Fandoms Murderbot One-Shots

Best One-Shot Murderbot Fanfics

Murderbot one-shots under 10k words — complete reads in one sitting. Curated from AO3 and ranked by kudos.

Books & Literature 25 one-shot fics Avg 3,783 words short stories under 10,000 words

Top 25 One-Shot Murderbot Fanfics

Ranked by AO3 kudos. Mid-length Murderbot fics — short stories under 10,000 words.

1

System Repeat

by CardcaptorGhost

What the fuck was going on? Gurathin tore his eyes away from SecUnit, looking for something, anything that would explain why the hell his spouse was acting so weirdly. Mensah and SecUnit weren’t the only people in the room with him; there was Ratthi, Pin-Lee, Arada, Overse and… himself? Gurathin sta

149 kudos 8,208 words 5/? chapters General Audiences
2

sight of the sun

by CellBlock1138

ART has something to give SecUnit. There's just one problem.

125 kudos 1,466 words 1/1 chapters Teen And Up Audiences
3

Heat/Stroke

by Rosewind2007

Murderbot and Gurathin are stuck on a planet, lost in a desert: their hopper downed by a sand storm…It’s very hot.

115 kudos 1,832 words 1/1 chapters Teen And Up Audiences Complete
4

Sound Check

by Abacura

Murderbot needs its voice box checked. Gurathin is happy to lend a hand.

86 kudos 8,862 words 1/1 chapters Explicit Complete
5

Display Model

by Brushtail

When you are the secunit assigned to a construct supply store, your life is safe but boring. Until someone hands you a file that is.

80 kudos 5,531 words 1/1 chapters Teen And Up Audiences
6

Proportional Response Module

by pacphys

While poking about in ART's modules, Murderbot discovers that ART actually does have a module on Proportional Response! Or... perhaps more accurately, it did have a module on Proportional Response.

78 kudos 848 words 1/1 chapters Teen And Up Audiences
7

SECURITY

by ESE (SecurityUnit)

(An illustrated fight club human trafficking AU)

75 kudos 8,106 words 2/? chapters Mature
8

Starlet Extraction

by beloved000

A rising star on the entertainment feed is taken hostage to fend off a corporation's hostile takeover. She is rescued by a strange SecUnit and its friend(?), a bot-driven transport. When asked why they are going so far to help her, they respond, "You need to survive to film the next season of World

71 kudos 6,948 words 7/? chapters Teen And Up Audiences
9

Aesthetics

by Aylwyyn228

We were 'playing' again.I don't really know why Gurathin called it that, except I guess it covered a range of sex and not-sex activities. I liked that ambiguity. Sometimes I changed my mind halfway through.Gurathin had never made a 'thing' of it.I liked that. Sequel to Control

68 kudos 3,180 words 1/2 chapters Explicit
10

if i hit a squall

by asphodellic

We finish ART's cargo run. We somehow get roped into stopping a robbery at a food kiosk on the station, and I save the image of Three's tiny smile when the owner thanks it to permanent memory. For…security reasons. And then the humans come back, and everything goes to shit.

55 kudos 7,001 words 1/1 chapters Mature
11

Princess Party Etiquette

by Arten

Murderbot gets roped into a princess tea party with Sofi and does not entirely hate it.

52 kudos 1,217 words 1/1 chapters General Audiences
12

A We Problem

by MrCelleOshkosh

Set immediately after Platform Decay. Perihelion is angry at Three and Three doesn't know how to deal with that. It just wants to be part of a team again, but doesn't know how to go about that. This story will be about Three's trauma and how it heals and finds a family again.

51 kudos 8,727 words 3/? chapters Teen And Up Audiences
13

What Should I Do But Tend?

by nomadriver

The unsung heroes of the deep space research vessel, ART's specialized drones have long gone unacknowledged and underappreciated for their service to the Perihelion. This will continue to be the case. But here are their stories, anyway.

48 kudos 8,628 words 4/7 chapters Mature
14

Hostage: Caught, Disarmed, Broken, Held

by ESE (SecurityUnit)

Alternate Universe where Mensah and SecUnit are caught by the Combat SecUnit in Exit Strategy.

44 kudos 7,159 words 2/? chapters Explicit
15

show me how's the way to be

by brahe

I don’t know how to explain this to her, SecUnit tells me, and dumps a massive metadata file at me. I’m not sure what it expects me to do to help until I open the file. It’s comprised entirely of tagged interactions between SecUnit and Dr. Mensah. This log is deeply personal, and I take great care w

41 kudos 7,049 words 2/2 chapters General Audiences
16

Fanart: Me, I'm Not

by verilyvexed

Because PresAux definitely has a monthly goth night.

31 kudos 0 words 1/1 chapters General Audiences Complete
17

Little Discovery

by spectralOasis

Mensah's POV of the aftermath to Little Death.

26 kudos 100 words 1/1 chapters Teen And Up Audiences Complete
18

Fanart: Ill-Advised Murderathin Doodles

by verilyvexed

A catch-all for random doodles. Some of these are WIPs that may be finished soon! Thank you to the unhinged Discord servers. You know who you are.

21 kudos 23 words 10/? chapters Teen And Up Audiences
19

It’s Panto Time!

by Rosewind2007

Discussing something else altogether in the New Tideland Discord (how chimpanzee ‘smiles’ are fear or threat displays) led to a discussion of how if we growled or hissed at people who annoy us it’d be a satisfyingly clear form of communication… Which obviously led to me deciding SecUnit would love t

20 kudos 3,188 words 1/1 chapters General Audiences Complete
20

Sand Rust

by Voyager_DenAce

In this barren wasteland, golden from erosion and devoid of life, there’s no real way to hide from the ever-present sun, which hangs in the sky like an all-seeing deity. But you can hide from your augmented human, who tends to get on your nerves and whom you don’t exactly like, if you really try and

20 kudos 3,399 words 2/? chapters Not Rated
21

You blasted fool. They dont know you're only bluffing.

by Kaydenx3

The series finale, except Dr. Mensah dies, and Murderbot stays.

16 kudos 888 words 2/2 chapters Not Rated Complete
22

Once Bitten...

by MrFarty

A SecUnit is bitten by a apparently drug-addled human. It subdues its attacker, but then its own behaviour starts to change ‐ in disturbing ways.

10 kudos 2,165 words 2/2 chapters Teen And Up Audiences
23

[Podfic] Get Cared For, Idiot

by sisi_rambles

Fine. Be that way, asshole.

4 kudos 16 words 1/1 chapters Teen And Up Audiences Complete
24

[Podfic] Reclaimed My Pound of Flesh

by sisi_rambles

“I... like this.”SecUnit sounds guarded, and Gurathin smiles.

3 kudos 16 words 1/1 chapters Teen And Up Audiences Complete
25

[Podfic] A Rose By Any Other Name

by sisi_rambles

He doesn’t look like Gurathin in that first nanosecond of processing; he looks more like a character in my media—one of the sappy serials I let Ratthi convince me was almost as good as The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon (it wasn’t.)

3 kudos 16 words 1/1 chapters General Audiences Complete

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About This List

3,180
median words
36%
complete
149
top kudos
~13 minutes
median read time

This list of 25one-shot Murderbot fanfics spans 94,573 total words. Kudos range from 3 on the newest entries to 149 on the most established. Most entries are ongoing works, so subscribe on AO3 for update notifications. The most common rating is Teen And Up Audiences (11 of 25 fics).

Recurring tags across this list: POV Murderbot (Murderbot Diaries) · Canon-Typical Violence · Spoilers for Book 8: Platform Decay (Murderbot Diaries) · POV ART | Perihelion · Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence.

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