Plot

A teenage girl and her father land on a forest moon to mine for gems, but a malfunction forces them to confront dangerous rival prospectors and treacherous conditions to complete their mission.

A teenage girl Cee (Sophie Thatcher) and her father Damon (Jay Duplass) travel to a remote alien moon, aiming to strike it rich. They've secured a contract to harvest a large deposit of the elusive gems hidden in the depths of the moon's toxic forest. The catch is that they have to be back on the orbiter within 3 cycles (days) else the last transporter from the alien moon back to Earth will be gone and they will be stranded on the planet. The transport line to the alien moon is shutting down and the orbiter is literally the last one to visit the moon. When it leaves, there is no way back to Earth. Damon is confident that they have plenty of time to complete the job and be back on the orbiter.

They descend in a landing pod from a transport spaceship to the surface of a forest moon covered in poisonous spores to mine for gems. They suffer a technical malfunction during the descent which cripples the lander and touch down some distance away from their planned prospecting site. The air of the moon is fatal to humans and hence they have to wear their suits to venture out. They don't have an oxygen supply, but have a filter which scrubs the air before it enters their suits.

Despite all the issues, Jay proceeds to take the risks, which bothers Cee increasingly. Cee is very concerned that they will miss the last transporter back to Earth. They begin traveling to the site on foot and come across an abandoned dig site. Damon and Cee extract a fleshy pod from the earth and dissect it to reveal a valuable gem. Extracting the gem is delicate and precise work which requires several steps to be executed in sequence and perfection. Any mistake and the gem are not extracted properly and becomes worthless.

Damon hits pay-dirt and extracts a gemstone, which is easily enough for their survival back home as it would fetch 10,000 credits. Cee implores her father to take the gem and return to the lander, but Damon insists they continue to the original landing site. Damon wants to go for the mother lode, which could be worth millions. Damon argues that they would never ever have a chance like this again, even though Cee is skeptical. But there are others roving the wilderness and the job quickly devolves into a fight to survive.

The pair set out again, and Damon is approached by two rival prospectors: Ezra (Pedro Pascal) and his silent companion, who are also looking for gems. Ezra wants Damon to hand over keys to the transport pod as he knows that Damon arrived on the moon in a ship. While this confrontation plays out, Cee is hiding behind a tree nearby and is undetected.

Ezra and his partner plan to rob Damon and hold him at gunpoint (Erza has a powerful rail-gun at his disposal), but Damon suggests in a counter-offer that they join forces. Damon explains that he has been contacted to assist a group of mercenaries who stumbled upon the legendary "queen's lair", a dig site of extraordinary value. Damon suggests that rather than digging for the mercenaries, Ezra, his companion, and Damon can work together. Damon proposes to harvest the gems and keep everything for themselves (with the help of the rail-gun) and not share anything with the company who gave Damon the contract.

Ezra agrees, but Cee, who has been hiding throughout this encounter, ambushes the two hostile prospectors with a rifle - allowing Damon to wrest a weapon from Ezra before taking the latter and his partner hostage. Damon attempts to rob Ezra, but the partner attacks him, and the pair shoot each other. Ezra's partner is killed and Damon is mortally wounded before being killed by Ezra himself.

Ezra is about to shoot Cee, but she escapes. Cee flees back to her damaged lander, which fails to start, and is found by Ezra several hours later. When Ezra attempts to enter, Cee wounds him in the arm with her rifle and takes him prisoner. Ezra doesn't have a ship of his own to offer. Ezra suggests that they follow Damon's original plan and aid the mercenaries in exchange for passage on the mercenaries' ship. Cee wants to shoot Ezra, but agrees that Damon was also trying to steal from Ezra and so Ezra was entitled to take action, in which Damon died. Cee reluctantly agrees, and the pair sets out for the queen's lair. Ezra's wound has become infected by the poisonous spores in the atmosphere.

Cee and Ezra make their way towards the mother-lode site and encounter another bunch of nomads on the way, who capture them. Ezra wants medical supplies for his wound, and air scrubbers, in exchange for 1 gem. However, the chief Oruf (Andre Royo), offers Ezra 9 gems, in exchange for Cee. Cee and Ezra both run away, but in different directions and times. Ezra catches with up with Cee and assures her that he would never give her away. Ezra asks Cee to amputate his arm, as the infection from his wound is spreading and he doesn't have any medical supplies to treat it.

Cee and Ezra make their way to another group of gem hunters and find their transport ship, but it is heavily guarded. The captain of the ship knows the location of the mother lode, but wants Ezra and Cee to dig 13 stones, in exchange for a ride up to the orbiter. Digging is dangerous work with the risk that the extracted gem is worthless. Ezra makes 5 failed attempts, when Cee decides to extract 1 gem herself and also fails, but Ezra uses the distraction to attack the captain of the ship. Now the rest of the crew attacks the duo, and they have to fight them off to get to the ship. Ezra is badly injured and asks Cee to abandon him. But Cee gets medical kit to patch up Ezra and carries him the shuttle. Together they head back to the orbiter.