Darth Scabrous' HK droid

A Hunter-Killer assassin droid was the personal property and protocol droid of the Sith Lord Darth Scabrous and was stationed at the Sith academy on the Outer Rim planet Odacer-Faustin. In 3645 BBY, during the Cold War between the Galactic Republic and the Sith Empire, the HK droid was tasked by its master with escorting the Bounty hunter Dranok and his partner, Skarl, to Scabrous' tower. Later that night, the droid traveled through the Sith academy's landing pad to tell mechanic Pergus Frode to stop refueling the bounty hunters' ship, as they had died at Scabrous' hand. The HK droid later escorted the Whiphid Tulkh and his prisoner Hestizo Trace, a member of the Jedi Agricultural Corps, to its master's laboratory. Some time after during one of Scabrous' experiments, a viral outbreak occurred in the academy and the HK was ordered by Scabrous to capture Trace, who had escaped during the outbreak.
During its search for the Jedi prisoner, the droid came across Tulkh and joined forces with the bounty hunter. The pair fought against Sith zombies as well as tauntauns infected by the virus, during their trek across the Sith academy to Tulkh's ship, the Mirocaw. As the pair made their way to the ship, they found Frode aboard the Mirocaw. The small group then proceeded to rescue Trace from Scabrous. During their escape the ship came under fire by the defenses of Scabrous' tower. The HK droid disembarked the ship, managing to infiltrate the tower and disable the tower's defenses, before it was destroyed when the ground-based defenses fired on the tower.
==Biography==
===Service to Scabrous===
During the Cold War between the resurgent Sith Empire and the Galactic Republic, this Hunter-Killer assassin droid was the personal property and protocol droid of the Sith Lord Darth Scabrous, who equipped it with a restraining bolt that suppressed the droid's assassination functions and memory of those functions. In 3645 BBY, on the snowy Outer Rim planet Odacer-Faustin, the droid, acting under orders from Scabrous, escorted two bounty hunters, Dranok and Skarl, to its Master's tower to receive the rest of their payment for bringing Scabrous the Murakami orchid, a force-sensitive plant that Scabrous needed for an ancient Sith immortality formula. When they arrived at the tower, HK escorted Dranok in alone with the "orchid" to deliver it to Scabrous. Scabrous discovered it was fake and stated that Dranok had failed him but he would receive payment anyway. The droid then brought a cart in with a huge silver tray on it.
Dranok lifted the lid of the tray and saw what was on it: the stewed, severed head of his partner. The Nelvaanian's mouth had been pried open enough to accommodate the ripe red jaquira fruit that had been thrust between its jaws. Scabrous offered him a chance to live after his betrayal, provided that he ate every morsel of the Nelvaanian's head. Dranok instead attacked Scabrous, who choked him to death with the Force. Later that night, the HK was traveling through the academy's landing pad when the academy's mechanic Pergus Frode questioned it about the status of the bounty hunters and if he should keep refueling their ship.
The HK droid responded saying that he should stop the refueling process and that the bounty hunters would not be returning. The HK unit later met the Whiphid Tulkh who brought the real Murakami orchid and his Jedi prisoner Hestizo Trace, the orchid's keeper, at Scabrous' tower. After performing a retinal scan to verify the bounty hunter's identity, the droid escorted the pair to Scabrous' lab. Shortly after, Tulkh gave Scabrous the real orchid and its keeper and was paid by the unit as it escorted him out.
The HK was later commed by Scabrous and given orders to activate the academy's outer perimeter barriers, scan Scabrous' lab for the Jedi's DNA and pheromone samples and use whatever means necessary to capture her alive. Shortly after obtaining the samples and locating Trace, the HK droid commed Scabrous and informed him that it had located the Jedi and that she and the Whiphid bounty hunter were spotted working together in the northeast section of the academy. The unit then discovered a large outbreak of Sith zombies that was spreading and alerted Scabrous of them.
Scabrous then informed the droid that he was on his way to take care of the Jedi and ordered the HK to prepare his ship. Later, the HK ran into Tulkh in the academy's training chamber and the Whiphid alerted the droid of its assassination protocols and activated them through the removal of the droid's restraining bolt. The HK unit then used its forearm-mounted augmented laser arrays and leg-mounted flamethrower to fight off a horde of Sith zombies. After the assassin droid destroyed almost all of the zombies, the last one attempted to attack Tulkh, only to receive his spear through its mouth. After the battle the droid and Tulkh raced back to the Whiphid's ship, the Mirocaw.
===Partnership with Tulkh and destruction===
As they were making their way back to Tulkh's ship, the pair took turns in eliminating the zombies. During the Whiphid's turn, he broke his spear when he decapitated one zombie. After that, he offered the head of the spear as a keepsake to the HK unit, who declined the gift. The HK droid then alerted Tulkh of a new incoming horde of zombie tauntauns. The HK used its flamethrower and laser arrays to take care of the first tauntaun. As a horde started entering the room the pair discovered that the zombies were riding inside of the beasts.
The assassin droid saved Tulkh as one of the beasts tried to infect the Whiphid with its infected bloody spit. As they started to become overwhelmed, the HK fired a mortar round into the center of the horde, destroying them. After the skirmish the pair continued to make their way to Tulkh's ship, however neither noticed that a tauntaun had managed to land a infected blob of spit on Tulkh's eyebrow. When they arrived at the Whiphid's ship, they discovered that someone had taken Dranok's ship and crashed it nearby, before stowing away on Tulkh's ship.
The droid and Tulkh continued toward the Whiphid's ship with the intention of disposing of the stowaway. They discovered that the stowaway was the academy's mechanic Frode and had him take them to Darth Drear's, the academy's founder, Sith Temple and proceeded to rescue Trace. After getting Trace aboard their ship, the HK produced a syringe from its breastplate and took a sample of Trace's blood to verify whether or not she was infected. The assassin then confirmed that she was clean, but someone else was infected. As they tried to make their way off the planet they came under fire by the academy's perimeter cannons. Tulkh left the group and chained himself to the airlock door after realizing he was infected.
Trace then asked the droid where Tulkh disappeared to as they came under fire. When the HK did not answer, she then asked if it could remotely disable the cannons, to which the assassin droid responded that it no longer had control over them. Trace then asked how they could stop the cannons to which the HK droid responded that it might be able to override the main control system inside Dramath's tower. Trace then ordered Frode to land and the HK unit departed the ship the moment they landed. The assassin droid was able to deactivate the tower's defenses, but it was destroyed when the tower was fired upon by the ground-based defenses and exploded.
==Characteristics==
The HK droid had yellow photoreceptors and gray plating. The droid displayed speech trait typical of Hunter-Killer models: vocally prefixing every statement it made with a speech conditional that described what type the statement was. Uniquely, after its restraining bolt was removed, the droid dropped the speech conditional. While very formal if the restraining bolt was attached, the HK unit did not like being polite upon the bolt's removal. The HK unit took pleasure in killing and hated the Sith for enslaving it. The HK droid was able to produce light from its dorsal processor array. The assassin droid was also proficient in combat, as is normal for HK units.
==Equipment==
The HK droid was armed with forearm-mounted augmented laser arrays, and its left leg was mounted with a flamethrower. The droid was also armed with mortar rounds. The HK unit was also equipped with a syringe and was able to take and process samples and with sensors that were able to scan and detect intruders and infections.
==Behind the scenes==
The HK droid first appeared in Joe Schreiber's novel Red Harvest, which was released on December 28, 2010. It was later pictured by Jeffery Carlisle and Chris Scalf in Pablo Hidalgo's reference book The Essential Reader's Companion, released on October 2, 2012.
While its description in the book notes it as having a grey/chromium chassis, artwork of this HK droid have it painted a bronze-like color.
==Appearances==
*Red Harvest 
==Sources==
*The Essential Reader's Companion 
==Notes and references==
Category:Droids of the Sith Empire
Category:HK-series assassin droids