Chapter Seven

The shuttle carrying Mensah's team is rescued by a company gunship, but GrayCris deploys a disembodied combat bot to destroy the ship and retrieve the data Murderbot took from Milu. Murderbot merges with the gunship's bot pilot to fight the attack, ultimately tricking the hostile code into the shuttle before ejecting it into space.

After the barrier incident, Murderbot's knee joint is damaged and bleeding. While Ratthi attempts emergency repairs, a Palisade ship launches on an intercept course. Murderbot contacts the company gunship for assistance, using its security protocols. The gunship intercepts the shuttle and brings it aboard, though the crew initially refuse to allow an active SecUnit on an armed transport. After Mensah insists they are bonded clients, the gunship's captain demands an additional bond, effectively treating Murderbot as a deadly weapon requiring special insurance. Mensah overrides Murderbot's urge to take over the ship by force. Once aboard and in a passenger compartment, the Palisade ship makes its move: it transmits a sophisticated attack—a disembodied combat bot carrying hostile code designed to destroy the gunship and kill its crew. The code attacks life support, weapons systems, and the augmentation systems of crew members, overwhelming the gunship's SecSystem. Realizing GrayCris is hunting for the memory data from Milu, Murderbot merges into the gunship's bot pilot to fight the attack directly. After analyzing the threat, Murderbot devises a trap: it loads a data bundle containing recorded information from Milu into the shuttle's memory and tells the bot pilot they must hide this information in the shuttle. When the disembodied bot pursues the bait, Murderbot and the bot pilot seal it inside the shuttle and eject the vessel, trapping the hostile code. The gunship's weapons then destroy the boarding shuttle and damage the Palisade ship. However, the effort leaves Murderbot severely damaged, with performance reliability dropping to 45 percent, and it collapses after reporting success to Mensah and Pin-Lee.