Being among people again... sane people, that is, had allowed Ripley a chance to relax her mind as well as her body for the first time in what felt like forever. Since the moment she had set foot on Sevastopol station, it had been nothing but a constant struggle to survive, mostly by hiding and running away. But now that her friends were safe, and Marshal Waits actually had a plan to do something about the creature, she was feeling a lot more confident. Of course, this feeling ended once the transit car came to a stop in the Sys/Tec Tower, and the doors opened to reveal a dark and silent Transit Hub.

Like the place where she had first been, this area looked abandoned, and aside from the random indicator lights on the wall panels, the only light was that from the inside of the transit car. The first thing she listened for was human voices, as well as the rhythmic march of the Working Joes, but there was just nothing. Her shoes caused a little sound as she quietly stepped out of the transit car, but then Ripley gasped as the door closed and the indicator light above it turned red.

"Waits, what happened?" She whispered as she pressed the button. "The transit system just went down."

"Relax, we did that." Waits' voice explained. "I had Ricardo lock down all transit from that tower so that the creature can't leave. Welcome to Plan B, Ripley... B stands for Box... within a box... within a box."

Well, the name was ignorant, but no matter what the plan was, or how it was supposed to work, she was now trapped inside of the Sys/Tec Tower with the creature. Sure, each tower was massive, giving her lots of room to run and hide if she needed to, but that thing was relentless, and having seen it in action several times, Ripley was probably the only one who truly understood how dangerous and frightening the creature was. But this time she wasn't defenseless; having almost forgotten about the jury-rigged flamethrower that was slung under her arm, she held it in a ready position, and held the lever to start the pilot-light.

A small flame was produced at the end when she did this, and although it was no larger than a candle, it gave off a surprising amount of light, bathing the area around her in a flickering orange glow. The good news about this was that she could now see at least what was around her, but the bad news was that she was going to be a lot easier to spot while using it.

"Okay, Ripley, listen up." Waits continued. "This part of the tower was built to process high-value compounds dredged up from the gas giant's surface, and piracy precautions are still in place. That means that it can be completely cut off; vents, doors, everything, so we're going to build a cage around the creature, and then Ricardo locks it down. Hence... box within a box."

"That... actually sounds doable." Ripley replied as she continued looking around. "So how do we start?"

The next part of the plan actually seemed pretty simple, at least the way that Waits explained it. There were switching stations at various points around this section of the tower, which when activated would lock down their corresponding vents and doors, and the best news was that Ricardo was tracking the creature's movements several decks away from her. This meant that as long as she didn't do anything ignorant, that it wouldn't even know that she was there until it was time to lockdown the final part of the cage.

"Hey, Ripley, it's Ricardo." The Deputy's voice said. "There are four switching stations that need to be activated to make the cage, and I'm not tracking any movement in your area, so it should be pretty easy for me to guide you to each one."

With him guiding her, and the flamethrower's pilot-light to let her see, Ripley had no problem following his directions as she left the Transit Hub and followed the signs to an area called Supplies Storage. Sure enough, there was a manual switching station right in front of the entrance to that area, and it looked like some kind of tool was needed in order to activate it, so it was lucky that she had brought the maintenance jack along.

Of course, this meant that she would have to put the flamethrower down in order to use it, so darkness once again surrounded her as she felt around for where to put the tool's wrench end. Once it was set into place, the knob was turned easily, and once this was done, a heavy security gate was dropped down over the doors and vents, just as Ricardo had said.

"Okay, I've locked down Supplies Storage." She replied, readying the flamethrower again so that she could see. "Where to next?"

"I can see the shutters, good job." Ricardo said. "The next closest point to you is Maintenance Access."

This time his directions led her back the way she came, and then off to the left of the Transit Hub, and even though Ripley knew that she was alone, this didn't stop her from being on edge. Memories of being chased by the creature flashed across her mind, as did when it had grabbed her, and if not the Waits' trap, it would have impaled her with its inner mouth thing... just like it had done to Kuhlman.

Trying to force these memories out of her head, she focused on following Ricardo's directions until she came to another switching station. This one was activated in the same way, and now more security shutters were coming down. However, it wasn't until after she had reported success and was on her way to the next target, when she noticed that a security shutter had come down over the door that led back to the Transit Hub as well.

"Ricardo, what's going on?" She asked, looking at it. "One of the shutters blocked my way to the transit car... that's my way out."

"Ripley, can a cage work if there's a hole in it?" Waits' voice answered. "The answer is no... it can't, so just keep doing what you're doing, and remember that this is all part of the plan."

Silently mocking his words with a stupid look on her face, Ripley shook her head, before resuming her walk toward the next target. She understood more than anyone, the need to be rid of this creature once and for all, but that didn't mean that she and Waits weren't going to have words, as in... a lot of words once this was all over. So for now she followed Ricardo's directions, which led her to yet another long staircase that was illuminated by the gas giant through the large windows.

"The switching station is at the top." Ricardo explained. "Then go back down one floor, and go through the door into Server Hub Reception. The final switching station is inside, but you can't activate it until I tell you."

"Got it." She replied while climbing the stairs. "I'll wait for your signal."

It now occurred to her that moving around the station and getting things done was actually pretty easy when she didn't have to worry about lunatics, Androids, and monsters, and soon the switching station at the top of the stairs was activated, sealing the stairwell entrances just like the other parts. Now she headed back down one floor, and into an open room where the words SERVER HUB RECEPTION were painted on the wall behind a large desk. The switching station was against the far wall, next to an open door that led into a room that seemed to be filled with large computer server towers, and this was apparently where the creature was to be trapped.

"I'm inside the reception office." Ripley reported, still looking around. "So... what do we do now?"

"You're not gonna like this part, Ripley, but too bad." Waits' voice answered. "Ricardo's about to draw the creature toward your location, so find a place to hide, and then use the switching station to trap it once it passes through. Good luck."

Before she could do or say anything else, an alarm started going off, making her jump as the whole place was lit up with spinning yellow lights on the walls. The same thing was happening on the stairwell, and probably in lots of other places as well in order to make a trail for the creature to follow. It would have been nice to have a little more warning before the light show started, but there was nothing she could do about that now, and the creature was probably already on its way. The only available hiding place was under the reception desk, so Ripley ran around it, and crawled under so that she could still see the stairwell door.

Part of her couldn't believe that she was sitting there waiting for the creature to show up, and if this weren't suspenseful enough, the alarm and spinning lights added plenty of tension. So she waited and waited, and just when it seemed like it wasn't going to take the bait, Ripley froze as the creature appeared in the doorway. Somehow the lights made it seem even more frightening, and she hadn't thought that was possible, yet there she was, so terrified that it was hard to even take a breath without making noise.

Once it moved farther into the room, she could only see its large black feet as it moved around the reception office, and she just hoped that it continued into the Server Hub. Once the creature did that, she could use the switching station, and then it would be all over. The monster would be in its cage, and then they could find a way to contact the Torrens. However, the creature didn't seem interested in continuing on into the next room... and was now coming closer to the desk.

"No." She silently mouthed as its feet approached. "No, no, please, no."

Still it approached, stopping at the front of the desk so that its feet were only inches from her face, and then turning... to walk around it. Everything seemed to move in slow motion as the creature walked around to the side, and a knot formed in Ripley's stomach as she realized that this time there was no pre-set trap to save her. A tear ran down her cheek as the creature started to come around the back of the desk, but then it froze when the alarms and lights stopped; replaced by alarms and lights from within the Server Hub an instant later.

Growling as it turned and ran away from the reception desk, Ripley knew that this was her only chance, so she waited until its feet vanished through the next door, and that was when she made her move. Scrambling out from behind the desk with the maintenance jack ready, she sprinted over to the switching station, slammed the tool in place, and activated it. The creature was already about halfway across the Server Hub, when the noise caused it to turn around, but it was too late as the security shutters came down over the vents.

However, the shutter that covered the doors did not come down over the entrance to the Server Farm... but over the doorway that led back to the stairwell, trapping her as the indicator light on the switching station turned red, meaning that she could no longer use it. As for the creature, it had spotted her, and was growling so loudly that its head was shaking while its shortened tail whipped around.

"Oh... fuck." She whispered as it started walking toward her.