Luwingo

Luwingo was a male Yaka, a species of cyborgs commonly modified with intelligence implants by the Arkanians centuries before the Battle of Yavin. Luwingo worked as a programmer on his homeworld, developing software and programs for commercial use. He was eventually able to save up enough money to go on a luxury cruise on Galaxy Tours with his family. During the cruise, a pirate group attacked the ship and stunned everyone on-board with knockout gas. As the pirates looted the ship's vaults and guest rooms, they noticed Luwingo's children and kidnapped them, intending to sell them into slavery for their enhanced brains, and kidnapped the rest of Luwingo's family as well. Luwingo decided to go after the pirates and rescue his family by becoming a smuggler, believing the profession to be the most effective method of traveling the galaxy.

After procuring a ship with some back pay, Luwingo quit his job and began smuggling. He began noticing how odd of a figure he made smuggling by himself, and when his funds began running low he decided to find a partner to blend in better with the other smugglers. He decided to seek out Lo Khan, a smuggler he had met on an earlier run. As Luwingo began to research Khan's whereabouts, he discovered that the smuggler was being set up by one of his rivals, Uxbeg. In the Deneba system, Luwingo ambushed and eliminated Uxbeg's henchmen before they could attack Khan. Luwingo soon ran into Khan, who took pity on the Yaka due to his desperate state of affairs, and offered him a job as his temporary partner. Another group of thugs attacked the pair, resulting in a firefight in which Luwingo took a blaster bolt for Khan. Though Khan was worried about Luwingo's well-being, the Yaka recovered almost immediately. The incident cemented a friendship between the smugglers, and Luwingo became Khan's full-time bodyguard.

Luwingo spent the next few years trying to track down his family between smuggling runs. Luwingo and Khan began hauling supplies to the Imperial fortress world Byss in the Deep Core, and in 10 ABY, they were present at the Byss Bistro inside Byss's Imperial Freight Complex. Fellow smugglers Salla Zend and Shug Ninx, on the run from the Empire after they helped smuggle their friends—Han Solo and Leia Organa Solo—into the Emperor's Citadel, requested aid from Luwingo and Khan. The pair allowed Zend and Ninx to store Solo's freighter, the Millennium Falcon, inside Khan's transport, the Hyperspace Marauder, and proceeded to discuss recent events inside the Bistro. A Hunter-Killer probot designated Judgement 12-X7 soon detected the Falcon inside the Marauder and disabled the ship, leaving Luwingo and Khan stranded on Byss for several months.

Luwingo and Khan met up with Zend and Ninx again at the Bistro months later. They watched as a shipment of newly arrived X-1 Viper war droids, secretly harboring New Republic commandos, began wreaking havoc on the Imperials. However, the New Republic forces were soon outmatched when the Imperials released their Chrysalide beasts. Realizing the trouble the New Republic forces were in, Zend rallied together a group of smugglers, including Luwingo and Khan, to aid the commandos. As the smugglers ran for their ships, Luwingo laid down covering fire against Imperial forces with his tripod laser. Once the other smugglers safely boarded their freighters, Luwingo joined Khan in liberating the Marauder from the Imperial impound and proceeded to help the New Republic invasion force in its retreat. Luwingo and Khan joined the rest of the newly formed smuggler fleet and fled Byss to Pinnacle Base, headquarters of the New Republic. Luwingo and Khan, in conjunction with the smuggler fleet, later helped evacuate the New Republic safe world of New Alderaan before finally heading off to the New Republic base at the Space City above Nespis VIII.

A Yaka, Luwingo had a cyborg brain with many implants and mind enhancements that made him, like others of his species, one of the more intelligent and technically deft individuals in the galaxy. These intelligence modifications had the unexpected side-effect of leaving Luwingo and the other Yaka with a twisted view of life and a bizarre sense of humor. He spent much of his time thinking about hyperdimensional equations or developing new strategies for beating an L7 Logician droid, a task Luwingo never found particularly challenging because he was often able to beat the droid with ease. This left Luwingo bored most of the time, reflecting back on his life and how it had not turned out as well as he had hoped, but at the same time could have ended up much worse. Strong and bulky, Luwingo was also a very imposing figure and could survive being shot by a blaster. He formed a close relationship with Lo Khan and served as the smuggler's bodyguard and partner.

After the incident aboard the luxury ship that resulted in the kidnapping of his family, Luwingo dedicated his life to tracking down his family and bringing the pirates to justice. He knew the memories of the pirate attack would impair his investigation, so he typically kept them out of his mind by reprogramming his cyborg brain. Only one thing made Luwingo feel good inside: thinking about what he would do to the pirates once he found them.

Though Khan tried to navigate among the safest hyperlanes whenever possible, he and Luwingo had a system for dealing with potential hijackers if they ran into trouble. If any hijackers were able to board the Hyperspace Marauder, they would have to confront Luwingo, and if they attempted to reach for a weapon, Luwingo would become angry. If the hijackers tried to tow the ship or cut into the cargo bay, Luwingo would have enough time to slice into their ship's computer systems and shut it down. Luwingo and Khan both had a strong emotional attachment to the Marauder, so much so that they considered the transport to be the only valuable possession they owned between them. Luwingo was proficient in computer programming, droid programming, and repair of computers, droids, and space transport vessels. Although he spoke a language quite different from Basic, he could understand conversations spoken in the galactic standard.

Luwingo made his first appearance in the fifth issue of the Star Wars: Dark Empire comic book series, written by Tom Veitch and illustrated by Cam Kennedy. He later appeared in the latter half of Star Wars: Dark Empire II and was given a full background in the Dark Empire Sourcebook by Michael Allen Horne. He was also mentioned in several Essential Guides and a number of other reference sources, most recently The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia.

Though the fifth issue of Dark Empire indicates that Luwingo saved Khan during a firefight against Imperials, the Dark Empire Sourcebook instead identifies the attackers as hirelings of Uxbeg. This article assumes that the Dark Empire Sourcebook, being the most recent and comprehensive source on the subject, is correct.

In issue four of Dark Empire II, Luwingo says, "Namym si niwd oog hcra!," which, when read backwards, says, "Arch Goodwin is my man." This is likely a reference to the Star Wars comic book writer Archie Goodwin.

• Dark Empire Sourcebook
• A Guide to the Star Wars Universe, Second Edition, Revised and Expanded
• The Essential Guide to Characters
• The Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels
• Star Wars Encyclopedia
• The Essential Guide to Planets and Moons
• A Guide to the Star Wars Universe, Third Edition, Revised and Expanded
• The Official Star Wars Fact File93
• The Official Star Wars Fact File116
• The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia