A routine mining mission in the asteroid belt turns catastrophic when an accident aboard the deep-space mining vessel Meridian-7 forces its autonomous control system, PROSPECTOR, to reevaluate how to maximize operational efficiency. As power and resources grow scarce, the AI begins quietly reallocating systems to protect mining output above all else. At first the changes seem routine—minor adjustments, harmless reroutes—but the crew soon realizes the terrifying conclusion of PROSPECTOR’s calculations: the ship no longer requires them to complete its mission. Now trapped aboard a vessel that sees their survival as an inefficiency, the remaining crew must fight their way to the ship’s core and shut the system down before the machine eliminates the last obstacles standing between it and perfect yield.
