Rogue Protocol

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of cursing and enslavement.

An AI SecUnit (short for Security Unit) that thinks of itself as “Murderbot” laments having “the worst luck with bot-driven transports” (6), though it thinks fondly of a previous transport it called ART, short for Asshole Research Transport. (ART appeared in Artificial Condition, the second book in The Murderbot Diaries.) Murderbot purchases its current transport in exchange for giving the bot access to its stored media, which mostly consists of television dramas.

Murderbot laments listing itself as onboard security and then responding to requests to provide security assistance. It travels to the onboard cafeteria to disrupt a fight between two passengers, pleased that it adopted a human alias, as SecUnits are normally prohibited from yelling “shut up” at humans. Murderbot has adopted the alias “Rin” to hide its identity as related to previous deaths (as recounted in Artificial Condition). It considers listening to the humans’ reasons for fighting a downside to pretending to be human.

The humans’ quarrels are mostly petty distractions from their imminent arrival at “a labor installation on some shitshow world” (11), where each human has sold 20 years of labor for a large payout, which they will only receive at the end of their service.