Match 18477 Lt. Ellen Ripley vs. Han Solo

[Culwych1]

Part 1

“Get away from her you bitch!” The line still rang in Ripley’s ears as she lay down to sleep, the memory of her fight in the exosuit fresh in her mind. It felt like someone else had said those words, someone stronger, fiercer and without fear.

She glanced over at the pods and the sleeping forms of Newt, Hicks and the damaged android, Bishop, and a weary smile spread across her face.  The strength that had surged through her body as she fought and killed the alien queen that had boarded the Sulaco had left her, and the warm embrace of sleep finally took her away from the horrors of the planet below.

The Sulaco drifted through the darkness of space, the ship’s navigation system taking care of the journey as its passengers slept soundly. Dreams came easily, some peaceful and some not; some memories of the terrors that had pursued them through tunnels and corridors.

Onwards the ship floated, passing stars, planets, and asteroids. And the occupants continued their dreams and nightmares.

Thankfully they were oblivious to the real nightmare that slowly awoke amongst them. The Facehugger drew breath, the skeletal body unwinding itself like a cat stretching and it started to crawl amongst the ship’s cargo. It moved ponderously at first, but soon adopted the skittish and darting movements of its kind.

Things can progress in many ways, and in one dimension it could well have caused a fire that would catapult it and the survivors of the Sulaco towards a distant prison planet. Not so in this one.

In this timeline, the Facehugger moved towards the status pods, crawling gently over them and finding its way into one without triggering significant alarms. The egg was laid in a sleeping chest, and the Facehugger crawled away to die. In its last death throws it leaked acid onto a console, sending the ship into a spiral off course and down a very different path.

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Messier 84 or as it is more commonly referred to, M84, is a giant galaxy about 60 million light years from Earth and which has, for want of a better analogy, collapsed in on itself. Dark matter surrounds the galaxy as the forces within continue to pull gravity, space and time inwards.

At the time of the events on planet LV-426, M84 had long since been marked on most space charts as “KEEP AWAY IF YOU KNOW WHAT IS GOOD FOR YOU!”. Things that wondered too close simply disappeared, never to be seen again. Even trying to peer into the blackness of M84 was enough to give humans, androids and AI’s a real or virtual headache.

Unfortunately for the Sulaco, the Facehugger’s dying breaths and acid blood had also scrambled the ship’s visibility, and what it thought was a course for safety actually took it closer and closer to the unfathomable darkness of M84.

When the ship hit the edge of the black, two things happened.

Firstly, in a fountain of blood and gore, a baby was born.

Secondly, the edge of the dead universe that was M84 caught the Sulaco and sent it hurtling through time and space.  

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Part 2

Luckily the flames woke Ripley before the smoke did, otherwise she would undoubtedly have choked to death.

Unfortunately, what that did mean was that she woke up to find that her foot was on fire, alarms were sounding out a mechanical cacophony, and chaos was all around her.

She screamed and kicked her foot right through the status pod, where the sprinklers quickly put the fire which almost eaten through her shoe.  She stood up, the water continuing to rain down on her.

“Well hello sweetheart, didn’t expect you here.” The voice was that of a man’s, light-hearted and teasing.  

Ripley spun around and saw a dark-haired man facing. There was a roguish smile his lips and a twinkle in his eyes, and suddenly Ripley was very aware that the water was making her clothes cling to her body.

She frowned and climbed out of the pod, trying to get her thoughts in order and ignore the man. She was on the Sulaco, and she had just escaped – oh god – the nightmare that was LV-426. Just the memory of the planet, and the demons that inhabited it made her shudder.

Fortunately, the awful ship’s alarms had quietened down and Ripley could hear herself think.

“Are you OK?” said the man, walking towards her. “My name is Han Solo. Don’t suppose you’ve seen a Wookie wondering about, have you?”

“A Wookie?” Ripley shook her head as if to clear the cobwebs still sticking to her memory. “I don’t know…” then suddenly she turned and ran to one of the other status pods.

“Oh no…” it was a hushed whisper that the came out of the woman’s mouth, but it held such dread and sadness that Solo ran over to her immediately.

Two status pods were next to each other, both had their tops smashed open. In one lay what had once been a man, but his chest was torn open. Fragments of bone stood facing outwards and dried blood caked the walls of the pod. Next to him was the dead body of an alien that looked like two boney hands gripped together.

The other pod held a little girl, sleeping serenely. Next to her was another of the small dead aliens.

“No, no no no” Ripley was sobbing.

“What is going on?” Solo realised he was almost shouting. The crazy woman beside him could barely speak, and there was so much blood.

He wanted nothing more than to get off this ship, and away from all this craziness and gore as quickly as he could. No amount of salvage bounty was worth the horrors that seemed to lay ahead.

“Look miss, I don’t know what’s going on here, but we need to get out of here.”

The woman did not look around, and Solo suddenly realised that she had a gun in her hand. He hadn’t noticed any on her when he walked in, but there must have been one near the pods.

Ripley felt her mind breaking along with her heart. There was nothing left to do. After escaping all the death and destruction, her journey had led straight back into the midst of it. NEWT! Oh god, the pain was just too much. She could still see the little girl’s scared but brave face. Ripley had gone back into the depths of hell to save her, and it had all been for nothing. A dark and painful future awaited Newt if she ever awoke, one that Ripley would not wish on her worst enemy.

Before the sadness could overwhelm her, she brought the gun up in one smooth motion.

BAM!

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Part 3

Solo jumped back as the woman shot the little girl through the head. Things were getting out of hand, and the woman was obviously insane.

She was already turning, a grim look in her dark eyes, and he ran rather than engage. He was sure he could shoot her before she could even raise the weapon, but something told him that a shot may not even put her down immediately.

Plus, he needed to find Chewie as quickly as he could and get off this heap of shit ship.

He ran for it. Down low light corridors and onwards towards the Falcon that was docked alongside the Sulaco. He didn’t recognise the corridors, but his sense of direction was good enough to tell him he was heading in the right direction.

Suddenly he stopped dead in his tracks.

He had found Chewie.

The giant Wookie was encased in a black substance that almost looked like a hardened liquid. His eyes were closed, and his breathing was ragged.

Solo glanced around, and then immediately set about freeing his friend. He used his gun to break the substance, pulling it with his hands where he could and slowly but surely, he uncovered more and more of the Wookie.

Once enough of the black goo had been removed, Chewie sagged into Solo’s arms. The weight was considerable, but it wasn’t the first time and he swiftly set the Wookie’s arms around his shoulders and started hauling him towards the Falcon.

Progress was slow, painfully slow, and with each step Solo felt the inexplicable terror grow in his heart.

BAM!

The shot rang out in the quiet of the corridor, and Chewie’s head exploded in a mass of gore and blood.

The limp body dropped out of Solo’s hands and on to the floor. He watched his closest friend’s body for a moment, then screamed with rage and drew his gun and started firing. CHEEWWWIEEE!!!

Ripley dodged behind a crate and paused. Her mind was almost blank. The rage, fear, anger, and sadness of the past few weeks had unleashed a beast within that wanted only to kill and survive. A grin spread across her face, so wide that it would even have given a Xenomorph pause.

“I’ll kill you!” shouted Solo, his voice pure anger.

The grin never left Ripley’s face and she raised her gun.

[Callisto]

Learn More About
Lt. Ellen Ripley
Read more about Lt. Ellen Ripley at Wikipedia
Official Site: 20th Century Fox Links: Wikipedia Entry IMDB Link Official Site

Han Solo
Read more about Han Solo at Wikipedia
Official Site: Lucasfilm Links: Han Solo Wiki Star Wars Wiki-Han Solo Star Wars Databank-Han Solo

[Boratz]

Wow! Always a pleasure to read your work Culwych! I'll have to think about this one

[patrickthekid]

Great story. I will give it to Solo. Ellen Ripley was a badass by the end of Aliens, but hasn't quite gotten the experience in gunplay Han has.

[Callisto]

Match Final Results

Member Ratings:
5.00 - patrickthekid
5.00 - Boratz
4.50 - Twogunkid
5.00 - StormChaser

FPA Calculation:
4 Total Votes cast
19.50 Total Combined Score
19.50 / 4 = 4.88 Final Rating on the match

MATCH SCORE
Lt. Ellen Ripley: 2
Han Solo: 6