus' grandfather, Jaster Mereel.

Rumours
It is said that about fifty years after Mercke's death a young un-named man stumbled across Lutso's Talus homestead. There, he supposedly found Mercke's armor and weapons stashed in a broken locker alongside the deactivated R2-L6. When he learned that Mercke had not had any children or carried on his bloodlines in any way, the young man took the armor and weapons for himself and repaired the R2 unit, naming himself as "Lutso's Heir" and becoming a full-time bounty hunter oeprating out of Coruscant. However, research into this field have proved fruitless and the rumours still remain.

Behind the Scenes
Mercke Lutso was created by Fedora. The name was originally created for use as a Battlefront alias; later it was also used as a Galaxies avatar name.

The name itself was originally spelled as "Merc Lutso" - only later was it changed, because of association with the word mercenary, or "merc". A "ke" was added to the end of the name to avoid further confusion.

A novel, My name is Mercke Lutso, is currently being written by Fedora. It has been in progress for a number of years.