Alien: Isolation

Chapter Two: Space Walk

"Oh, I hope we dock soon." Taylor said as they all looked out the window to see the station. "I can't wait to get off this ship... not that I don't like your ship, Captain, I'm just looking forward to getting on more solid ground... not that your ship isn't solid or anything like that."

"You can relax, Ms. Taylor." Verlaine replied while shaking her head. "Yes, we'll be docking soon, but we need to contact the station first. I think our contact is a Marshal, um... Waits? Is that it? Connor, open a channel so I can say hello."

Ripley watched as the member of the crew that was manning the radio ran through a quick check, and announced that everything was in working order before informing her that the channel was open. Verlaine then ran through what sounded like a pre-practiced speech about her ship's passengers being on a Weyland-Yutani Bond, as well as quickly outlining their mission to take possession of the Nostromo's flight data recorder. What the Captain got in return was a garbled mess of static and crackling, and while it sounded like there were a few words mixed in, there was no way to understand what they were.

"Comms must be down." Samuels commented, still looking out the window. "A common occurrence in remote outposts... it that the station, there... can we see it yet?"

Verlaine signaled for the monitors to be turned on, and the massive form of Sevastopol Station was seen. It looked like three shadowy towers against the light coming from the gas giant, but what concerned Ripley was that the tower structure on the far right appeared to have suffered damage... at least it looked like damage; likely from a meteor storm. However, when the monitor was zoomed into a tight angle around the damaged section, this was confirmed to be impossible. The damage was extensive, sure, but the metal and outer hull was bent outward, meaning that whatever had caused it had come from within.

"Looks like the docking bay is screwed." Connor commented. "Not to mention the whole area around it."

"Well, I can't bring the Torrens into that." Verlaine replied, sitting down in her chair. "Open the channel again, see if you can boost the signal."

She made two more attempts to contact the station, but now there weren't even any words hidden in the mix of static. Frequency adjustments and signal boosting didn't seem to help either, meaning that the problem was definitely with Sevastopol's comms. Of course, now they had a problem: The Torrens couldn't land in what was left of the docking bay, and without a way to communicate with the station, the whole mission was brought to a standstill. Of course, this didn't make Ripley very happy, being that she had already waited for fifteen years to find out what happened to her mother... but now as she looked out the window at the station... perhaps there was another way.

"What about the airlocks?" She asked, pointing to a small access point on the station's outer hull. "We can use our pressure suits, and fire a zip-line to the station, while the Torrens acts as our anchor point. Then we can enter the station manually, link up with this Marshal Waits, or whatever his name is, and he can give you alternate docking instructions while we get the flight recorder."

"Pressure suits and airlocks?" Taylor asked nervously. "As in, go outside? I'm sorry, Ripley, but my contract doesn't cover bloody space-walks."

"Actually, Ms. Taylor, in this case it does." Samuels replied, moving back from the other window to join them. As you are both the legal representative of the company, as well as the highest ranking administrator assigned to this mission; regulations state that you must have eyes-on the flight recorder at all times once it is transferred from Sevastopol's custody to ours."

"Well, then it looks like we have a plan." Verlaine added as Taylor glared at Samuels. "So you three get your suits on while we move the Torrens into position, and then meet me at the airlock."