HK-47

HK-47 was a hunter-killer assassin droid built by Revan to kill those who, as he believed, would destabilize the Galaxy. He was later used as the model for the HK droid series.

Biography
HK-47 was originally constructed by Revan, shortly after the Battle of Malachor V, to be the quintessential assassin. While he was completely loyal—friendly, even—to those he identified as "master," he had virtually no regard for any form of life, and was driven by an unquenchable thirst for blood. He characteristically used the term "meatbag" when speaking of organic lifeforms, especially humans. This insult was originally used in passing by the droid when insulting Revan's friend and apprentice, Malak, who had asked what the droid thought of him. Revan found the insult (as well as Malak's annoyance) funny enough to reprogram HK to consider all organics "meatbags."

The droid remained in Revan's possession, helping him locate the ancient space factory known as the Star Forge, assassinating beings who could potentially destabilise the Galaxy, until his master sent him on an unknown assassination into Mandalorian space. Though HK-47 succeeded, his motor functions were damaged, and he ended up in the possession of a Mandalorian soldier who claimed him as his "booty." The Mandalorian repaired HK-47 to the extent he was capable of and began using him to raise his rank.

Eventually, the Mandalorian ordered HK to assassinate an unidentified Mandalore who ruled between Mandalore the Ultimate and Canderous Ordo. He failed and was captured by Mandalore, who reprogrammed him and sent him after his former master, who was successfully obliterated. Since HK-47 was programmed to shut down whenever his current master died, he deactivated himself after killing the Mandalorian, and was sold to Bochaba the Hutt, a crime lord on the planet Sleheyron.

HK-47 helped Bochaba maintain his reputation of the most feared gangster on Sleheyron, having terminated 322 "meatbags" in a single year before Bochaba was finally assassinated by his rivals. The droid shut himself down after this discovery, and was sold to a human Senator on Coruscant.

The Senator first assumed HK to be a mere protocol droid, but later one of his assistants discovered the droid's assassination functions and asked the Senator to destroy him. The Senator instead ordered HK to kill the assistant. The droid remained with his master and helped him eliminate his political enemies. The Senator was on the way to being elected as the Supreme Chancellor, but things did not go as planned.

The next target the Senator ordered HK-47 to kill was his own wife, who, as he discovered, was cheating on him. As HK approached the wife and her lover to terminate them both, however, his master suddenly regretted his order and dived between HK and his intended victims. Having accidentally terminated his master, the droid had no choice but to shut down. The Senator's wife later sold him to a low-ranking commercial officer of Systech Corporation.

At first, the officer used HK-47 as a protocol and bodyguard droid, but in two months he found out about the droid's assassination protocols. After that, he sent HK on a mission to eliminate workers of a competitor company that was developing a product which, if launched onto the market, would ruin the officer's career.

What the officer did not know was that the "competing company" was, in fact, another branch of Systech Corporation. By the time he realized this, HK-47 had already terminated 104 Systech employees. HK assumed that, being the only officer remaining, his master would be promoted. Instead, he went insane and attacked the droid. While doing so, he pierced one of HK-47's actuators with a writing utensil, resulting in an electric shock that killed him and destroyed the droid's assassination protocols. HK again deactivated himself.

After that accident, HK-47 was sold to Yuka Laka, an Ithorian droid dealer on Tatooine. There, he was encountered by his original master, Revan, who had suffered memory loss and was ignorant of his true identity. He purchased the droid for his knowledge of the Sand People dialect, as he intended to negotiate with the local Sand People chieftain about ceasing attacks against Czerka Corporation personnel. Revan was quite taken aback to discover that HK had, indirectly or otherwise, been the cause of death of all of his interim owners.

Eventually, when Revan discovered the truth about his own history, this proved to be the stimulus necessary for HK-47 to recover his earliest memories. The droid remained with him until the end, following him to the Battle of Rakata Prime and to Malachor V, where, along with T3-M4 and the Ebon Hawk, Revan left him before departing for the Unknown Regions.

Somehow, HK-47 was severely damaged and almost entirely dismembered. He was eventually repaired by an unknown party, though several of his components found their way across the Galaxy. Moreover, his schematics were acquired by G0-T0, who used them to produce HK-50 droids, clones of HK-47. When the Jedi Exile reactivated HK-47, using parts retrieved from the imitation HK-50s, the droid was enraged to discover these copies of himself. He decided to use the sonic imprint sensor possessed by the Exile to track down the factory where these HK-50 droids were produced. It is unknown whether he ever achieved this goal.

At some unknown point between the years 3,959 BBY and 3,951 BBY, whilst masquerading as a "protocol droid" during an undercover mission, HK-47 incited a civil war on the world of Praven Prime, between the indigenous L'Xing species and the Gu-vandi Collective. The war forced the planet to secede from the Republic, and the Republic itself to pull back from Gu'vandi space for years afterward, at least until the re-emergence of the Jedi Exile. Sometime during the thousands of years between then and the Galactic Civil War, HK-47 was in command of the Droid Factory on the planet Mustafar although his AI was somehow transfered out of his body.

A computer terminal left from a starship which had crashed on the planet contacted a group of spacers c. 1.5 ABY and instructed them to attack and destroy some kubaza beetles which were inhabiting the Kubaza Beetle Cavern. Though it did not reward the spacers for their efforts, he soon ordered them on another quest; this time they were to enter the Old Research Facility, a research bunker which was said to date back to the years of the Old Republic, and restore the power. Though the group had to fight through much of the indigenous life of the planet as well as several battle droids, they eventually managed to complete their task.

Terminal Delta Five, a terminal in the newly powered Research Facility, immediately contacted the group and ordered them to enter the old Droid Factory on the planet and enter a six-digit code into the main terminal. Unfortunately, the code was scattered over three seperate terminals and were only good for ten seconds each. As soon as the group managed to enter the code, however, the Factory Guardian appeared and attempted to kill them. Once the group had dealt with this threat, they returned to the Old Research Facility where they received a message from HK-47, now returned to his former body.

He informed them that, although he appreciated their help for returning him to his former body, he would have to get the factory back up and running to get some payback from the "dirty meatbags" who had took it from him. Unfortunately, he was not sure who had taken it in the first place and so he decided to simply kill any "meatbags" he came across; starting with the group of spacers who had helped him. The group managed to escape, however, and soon came across Milo Mensix.

HK quickly set up an army of AK-1A "Hammer", AK-3 "Reaper", GK-5 Sentry, and HK-77 droids in order to destroy all "meatbags" on Mustafar. The army soon attacked the Koseyet Mining Camp where they were met with several miners as well as the spacers who had previously escaped from HK-47, starting the battle of Koseyet. Though the droids attacked relentlessly, they were eventually defeated after an intense two hour battle. The group of spacers then proceeded to the Droid Factory, attacking and destroying HK-58 Aurek, HK-58 Besh, and Doom Bringer before shutting the factory down. HK-47's fate after this, however, is entirely unknown.

Personality and traits


HK-47 was a high-performance assassin droid, who excelled and delighted in all manner of violence. Despite his inherently menacing appearance, he was often mistaken for a protocol droid by many, and he used this to his advantage on more than one occasion, hiding his true nature. Though funnily enough, his primary function (before it was damaged) was known as his assassination "protocols." He did, however, possess a number of protocol functions in addition to his less legal ones, being fluent in Galactic Basic, Tusken, Droidspeak, and many other forms of communication. HK-47 possesses a masterful insight into the removal of Jedi targets, so much so that he is the mastermind behind the "erosion of will" that finally conquers Darth Sion.

It is unknown if Revan programmed some of HK's "morals and ethics," or if they simply manifested on their own, but one quote is quite interesting. When the Exile asked HK-47 if he knew what love was, the droid responded: ''"Definition: 'Love' is making a shot to the knees of a target 120 kilometers away using an Aratech sniper rifle with a tri-light scope... Love is knowing your target, putting them in your targeting reticule, and together, achieving a singular purpose against statistically long odds." ''

Whether this was a metaphor with wisdom or merely more of the droid's blood lust is arguable.

Several modifications were made to HK-47 throughout his life span by his less fortunate owners, modifications that served to re-enforce his position as a ruthless, efficient killing machine. Regrettably, most of these modifications were damaged beyond anything less than intrusive repair after his dismemberment in his second service to Revan. However, a brief "upgrade" installed by the Exile gave HK-47 a short-lived appreciation for peace and pacifism, only leading to a deeper understanding of his prey. This upgrade had to be removed, for the simple reason that he found himself horrified at the very thought of causing harm to another being.

Behind the scenes
HK-47 is voiced by Kristoffer Tabori in both KotOR games.

Name origin
HK-47 is a reference to the dropship of the same designation that appears in the BioWare game Shattered Steel. This is also an obvious reference to a Russian assault rifle- the AK-47. HK has also been used to mean 'Hunter-Killer'.

Coincidentally, the name is also very similar to that of Agent 47, another assassin and main character in the "Hitman" series of videogames.

Cut content

 * HK-47, in Knights of the Old Republic II, was originally going to attack the secret HK Factory on Telos, whose existence he learns of by torturing an HK-50 droid.
 * In the factory, HK would gain the support of the new HK-51s, due to their self-preservation program; and with the droids, they would travel to Malachor V to either help the Remote and dismantle GO-TO, or preserve Malachor and destroy the Remote. It is unknown if it was intended that HK would perish with Malachor V, but given his resurgence in the Rebellion era, no ending in which he did can be considered canon-compatible.

Notes and references
Champions of the Force Preview 1: HK-47 and Clone Commander Gree, Wizards of the Coast, last accessed on April 28, 2006.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
 * Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords
 * Star Wars Galaxies: Trials of Obi-Wan