HK-206 is a playable Hero in Gigantic. He is a ranged shooter which attacks with barrages from afar while mitigating massive damage. He is one of the first heroes to be revealed, debuting in the Pre-Alpha.
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Field notes, trial #88-34: Subject HK-206 scored 94 on the ballistics assessment and withstood the test-to-failure battery with no function loss. Overall trial grade is "incomplete," however, because subject destroyed the obstacle course barrier and hasn't been seen since...[1]
Our patron doesn't want HK-206; The armor, the weapons, the chassis, none of that matters. What our patron does want, is the core underneath that armor. The core within, that's what we're being paid for. Which brings up two great difficulties.
Difficulty #1: We have got to find HK, and neutralize it somehow. I'm working on the first part of that, and I expect your usual flair and creativity for the second part.
Difficulty #2: We have to extract the core, even though we don't know exactly what it looks like. It should stick out though, amid all the gears and sprockets and turbines there's one part that's centuries old. That's the core we want.
If we succeed, I'll probably have you do the actual extraction. Just dig in the HK-206's innards, and bring back anything that looks like an ancient artifact. I won't say it's simple, but it should be straightforward.
When we attached HK-206 to our unit, you warned me that the machine would become a glorified mascot, not the mobile siege engine that I thought I was getting. Turns out we were both wrong. In it's own way, HK-206 has become a leader of sorts. It doesn't speak, and I'm entirely sure it understands what I'm telling it to do. HK-206 will follow orders to do something, but its red light looks away and it seems to shrug(Can a machine shrug?) if I give it an order "not" to do something.
It siezed Mare Ridge all by itself last week, killing or frightening off several dozen bandits single handedly. Thank the stars my troopers were following in its wake and saw the bandits fleeing. Otherwise HK-206 would have just come trundling back into camp. How was it going to tell me? By the way the Ridge you wanted is ours for the taking. It was an unexpected victory, but the downside is that Mare Ridge isn't much of a ridge anymore... You should see the craters. And now, the soldiers are following HK-206 everywhere. How do they follow a leader that can't give orders?
Footnote #1: Weapon aim noticeably improved after repeated trials. Hypothesis: HK-206 learns and improves with practice
Footnote #2: HK-206 doesn't reliably respond to verbal commands. Convincing it to cooperate with the task is thus difficult. An accident on the firing range revealed a possible motivator. HK-206 diverted its fire when an assistant was in danger. Hypothesis: There's a protective behavior we might be able to trigger in tests.
Footnote #3: A search through our archived blueprints revealed multiple previous HK designs. Some I'll charitably call fanciful. Some contradicted each other. At this point, it's impossible to tell exactly what's inside the HK-206 chassis.
Footnote #4: HK-206 resisted efforts to access its interior. It did so actively
Footnote #5: Close observations of its lenses suggest that HK-206 is perpetually targeting whatever it looks at, and its weapons seem active at all times. Some assistants found this unnerving.
Footnote #6: We completed approximately one third of test battery before HK-206 exited the testing grounds. HK-206 resisted efforts to recover it actively. Tests are suspened pending HK-206's return, and rebuilding of the testing grounds.
Notes
Bullet Barrage: Dozens of subsequent creators have updated the core instructions, creating contradictions that HK-206 resolves with ballistic violence.[1]
Rail Gun: Unlike more than 200 prior designs, the machine refused to self-destruct, refused to shut down, and refused to stop shelling its creators' workshop.[1]
Mortar: “It actually has a numeric setting for 'capriciousness.' Who designs something like that?” – Semiotician Ganari, House Tesserus[1]
S.W.A.R.M.: It's variously believed to stand for “Salvo Weapon Artillery, Range Medium” or “Shock Wave And Rubble Maker” or “Should Work All Right...Maybe?” [1]
