HK-47, possessing an extremely developed artificial personality due to a long period of operation without memory core cleaning, was very proud of his killing protocols. The experience gained from numerous battles made him truly the best killer in the galaxy. The droid was only saddened by the fact that the chance to use his "talents" arose indecently rarely. In such moments, HK regretted that his emotion simulation protocols were so well written that he was capable of feeling such an emotion as "regret."
When the Master gave the order to prepare for a "warm welcome" to an unknown enemy, the assassin droid rejoiced internally! The personality matrix was delighted, causing uncontrolled surges of voltage in its circuits. Filled with anticipation for the upcoming battle, HK headed to the cargo bay, where a small arsenal had been assembled from items purchased on Coruscant, first through the Hutts, and later through the Blood Pack network. The selection was not extensive, but HK knew exactly what to take. The bay was also often used by the small meat bag for his training, but now the guy was supposed to be on duty in the ship's bridge. That was the Master's order.
There was no information about the enemy's numbers or equipment, so HK decided to play it safe in case of the least favorable turn of events.
Thus, the assassin droid prepared for a confrontation with significant enemy forces, equipped with rapid-fire plasma or laser weapons, and advancing with the support of armored vehicles and aircraft.
So the mechanical maniac's choice fell on the heavy ACP repeater, a rapid-fire, multi-barreled plasma blaster with a rotary barrel cooling system. In tandem with it, a guided missile launcher was taken with a combat load of six missiles. The unchanging pair of blasters was supplemented by two sets of grenades on a special harness, which, albeit with difficulty, was secured to the droid's chassis. The grenades were of two types: fragmentation-explosive and first-model thermal detonators with reduced power, specifically for close-quarters combat. Such a kit allowed for effective and quick elimination of a large number of enemy personnel, which HK secretly hoped for.
"Ancestors, are you planning to storm Coruscant alone?" asked Tyra Nomad, who entered the arsenal with surprise.
"Unnecessary clarification: I am acting in accordance with the most unfavorable forecasts," HK replied in a dismissive tone.
"Including the new Mandalorian Wars, perhaps?" the mercenary chuckled at the droid's ambiguous reaction to the owner's order.
"Sarcastic confirmation: If necessary."
"Alright, psycho, it's your business. Are there any thermal detonators left?" Nomad inquired, examining the crates.
"Negative."
"No way? Seriously?"
"Confirmed."
"So, mechanical maniac, share!" Tyra demanded, extending her gloved hand.
"Negative response: Never," HK stepped back, covering the grenade bandolier with one of his manipulators.
"Oh, come on. Why on earth would you need so many detonators? To melt the palace?"
"Sarcastic confirmation: If necessary," the droid said with undisguised mockery in his voice.
"Your master is supposed to be protecting the Duchess, so you shouldn't burn down her house," Nomad noted, picking up a high-precision rifle.
"Remark: Destroying the house has no bearing on the health of the protected object."
"As you say, maniac," Tyra shrugged, continuing to rummage through the weapon crates.
HK headed for the exit.
"Damn it, where did you get anti-infantry mines?!" the mercenary exclaimed in shock, but quickly regained composure, "Why am I even surprised? It's strange there isn't a tank here."
"Regrettably: It wouldn't fit in the bay."
Nomad turned and stared at the droid.
"You could have mounted it on an external hardpoint," the girl said jokingly.
HK blinked his crimson optics several times. Then he removed one of the detonators from his bandolier and threw it to Tyra... not activated, to the relief of the mercenary who had almost fled.
"Explanation: For the idea," the droid stated.
Nomad, catching the thermal detonator, twirled the explosive device in her hands and, with a snort, sent it into her pouch.
Then she chuckled, shook her head, and returned to sorting through the ammunition.
Near the ship's exit, the droid and the mercenary were already being awaited by Maul. The Zabrak did not experiment with his equipment, limiting himself to his black hooded robe and a dual-bladed lightsaber.
The Sith greeted the droid's appearance with a curt nod. The mercenary, who arrived a minute later, did not even receive that.
"We need to hurry. The Master has been waiting for us for a long time," the Zabrak snapped irritably.
Revan's young apprentice clearly did not want to keep his mentor waiting long. He wanted to impress his teacher, to show and prove his usefulness. In this, he reminded HK, though the droid would not admit it. Not a single meat bag, no matter how gifted, could compare to the droid's killing efficiency... in the opinion of the droid himself.
The speeder, picked up at the spaceport, quickly transported the group to the Duchess's palace, where Revan was already waiting for them. HK-47's appearance caused the Master some confusion, but later the droid was praised for his foresight and improvisational skills, effectively giving him full freedom in carrying out the next order. And the order was simple: to detain the enemy on the landing pad and protect the Duchess at all costs. And this "at all costs" caused another surge of voltage in HK's circuits. Happiness.
The Master ordered him to take up a position at the landing pad and await his signal, which HK hastened to do.
Long minutes of waiting passed. HK, however, spent his time productively, calculating attack options and methods of eliminating the enemy.
The transport landed. HK immediately noticed something strange. The ship's landing struts, equipped with hydraulic shock absorbers, sagged too much for a vessel of its size, indicating the presence of something heavy on board. HK prepared for battle.
For now, there were only two targets. A human and a Cerean. A Jedi and a Padawan. The protocols for countering gifted individuals, refined by Revan himself, were automatically activated. For now, the phase of negotiations between the arrivals and the Master was underway. HK waited.
Then the lightsabers flared. The droid prepared to act and requested permission to engage the Master, but he refused. He had to wait again. HK kept his optics fixed on the ship's cargo ramp. All analytical calculations indicated that there was another enemy on board.
And the wait was rewarded! A whole horde of B-1 series droids emerged from the ship. HK snorted contemptuously. He had a poor opinion of the preparation and intelligence of these mechanical simpletons.
The next moment, the order to open fire came! With lightning speed, HK raised the heavy multi-barreled blaster and opened a barrage of fire on the cargo ramp and landing pad, rapidly reducing the number of enemy droids.
"Enthusiastically: Eat plasma, you buckets of bolts!" HK's vocoder blurted out.
Destroying B-1s one by one, HK tried not to hit the Master. The droid least wanted to be the cause of the Master's death... another death, another master.
The repeater was already starting to overheat, causing the firing rate to drop. And suddenly, new targets appeared from the ship's belly. Ten droidekas rolled out and, without slowing down, sped directly towards the palace entrance.
The Master ordered them to stop the breakthrough, but HK perfectly understood that he wouldn't have time to deploy his weapon. The targeting system was issuing bloody-red warnings about the impossibility of acquiring a target.
But then Maul stepped in, who had previously wasted an inordinate amount of time getting to the battlefield and starting to reduce the droid population. The Master's apprentice managed to bisect one of the destroyer droids. But the others managed to break through. HK assessed the interception chances. He could catch up to them. But then the Master's protection protocols came into play. Revan was surrounded. The droidekas, meanwhile, would surely encounter the palace guards. Even if the Duchess's fighters' preparation level was abysmal, they could hold off the droids. Especially since a droideka in combat position is extremely slow. The choice was made very quickly. The mechanical killer decided to support Revan first.
While the repeater cooled down, HK switched to blaster pistols and grenades. But before he could even throw a thermal detonator, a speeder flew over the heads of the combatants, from which two more participants jumped onto the battlefield. This was enemy reinforcement.
Two Jedi descended onto the pad. HK was already taking aim at them when he was hindered by a horned meat bag. The Master's second apprentice decided to engage the new opponents in close combat. In HK's opinion, he wasn't doing very well. The Master would have dealt with the new targets in a flash. But Revan was busy fighting the Order's Magister, while simultaneously dodging deadly lasers and blaster fire from numerous droids. And the grace with which the Master avoided injuries filled the assassin droid with respect and pride. No meat bag in HK's memory could have repeated such a feat under such a barrage of fire. After all, concentrated fire from different directions was the key tactic in destroying the gifted. HK himself rarely resorted to it for one simple reason - he was alone.
Suddenly, one of the Jedi disengaged from the fight and headed for the palace. HK analyzed the situation again, and this time the only solution was to pursue the Jedi. The order to protect Duchess Satine took priority here, as the probability of her survival was significantly lower than Revan's chances of defeating his opponents.
And, without losing time, the assassin droid followed the gifted enemy into the palace.
Traces of recent combat were visible in the corridors. Blaster marks on the corpses of the guards were still smoking slightly, and the dust from the chunks of stone masonry knocked out of the walls had not yet settled in the air. HK did not slow down for a moment, trying to catch up to the Jedi.
A back appeared ahead. The droid raised his blasters and fired, but the Jedi sensed the attack and deflected the blaster bolts back at HK. It was the assassin droid who had to change his trajectory to dodge the charges. Another burst of shots. The Jedi again placed his saber in the path of the charges. HK jumped out of the trajectory of the reflected shots, pushed off the wall with his foot, and, doing a mid-air somersault to the side, opened fire again on the hated enemy. The Jedi was quite surprised by the droid's actions. In his memory, mechanical soldiers did not move like that.
Suddenly, gathering his strength, the Jedi telekinetically lifted a rather large piece of wall, clearly dislodged by a grenade explosion from the Duchess's defending fighters, and hurled it at HK. The droid reacted instantly. He dropped to his knees and arched backward, sliding under the flying mass without reducing speed. A new burst of blaster fire caught the stunned enemy by surprise. Only at the last moment did he raise his saber in defense, but one of the charges hit him in the side. The enemy again fled.
HK was ready to finish off the wounded and frightened enemy when two droidekas appeared in his path. It seemed they had caught up with the first ones who broke through, along with the Jedi. The fight with the guards was still going on, but the defenders were clearly losing.
One of the destroyers turned towards HK, and a moment later the second joined him. Both opened fire almost simultaneously.
The assassin was forced to dodge the charges again, diving behind the nearest column. A couple of shots still grazed him, but the chest plate of his armor withstood the impact.
Tearing two thermal detonators from his harness, HK, without looking, threw them at the droidekas' feet. Their shields, according to HK's calculations, could not withstand such an impact. Although it was a weakened model of detonator, intended for offensive purposes, the power should have been sufficient. A double explosion thundered, and the assassin droid burst from cover with a roll, immediately raising the barrels of his blasters and finishing off the damaged tin cans.
Jumping over the remains of his damaged brethren, HK again rushed in pursuit of the unknown Jedi.
The guards, judging by the sounds, had stopped firing, which meant the droidekas had won. The killer did not believe in the success of the meat bags.
And indeed, just around the next corner, three more droidekas awaited him. This time, HK threw two fragmentation grenades at the ceiling, right at the elegant stucco molding, which, to the misfortune of the destroyer droids, looked quite fragile at its base.
Jumping from side to side, rolling and taking cover behind furniture, HK inexorably approached the droidekas when the grenades detonated. The stucco broke loose and fell, covering two droidekas. The destroyers' shields were overloaded, but overall the droids remained combat-capable. However, HK was not going to give them a chance to open fire again. The metallic maniac shot one of the unfortunate ones point-blank, then leaped over the fallen enemy and, with a quick movement of his manipulator, ripped out the optical sensors of the second enemy along with its tiny head module. However, the last mechanical opponent continued to fire, from which HK took cover behind the blinded droid. The body of the droideka, shot by its ally, flew at its destroyer, overloading its shield. The assassin droid acted extremely quickly. The droideka's protective dome went out, and then a stream of blaster fire flew into its head. The creation of the Colicoids had no chance.
Meanwhile, sounds of battle could be heard from the throne room. HK hurried in that direction.
Bursting into the battlefield, HK instantly assessed the situation. The Duchess, the highest priority protection object, surrounded by her retinue, had taken cover behind her throne. A droideka was firing at her. An allied meat bag, identified as a Padawan, was fighting a wounded Jedi. Tyra Nomad was providing him with fire support, simultaneously trying to distract the droideka and cover Satine.
First, HK decided to deal with the destroyer droid, since the Padawan was handling it himself, and the protection object was covered by an ally.
The plan was well-rehearsed. A detonator at its feet, close to the shield, and then finish it off with a blaster. The droideka crashed to its side and went silent.
At that very moment, Tyra cried out, having received a blaster shot in the back from one of the Duchess's retinue. The traitor was already aiming his weapon at Satine when suddenly the girl standing closest to Kryze drew a lightsaber hilt from under her clothes, which HK instantly recognized. The crimson blade ignited, and the traitor's head rolled across the floor, followed by the arm severed a moment earlier.
As it turned out a second later, the scout was not alone. All but the girl with the saber drew their weapons. Their target was clearly the Duchess, but the stranger with the saber blocked Kryze and began systematically reducing the number of traitors. To the assassin droid's surprise, Satine picked up the blaster of the first fallen scout and shot one of the remaining ones, thereby covering her savior from an attack from behind.
Meanwhile, Kenobi took a blow from his opponent. The wound on his back looked terrible, but it was not fatal. However, his opponent considered the Padawan out of the game and decided to attack the Duchess.
HK could not let this stand and began to shower the enemy with plasma. At such a distance, however, the effect was minimal.
By this time, Tyra had come to and was starting to get to her feet, but was thrown against the wall by a Force push from the Jedi. The lightsaber blade was already aimed at Satine's chest, but the unfamiliar defender managed to turn and deflect the blow, though not completely. The blade struck the Duchess in the thigh.
Kryze fell to the floor, clutching the wound with her free hand, when suddenly a stream of fire from a rapid-fire blaster flew towards her. HK immediately turned to the new threat and was surprised to see that the seemingly already destroyed droideka, directly from a lying position, had opened fire on the primary target. HK could not tolerate such audacity. The assassin droid leaped to the half-destroyed enemy and, grabbing the manipulator with the blaster, shot the joint and simply tore off the droideka's arm.
Sensors registered new movement. HK turned his head and saw Kenobi, who had gotten back on his feet, re-engage in combat. Meanwhile, the stranger with the saber, assessing the situation, hurried to leave. However, Tyra rushed in pursuit of her.
"Hey, maniac! The Duchess is your responsibility!" the mercenary called out, already running out of the hall.
From the assassin droid's perspective, this was a rash act. Abandoning the protection object should not have happened. However, the droid did not know the reasons for Nomad's strong reaction to the stranger.
The droideka was still showing signs of life.
The pistol's ammunition was depleted by this time, but HK found a solution. Gripping the torn-off manipulator more comfortably, he began to literally "beat" the destroyer.
"Instructive: You will... learn... how... to shoot... at... the protection... object... you stupid bolt-box," the assassin droid said monotonously, accompanying each word with a blow.
It was at this moment that the Master appeared in the hall, and Kenobi finally dealt with his opponent. The battle was over. The Duchess's defenders had won.