Dark Athena is a direct sequel to Butcher Bay -- literally. Riddick awakens on the Dark Athena, a dark vessel with a seemingly infinite supply of steel corridors and plenty of hostile NPCs. Riddick awakens and, after darting through a few shadows and listening to Athena's captain bark orders over the ship's P.A. system, he comes across a Drone. Doubtlessly a Radio Shack employee's worst nightmare, Drones are guards controlled at remote stations (batteries not included). The Starbreeze representative manning the controls waiting until the Drone's heavy footsteps clomped past Riddick's hiding place before popping out, dashing forward and slicing the unaware guard in the back with dual Ulaks, wicked curved blades with serrated edges. Incapacitated, the guard slumped to the ground, giving Riddick the chance to make productive use of its unconscious form.

Each Drone carries a gun that it welded to its hand; the weapon therefore cannot be removed. To get around this disadvantage, Riddick can actually pick the guard up and carry him like a meat shield with one hand, while the other holds the Drone's gun hand and fires the weapon. This mechanic is also useful for hiding bodies in pits of shadow so that other Drones don't raise an alarm and bring overwhelming mobs to Riddick's position.