HK-47 had always been an efficient and responsible droid, clearly following the Master's orders. How else? After all, it is responsibility and efficiency that distinguish a good assassin droid from a mediocre one... Perhaps neatness too. After all, why need a droid if it leaves behind a scorched desert, like after an orbital bombardment?
Ruthlessness, bloodthirstiness, hatred for all living things, and some instability of the personality matrix were optional qualities, but, in HK's opinion, or rather, according to the parameters of his killer protocol, desirable ones.
Despite the fact that the droid, as an artificially created being, could not experience human emotions by definition. If someone from the bags of meat thinks otherwise, the forty-seventh will personally convince them otherwise. However, due to the presence of an adaptive, self-developing, and self-learning personality matrix, the assassin droid skillfully imitated the presence of feelings and sensations. So convincingly that emotions were выделены into a separate software module, causing HK to experience quite natural anger, hatred, and, optionally, joy.
Oh, yes. The voltage surges in the circuits and schematics when the life fades in the eyes of another bag of meat, HK could not call it anything other than pleasure.
Was it a creator's mistake when forming the droid's personality, or was it the fault of the long years dedicated to eliminating sentient living beings? Serving Revan's Empire and liquidating gifted bags of meat? Or perhaps the deformation occurred at the very beginning, after the killer protocols were loaded? No one would have given an answer to this question. Not even Revan himself.
The fact remained. HK-47 was like that. Efficient, deadly, methodical... and insane.
Therefore, when he received the order from the Master to eliminate the most stupid and absurd bag of meat he had ever encountered in his long artificial life, the assassin droid felt true happiness. Permission to unload the ENTIRE magazine of his blaster carbine into the brainless pile of goo, covered in skin, that this misunderstanding used instead of a head. A real celebration!
He should think about how to plot a route closer to Naboo? Or lure the target to the arrival point? There was no direct prohibition against this, was there?
"Negative," the analytical module perked up.
"Observation: Naboo is seeking a representative for the Gungan people in the Republic Senate," one of the protocols responsible for strategic planning suggested.
"Threat assessment: Elimination on Coruscant, especially of a Senator, involves certain difficulties. However, it is quite feasible," the analytical module gave its assessment.
HK was already considering options on how to influence the Naboo government to push through the desired candidate. In the past, he had had to lure targets to the right point in one way or another more than once. The droid also had the talent for weaving political intrigues. The metallic maniac was distinguished by a rich imagination and excellent adaptability to any situation.
"Observation: The current Queen of Naboo harbors an unfounded friendly affection for the target," the strategic module noted.
"Personality assessment: Queen Padmé Amidala Naberrie has overly democratic views on the political structure of the galactic community, is an idealist, prone to hasty actions and unjustified risks," the analyst added.
"Assumption: There is a possibility of using the current monarch of Naboo to move the target to the point of impact."
"Probability calculation: high chance of success. Disadvantages: long execution times."
"The Master did not set execution deadlines for the goal."
"Adopt the plan for execution."
As soon as the decision was made, HK experienced true euphoria! He was back in business! Hunting a bag of meat for the Master again!
Even the fact that he needed to supervise a small misunderstanding, who dared to call himself the Master's student, could not dampen the droid's mood.
Where was he, by the way?
The assassin droid was distracted from debugging the ship's right blaster cannon, which he had been doing for the last twenty-four minutes. All this time, every three minutes, he reviewed the surveillance camera recordings to make sure the ward was in the same place he had been for the last hour. Namely, meditating in his cabin.
Meditating...
The image flickered, and the boy's figure disappeared for a moment, reappearing after an almost imperceptible interval. But for the assassin droid's optical sensors, everything was quite obvious.
Without wasting time, HK proceeded to Skywalker's cabin and, without bothering to knock or get permission to enter, flung the door open.
The cabin was empty.
"Irritated query: Where is this little kinratt pup?"
On the bunk lay a datapad with wires connected to it, running from the service panel on the wall directly at sleeping level.
The assassin droid appreciated the child's resourcefulness, noting that he had even taken HK's advice regarding the segment for looping the recording. The kid hadn't accounted for the power surges in the ship's onboard network, which caused the picture to flicker.
"Action assessment: Not bad for a bag of meat."
The droid ripped the wires from the datapad and broke the tablet in half.
He had lost the target of surveillance. The Master's order was in jeopardy!
HK had never failed the Master's assignments! Or, at least, he didn't remember any such cases.
Where the restless bag of meat had gone, there was no need to guess. Forward to his teacher. That is, to a planet with dangerous flora and fauna, as well as having a negative influence on the gifted.
HK was aware of Anakin's vulnerability to the influence of the Dark Side of the Force.
Just in case, the assassin droid checked the ship, scanning the internal compartments and service passages with security sensors. The ward was not on board.
Well, the hunting target has just changed. HK felt no anxiety. After all, he was used to tracking prey on a swampy planet. Especially since the boy so far did not stand out with the outstanding physical parameters in terms of endurance characteristic of the gifted.
Ascending to the control room, the assassin droid activated the ship's sensors, tuning them to search for biosignals.
Dromund Kaas created a lot of interference, making it difficult to find the target. And there was no astromech at hand to improve the scanning performance. For the first time, HK admitted the undeniable usefulness of R2-D2. The main thing is that this little bucket of bolts doesn't find out about it.
The biosignal readings, besides the ubiquitous vegetation, were weakly registered in several directions, but it was impossible to determine the type of living creature.
However, the boy's direction of movement was obvious. The Master moved towards the Citadel, and this is the most noticeable structure near the ship. Skywalker surely moved in the same direction.
And this could be a problem, as more and more unidentified marks, presumably local predators, were accumulating along the route.
"Irritated remark: Idiot," HK assessed young Anakin.
Having taken a small (by HK-47 standards) supply of weapons and ammunition from the arsenal, the droid left the ship, intending to intercept the fugitive and return him back intact.
The conspirator from the boy was frankly weak. There were more than enough traces near the ship to choose the right direction. As HK suspected, the boy ran towards the Citadel.
Intercepting the carbine so that it was convenient to open fire with minimal delay, the assassin droid began the pursuit.
HK chose a medium speed of movement, optimal for the current terrain. Light running allowed to reduce the distance to the target without sacrificing combat readiness.
The first five minutes showed the effectiveness of the chosen tactics when three myloks dived at the droid from above.
The winged creatures didn't even flinch when three precise shots burned neat holes in their disgusting heads. The carcasses of the killed animals fell with a crash behind HK, who didn't even slow down his run.
Moving across the planet, HK pondered whether dismembering the small bag of meat alive would be a violation of the Master's order? He would be alive, right? Not entirely whole, but alive!
The analytical module rejected the idea as contrary to the Master's instructions. After all, Skywalker was supposed to remain whole, alive, and healthy. This immediately ruled out quartering for educational purposes, as well as a session of instructive cauterization of the student's backside with a red-hot iron.
Then the analyst came up with an interesting thought. In many cultures of the galaxy, there is a practice of treatment by bloodletting. There are registered medical evidence and even permission for its use in the Republic space! So the Master's order will not only not be violated but, formally, even overfulfilled. After all, the small bag of meat will undergo a "treatment" course.
Also, it seems, electric shock has a beneficial effect on thought processes. In the monthly journal of the Rodian Medical Academy, there is an excellent article on this topic. The differences in human and Rodian physiology can be ignored.
Irritation gradually gave way to anticipation.
HK even allowed himself to spend three shots on a vornskr running by, instead of one. Foreleg, spine, and heart. The audio sensors registered the dying gasps of the predator for almost eight more seconds, which intended to follow the trail of the droid-assassin's ward.
It took HK less than forty minutes to catch up with the child. And Skywalker was in a very bad way.
Although the boy was whole and unharmed, it wouldn't last long. He was attacked by a whole pack of myloks, at least twenty individuals. The creatures circled around, diving at the victim, trying to grab it or knock it down. Skywalker managed to hide in the nearby ruins and tried to burrow as deep as possible into a crack between the metal structures. The boy looked bad. Pale face, literally streaming with sweat, painful dark circles around his eyes, and the iris tinged with yellow. The symptoms were well known to the droid, who had gone through the Mandalorian Wars and the Jedi Civil War. The boy was being influenced by the Dark Side, but he was still in control. It was necessary to protect him from external influence. Radically.
Flying into an open area, not far from Anakin's hiding place, HK threw one of the fragmentation grenades into the air, right into the center of the pack of myloks. There was no need to worry about hitting allies with fragments during the explosion. Before throwing, HK made sure that the small bag of meat was reliably covered along the presumed trajectory of the shrapnel.
The resulting explosion immediately halved the number of enemies, simultaneously disorienting the remaining ones. It was not difficult for such an effective droid as HK-47 to shoot down the mindless creatures. In the opinion of the shooter himself, everything turned out to be even too boring.
"Why did you come?!" Skywalker shouted, carefully trying to get out of his hiding place.
The space between the beams was quite narrow, which made it difficult for the boy to move.
HK ignored the exclamation of the bag of meat, as he understood that he was holding on by a thread. The Master had thoroughly instructed the droid for such a case.
"I don't need anyone's help!" Skywalker roared and turned to run further towards the Citadel.
HK-47 had other plans in this regard.
A shot precisely under the boy's foot made him stumble. And before the boy regained his balance, the butt of a blaster carbine landed on the back of his head.
"Enthusiastic observation: Not bloodletting, but acceptable," the droid said, almost chuckling, over Anakin's unconscious body, who had broken his nose when he fell.
Picking up the boy by the scruff of his neck, HK dragged the guard target back to a safe hiding place, namely on board the ship.
However, he had not gone more than a couple of hundred meters when the sensors registered movement ahead. The optics did not catch the object, but the tracks on the ground indicated the presence of a humanoid. And not just one.
HK quickly established that the presumed enemy was using effective optical camouflage. And, judging by the absence of electronic interference, technical means were not used, which indirectly indicated that the presumed enemy had a natural ability for camouflage, or it was someone from the Gifted.
The target of the unknown, HK counted three objects, was clearly Anakin. And the chain of tracks that led at high speed precisely towards the manipulator in which the collar of Skywalker's jacket was clamped confirmed this.
It's just that the enemy, obviously, did not expect that a simple droid would be ready to resist Force users.
Sharply reducing speed, HK-47 thrust his leg forward, hitting the invisible enemy presumably in the abdominal area. Two flashbang grenades were sent towards the remaining enemies, who kept their distance.
The stranger who received the blow dropped his camouflage, bending over the ground with his hand outstretched towards Skywalker. The figure in the black robe desperately gasped for air. After all, a heavy metal leg hitting the solar plexus of a human, and it was precisely a representative of the human race, at such a speed caused not the most pleasant sensations. HK did not intend to give him time to regain concentration. Therefore, he fired his blaster carbine into the head of the stupid bag of meat.
Throwing aside the interference in the form of a ward, thereby also distracting the attackers' attention, HK-47 muted the sensitivity of his optical sensors, preparing for the grenades to detonate. But the enemy was not ready!
The flash caused disorientation among the already gathering unknown attackers, giving the droid a few moments for a counter-move. Perfectly aware of the foresight capabilities of most gifted individuals, HK chose the most effective tactic. Shots to the torso and head from this distance would be ineffective due to the opponents having similar lightsabers. The attack had to be directed at the legs, under the legs, over an area, or using the environment. The distance was too small for fragmentation grenades, which created a danger to the ward. Therefore, the droid threw them far behind the attackers' backs, simultaneously cutting off one of the maneuver directions and provoking them to move.
Breaking into a run, HK sent several shots towards the enemy. As expected, they activated lightsabers, reflecting the shots in random directions. Several charges hit the ground near Skywalker. One of the attackers noticed this and sharply pulled his partner back, thus giving HK an opportunity to act.
The carelessly ignored grenades covered the attackers from behind, forcing them to focus on defense, which gave the assassin droid an opportunity to shoot the less experienced, judging by the movements, enemy in the leg.
His partner reacted almost instantly, trying to grab the droid with the Force. But before he could raise his hand, he had to defend himself from a new stream of blaster fire. The wounded man tried to help his more experienced colleague, but he clearly lacked the skills. He couldn't concentrate on a mobile target, so he tried to knock HK down by throwing a lightsaber.
A big mistake.
The telekinetically controlled projectile was hit by a blaster bolt as soon as it left its owner's grip. Deprived of its power source, the plasma arc was interrupted, turning the formidable weapon of the Sith and Jedi into useless scrap metal.
But the subsequent stream of lightning noticeably shook all the droid's circuits. If HK had not been specifically designed to counter Revan's enemies, he would have had a hard time. So the sudden attack of the seemingly defeated droid caught the vigilant gifted ones by surprise.
The more experienced one read HK's attacks well, which made him an inconvenient target for the shooter. The droid did not risk getting closer, as one lightsaber was still operational.
But the opponent did not take into account the terrain factor. Which was his undoing.
One of the shots, which seemed to have missed the target, actually hit where it needed to. Namely, a tangle of vines that had entwined the ruins under the opponent's feet. This plant was extremely poisonous, and its juice, turned into gas by the explosion of the blaster bolt, could kill a human or a similar humanoid in a matter of seconds.
Realizing his mistake, the more experienced opponent hurried to push the wounded partner away from the poisonous cloud, while managing to inhale the poisonous fumes.
Unforgivable sentimentality led to three burnt holes in the unknown's robe, guaranteed to end his life.
The remaining enemy, wounded and unarmed, tried to call on the Force for help, but he was not given time. HK shot the poor fellow's limbs, causing him pain shock and complete loss of concentration.
A blow to the temple put an end to the battle.
"Timely observation: The Master will need an object for interrogation," HK remarked, searching the stunned opponent, "Anticipating: It's been a while since I've practiced interrogation methods on sentient beings."
The return trip to the Dawn Eagle was uneventful.
But HK still put the ship on siege mode. The Master was due to return soon. And the sedated prisoner would be a good gift as an apology for the almost violated order.
However, perhaps it was still worth conducting a preventive "treatment" session for Skywalker? He had suffered enough, the little bag of meat.