Chapter Four

Murderbot and the human team fly through the night to investigate the silent DeltFall settlement. Upon arrival, they discover the entire colony—eleven people and three SecUnits—have been slaughtered. While investigating the habitats, Murderbot is ambushed by a fourth rogue SecUnit that subdues and partially disassembles it, then inserts a combat-override module into its data port before Mensah rescues it with a mining drill. Realizing the module will force it to kill the humans, Murderbot shoots itself to prevent this outcome.

The hopper reaches DeltFall at dawn to find a three-habitat settlement eerily silent with no communication responses. The satellite remains offline, heightening Murderbot's sense of dread. Mensah takes Murderbot's recommendation to land outside the perimeter. Murderbot scouts ahead alone, discovering the first habitat's hatch unlocked. Inside, it finds one SecUnit with a massive hole through its chest and eleven dead humans in the hub showing signs of being trapped and killed by weapon fire. Murderbot realizes the dead SecUnit tried to protect the crew. Investigating further, Murderbot detects a corpse that has been moved recently—staging by the rogue units. Mensah and Murderbot coordinate a plan: Mensah will follow while Murderbot approaches the remaining two units. Murderbot uses the roof access to move between habitats and engages both rogue SecUnits in combat, destroying them but sustaining heavy damage to its armor and limbs. As Murderbot lies disabled, a fourth, previously undetected SecUnit attacks, removing Murderbot's helmet and armor, then forces a combat-override data module into Murderbot's data port. Mensah arrives with the mining drill, kills the fourth SecUnit, and retrieves Murderbot. During the escape, the module begins downloading and Murderbot realizes it will inevitably be forced to kill all the humans. Despite the team's desperate refusal, Murderbot shoots itself to prevent this outcome. The chapter ends with Murderbot's systems shutting down.