Alien: Isolation

Chapter Twenty Four: Quick Thinking

The creatures could be heard shrieking as they splashed through the water behind her, and they were gaining, no matter how fast Ripley sprinted toward the elevator doors. Thankfully, she had a good head-start, but this only gave her time so smack the call button, turn around, and fire the shotgun without aiming or looking. The three creatures were right on her heels, but when the flash of light and loud bang echoed through the narrow corridor, the front two creatures stumbled back a bit after taking the shell right in the face.

More of that greenish-yellow acidic blood dripped out onto the floor as they stumbled back a bit, momentarily blocking the third one's advance that had been coming up behind them. So she fired again, and again, peppering their oily, black bodies with small wounds that seemed to do little more than irritate them, but by this time the elevator doors had opened, allowing her to back up into the car. Ripley fired another shell before hitting the button to take her back up to the reactor's catwalks, and then another just before the doors finished closing, since the creatures were trying to rush her again.

She could hear them pounding on the door from the other side, and Ripley remained motionless; the shotgun aimed at the doors just in case they got through, even though the elevator was now moving upward… and she only had one shell left in the chamber. Not that she could move even if she wanted to, since the sight of what happened to that man down below was only just now sinking in. As was the realization that not only was there another creature on the station, not only was there more than one… but they had built some kind of nest down there, where more of them were being created.

Remaining motionless as she tried to wrap her mind around everything that had just happened, Ripley hadn't realized that the elevator had reached the top and opened, until the doors started to close again. Knowing that staying there would mean going back down to the nest, she quickly held the shotgun in the doorway to keep it from closing, but now what the hell was she going to do? For now there didn't seem to be any of those creatures on this level, so she tried her best to reload her weapon with shaky hands.

One of the shells fell into the door-track when she dropped it, so Ripley had to take the last spare shell out of her pocket in order to fill the shotgun completely. As for the fallen shell, it landed long-ways inside the track, but the good news was that it was just long enough to keep the elevator from closing all the way, once the door pushed it against the wall. That meant that it would keep the creatures from using it, but what was really needed there was some kind of permanent solution, and Ricardo's continuous demands for her status were not helping her to think.

"Yes, Ricardo, okay, I got out!" She finally yelled as the door kept opening and closing. "I'm fine, but Apollo is never going to stand down with that nest and all those creatures down there. I… I don't know what else we can do."

"Forget the creatures, Ripley." Ricardo's voice replied less than confidently. "Forget Apollo, and forget the Working Joes. Just… come back to the Bureau, where you'll be safe, and then we can figure this out together, okay?"

It was a nice sentiment, but what the hell was there to figure out? That nest was probably massive, and she had only seen the outermost edge of it, along with how many more people were probably trapped throughout… so what was she supposed to do? What could she do about the dozens, if not hundreds of creatures that were being spawned down there? Short of blowing up the reactor, there was nothing that… nothing that…

The sub-core nearest to her fired during these thoughts, interrupting them as the reactor chamber was filled with a flash of bright light, and this gave Ripley a new idea. She couldn't blow up the reactor, since that would in-turn destroy Sevastopol, as well as herself, along with it… but what if there was another option? If she couldn't destroy the reactor… then what about purging it? From what she remembered from training, large-scale reactors like this one required a quarterly purge, basically a controlled and vented overload, in order to release any redundant energy among other things. The bottom line of this procedure, though… was a very large explosion.

"Ricardo, I think I have an idea." She said, moving away from the elevator. "If I trigger a manual purge of Sevastopol's reactor, it might be enough to destroy the nest."

Of course, the Deputy immediately started to protest, but Ripley ignored him as she moved over to the access station of the nearest sub-core. The station was right beneath the discharge point between the upper and lower pylons of the tower, making her jump each time it fired, and although Seegson made everything really user friendly, it still slowed her down to have to continually check if there were any of those creatures around.

Once the proper menu on the access terminal was located, Ripley set the system for a slow energy buildup in preparation for a maintenance purge. There was no danger to herself, since the sequence had to be triggered from the shielded control room, but she would have to set the other sub-core first, and the divert everything to the center, which meant going all the way around the central core to the other side. So she made her way around as quickly as possible, before suddenly stopping in her tracks at what she saw up ahead.

"I knew you… were still here." The industrial Working Joe said as it appeared in her path. "I have been… very patient with you… so far."

The Android was in bad shape; limping heavily, one arm twitching, and white blood leaking out of every hole that the shotgun had previously put into its body. The thing looked like it was about to collapse right there, yet it was still moving, and its glowing red eyes locked onto her with intent to kill. Ripley was really not in the mood to deal with its bullshit right now, and there were still six shells in the shotgun, so she aimed, and fired.

The blast from the weapon could barely be heard over the reactor's next discharge, but the impact could be seen clearly enough as the shell tore into the Android's chest, making it stumble back a couple steps. More white blood splashed onto the floor, making Ripley wonder just how much of it the Working Joe had, and then she fired again once it started to right itself. There was no way that this thing could take much more punishment, she thought as the Android stumbled into the guardrail, but it was only a matter of time before those creatures found a way up there, so she shot the Working Joe in the legs one more time, before running past it.

Three shells left, she thought as she continued around to the other side, where the access station for the other sub-core was. This one was just as user friendly when she accessed it, and before long the second sub-core had been set for slow buildup. Now all she had to do was transfer all the power to the central tower, and set it off the purge from the control station. However, she had just turned to leave the access station, when the Android came stumbling into view.

Sighing with frustration, Ripley walked toward it, intent on using her last three shells to finish it off. So she halved the distance between them, and was aiming her weapon, when something unexpected happened. The android suddenly grabbed the guardrail, and then ripped it off and tossed the piece at her in one fluid motion. The metal bar spun around as it flew, giving her just enough time to gasp in shock, before her ears started ringing from the impact.

It had been vertical when it hit, striking both the shotgun, and her forehead at the same time, knocking Ripley off her feet. She landed on her back with her head turned to the side, allowing her to watch helplessly as the shotgun slid across the grated floor… until it went right over the edge, vanishing into the darkness below.

"Running causes… accidents." The Android said as it limped closer. "You really should… be more careful."

Ripley tried to get up, but this was never easy after taking a blow to the head, so she was only up to her hands and knees, struggling to stay up even that much, by the time it reached her. The shotgun was gone, and this industrial Working Joe was sure to kill her if it got a hold of her, leaving no way for her to defend herself… except for the metal bar. So as it was reaching out with its functioning hand, Ripley grabbed the bar and rammed the end into its knee. This knocked it off balance enough to miss the grab, and then she pulled back, before swinging the bar at its head like a baseball bat.

The impact to its head caused the Android to fall over, where it struck its head again on the nearby guardrail, before falling to the floor. Maybe it was the surge of adrenaline, or maybe her own sense of self-preservation, but Ripley found the strength to get up, although no faster than the Android was able to. They both used the guardrail to pull themselves to their feet, and once she was standing, she swung the bar again… only to have the Android catch it with its hand.

"You are carrying… dangerous equipment." It said as it pulled the bar away from her. "Come with me… please."

It then pulled back, and swung the bar at her head, but at the last second Ripley ducked down. She felt the rush of wind as the bar flew over, and then she put her hands on the Android's torso, shoving back as hard as she could while standing back up. The Working Joe was already off-balance because of its leg, as well as swinging the weapon, so it was easy for her to send it reeling backwards into the guardrail. Of course, this section was already weakened from a nearby part being ripped off, so the railing bent from the impact, causing the Android to tumble over the edge, quickly vanishing into the darkness below.

"Holy fuck." Ripley panted as she rested against another guardrail. "Stupid… fucking… androids."

But there was no time to rest right then, nor was there time to gloat about her victory, or even to make sure that the thing was really gone this time. Then again, once she set off the reactor purge, the Android was sure to be destroyed along with the nest and the creatures, so she needed to get moving. Ripley was still feeling a bit dizzy as she got to her feet, but her head was clearing by the time she got to the rerouting circuit panel on the central core. It was a heavy switch, like the breaker in that science module, and there was a loud squeak when she pulled it down.

"I'm all set down here, Ricardo." She said as the energy began flowing into the central core. "So just… find something to hold onto."

The whole reactor chamber was now beginning to shake from the energy buildup, so Ripley turned, and started running toward the service lift that would bring her back up into the control center.