Rogue Protocol

Rogue Protocol is the third novella in Martha Wells's Murderbot Diaries series, continuing the story of a rogue security unit (SecUnit) that has hacked its own governor module and escaped corporate control. After fleeing the transit station at RaviHyral—where it killed several humans while protecting its clients—Murderbot has been moving quietly through space, downloading entertainment media and trying to stay off the radar. When it learns that the company GrayCris may have been conducting illegal alien-remnant mining operations under the cover of a terraforming facility on the planet Milu, Murderbot makes a calculated decision: it will travel to the abandoned facility to gather evidence that could be sent to Dr. Mensah, the PreservationAux researcher who previously employed it. This decision sets Murderbot on a collision course with corporate betrayal, combat bots, and an assessment team that has no idea what they're walking into. The novella explores themes of autonomy, connection, and the impossible position of a being designed to kill but increasingly aware of its own desires and limitations.

Murderbot stows away on a cargo shuttle called Ship heading to Milu, claiming to passengers to be a security consultant named Rin. During the twenty-cycle journey, it monitors the ship's simple bot pilot and travels alongside contract laborers being sent to work on a distant planet. Upon arrival at HaveRatton Station, Murderbot disembarks and discovers that transport schedules to Milu are scarce—the facility was supposedly abandoned after failed terraforming. However, it finds a supply ship bound for Milu and breaks into it, planting itself in cargo storage and befriending a naive human-form bot named Miki through the ship's feed system. Miki, designed to assist a research team, doesn't have a comprehensive knowledge base and takes Murderbot's lie about being a security consultant at face value, promising to keep Murderbot's presence secret from its human friends on the assessment team.

When the supply ship reaches Milu station—a nearly deserted outpost—Murderbot disembarks and hacks the station's security systems. It observes the assessment team: Don Abene (the team leader), Hirune, Brais, Ejiro (two researchers), and Wilken and Gerth (supposedly security consultants hired to protect the team). The team's job is to survey the abandoned terraforming facility and assess its condition. Murderbot hides in the facility's cargo storage aboard the shuttle and uses Miki as its eyes and ears, gathering data on what the team is doing.

When the assessment team enters the terraforming facility, combat bots and drones—original equipment left behind by GrayCris—activate in defense. Murderbot uses Miki to warn the team and then takes over Miki's feed connection to better coordinate the team's movements. During the chaos, a retrieval device (a bio sampler controlled by a combat bot) attempts to decapitate Don Abene, but Murderbot intervenes, saving her life by removing Abene's helmet before the sampler can pull her through a closing hatch. Abene is shocked to discover a SecUnit in the facility—she didn't know one was coming. Murderbot quickly improvises a cover story, claiming to be the contracted SecUnit of "Consultant Rin," who was supposedly sent by GoodNightLander Independent to provide additional security.

The team is forced to press deeper into the facility to rescue Hirune, who has been taken prisoner by the hostile bot. Abene, Wilken, and Murderbot pursue her while Gerth escorts the wounded Ejiro and others back toward the shuttle. During the rescue, Wilken and Gerth's true allegiance becomes clear—they were hired by GrayCris to prevent GoodNightLander Independent's assessment, not to protect the team. Wilken attempts to kill Abene, but Miki intervenes and fights her off. Murderbot hacks Wilken's powered armor and freezes her in place, preventing her from firing. Wilken reveals that she was meant to wait for something to happen at a specific time—an encrypted signal has been sent to the facility's combat bots, instructing them to destroy the tractor array that's keeping the facility from burning up in the atmosphere.