"No!" She gasped, entering her security code again. "No, God damn it, no!"

She must have tried it a total of six times, but the result was always the same; the screen informer her that there was no data on the flight recorder, and that the files had been corrupted. Her mind had trouble accepting this, since the recorder being empty would have meant that now there was no feasible way for Ripley to ever find out what had happened to her mother. But that couldn't be, not after fifteen years of waiting and everything that had happened to her since arriving on Sevastopol.

"Damn it!" She yelled, getting so mad that she tossed the flight recorder across the room. "Damn it, why?!"

The loud bang when it hit the wall made her suddenly remember the details of her situation, and now Ripley clamped her hands over her own mouth, rushing over to the side of the room, and hiding in the corner in case anyone, or anything had heard the noise. Thankfully, no one came rushing into the room within the next few minutes, but that didn't mean that she was safe. Sure, Burke's people might not have wanted to come down after her, but as far as she knew, going back up was the only way to get to Comms, and the people were sure to still be looking for her, especially since she had taken Burke's...

"Hack tool." Ripley said to herself.

Her mind was only now just realizing what it was that she had taken off of Burke's belt, and now moving her other hand into the light, she saw that it was, in fact, an Access Tuner device. These rare items were usually issued to the Chief Engineer of installations such as Sevastopol, and only meant to be used in emergencies, such as when someone became stuck inside of an elevator because of power fluctuations or something. Even if the software was glitching out, or a callback code had been accidently changed, this device, when used properly, could match the machine's frequency, and enable it for administrator access.

Of course, this all depended on the device working in the first place, and according to the woman who had been using it on the elevator, something had gone wrong. That's it! She suddenly thought to herself as she turned the device over and opened the rear panel. Maybe she could fix the access tuner, and then give it to Burke and the others as some sort of peace offering. Holding the device into the light, Ripley smirked a little when she discovered that it was a single cut wire that was preventing it from working.

"Okay... okay." She said to herself as she carefully twisted the cut ends back together. "Please work... please work."

Closing the panel and pressing the power button on the side, Ripley sighed with relief as the device did a quick self-diagnostic before coming online. Cycling through the menus and options, it was clear that she had restored it back to working order, and now all she had to do was give it to Burke without anyone shooting her first... or after. This meant that she would have to announce herself before reentering the Transit Hub, so Ripley tried to figure out what she was going to say to them, as she made her way back down the darkened corridor. Everything that she came up with to say sounded like something out of a bad science fiction movie, but then her thoughts were interrupted as she heard something just as she reached the stairs.

Screams? Screams, and... gunfire? Again, it took her a few seconds to process what she was hearing, but once she did, it became clear that Burke and his crew had become involved in some kind of firefight back upstairs. Ripley swallowed hard as she realized that this meant there would be even more lunatics up there waiting for her... then again, it could also mean that she had a chance to hack the elevator and escape while they were killing each other.

A little morbid, yes, but she had already been on the receiving end of Burke's negotiating skills, so she hurried back up the stairs, all the while the sound of screaming and gunfire getting louder until it suddenly stopped. The silence came on so suddenly that it stopped her in her tracks just as she was entering the Transit Hub, and that was when she saw them. Bodies... there were human bodies lying on the floor around the central desk, more specifically the bodies of Burke and his crew. Of course, there seemed to be a few less than the remembered, but then another question popped into her mind:

Where were the other shooters? While on the stairs, it had sounded like a warzone had erupted in there, but there were no voices, no rapid footsteps as the attackers prepared an ambush, no nothing. She figured that if the people on Sevastopol were going to kill each other, they would take the time to steal whatever their victims had on them, but she didn't hear any looting either, something that made her even more nervous.

Staying low and in the shadows, Ripley couldn't see anyone around, but with as quickly as she shooting had ended, she should have at least seen someone running back toward the exit. But there was no one around, just Burke and his dead friends... well, wherever the other lunatics had gone, they weren't in the room, so she carefully moved into the open. The access tuner was already in her hand when she reached the elevator, and she was about to attempt hacking the controls, when something moved behind her.

Fearing that the other shooters had come back, she reflexively dropped the device and darted for the nearest hiding place, which happened to be under the central desk. But then she stopped, and had to make sure that her eyes weren't playing tricks on her when she saw something large and black slowly dropping down from a nearby ceiling vent. Its movements were almost completely silent as it landed on the floor before standing up on its hind legs, and she was trying to get a better look at it, when a sharp hiss from the creature made her change her mind.

Ducking down and scrambling under the desk, Ripley pressed herself up against the backing while praying to every God that she had ever heard of that the... whatever the hell that thing was hadn't seen her. Suddenly the desk moved a little as if something heavy had climbed on top of it, and then she had to put her hand over her mouth to keep from gasping as what looked like a long serrated tail dropped down in front of her. The desk moved again a second later, with the tail slithering back up as if the creature was leaving, but when the spear-like end passed upward, a knot formed in her stomach when she recognized it.

That spear on the end of the creature's tail was what had killed Axel, meaning that this was the same thing... and now it was after her. Trying not to breathe too loudly while the sound of its footsteps moved around, Ripley noticed that the maintenance jack she had lost to Burke was on the floor within reach. It wasn't much of a weapon, but it was better than nothing, so she held her breath while reaching for it, only to jump a little when a gunshot rang out. The creature shrieked as it stomped away, and then there was some more screaming and gunshots, but it was also the chance she needed to get away.

Grabbing the maintenance jack and coming out of hiding, she picked up the access tuner and began trying to match the signal, finding a match just as the last of the screaming stopped. The elevator let out a sharp beep as the indicator light changed from red to green, meaning that it was now unlocked, and the doors slowly opened just as the creature let out another shriek from the other end of the room. Not looking back, she ran inside and smacked the button; the doors closing just as the sound of the creature's stomping footsteps were approaching, and then Ripley sighed loudly with relief as she sunk to the floor.

A sudden smack on the outside of the doors made her gasp and jump a little, clutching the maintenance jack tightly as the creature hit the door again while shrieking. She knew that her weapon would be about useless against something that could take down a dozen armed people, and that she would probably die if it somehow got in, but then there was a vibration in the floor as the elevator started moving. The creature shrieked again, but now the noise was growing more distant, meaning that she really had gotten away.

Well, now that Burke and his lunatics were dead, and the creature was trapped back inside the Transit Hub, Ripley was free to make her way into the Sys/Tech Tower, which as far as Axel had told her, was where Seegson Communications was located. Once there, she would be able to contact the Torrens, report to Verlaine that this place was royally fucked up, and hopefully get a signal of some kind from either Samuels of Taylor.

The elevator stopped a few minutes later, and when the doors opened, she was somewhere else. It looked like some kind of lobby, and when she was finally able to get to her feet, she realized that there was someone behind the reception desk. No, wait, not a person, a Synthetic. It didn't appear to be as advanced as Samuels, and from its bald head, nearly white skin, and glowing eyes, Ripley recognized it as one of the Working Joe models that she had seen on some posters on the walls. 'You always know a Working Joe', was the slogan at the bottom of each one, but as much as these things made her uncomfortable, it was far less likely for an android to be insane than a person, right?

"Um, excuse me." She said, still trying to catch her breath as she approached. "My name is Ripley... Amanda Ripley from the Torrens... I need some help."

"Please take a seat." The android replied in a deep and calm voice. "Someone will be with you shortly."

And that was that. She tried to get the android's attention again, but now it was just standing there as if she wasn't real, so Ripley rolled her eyes and walked away while realizing why it was that Seegson was losing the tech race with Welyand-Yutani. Thankfully the painted directory signs were there to do what these Working Joes were incapable of, and she was able to make her way down the corridor marked Comms Control.

"Life moves fast." An automated voice said as she moved down the corridor. "And it's easy to feel overwhelmed; that's why here at Seegson, we remember that the ultimate goal is clear communication to connect people wherever they are. All local communication is processed by the Apollo A.I., centralizing all requests, so that your important message doesn't get lost in the ether. At Seegson, we don't forget the little details, so you get the big picture."

"Great." Ripley grumbled as she continued on. "I feel better already."