This was a short novelette about a group of people who are intimidated to land their cargo ship on a planet destroyed and inhabited by automated ai war robots, to loot valuable technology on the surface. Their ship gets destroyed and they must find a way-off world. I also remember they encounter some sort of museum run by (I think) a spider-like robot.
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1Hi, welcome to SF&F. Where and when did you read this?– DavidWCommented Sep 25, 2022 at 20:58
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1Was the main character some sort of space monk, carrying a looted play in his memory?– ValorumCommented Sep 25, 2022 at 21:17
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I read it in a small stand-alone novelette. The book contained no others stories.– DjoresCommented Sep 26, 2022 at 9:12
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The main characters were a family (I think?) who owned a cargo vessel and were forced to land on this planet by a guy who wore wooden rings and had his finger replaced with a small laser gun.– DjoresCommented Sep 26, 2022 at 9:13
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1 Answer
This might be "Arsenal Port" the middle section of The Star Fox by Poul Anderson (1965). This section had separate magazine publication.
In "Arsenal Port" a group of humans land on an alien planet, seeking to buy weapons to convert their ship to an armed raider -- Earth has forbidden them from obtaining weapons. Another group from Earth has followed them, seeking to stop them from arming their ship. Due to the conflict of these two groups, both are forced to trek across a wilderness inhabited only by automated war machines, left from long-over wars among the aliens. The two groups must cooperate to survive the trek.
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1I'm afraid this is not it. There is no way I could have read this. Also there were no two groups competing and their ship was destroyed at the start of the story.– DjoresCommented Sep 26, 2022 at 9:11