Chapter Seven

Murderbot executes a dangerous plan to neutralize GrayCris by revealing a fake threat to their beacon, then switches armor with a dead DeltFall SecUnit to pose as GrayCris while helping Mensah escape. When discovered, a beacon launch forces them to flee the plateau, leaving Murderbot severely damaged.

Murderbot and Mensah fly toward the GrayCris rendezvous point where four SecUnits and three humans await them. Mensah broadcasts that PreservationAux has hidden evidence and knows about the missing map sections. Murderbot lands and approaches the group, revealing it has no working governor module and proposing a compromise: GrayCris will take Murderbot aboard their pickup ship listed as destroyed inventory. When GrayCris agrees, Murderbot claims the team has sent Gurathin to manually trigger GrayCris's beacon. This revelation panics them into leaving immediately, but Blue Leader orders Murderbot to retrieve Mensah from the hopper. To execute the next phase, Murderbot kills the DeltFall SecUnit sent to help, then switches armor with the corpse so it appears Murderbot is the dead unit and the dead unit is Murderbot. They return to the plateau with Mensah as an apparent prisoner. GrayCris boards their hopper with the captives and flies to the beacon location. As the two GrayCris SecUnits investigate the beacon, Murderbot attempts to move toward Mensah, prompting the remaining DeltFall SecUnit to attack. During the firefight, the beacon's primary drive ignites. Murderbot tackles Mensah off the plateau's edge, and the explosion engulfs them both. Murderbot sustains catastrophic damage, losing consciousness repeatedly. Gurathin and Pin-Lee extract them from the ravine and get everyone aboard the hopper as the pickup transport retrieves them, ensuring the team's escape.