Chapter One

A survey team on an alien planet is attacked by an underground creature. Murderbot, a security unit with a hacked governor module, rescues Dr. Bharadwaj from the creature's mouth and evacuates the team to their habitat. Severely wounded but stable, Murderbot retreats to its cubicle for repairs while Dr. Mensah briefly visits to acknowledge its performance.

Murderbot, a security construct addicted to entertainment feeds, is monitoring Dr. Bharadwaj and Dr. Volescu as they conduct surveys in a coastal crater on an alien world. When an unknown hostile creature explodes from the ground, attacking them, Murderbot immediately responds by sending visual feed to Dr. Mensah and engaging the creature with its projectile weapon, extracting Bharadwaj from its mouth at the cost of severe damage to its own left arm and torso. Volescu is shocked and frozen, but Murderbot persuades him to help by retracting its helmet and using a calm, warm voice. Murderbot carries both humans up the crater slope as the hopper arrives. Despite protocol forbidding murderbots from entering the crew cabin, Mensah grants verbal permission due to Bharadwaj's critical injuries. During evacuation, the creature attacks the hopper's landing ramp, but Mensah pilots away in time. The team reaches the habitat, where Gurathin has a medical gurney ready and Bharadwaj is stabilized. After securing the perimeter and locking down the habitat, Murderbot retreats to its cubicle to repair. At 58 percent performance reliability and freezing, Murderbot wraps itself in a survival blanket. Dr. Mensah visits the cubicle, praising Murderbot's handling of Volescu and noting the team's impression of its actions from reviewing field recordings. After she leaves, Murderbot reviews its own incident recording and discovers an unusual "abort" order in the HubSystem command feed before entering stasis due to critical damage at 39 percent reliability.