@[member="Jhaega"]
ON ONE OF THE TALLER VINES, TRACKING JHAEGA'S MOVEMENTS
--Important Stuff About HK Targeting Jhaega--
HK's surfing, sliding, and climbing on the mess of large vines and roots summoned by @[member="TiCira D'Arr Hawk"] led the droid onto one of the spiraling tree-like plant spires. From there he had the look onto the massive figure of Jhaega the dragon soaring above them. Speeding on the vines to follow the dragon, HK upholstered his trusty Verpine shatterpistol, coking the gun he held it tightly in his grip as his electronic photoreceptors kept track of the winged reptilian leviathan of the skies. He saw his moment, the chance was coming.
Running up a vertical skyward root he spun on a single foot as he came to its top, balancing himself like a crane he rotated, tracking the drake whilst he extended forth his pistol, taking aim.
It was as if time stopped for the droid as his systems went to work at exceeding fast speed, his helmet and receptors tracking the target, in his mind trajectories of the projectile and possible paths of the dragon extended out in dotted lines, calculations running in front of his eyes as the paths connected and crossed, his enhanced mind choosing the one with the highest probability for maximum accuracy and destruction to the target, a path that would lead the bullet of the shatterpistol towards the weakest point of the dragon.
If he could take a deep breath, he would, to him it was one of those important moments where one truly tested their skills and lucks, the dragon was his Death Star, and he was about to sent forth his proton torpedo. If the dragon still hasn't noticed him then it gave him great advantage, HK was much harder to be sensed through the Force or thermal means, and his shatterpistol was a completely silent and very quick hitting weapon, able to even shatter armor of some vehicles. Whether it succeeded or not, this was a hit-and-run attack. He stood on the green tower among the lake of plants, his Esgaroth, and looked upon the figure of the flying Jhaega, his Smaug the Golden. He was in that split-second, an instance among thousand moments, Bard the Bowman, facing a chance to either save others in one smooth hit or continue to watch the destruction. The droid's shatterpistol was ready and he was prepared to sent his bullet on his journey, his strong longbow of the Men of Dale and his Black Arrow, the one that always came back to him after so many battles, the one that was meant for something much more than simple slaughter. His systems and tracking modules kept him on his target and as precise as his body would allow him. They kept whispering to him like the little Thrush of the story, a cunning informative bird, telling the Bard of the one weak spot of Smaug, allowing him to plant a final strike into the beast.
HK was not able to manipulate or manifest the currents of the Force, he was only able to serve it the best as he can, he hoped, so very much, that the River of Life, the Force, would return the favor and grant the dragon swift demise.
There was no snarky words or cool one-liners, as time started to move for the droid once more he pulled the trigger and sent the silent projectile on its way, what was meant to happen would happen, the droid showed only focused determination and desperately clanged to his hopes that this all would end as soon as possible.
--End of Important Stuff--
While this was all going on the droid may have been collected and cool on the outside, but inside he was in deep turmoil.
He didn't really knew how to feel about this. Jhaega was a terrible creature, sure enough, but he was also unique, and in his way, even beautiful. There weren't that many of his kind around, and who knew? Perhaps the dragon was only doing this because he was a Kursed like the others? The droid did not knew but he knew that right now the dracon was causing A LOT of destruction, and sometimes, just sometimes, one needs to take a life to save more lives. So when HK saw a chance, he used it, he took aim and pulled the trigger.
HK didn't hate the dragon, it was heard for the droid to hate anybody who he knew was being controlled or manipulated, like the Kursed, or grunts of other factions, lies and propaganda could cloud eyes and minds just as much as any Force trick attacks could. If there was one thing he wished for the dragon it was freedom, whether in life or in death, he hoped Jhaega would be released from the Kursed control.
In a way the droid hoped that his attack would fail.
Why would that be? Well for once he came to a point in his existence where he hated to take lives, he also didn't wanted for the rage of the Kursed to fall solely upon him, although that was something he could use and direct away from others to distract their enemies.
There was also another reason, and that was the defiance of him missing his mark.
Defiance against his original makers, those that first spun his programming, and those that still tell him that it is not his place to teach others, to wield a lightsaber, or to feel and make connections. Defiance against those who view him only as an assassin droid and nothing more but tool of destruction.
That would really show them, doing all he could to conduct a successful lethal sniping maneuver and yet fail, knowing that the full extend of his body and programming was not enough to measure him along with other great snipers of the Galaxy.
He would be free then, free to proclaim, proudly so proudly,
"You wanted me to be one of the deadliest Assassin Snipers of my time? You wanted me to be a tool of destruction to be used for your profit? Well guess what? You do not make my destiny, you do not forge my life, or dictate my role in the Galaxy. I do. I am my own Master and I will decide what my role and purpose is! Behold as I fall short in what you meant for me to be, yet I soar and grow in proficiencies I choose for myself. You thrust a rifle and pistol into my hands, I discarded that for favor of my lightsaber. I will never be the Assassin you wished me to be. I am the Iron Knight."
Of course, there was always that chance that he would hit his mark and Jhaega would plummet from the skies, dead or wounded, and the droid would be left to only say.
"Aww. Well frack it all."
After all, in the end it was not the Huttesse Cartel Engineers and Technicians he thought about as his creators or fathers. They may have built an empty husk but it was somebody else that gave it spirit and drive to go beyond his nature. An old, long dead Jedi that taught the droid how to wield a saber, being that pushed HK into luminosity of serving the Force and the Light Side, and yet whose death launched HK into one of the darkest periods of his life. It was Master Zhar Lestin, a lightsaber arts teacher on Dantooine to whom HK was brought from Mandalorian Crusades.
Well, whatever his attack against the dragon would bring, HK was ready, whether it was the death of dragon or the droid when the beast would come after him with his fire, or perhaps mutual destruction, he was ready to face the consequences.
