The Company Gunship

the gunship

The bond company's armed retrieval gunship, whose curious bot pilot merges with Murderbot to survive the Attacker.

Story so far

The company gunship is the Company's armed retrieval vessel, dispatched under Dr. Mensah's survey bond and left holding position off TranRollinHyfa once GrayCris blocked its docking. When a Palisade ship chases the escaping shuttle, Murderbot hails the gunship with the emergency code 'System System,' and it snatches the shuttle aboard and drives off the pursuer. Because active SecUnits are barred from armed transports as too dangerous, the crew extract an extra bond before admitting Murderbot.

The gunship carries a minimal-capacity bot pilot—friendly and curious but nothing like ART—which has never had a SecUnit aboard. When the Attacker devours the ship's SecSystem, the bot pilot begs Murderbot for help using the company's own distress code, and Murderbot slips fully into its hardware, experiencing the ship as a body. Together they trap the Attacker in the arrival shuttle; the gunship then regains its weapons and destroys the enemy boarding shuttle and breaches the Palisade ship.

Appearance

A fast, heavily armed company retrieval vessel with a docking lock, backbone tubes, flight deck, and passenger compartments, piloted by a low-capacity bot pilot.

Role

Setting of the climactic space battle; the rescue ship carrying Mensah's party to a Preservation rendezvous.

Relationships

Murderbot — Merges with its bot pilot to fight off the Attacker, saving the ship and everyone aboard.

The Company — Its owner, whose armed retrieval mission it fulfills under Mensah's bond.

The Attacker — The construct that nearly destroys it before Murderbot lures the thing off the ship.

Sources — 1 recorded facts, by chapter

Chapter 7

The bond company's armed retrieval gunship, whose curious bot pilot merges with Murderbot to survive the Attacker.