EXT. UP-LINK RELAY - LANDING FIELD: Bishop is standing next to the base of the telemetry mast. The wind blows all around him and is gusting viciously.

BISHOP (into headset): E.T.A. - sixteen minutes!

INT. AIR DUCT

HICKS (into headset): Good! Stand-by there! We're on our way!

Vasquez finally catches up, moving in behind Gorman. Looking back, she sees more of the creatures, coming up fast through the tunnel.

She fires on them, killing the head alien. Ripley and Newt come to another intersection. Ripley shines her light down each one.

RIPLEY: Which way now?

NEWT: That way. (indicating left) No, wait! This way. (pointing right)

RIPLEY: You sure?!

Hicks and Gorman wait at the intersection for Vasquez.

She's moving up the tunnel and blasting incoming creatures at the same time.

GORMAN: Vasquez! Move!

Ripley and Newt round a corner and Ripley stops to look back for the group. Newt continues forward.

NEWT: Right up here. It's just up here.

RIPLEY: Hicks!

NEWT: We're almost there!

Ripley doesn't see the group and panics. Looking the other way, she notices that Newt is getting too far ahead.

RIPLEY: Newt! Wait! Newt!

She has to make a choice, to stay and wait for everyone or follow Newt. She decides and quickly runs to catch up with girl.

Vasquez comes to the intersection where Hicks and Gorman were, but they have moved on ahead. She blasts a few more creatures and the pulse-rifle go empty. Dropping the weapon, she pulls out her service pistol and runs up the shaft after the group. Vasquez passes under an overhead air duct and looks up just in time to see a warrior screeching down the vertical shaft, right towards her. She fires.

It falls next to her, rolling and writhing around. She wrestles it and manages to slam the thing's head against the wall with her foot.

VASQUEZ: Oh yeah!

She fires into it's head.

Acid-blood spills out and hits her ankle, searing into her leg. She grits her teeth against the white-hot pain. Vasquez pushes the creature away and moves clear of it, firing her last two shots into it. The alien rolls and bounces around the shaft in it's death throes. Hicks and Gorman stop at the corner Ripley was at earlier and look back for Vasquez.

HICKS: Vasquez!

Vasquez is sprawled out on the shaft's floor on her stomach. She moans out in pain, while managing to eject the magazine from her pistol.

GORMAN: Go!

Gorman hits Hicks on the back and runs back to help Vasquez. He comes up just as the pain hits her in full.

VASQUEZ: Ohhhhh! Ohhhh, nooooo!

Gorman grabs her underneath the arms and starts dragging her toward safety.

Just then, one of the creatures breaks through an air duct grating in the tunnel's floor in front of them. Gorman pulls out his pistol and fires at it's head.

The bullets just bounce off its armored skull.

INT. SHAFT JUNCTION: Ripley, Newt and Hicks reach a large metal housing and Newt crawls inside.

RIPLEY: Newt!

NEWT: Up there, there's a short-cut across the roof.

It is a junction of several shafts, including a vertical duct with ladder rungs leading up to an exterior vent hood.

The "floor" is actually the top of a large blower drum, a vained cylinder. The room is tall enough for all three of them to stand up fully. Ripley crosses to the ladder, seizes a rung to steady herself, and reaches back for Newt.

RIPLEY: Hicks!

Hicks lifts Newt up and hands her over to Ripley. Newt grabs onto the ladder and holds on firmly.

INT. AIR SHAFT: Gorman unloads his pistol into the alien. Finally killing it. But, it's too late. They are cut off on both sides as the tunnel is blocked by incoming aliens. They crawl along the shaft like multi-armed freaks.

VASQUEZ: You always were an asshole, Gorman.

Gorman pulls out an M-41A grenade and palms it. Vasquez is barely conscious. He looks around the tunnel, seeing the closing creatures, and pops off the safety top on the grenade, pressing the detonator stub. Vasquez hears it and looks over.

She seizes his hand in a deathly grip, but we recognize it as the "power greeting" she shared with Drake...something for the chosen few. Gorman returns the grip. One of the aliens begins to strike with it's jaws, but it's not fast enough.

The tunnel explodes in fire and debris. The explosion sends a powerful blast of flame up the tunnel.