HK-50 series assassin droid

"Annoying recitation: Let us proceed to facilitate communications, and bring about the termination of hostilities."

- HK-50 unit

The HK-50 droids series was based on the earlier HK-47 assassin droid. Like their progenitor, these droids possessed incredible linguistic skills and highly sadistic tendencies. The primary function of the HK-50 droids, as they stated it, was to "facilitate communications and terminate hostilities." In accordance with the usual perceptions of HK model assassin droid, the best way to terminate hostilities was to kill everything present. HK-50 units were identical in appearance to HK-47, with the primary exception being that they are "a rather poor shade of durasteel" in color instead of HK-47's rusty red.

History
"...and, of course, they refer to meatbags as 'organics'. Unacceptable."

- HK-47

The HK-50 droids were first manufactured in secret by the Jedi turned Sith Revan but production ceased after the Dark Lord was captured by the Jedi Council. Sometime after Revan's disappearance, production continued again under the planning droid turned crime lord G0-T0, who discovered the HK-50 manufacturing facility hidden on Telos IV and reactivated it, disseminating the newly created HK-50 droids throughout the galaxy searching for the Jedi.

HK-50 assassin droids were often able to successfully pose as protocol droids and they infiltrated much of the Galactic Republic fleet in doing so. Negotiations where HK-50s were used to translate often did not conclude well, as their cruel and violent desires influenced their interpretations of the various spoken languages.

The HK-50 units hidden in the fleet were looking for Meetra Surik, who was believed to be the last of the Jedi. When Surik became a passenger aboard the Harbinger, an HK-50 droid on board the Republic capital ship took note. The HK-50 unit forged orders that Surik report to the medical bay for automated and mandatory injections. Surik was injected with a dose of sedatives that would be lethal to a non-Jedi, but which would only render her unconscious. The HK-50 locked up Surik and arranged a series of accidents aboard the Harbinger intended to disable it and allow for retrieval of the prize. The plans of the HK-50 were foiled when Kreia, flying in the Ebon Hawk, was brought on board the Harbinger and took Surik. The Ebon Hawk had been pursued by and fired upon by a Sith capital ship. When the Sith ship was investigated, cloaked Sith assassins boarded the Harbinger and seized it. Kreia and Surik escaped the ship on the Ebon Hawk, but the HK-50 unit tagged along.



The Ebon Hawk, severely damaged, made its way to the Peragus Mining Facility. Once there, the HK-50 again posed as a protocol droid and arranged for a series of accidents to befall the facility. Surik was again drugged into unconsciousness. Division among the miners about what to do with the Jedi (the Exchange had a large bounty out for Jedi) was manipulated by HK-50 to kill all of the facility's workers. HK-50 also corrupted the programming of the facility's mining droids, causing them to attack the miners. The subtle manipulations of the HK-50 unit and the highly fatal results demonstrate the dangerous nature of the HK-50 model of assassin droids. Before escaping from the facility, the Jedi Exile and company destroyed that HK-50 unit.

After Peragus, Surik continued to run into HK-50 droids throughout her travels.

Characteristics
The HK-50s all seemed to exhibit a number of common traits, including cruelty, extreme blood-lust, misanthropy, a fair amount of (somewhat justified) arrogance, remarkable proficiency in assassination and mass-slaughter, a rather deceptive, devious, opportunistic method of causing deaths (indirectly or otherwise), a habit of saying what they were going to say before they actually said it, and were quite psychopathic, all of which their progenitor possessed. Regardless of these similarities, the HK-50s had several differing characteristics that conflicted with those of their progenitor, which needless to say, was part of the reason HK-47 held a fierce grudge against them: among them was the HK-50s' 'philosophy of murder'; the HK-50s believed that murder is about "wanton slaughter" and "body count", under the belief that they were programmed without inhibition, without restraint, and kill "who we want, when we want", whereas HK-47 kills for "finesse, function"; "doing more with less", as he put it, was an "art".

Behind the scenes


Though the HK-50 droid factory on Telos (In the Military Base Sublevel) was cut from the game due to deadline constraints, HK-47 was supposed to discover its location. HK-47 would have gone to the factory and, having been unable to persuade the HK-50s to join the cause of the Exile, would have enlisted the help of the (not quite bug free) HK-51 droids. The HK-51 units would later come to HK-47's aid against their manufacturer, G0-T0, in a final confrontation on Malachor V.

While in the factory, HK-47 would discover the HK-50s' entire plan and more info including the Kossa Prime sector, a location where the HK-50s would normally operate. Commissioned to be built by Revan, they were shut down for a long time due to his capture by the Jedi. Later, they were reactivated by G0-T0 who ordered them to bring all Jedi to him. He added that if the Jedi would not go, to destroy them. The HK-50s themselves claim that they do not know how the factory on Telos came to be.

HK-50 was included as a part of the build-a-droid series of the Hasbro Star Wars toy line, where various pieces were included in packages to assemble upon collecting of all pieces.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords