Lukas

Name	Lukas Howard
Role	Solo
Occupation	Assassin / Bounty Hunter / Bodyguard / Mercenary
Status	Active
Affiliation	Unknown
Notable Cyberware	Unknown

Lukas Howard

Assassin / Bounty Hunter / Bodyguard / Mercenary

Appearance

Distinguishing Features

Mannerisms and Habits

Background

   Lukas Howard was born in the concrete maze of Night City in early 2049. He grew up in Santo Domingo, a district choked by industrial smog and poverty. His parents were factory workers laboring for a failing Petrochem subsidiary. Because of his large frame, even as a kid, he loomed over his peers. He was often targeted by local booster gangs looking to test their mettle against the "big kid."

   To keep him from joining a gang and winding up in prison or dead, his father enrolled him in a nearby karate dojo. There Lukas spent his tweens and early teens learning the discipline and grace of the Japanese martial art. At the very least it kept young Lukas out of trouble for the most part.

   In the late 2050's, a NUSA-backed front organization called the Federal Youth Pioneers set up recruitment and community centers in the poorer sectors of Night City. For Lukas, the Pioneers center was the only place with air conditioning, actual meat (instead of kibble), and a sense of purpose. The counselors were covert NUSA military scouts and instantly noticed the massive teenager who could punch through walls. They fed him, gave him basic tutoring, and filled his head with stories of a unified America where a man of his size could be a decorated hero instead of a street thug.

   In 2066, corporate rezoning forced Lukas' family out of their mega-tenement apartment. His parents were in debt and could not afford to support themselves and a 17 year-old son so Lukas started to help out by competing as an illegal pit-fighter for money. To him the city was a corrupt and chaotic meat-grinder so by the time he was 18 he enlisted in the NUSA military and wound up in the Mechanized Combat Force. The order, structure, and the heavy chrome they implanted in him turned young Lukas into a valuable asset.

   In 2069 when the Unification War broke out, Lukas deployed to the brutal Southern California front, where he became a living battering ram for the NUSA Mechanized Combat Force. Sweeping through the scorched, booby-trapped trenches of the Baja border, he relied on his newly grafted muscles, bone lacing and Kerenzikov to survive high-speed, close-quarters skirmishes against heavily armed Free State secessionists. He earned his handle, "Nightmare," from the terrifying efficiency with which he used his massive frame to breach enemy bunkers, wading through enemies to tear through fortified positions with his retractable Wolver blades. When the war abruptly halted in 2070, he was left a hollowed-out weapon of the state, possessing a cold addiction to battlefield adrenaline and a severely eroded sense of humanity.

   In the post-war military downsizing, the NUSA sold his contract to Lazarus Group. Lazarus is a massive, highly professional private military company staffed by veterans. Given Lukas' Night City origins and Lazarus' interests there, they set him loose there as a "freelance" Solo who they could tap when they had need of black ops work to be handled with total deniability. Unfortunately for Lukas, though he is no longer directly employed by Lazarus they made him subject to an onerous separation agreement where he can not take hostile action against Lazarus corporate employees without suffering debilitating pain due to the chip they implanted in his neuroport.

Known Associations

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