Mercke Lutso

"So...the truth comes out. Jedi can bleed."

- 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 swords.

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 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.

He landed in the middle of the Tatooinian Dune Sea. After much wandering, Mercke stumbled across Tatooine's key spaceport, Mos Eisley. There he found work as a low-time bounty hunter. He was also trained to be a starpilot under a certain smuggler.

Involvement with the Death Watch
Soon he became acquainted with a young man named Fushus Icounited. Fushus told Mercke that he had found a Mandalorian cult on Endor. Overly excited, Mercke went to Endor, disregarding Fushus' warning.

Upon reaching Endor, Mercke was brutally assaulted by the Death Watch and left for dead. Fushus, who had followed, rescued Mercke and took him to the Endor Outpost MedFacility, where he was given a cybernetic arm.

Mercke then met Fushus' friend, Linzad. Together, they created a clan based around the Mandalorian remnants. This essentially establishing a small Mandalorian remnant army.

Later, Linzad was murdered by the Death Watch leader. Enraged, Mercke went to Endor again. 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 assisted them in many circumstances, most notably his participation at the Battle of Endor. Lutso and his friend, Neak D'elia, accompanied the Rebel fleet in the assault against the Death Star II, helping to hold back the enemy fighter screen as Gold group entered the Death Star's infrastructure. The rest is history.

Shortly after the Battle of Endor and the liberation from the Empire, Mercke found the fundings to finally remove his cybernetic arm. He had an organic arm grown and placed on him. Supposedly he kept the old cyborg piece mounted on the wall in his living room.

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 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 64. 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.

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 dtermination 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.

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, although he was also known to use a sniper rifle and carbine. 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.

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
 * Illegally bought and modified DL-44 pistol
 * Vibro-sword
 * Various ordnances, ie. Cyroban greandes and thermal detonators
 * Small knives and other hold-out weapons; these were usually carried in the bicep/hip ammo pouches

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
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.

Mercke also had limited mastery of the art form known as Teras Kasi. He used it in the cases where he was caught unarmed, and it proved to be very effective for him. Although advanced in the art, he was by no means a master of it.

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."

Vehicles
Hawkeye - Corellian YT-1300

Hawkeye II - Corellian YT-2400

Ranger - Cutlass-9 patrol fighter

Affiliations
Fushus Icounited

Linzad (surname not given)

Neak D'elia

Iheb Arokt

Levinth Orokith

Fenn Shysa

Tobbi Dala

R2-L6

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 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.

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