Erv Lekauf

"My granddad thought the world of him."

- Jori Lekauf explaining his grandfather's opinion of Vader to Ben Skywalker

Erv Lekauf was Darth Vader's aide-de-camp on his mission to Vohai and a lieutenant in the Imperial Army.

Biography
A lieutenant in the [Imperial Army]], Lekauf accompanied Darth Vader on his mission to Vohai in 18 BBY. Vader was intent on speaking with the head of Arkanian Microtechnologies, hoping to find new cloning technologies. When the two arrived there, they were ambushed by several assassins with Thunderbolt Repeating Blasters. Vader easily defeated the assassins, with the aid of Lekauf, who defied Vader's orders by shooting at the assassins in an attempt to help the Dark Lord.

As a result, Vader requested that Lekauf provide tissue samples to Arkanian Microtechnologies in order to be cloned for a new batch of stormtroopers. Lekauf felt honored by this request. He spent six months on Yinchorr training his clones.

While onboard a Lambda-class shuttle headed back to Imperial Center, he and his clones faced off against Emperor's Hand Sheyvan and the clones of Sa Cuis, another Emperor's Hand. Lekauf was scorched by a force-repelled flamethrower blast while trying to protect Vader&mdash;although Vader would have been protected due to his armor&mdash;and had to undergo bacta treatments after the revolt was over. Despite his burns, he survived to see his family on Coruscant.

Vader was so impressed by Lekauf's actions that he ordered more clones of the lieutenant.

In 40 ABY, his grandson Jori Lekauf served as corporal in the Galactic Alliance Guard. Jori once recounted to Jacen Solo what his grandfather had told him about Darth Vader. Jori looked up to his grandfather more so than he looked up to his parents.

Behind the scenes
Lt. Lekauf was named after Ryan Kaufman. Erv's mutilation was partially a "retaliation" for Ryan killing off Tra'avis (named for Karen Traviss) in the short story "Orders".

Appearances

 * In His Image
 * Evasive Action: End Game
 * A Two-Edged Sword
 * Bloodlines
 * Sacrifice

Notes and references
Erv Lekauf