Book 4 of the "Fatal Attractions" series, please read the previous books before continuing.
Revisions will be made later so please be understanding and patient.
Over a decade after the battle of Tython, an impossible foe appears from within the Unkn...
In the swamps of Zakuul, Kira and Xarrak discovered a rundown HK unit with gold plating beneath a layer of grime and rust.
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"Fascinating..." Kira said. "I don't think I'm familiar with this droid model." She approached it, examining the offline droid. "It's different from the ones I saw back in the city. Seems to be lacking flight capabilities."
"Get away from that!" Xarrak pulled Kira back a few steps. "Are you out of your mind?"
"It's offline." Kira answered. "We're in no danger."
"That thing is an HK unit, from the old days! Designed for assassination." Xarrak argued. "There's probably a reason it was left out here. Let's go, before it detects us."
Kira gently shoved Xarrak off and stepped closer to the inactive droid. "If it were still active, it already would've scanned us at this range...I think the poor thing's nothing more than machine parts now." She knocked on the moss covered gold chestplate a few times.
"Poor thing?" Xarrak scoffed. "It's probably slaughtered thousands. It's better as a pile of scrap."
"Not like it ever had a choice." Kira glanced back. "It was executing a command, the same as any other machine. But perhaps if we could repair it..."
"What? Absolutely not!" Xarrak pointed at the HK unit. "Even if we could, all it would do is try to kill us! You got a deathwish or something?"
"Relax." Kira's eyebrows flared. "Droids don't work like that. They don't think like we do. They're programmed." She wiped off the grime from the droid's chestplate. "Perhaps once this droid was a killer, but it's memory can be wiped. It's personality replaced. It's directives re-written. It may be trapped in the shell of an HK unit, but it can be repurposed."
"This thing looks ancient!" Xarrak protested. "You don't think the programming might slip? What if it reverts to factory zero?"
Kira turned, leaning against the upright droid. "...You haven't spent much time around droids, have you?"
"What's that got to do with it?" Xarrak asked. "I just think this is dangerous. Seems risky to repair a droid made to kill—indiscriminately kill, at that."
"Well, if it does, you can haunt me." Kira scanned over the environment with her cybernetic implants. "Which direction was your ship, again?"
"You want to bring this thing back to my ship?" Xarrak asked, eyebrows raised.
"There's bound to be spare parts aboard, right? To repair the combat droids when they break down?" Kira asked.
"Skytroopers, you mean—and yeah, I guess so, but that's the first place the Knights are gonna check. They've got ways of tracking the military patrol ships." Xarrak answered.
"Then we should hurry." Her facial indicator blinked. "I've located it. Come on. Bring the droid." The ex-Jedi marched back the way they came, backtracking through the swamps.
