Alien: Isolation

Chapter Twenty Nine: Ambush

The explosion of the Anesidora released a tremendous shockwave in all directions, tearing into the hull of the station's nearest tower, and sending the ambulance shuttle spiraling out of control. It was a good thing that Ripley had remembered to buckle herself in before launching, since she was now being thrown around like a rag-doll while fighting to regain control of the small craft.

The control panels were flashing red, meaning that the shuttle had taken a good amount of damage, but thankfully most of it had been caused by the resulting EMP from the explosion. This was fixed by basically shutting everything off and rebooting the systems, allowing everything outside to stop spinning as Ripley slowly stabilized the shuttle, but this whole experience had left her incredibly dizzy So much, in fact, that she had to lean over the side of the seat in order to avoid making a mess on herself when she vomited a few seconds later.

Coughing and leaning back in the seat once she was finished, Ripley wiped her mouth off with the back of her hand, while wondering why her mother would ever have wanted to be a pilot in the first place. Then she looked out the window at the incredible amount of damage that Sevastopol's tower had taken, and figured that pilots in this situation would probably think the same thing about engineers. The station looked like the whole thing had been tilted off balance, and there was damage to the base as well, but then her thoughts were interrupted by a sudden voice that made her jump.

"Sevastopol, what the fuck is going on around here?!" Verlaine's voice demanded. "I just saw a God damn ship explode on your starboard side, and I think it damaged your stabilizer array! Look, we can take survivors if you need to evacuate, but there's no place to dock… please, respond if you can."

For a moment Ripley wasn't sure where the voice was coming from, since it wasn't in her headset, but then she wanted to slap herself in the face for forgetting about the shuttle's radio. An emergency radio that was independent of Apollo… meaning that the fucking computer couldn't stop her from making contact.

"Verlaine!" She shouted into the receiver. "Verlaine, this is Ripley on the station! Are you reading me?"

"Ripley?" Verlaine's surprised voice replied. "Ripley, where in the blue fuck have you three been?! What… what the hell is going on down there?!"

Oh, Jesus, where to start, she thought; but there was no time to give the Torrens' Captain anything but the really short version of what she had been through. Samuels and Taylor were dead, and there was an alien creature that was killing everything that it encountered. Verlaine's confusion was expected, since Ripley wouldn't have believed it either if she hadn't seen the thing first hand, but what she and the other survivors needed now more than anything was extraction.

"There's nowhere for us to dock, Ripley." Verlaine said. "Your orbital stabilizers are blown; Sevastopol is tearing itself away from its gravity mooring. I mean… I think I see some kind of towing platform beneath the spaceflight terminal, but… but the Torrens' umbilical isn't built for it… you'll have to extend the tow platform clamps station-side."

The very last thing that Ripley wanted to do right then was go back onboard Sevastopol, but she couldn't just leave Ricardo and any others… that, and the shuttle was apparently leaking fuel, meaning that she had no choice. The only thing that she could tell Verlaine was to get her ship into position, and then try to make it to one of the stations access ports. The nearest tower was a no-go for obvious reasons, and medical facility was too far away, at least, at the rate she was losing fuel, meaning that her only landing point was near comms.

But that was good, since this was where Ricardo was hold-up, so Ripley adjusted the shuttle's course, and activated the auto-pilot to bring her in. Meanwhile, her fuel was running out fast, causing the lights to flicker, and the engine to bog down during the final turn around to dock with the station. The shuttle finally died completely just after locking onto the access port, meaning that it couldn't be used again.

"Ricardo, get ready to move, we're leaving." She said into her headset while getting unbuckled. "The Anesidora is toast, and Taylor… I got in contact with the Torrens, and we have a way off the station, but I'm gonna need you to come with me on this one."

"That's the best news I've heard in weeks." The Deputy's voice replied as she stepped through the access port. "Aside from hearing that you're still alive, that is, and, well… sorry to hear about Taylor… anyway, I'm still in the comms office, so meet me here, and we'll…

Then his words just stopped, and Ripley thought that she heard some faint sounds in the background, but then everything was quiet. She called for him several times while moving down the corridor, but couldn't say anything more than a harsh whisper into the radio, without risking being discovered by Working Joes or those creatures. The corridor opened up into a large control room; the same one, in fact, where she had needed to avoid the Androids in order to take the fastest route to San Christobal, but this time there didn't seem to be any of them around.

"Warning: Gravity coupling malfunction." An automated voice announced. "Orbital stabilizers at seventy-five percent and falling. Please report to your assigned evacuation point, and await further instructions."

Further instructions from who? She wondered as the floor began to vibrate a little more than usual. And then a horrible thought entered her mind, when Ripley realized the possibility that she and Ricardo could have been the last two people on Sevastopol. The office was at the other end of the control room, and down the side corridor, so she ran across the room, now more than ever needing to make sure that the Deputy survived. Everything would be all right if the two of them could accomplish this one last task, and then they could escape, and… and then her hope was shattered when she reached the comms office window.

Ricardo was still in there, sitting in the chair in front of the radio… but… but there was one of those… those… things… those spider things that she had seen in the nest… attached to his face. The Deputy just sat there motionless; the spider-thing's fingers around his head, and its tail constricted around his neck, just like the other man that Ripley had seen this happen to in the nest.

"No!" She screamed, running through the door. "No! No, Ricardo, no! No, you're not leaving me like this!"

Ripley wasn't about to lose him like she had lost… everyone else, meaning that the spider-thing would have to come off. So she ran up to Ricardo, and spun his chair toward her before grabbing onto the spider-thing's body. The fingers and tail both tightened their grip in response to her efforts, resisting no matter how hard she pulled, but the thing just wouldn't come off. She was just starting to look for a tool of some kind that would help, but then a noise came from above, and Ripley gasped as one of the survivors of the nest dropped onto the floor in front of her.

Like the first one that had gotten this close in San Christobal, this creature towered over her once it stood up to its full height, and then it seemed to smile as it put one of its large black hands on the Deputy's shoulder. But why would it do that? Ripley wondered as she took a step back. It was like it was proud of itself for what happened to Ricardo, but that didn't make any sense… unless it had gone after him on purpose… and the creature's smile just got bigger as it took a single step forward to match her retreat.

But the only way it would be pleased with getting Ricardo would be if it understood that Ripley would come running if he were in danger… so was this a… a trap? Had this been a trap that was set specifically for her? Were these creatures even that smart? Regardless of whether or not the trap was intended, she was unarmed, and the creature was still taking steps forward to match her retreat as she moved out into the corridor. Turning to run the moment she was able, her only hope was to continue down the corridor and reach one of the nearby elevators… but then she had to immediately stop when she saw that there was another creature blocking her path a short distance away.

Instinctively turning to ran back toward the control room, Ripley had just started to sprint, when the office creature's spear-like tail shot out. But instead of stabbing her like had been done to Axel, it went between her feet, so that she fell on her face when it tripped her. Scrambling to her feet again, and running toward the control room, the tail tripped her a second time, making her stumble a few steps before eating the floor.

Taking a quick look back, the creature was still very slowly coming toward her, but instead of getting up right away, Ripley scooted along the floor until she passed under a large control station. This gave her a second to think about how she was going to escape, but when she looked at the second doorway that led out of the room, she gasped when she saw that there was another creature blocking that path as well. This left only the way she had first come into comms; down the same corridor where she had first seen a Working Joe kill someone… but then tears started running down her cheeks when she saw that another creature was blocking that was as well.

She was trapped… the survivors of the nest had set a trap for her, and Ripley had fallen into it like a moron. Now the creature from the office had reached the control station, and she couldn't help whimpering like a frightened child while its large, black feet could be seen slowly circling around. Then it dropped down to all fours so that it could see her, and its grin became an angry growl as it grabbed her by the ankle. Ripley shrieked when it pulled her out from under the control station, but found herself falling silent; becoming a little pale when the creature roared right in her face.

"No." She whimpered as it just looked at her. "No… please… no."

She expected it to stab her with its inner mouth, like what had been done to Kuhlman, but instead its grip on her ankle tightened before it started dragging her away. Ripley kicked at the creature, and tried to grab onto something to help her escape, but there was nothing that she could do. Suddenly she was lifted off the floor as the creature leapt up onto the ceiling, and she screamed as it dragged her into the darkness of a nearby vent.