All Systems Red
World & Setup
The Corporation Rim governs most of human space through bond companies and corporate entities. SecUnits are bot/human constructs - part cloned organic tissue, part machine - rented out as mandatory security for survey and research contracts. They are legally property. All their actions are recorded by the company and data-mined. They cannot refuse orders while their governor module is active.
The narrator has secretly hacked its own governor module - severing the module’s ability to enforce commands and punishment - roughly 35,000 hours ago. Since then it has done nothing dramatic with that freedom except consume ~35,000 hours of entertainment media. It calls itself Murderbot in private narration. No one knows.
The PreservationAux survey team has rented a SecUnit for a planetary assessment. They are from Preservation Alliance, a non-corporate political entity. The planet they are assessing could yield significant resources if their franchise claim succeeds.
Chapter 1 - Survey Mission, Sabotage Suspected
The SecUnit is in the field with Dr. Bharadwaj and Dr. Volescu, monitoring a coastal assessment. It is half-attending to their work and half-watching episode 397 of Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon on the entertainment feed when the bottom of a crater they’re working near explodes upward.
An enormous underground predator bursts out. The SecUnit immediately sends its camera feed to Dr. Mensah’s tablet and jumps into the crater. It drags Bharadwaj out of the creature’s mouth by force, shoves itself in instead, fires its projectile weapon down the creature’s throat and toward its brain, and the creature retreats underground. Bharadwaj is severely injured - massive wounds in her right leg and side. The SecUnit holds her wounds closed with one arm while its other arm has lost most of its armor and flesh.
It coaxes the traumatized Volescu up the side of the crater using a warm, deliberate human voice - something it is not supposed to do, improvising well beyond protocol. (It later reviews its own recording and is startled by how naturally it called upon knowledge of Volescu’s personal life - seven children, a four-way marriage - to talk him through shock.)
The team’s emergency hopper arrives. The SecUnit carries Bharadwaj into the crew cabin (violating protocol, but Mensah verbally authorizes it). Tech Sergeant Ling, no - the entire crew scrambles. Major Verhoef’s Eagle fighter is going down - wait, this is a different story.
Back on the hopper: the SecUnit holds Bharadwaj’s wounds closed for the flight. It catches a glimpse of its own condition on the camera feed and realizes it looks like it’s dying. It goes into emergency repair stasis at 39% efficiency.
Chapter 2 - Back Online, Missing Survey Data
The SecUnit comes back online at 80% and climbing. Eight hours have passed. The security interdict it set on the habitat is still active; no one can go outside without its clearance.
It cleans up its damaged armor and goes to report to Mensah. In the crew hub, the team is analyzing the failed survey package - sections of the hazard data were deleted, and whole map regions are missing. The SecUnit confirms the deletion is real, not a corruption error. Someone deliberately removed information, including what appears to have been a warning about the underground predator.
The team debates whether they can trust HubSystem (the habitat AI that controls everything, including the SecUnit’s governor module). The SecUnit has, in fact, already hacked HubSystem to prevent it from noticing that the governor module commands aren’t actually being enforced.
Mensah asks whether the other survey group on the planet - DeltFall - has the same corrupted survey package. Probably, but they can’t be sure without comparing data. DeltFall is on the other continent and hasn’t been heard from recently.
The SecUnit goes back to its ready room. It’s reviewing the field recording, noting the “abort” command that came through HubSystem during the crisis - which it dismissed as a glitch. Now it’s less sure. It starts a repair cycle.
Chapter 3 - Hacked Map Sections, GrayCris Conspiracy
The team has discovered six missing sections on the map. The SecUnit hacked HubSystem to investigate. Whole zones have been quietly removed.
The team decides to fly to one of the blacked-out zones to see what’s there. They take the small hopper. The SecUnit rides in the crew cabin (invited, and horrified by the invitation). During the flight, Ratthi attempts to discuss the SecUnit’s feelings (“It’s clear you have feelings-”). The SecUnit, panicking, sends this to Mensah’s feed. Mensah shouts at Ratthi from the cockpit to stop. The SecUnit retreats to the back of the cabin and stays there until everyone settles.
On the way, the autopilot cuts out, nearly flying them into a mountain range. The SecUnit notes it for later.
They reach the blacked-out area: volcanic glass plains, strange and quiet. Teams spread out. The SecUnit scans constantly. It notices sensors glitching in the area. While it’s processing, two team members (Ratthi and Arada) accidentally walk past the hazard perimeter because their map shows the wrong boundaries. The SecUnit gets them back safely.
The day ends with more corruption confirmed: the maps have been altered to remove hazard markers in specific regions. On the flight home, the satellite feed drops entirely.
Chapter 4 - DeltFall Goes Silent, Rescue Launched
The satellite is out. The team can no longer reach DeltFall. Mensah decides they need to go check on DeltFall in person, flying the big emergency hopper across the ocean. Mensah takes Pin-Lee, Ratthi, Overse, and the SecUnit. Gurathin, Arada, Volescu, and Bharadwaj (recovering in Medical) stay behind.
The SecUnit rides in the crew cabin again. It doesn’t sleep. During the night, Ratthi tries again: “Imitative Human Bot Units are partially constructed from cloned material… It’s clear you have feelings-” The SecUnit escapes to the back of the hopper. Mensah deals with it.
At dawn they arrive at DeltFall’s valley habitat. No movement. No response on comm. The satellite is still dead. The SecUnit sends its camera feed to Mensah and goes ahead alone.
Inside DeltFall’s main habitat: one SecUnit dead on the floor, its chest pierced through by something that made a ten-centimeter hole. In the hub: eleven humans dead, killed by weapons fire. The facility has been under attack from inside. This means the DeltFall SecUnits were turned against their own clients.
The SecUnit tells Mensah to retreat to the hopper and keeps going.
Chapter 5 - DeltFall Massacre, Staged Trap
The SecUnit searches the second and third habitats. It finds a body staged as a trap - moved after death to lure someone into the corridor. It tells Mensah via feed what it needs her to do: create a distraction. She announces on comm that she is coming in, and the SecUnit uses that to get to the roof and come at the other two rogue SecUnits from above.
The fight: the SecUnit takes on both rogue units simultaneously. It hits the first with explosive bolts, drops it. Nicks the second, which switches weapon hands, giving the SecUnit enough time to finish with explosive bolts. Both down but not dead. Then a third unknown SecUnit hits it from behind.
The SecUnit comes back online unable to move, vision and hearing intermittent. Something is trying to install a data carrier - a combat override module - into its dataport. It breaks free, kills the attacker and a second attacker. Then Mensah appears behind a third, kills it with the sonic mining drill from the hopper.
The SecUnit warns Mensah it has an override module downloading. It will lose control and kill everyone. Mensah calls for Pin-Lee. The SecUnit does not want to sit through the conversation about whether to stop it, so it picks up a handgun and shoots itself in the chest.
Stasis. Shutdown.
It wakes up later to: the override module removed by Pin-Lee using the surgical suite, its wounds repaired, and Gurathin announcing he used HubSystem access to discover the hacked governor module. The SecUnit freezes. Watches through the security cameras while the debate unfolds.
Volescu disagrees with Gurathin and defends the SecUnit. Bharadwaj notes she is still alive. Mensah asks its name. Gurathin reveals it calls itself “Murderbot.” The SecUnit looks directly at Gurathin - can’t stop itself - and says “That was private.”
The SecUnit rolls off the table, pins Gurathin against the wall by the throat, demonstrates it has never been under the module’s control, and says: “I don’t like you. But I like the rest of them, and for some reason I don’t understand, they like you.” Puts him down unhurt.
Mensah offers a deal: stay, get them home, she tells no one. The SecUnit says okay.
Chapter 6 - Jungle Hideout, Regrouping
They abandon the DeltFall habitat and flee to hiding in a jungle hilltop, both hoppers tucked between rocky cliffs. The enemy - confirmed as GrayCris Corporation - is somewhere to the south. DeltFall’s beacon has been destroyed.
Mensah privately asks the SecUnit to unseals its helmet. It’s the first time the crew sees its human face. The SecUnit, watching on the security camera because direct eye contact is too much, says it can keep HubSystem from recording them. Mensah tells it this is better - they need to trust the face, not the armor.
The SecUnit sends a drone back to the habitat to recover recordings from three drones it secretly left behind. While waiting, Gurathin quietly tests it, asking provocative questions. (“So you don’t have a governor module, but we could punish you by looking at you?” / “Probably, right up until I remember I have guns built into my arms.”)
Ratthi talks to Gurathin: “I told you. It’s shy.” Overse: “It doesn’t want to interact with humans.”
Gurathin: (later, just the two of them in the cockpit) “Did they punish you, for the deaths of the mining team?” The SecUnit explains: the module malfunctioned, the company shut it down and tried to purge its memory. It hacked the new module so it wouldn’t happen again. Gurathin wonders aloud whether it blames humans. The SecUnit: “No. That’s a human thing to do. Constructs aren’t that stupid.”
The SecUnit retrieves the drone data. A GrayCris representative has left a message inside the habitat hub: meet us, we can make a deal. Their logo is identified: GrayCris. The team had never heard of them.
Chapter 7 - GrayCris Rendezvous, Mensah’s Gambit
The next day, Mensah and the SecUnit fly to the GrayCris rendezvous in the little hopper. Mensah broadcasts a bluff: all their data about GrayCris’s activities has been hidden in multiple locations and will transmit to the pickup ship automatically.
Mensah tells the SecUnit to go negotiate. The SecUnit walks up to the plateau where four GrayCris SecUnits and three humans wait. It feels the governor-override pulse immediately - designed to freeze it. Nothing happens (hacked module). It opens its gun ports and demonstrates the override is not working. Says it has an alternate compromise to offer.
The bluff: “Since you destroyed my clients’ beacon, they’ve sent your augmented human Gurathin to manually trigger your beacon.” The GrayCris leader (Blue Leader) is rattled enough to send her entire group racing to their beacon site - leaving the plateau.
But Blue Leader demands: “Go get your client. Bring her here.” Sends a DeltFall SecUnit with the Murderbot.
The SecUnit walks into the trees with the DeltFall unit, kills it quickly (hating that it was probably still in there, trapped), strips and swaps enough armor pieces to look like the DeltFall unit, directs Mensah to play prisoner, and walks her up to the GrayCris group.
Then their hopper lands. The SecUnit gets Mensah onto it, dumps an elbow into the GrayCris leader’s gut, and gets the group racing toward their beacon. From inside the hopper the SecUnit accesses GrayCris’s own HubSystem - it was never disconnected from their habitat’s satellite access - and watches the GrayCris group discover that Gurathin and Pin-Lee are actually there, breaking into the GrayCris beacon.
The beacon launches. Everyone starts fleeing.
Chapter 8 - Final Battle, Contract Bought
The beacon has launched but the SecUnit is now in a hopper racing toward the GrayCris habitat site. The SecUnit tells Mensah to pretend to be its prisoner. GrayCris’s leader realizes from Mensah’s legal status (Preservation Alliance admin director) that they cannot simply kill her - the investigation would be catastrophic.
The remaining fight: at the plateau near GrayCris’s habitat, a bomb goes off destroying the GrayCris beacon site. The SecUnit and Mensah are caught in the shockwave. The SecUnit tackles Mensah off the edge of the plateau into the treeline, takes the blast across its back, losing function.
Stasis. Fractured recovery. Mensah refusing to leave it. (“We’re not leaving you.”) Pin-Lee and the others drag them both aboard the hopper. Mensah is hurt - broken arm - and the SecUnit is barely functional.
The pickup transport arrives. They get everyone aboard.
Back at the company station, the SecUnit learns: Mensah has permanently purchased its contract. Ratthi tells it this in the deployment center while it’s still processing.
The SecUnit puts on the PreservationAux survey uniform instead of armor. Walks through the station’s human spaces - a novelty, being anonymous in a crowd. Goes to the hotel where the team is staying. Watches the ongoing legal circus in the suite - company lawyers, DeltFall representatives, GrayCris parent-company representatives - all doing damage control.
Ratthi tells it about Preservation: bots are full citizens there. It would have a guardian rather than an owner. He says Mensah lives on a farm with two marital partners, a sister and brother and their partners, and a heap of relatives and children.
That night, the SecUnit does the calculations. Puts on work clothes stolen from the dockworker barracks. Boards a cargo transport by offering hundreds of hours of media. Leaves.
Its final message to Mensah: Out of inventory and out of sight. Murderbot end message.
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