After she pulled Newt out of the cacoon in Aliens, Ripley had a stand off with the queen Xenomorph. As two Xenomorphs close in, Ripley flares her flamethrower and the queen seems to order the other Xenomorphs to back off so Ripley can leave. As Ripley's backing out of the room she burns all the eggs, shoots the Xenomorphs, and gets pursued by the angry queen.
They already knew the reactor would blow and destroy the hive, so why didn't Ripley just leave? It seems like she could have saved herself a lot of trouble