Who knew being a heartless killing machine would present so many moral dilemmas? (Rogue Protocol)
Rogue Protocol is the third novella in The Murderbot Diaries series. It was published on August 7, 2018. It is preceded by Artificial Condition and followed by Exit Strategy.
Publisher's summary[]
Who knew being a heartless killing machine would present so many moral dilemmas?
Sci-fi’s favorite antisocial A.I. is back on a mission. The case against the too-big-to-fail GrayCris Corporation is floundering, and more importantly, authorities are beginning to ask more questions about where Dr. Mensah's SecUnit is.
And Murderbot would rather those questions went away. For good.
Synopsis[]
In the third novella, Murderbot travels to Milu, a planet outside the Corporation Rim, in search of data on GrayCris' suspected illegal activities. It plans to use this data to distract the media's attentions from itself, and to help hurry the investigation into GrayCris along, which would encourage Mensah to return to her (safer) home planet that much sooner. Murderbot continues impersonating an augmented human security consultant, with mixed results.[1]
GrayCris recently abandoned a terraforming facility orbiting the planet Milu which Murderbot suspects is a cover for illegal alien remnant mining. Before the terraforming facility can be destroyed, thus erasing all evidence of the alien remnant mining, another corporation, GoodNightLander Independent (GI), expresses interest in buying the abandoned facility. They send a team of researchers to assess it and Murderbot stows away onto their transport but is discovered by Miki, their naive and pet-like android.
Murderbot must reveal itself when hostile CombatUnits attack the GI team and capture Hirune. To hide its disabled governor module, Murderbot pretends to be a SecUnit sent by "Security Consultant Rin" to support GI. The researchers are unfamiliar with SecUnits, but the security team of Wilken and Gerth are well aware of SecUnits and incredibly wary of Murderbot. They decide to split up. Gerth takes two researchers back to the shuttle. Wilken leads Murderbot, Abene, and Miki to rescue Hirune. Ever distrustful and paranoid, Murderbot comes up with a separate plan to rescue Hirune.
An injured Murderbot comes upon Wilken attempting to kill Abene. It hacks Wilken's combat armor and wrests control of it. Murderbot suspects GrayCris hired Wilken and Gerth to destroy the facility and all evidence of illegal alien remnant mining. Murderbot leads the researchers to escape on the shuttle. Meanwhile, Wilken and Gerth have setup the destruction of the tractor array keeping the terraforming facility together. Murderbot neutralizes Gerth's combat armor, stops the tractor array's destruction, and the shuttle takes off. One last CombatUnit forces its way into the shuttle. Miki dies trying to protect Abene, and Murderbot manages to destroy the CombatUnit. Murderbot decides to deliver the evidence to Dr. Mensah personally.
Cover Art[]
References[]
- ↑ "If Dr. Mensah had proof of that, the investigation against GrayCris would get a lot more interesting. Maybe so interesting that the journalists would forget all about that stray SecUnit. And then Dr. Mensah wouldn’t be needed on Port FreeCommerce and she could go back to Preservation where it was safe and I could stop worrying about her." Chapter One, Rogue Protocol.