Hadley's Hope Incident(2296)

Following the incident aboard the USS Nostromo, sole survivor Ellen Ripley is rescued from her drifting shuttle and revived. Upon waking, she is devastated to learn she has been adrift in space for 17 years. At an inquest before a panel of Starfleet Admirals, her testimony regarding the unknown Alien and its role in the destruction of the Nostromo is met with extreme skepticism, as no physical evidence of the creature has been found and nothing encountered prior to this could account for this creature. Ripley learns that LV-426, the planetoid where her crew first encountered the alien eggs, is now home to a terraforming colony called Hadley's Hope.

### Initial infestation

Following Ellen Ripley's rescue from deep space, Starfleet Intelligence Officer and secret Section 31 agent Commander Carter Burke contacted Simpson the leader of Hadley's Hope with orders to investigate the co-ordinates Ripley had provided for the location of the derelict Engineer spacecraft, although he withheld the nature of what the colonists were likely to discover. Simpson subsequently dispatched prospectors Russ and Anne Jorden to investigate the ship, wherein they discovered thousands of Xenomorph Eggs. Russ was immediately impregnated by a alien.

Russ was returned to the colony's med lab, while a second team dispatched to investigate the derelict was also subdued and impregnated. Some 24 hours after he was first attacked, the Chestburster inside Russ hatched. The creature, along with the Xenomorphs born from the second team sent into the derelict, soon began abducting more colonists, moving them to the colony's Atmosphere Processor where they had begun to construct their Hive. An armed team sent in to find and rescue the missing colonists was quickly overwhelmed and used as yet more hosts. Conditions deteriorated early in the fighting, when the link to the colony's communications uplink was severed, leaving the inhabitants unable to call for assistance.

With the situation quickly escalating out of control, many survivors holed up in various parts of the colony, constructing barricades from scrap metal and sealing doors in an attempt to keep the Xenomorphs at bay. However, the entire colony was soon overrun and virtually all of its inhabitants either killed or used as hosts for more Xenomorphs, save for several individuals who managed to escape on the few available ships at the colony, including Captain Brackett, Lieutenant Paris and young colonist Luisa Cantrell, who fled aboard a starfleet shuttle with scientist Dr. Mori, and Derrick Russell, Genevieve Dione, Nolan Cale and several other colonists, who escaped aboard the cargo freighter *Onager*. The only survivor left at the colony was Newt, who had managed to evade capture within the settlement's ventilation system. Evidence was later found that even as events unfolded, active research into the Xenomorphs was being carried out at the colony, at least during the early stages of the outbreak.

### The Investigation

Some time later, Ripley is visited by Carter Burke, a representative of Starfleet Intelligence, and Major Alan Schaefer of the Federation Marines, who inform her that contact has been lost with the colony on LV-426. The company intends to dispatch Burke and a unit of Marines to investigate, and offers to restore Ripley's active duty status if she will accompany them as a consultant. Traumatized by her previous encounter with the unknown Alien, Ripley initially refuses to become involved, but changes her mind when Burke assures her there will be no attempt to study the Xenomorphs and that any creatures they encounter will be destroyed. Aboard the USS Sulaco a Centaur class assigned to Starfleet Intelligence exclusively, Ripley is introduced to the Federation Marine squad, including Sergeant Apone, Corporal Hicks, and Privates Vasquez and Hudson. She also meets the team's android, Bishop, toward whom she is openly hostile with due her inexperience with androids.

Reaching LV-426, the heavily armed expedition descends to the surface via dropship, where they find the colony damaged and seemingly abandoned. Two living Xenomorph Facehuggers are found in containment tanks in the medical lab, but the only colonist encountered is a traumatized young girl nicknamed Newt. The Marines determine that the rest of the colonists are clustered in the nearby atmosphere processing station; investigating, they find a large nest filled with the bodies of the colonists, who have been cocooned to the walls and used as hosts for more Xenomorphs. The creatures attack, killing or capturing most of the unit. Ripley commandeers the group's APC and is able to rescue Schaefer, Hicks, Vasquez and Hudson. With Sergeant knocked unconscious during the rescue, Dutch orders the dropship to recover the survivors, intending to return to the USS *Sulaco* and destroy the colony site from orbit. However, a stowaway Xenomorph kills the dropship crew in flight, causing the craft to crash into the atmosphere processor, destroying the ship, the APC and most of the Marines' equipment Due to the planets unusual atmosphere they cannot communicate with the Sulaco to request a beam out.

Stranded, the survivors barricade themselves inside the colony complex. Ripley discovers that Burke unintentionally triggered the destruction of the settlement when he ordered the colonists to investigate the derelict spaceship where the *Nostromo* crew first encountered the Xenomorph eggs, acting on the testimony she gave after being rescued. Confronting him, Burke reveals that he hopes to return Xenomorph specimens to Starfleet laboratories where he can study it. Ripley threatens to expose him, but Bishop soon informs the group of a greater danger: the damaged atmosphere processor has become unstable and will soon detonate with the force of a thermonuclear weapon. He volunteers to use the colony's transmitter to punch through the atmosphere and get a signal up to the *Sulaco* so that the group can escape.

As they await Bishop to get a transmission out, Ripley and Newt fall asleep in the medical lab, waking to find themselves locked in the room with the two Facehuggers, which have been released from their tanks. Ripley is able to alert the Marines, who rescue them and kill the creatures. Ripley accuses Burke of being responsible, suggesting he was attempting to have her and Newt impregnated so that he could smuggle the implanted Xenomorph embryos past Earth's quarantine. The Marines elect to execute Burke for his treachery, but before they can act the electricity is suddenly cut off and multiple Xenomorphs attack through the ceiling. Hudson, Vasquez and Burke are killed or captured during the battle; Dutch,Ripley and Hicks briefly manage to escape with Newt, but the little girl is taken when they encounter more Xenomorphs, while Hicks and Dutch are seriously wounded.

Ripley gets the two remaining Marines to the Emergency Transporter pad for beam out, but refuses to leave Newt behind. She assembles a Pulse Rifle/flamethrower combination weapon before heading into the hive in the processing station to rescue Newt. She finds her before she can be impregnated, but the two then encounter the huge Xenomorph Queen in her egg chamber. Ripley destroys the eggs, enraging the Queen, who tears herself loose from her enormous ovipositor and gives chase through the failing processor station. Ripley and Newt make it to the Transporter Pad with Bishop waiting and are moments from escaping but the Xenomorph Queen arrives she Impales Bishop and tears him in half. The Queen advances on Newt but Ripley intervenes and battles the Queen using a Exosuit Cargo Loader, the two fight and Ripley tumbles with the Queen until she and the queen are dangling off the nearby cliff, Ripley barely clambers out of the suit to safety, before it along with the queen falls. Ripley Newt and Bishop escape on the Transporter pad moments before the colony is consumed by the nuclear blast.