Chapter 1:

They were after her.

She would have to act fast. Time was running out, and even the slightest hesitation could end in disaster. Amanda Ripley panted heavily as she pulled down on the Emergency Release lever on the control panel. Behind her, the two giant metal arms holding the USCSS Torrens in place released, lifting into the air as they freed the ship from the docking bay.

They had spotted her.

Without a second thought, Amanda turned her back to the control panel, repositioning herself so that she was standing horizontally, with her feet firmly planted into the side of the control panel. Carefully so that she wouldn't drift away, she bent her legs as far as the thick spacesuit would allow.

"Ripley? Ripley are you still there?" Verlaine's frantic voice called into her helmet. The frightened captain's voice was beginning to soften under the deafening sounds of groaning, grinding metal behind her.

They were still attached.

The emergency release bolts! She would have to blow them in order to allow the Torrens to rip free from the station. Kicking off from the control panel, Amanda soared towards the other side of the platform before catching herself on one of the several metal railings that lined the outer rim of the pad. Pulling herself upright, she faced a new set of controls embedded in a small black container resembling a suitcase. On the inside were a series of words in large red print, but she didn't have time to read them.

She knew what she had to do.

Reaching inside, she pulled out the first fusion coil. It came out slowly, much to Amanda's agony. As she began working on the second one, she spared a glance over the top of the container.

They were coming.

She could see them, even in the midst of crashing debris and emergency lights. She could see their smooth, shiny black skin, blinking in and out of existence as the emergency lights flickered on and off in succession. She could see their tails, their sharp, barbed tails twirling eagerly behind them as they closed in on their prey.

Quickly she began pulling out the third coil. Time seemed to slow to an agonizing crawl as the coil slowly pulled itself upwards at a constant rate, despite however hard Amanda pulled on it. Finally, she reached for the fourth one. She didn't even bother to peak over this time. If they had reached the catwalk, it would only be a matter of minutes before they found her. She needed to act fast.

As the fourth coil lifted into place, the platform suddenly gave a long groan as the clamps twisted and cracked against the growing forces that pulled it towards the large orange Gas Giant beneath them. Adrenaline exploded through her veins as Amanda scrambled towards the railing behind her. Reaching towards her chest, she whipped out a grappling line, and hooked herself to the Torrens.

Behind her, Sevastopol groaned and screamed at her, reminding her of the situation at hand: The station was falling towards KG-348, a large gas giant it had been orbiting around. If she didn't release the clamps now, Sevastopol and the Torrens would be pulled into a fiery doom.

Amanda spun around again, allowing her eyes to gaze at the carnage around her. Sevastopol Station was falling, moaning helplessly as its foundations were pushed to their limits. She could almost hear the station's supercomputer repeating it's usual drawl:

"Orbital Stabilizers offline. Abandon station. Abandon station."

She reached the control panel, and her eyes quickly began panning over the rows of keys looking for the familiar ENTER key. As her eyes scanned the keys, she noticed movement from the reflection of her glass visor. Unable to deny her curiosity, she allowed her eyes to flit to her right.

They were here.

It was now or never. Ripping her eyes from their gleaming jaws, Amanda's frantic eyes surveyed the keyboard once more. She could hear their claws clambering over the metal platform as they closed in. They were getting close. She was almost there. They were getting closer. One last row.

There.

With every muscle in her body, she threw herself at the key, smashing her pointer finger into the ENTER button near the bottom of the console. The harness attached to her chest ripped her off her feet, pulling her through open space from behind like a kite. Amanda's head slammed into the back of her helmet as the G-forces pressed down upon her face. Waving her arms about madly, she desperately searched for a something to grab. Anything to grab.

In the distance, Sevastopol was heading towards it's doom. She couldn't see it of course. The cord had pulled her back so haphazardly, that she had been sent into a continuous, never ending somersault. The only thing she could see was KG-348, the orange and white gas giant, spinning in and out of focus, over and over again, until it began to hurt looking at it. Amanda drew her eyes to the rim of her visor, keeping her eyes focused on the tiny bolts and wiring that held her suit together.

"Ripley?" Verlain's voice called again. Amanda had never been so grateful to hear her voice. She had barely known her on their trip to Sevastopol, but after all that had happened, any human voice was welcome. "Ripley are you there? Jesus christ please tell me you're there!"

"I'm here! I-I'm here Verlaine!" Amanda croaked. It was hard to talk without feeling nauseous. "I can't see you! I don't know where I am!"

"Keep your breathing stabilized! You'll run out of oxygen in that suit!" Verlaine responded. "I see you. I'm going to bring her closer to your position. I've got Connor suited up to get you, hold on!"

"Ok!" Amanda said shakily. She hated spacewalking from the moment they left the Torrens to board Sevastopol. The explosion that cut their line didn't help her experience at all. Now, here she was, floating around wildly without any idea where she was, after nearly being sucked down into a gas giant with a crippled space station infested with those things. The thought of all that had happened began to overload her mind, and Amanda began hyperventilating.

"Your breathing is up again! Just hold on a minute!" Verlaine called, but Amanda had tuned her out. She couldn't hold on any longer. She wanted to close her eyes, and sleep, sleep until she could forget the entire thing, as if it had been one big nightmare. An arm wrapped itself around her waist, and she could feel herself being dragged to the side. Through blurry eyes, she could just make out Connor's suited figure leaning over her, calling something. Suddenly, his head whipped up like a deer in the woods, and he sprinted down the hallway out of view.

She wanted to call out to him, ask him where he was going, but she soon found that she had lost the strength to speak, and her willpower to keep her eyes open was fading. Slowly, the white paneling of the ceiling began to become more and more unfocused. Finally, she allowed her eyes to close.