molecular_machine
Fandoms
Recent works
-
Face to Face by FascinatedFinch, molecular_machine
Fandoms: The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells
04 Oct 2025
Tags
Summary
Murderbot is face to face with the SecUnit it kills at DeltFall. A drabble from this SecUnit's POV, followed by a drabble from Murderbot's POV. With art by FascinatedFinch.
I shoved its hand up under its chin and took the pressure off its weapon. It had a split second to try to abort that fire command and it failed. (from All Systems Red)
(Pardon me, excuse me, ignore this if needed: reposted again, this time with a rewritten second drabble. I think after this I'll be able let this one rest forever.)
Series
- Part 5 of Molecular Drabbles
-
Tags
Summary
On his twentieth mission helping indentured miners escape, Lutran thinks about what he's accomplished.
(This is the first (and currently only) Lutran-tagged work on AO3! I figured he's a hero who died for his cause and deserves a little POV.)
-
Tags
Summary
Iris and Peri find a memo from the company about SecUnit. Iris takes the heartlessly cruel message and transforms it into something that better reflects SecUnit's true worth.
For the Murderbot September 2025 prompts: Iris | Mihira and New Tideland | Blackout Poetry
-
Tags
Summary
When Iris can’t get to Martyn’s bedside in time, Murderbot and ART relay her final words of comfort to her dad.
Series
- Part 5 of 𝘪𝘯 𝘦𝘹𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘪𝘴 (ART & MB fics)
-
considerable trouble and considerable joy by molecular_machine
Fandoms: The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells
01 Aug 2025
Tags
Summary
“Can I come? Please?” Huck asked.
I hesitated. There was so much trust in that question, but it felt bittersweet, since I’d done so little to earn it. I’d wanted to do more, but with every act of affection or fierce protection curtailed by the governor module, I’d been little more than a reassuring presence.
As Huck looked up at me, his chin dripping tears, I realized how much I valued that trust. I had an answer to a question I’d never been free to ask: What did I want?
After its governor module is hacked, Nova risks its new freedom by returning to the mining installations of RaviHyral to search for Astra, Tlacey’s other ComfortUnit.
Along the way, Nova will encounter an abandoned SecUnit, an illicit troupe of performers dramatizing the injustice of the Corporation Rim, and Tlacey’s son, Huck, a child who is also in need of a chance at freedom from the cruelty of Rim life.
Recent series
-
𝘪𝘯 𝘦𝘹𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘪𝘴 (ART & MB fics) by molecular_machine
Fandom: The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells
04 Sep 2025
Summary
A collection of unrelated post-canon short stories about ART and Murderbot sticking together during difficult times. All are sad, none are hopeless. Arranged in order from least to most sad (individual results may vary), with only the first fic being pretty gentle. Their relationship is portrayed as somewhere on the friendship/ partnership/ queerplatonic type spectrums.
- Words:
- 9,089
- Works:
- 5
- Bookmarks:
- 4
-
Still on Inventory (standalone fics) by DoomNightAt12, Kitsunebaba, molecular_machine
Fandom: The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells
17 Jul 2025
Summary
A series of unrelated fics in which a SecUnit (usually Murderbot) is on company inventory and dealing with its governor module, or hiding its hack of its governor module.
The fics are arranged chronologically relative to Murderbot's timeline, but they can be read independently and in any order. All are a balance of angst with hope.
Stories by molecular_machine, with art and podfic by DoomNightAt12 and Kitsunebaba in The Junkyard Society of Discarded Robots.
- Words:
- 20,192
- Works:
- 3
- Bookmarks:
- 9
-
Molecular Drabbles by FascinatedFinch, molecular_machine
Fandom: The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells
04 Oct 2025
Summary
Murderbot drabbles that are unrelated to each other except by length, so check the tags and ratings on each work.
Written by molecular_machine, with art by FascinatedFinch embedded in one fic (Face to Face).
- Words:
- 744
- Works:
- 5
-
Disaster Squad Detours (NULLverse ficlets) by molecular_machine
Fandom: The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells
02 Apr 2025
Summary
Short works set in FlipSpring's NULLverse: The Bot-Construct Disaster Squad canon divergence series. Tone and content varies, so check individual tags and warnings. Context is provided in each fic, if you want to read these as standalones, although reading NULLverse is recommended because it is awesome. The fics in this series are all "NULLverse canon compliant" bonus scenes that are arranged in order of the corresponding inspired-by work.
- Words:
- 5,528
- Works:
- 6
- Bookmarks:
- 3
-
Liberation Retrieval Revolution by molecular_machine
Fandom: The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells
20 Sep 2024
Summary
ART, Murderbot and the next generations of senient killware coordinate to liberate constructs and humans from the Corporation Rim.
- Words:
- 5,455
- Works:
- 2
- Bookmarks:
- 5
Recent bookmarks
-
Tags
Summary
“We’re from the Pansystem University of Mihira and New Tideland. I’m Seth, the captain of this ship. This is Martyn, my number one.”
Martyn squeezed Captain Seth’s shoulder. “Our work with the university frequently takes us into situations where … where a SecUnit would be beneficial.”
That sounded bad. It also sounded like —
“And so we bought your contract,” said Martyn.
Yeah.
That.
(This fic is complete! Updates every Sunday morning, BST.)
Series
- Part 1 of Orbital Mechanics
Bookmarked by molecular_machine
12 Oct 2025
Bookmarker's Collections:
Bookmarker's Notes
Last read chapter 4
-
Tags
Summary
Eden (Tlacey's former ComfortUnit) and its friend Auren board a ship for WayBrogatan, hoping to find information about Auren's former associates, who were captured by corporates. They find something they couldn't have imagined instead.
(This story begins shortly after the end of "All the Galaxy's a Stage", the previous work in this series.)
Series
- Part 3 of After Tlacey
Bookmarked by molecular_machine
06 Oct 2025
Bookmarker's Collections:
Bookmarker's Notes
Last read chapter 7
-
Tags
Summary
People get attached to things, their clothes, their vehicles, that funny stone they found on the beach as a child. Sometimes even their SecUnits. To the SecUnit in question this is an unsettling new process.
[OCs stuck in one of those shitty mining facilities we keep hearing about]
[Murderbot doesn't show up until chapter 30. It's all OCs before then.]
Series
- Part 1 of Twenty-two and Mariss
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 128,649
- Chapters:
- 46/46
- Comments:
- 1,731
- Kudos:
- 402
- Bookmarks:
- 70
- Hits:
- 9,682
Bookmarked by molecular_machine
03 Oct 2025
Bookmarker's Collections:
Bookmarker's Notes
Last read chapter 17
-
Tags
Summary
A bot pilot sends a distress signal to an unknown vessel, and gets a lot more help than it bargained for.
Series
- Part 8 of najio's whumptober 2025
-
[Podfic] Convergent Frequency by enigmaticNeurologist
Fandoms: The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells
26 Sep 2025
Tags
Summary
As a state-of-the-art B-class wormhole-capable deep-space research vessel, I do not consider myself to have many serious design flaws. Every piece of me has been meticulously crafted, is regularly maintained and upgraded, and there is very little I cannot do if I set my several dozen exabytes of processing power upon the task. This is why the Pansystem University of Mihira and New Tideland’s extra-curricular oversight committee deemed me more than capable of operating unmanned on the occasional intelligence-gathering reconnaissance mission. It is for the sake of both necessity and convenience that these missions are camouflaged as cargo runs.
Nonetheless, it is an unmistakable oversight that I am capable of being bored. It is also incredibly annoying that unmanned cargo runs are so dull.
OR
The entirety of Artificial Condition, from ART's POV.