HK-47 was a Hunter-Killer assassin droid and Jedi hunter constructed by Revan towards the end of the Mandalorian Wars to kill those who Revan believed would destabilize the galaxy. Revan gave up the droid shortly before his redemption, and HK-47 went from owner to owner, many of whom he slew himself, before being unwittingly reunited with his master. The droid went on to help Revan destroy the Star Forge.

Later, HK-47 was damaged, and his schematics were stolen by the droid G0-T0 to produce HK-50 units. Five years later, the Jedi Exile repaired HK-47, who went on to defeat G0-T0 with help from HK-50 droids he persuaded to join the Exile.

Four millennia later, HK-47 was found on the planet Mustafar and given a new body. HK-47 turned on those that had created it for him, who were forced to disable HK-47’s new droid army and the factory producing them. This battle climaxed in a showdown between these spacers and HK-47’s best droids; the spacers won, though HK-47 escaped.

HK-47 was extremely bloodthirsty, even for an assassin droid. He also made a habit of branding all organic lifeforms “meatbags.”

Revan’s assassin

HK-47 was originally constructed by Revan, shortly after the Battle of Malachor V, to be the quintessential assassin. Although he considered himself to be a unique construct, this was not entirely accurate, as he bore a close resemblance to other Hunter-Killer droids produced by Czerka Corporation. Revan did, in fact, use the HK-24 design as a basis for his model.

While HK-47 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 violence and carnage. He characteristically used the term “meatbag” when speaking of organic life forms, especially Humans. This insult was originally used in passing by the droid when Revan’s friend and apprentice Darth Malak had asked what the droid thought of him. In his statement of opinion, HK-47 “informed him [Malak] of his meatbag status….” Revan found the insult (as well as Malak’s annoyance) amusing 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 destabilize 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 (rather poorly, the droid thought) to the extent he was capable of and began using him to raise his rank.

From master to master

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 the 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, terminating 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 they were 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, his master suddenly regretted his order and dove 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 with 15 more to go. 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.

Back with Revan

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 Sandpeople 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. This did not stop Revan from making extensive repairs to the droid, eventually repairing everything but the memory core, which was too fragile to attempt to repair manually.

Eventually, when Revan discovered the truth about his own history, this proved to be the stimulus necessary for HK-47’s internal programming to undo the simulated damage to his primary memory core, allowing the droid both full access to his entire memory as well as his entire combat and assassination protocol package. The droid remained with Revan until the end of the former Dark Lord’s journey, 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.

The Jedi Exile

Somehow, HK-47 was severely damaged and almost entirely dismembered. He was partially repaired by an unknown party, though several of his components found their way across the galaxy. When the Jedi Exile reactivated HK-47, using parts retrieved from the imitation HK-50s and a junk dealer on Nar Shaddaa, the droid was enraged to discover these copies of himself. He was particularly angered by their references to “meatbags” as “organics.”

Having much of his memory gone, HK-47 began to analyze the ship and discovered something interesting. He discovered the Ebon Hawk’s navicomputer was locked; it made him curious as to where the ship recently been. Before he could find out anything else, T3 disabled him. It was also learned that Revan erased his memory of the past four years so he wouldn’t find out where he was going. However he regained memories of his past adventure on the Ebon Hawk soon after the Exile reactivated him.

HK-47 eventually found the HK Factory and persuaded the HK-50’s to join his cause. They then allied with HK-47 to destroy their creator, G0-T0, during their final showdown on Malachor V, helping Bao-Dur‘s remote to destroy the planet.

“Retirement” on Mustafar

Sometime during the thousands of years between then and the Galactic Civil War, HK-47’s AI was transferred to a computer located in a Galactic Republic cruiser. For unknown reasons the cruiser crashed on the volcanic Outer Rim planet Mustafar.

Thousands of years later a tectonic shift exposed the cruiser. When the Confederacy of Independent Systems arrived on Mustafar during the on-going Clone Wars, they discovered the wreckage and HK-47’s chassis. Separatist scientists began studying design elements of HK-47 and incorporating them into their own technology, hoping to create new droid models that would help to finally defeat the Republic. The result was the new HK-77 model. Mass production was ready to begin when Darth Vader arrived on Mustafar and wiped out the Separatist leaders, bringing an end to the Clone Wars and the separatist movement. The deactivated HK-47 chassis, along with the rest of the new HK-77 models, were forgotten; and lay dormant after Vader and the Imperial forces left Mustafar.

Over 20 years later, c. 1.5 ABY, the terminal in the Republic cruiser contacted a group of spacers. HK-47 instructed the spacers to invade the Kubaza Beetle Cavern and enable his AI to be transferred from the ship. Once they succeeded in doing so, he ordered them on another quest; this time, they were to enter an old research facility on Mustafar which was said to date back to the years of the Galactic 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.

HK-47, back in his “own” body.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 separate terminals which were only operational 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 they had dealt with this threat, they returned to the Old Research Facility where they received a message from HK-47, now returned to a new body, similar to his former 4000-year old one.

He informed them that, although he appreciated their help for returning him to his “own body”, he would have to get the factory back up and running to get some payback from the “dirty meatbags” who had taken 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 returned to the Mensix Mining Facility to speak with Milo Mensix, the foreman, and leader of the Mensix Mining Facility.

HK quickly assembled 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 attacked the Koseyet Mining Camp where they were met by 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. The group of spacers proceeded to the Droid Factory, attacking and destroying HK-58 Aurek, HK-58 Besh, HK-Taskmaster, CY-M Prototype and Doom Bringer before shutting the factory down. The spacers made their way to The Lava Crater at the Central Volcano to destroy HK-47. Though the spacers succeeded after a long, strenuous battle against HK-47’s most elite droids, they received a message from HK-47, explaining that he was, in fact, still alive.

HK-47 admired the spacers’ ability, however, and in a slightly sarcastic motion, awarded them with a decorative hologram of himself. The plaque at the hologram’s base simply read “Meatbag.”