Ashleigh Yzerman

## Biographical information

Alive

*"You're a survivor. Like the hunters that once ruled this planet. Like the Xenomorphs they stalk. Like me."* —Karl "Bishop" Weyland to Ashleigh

**Ashleigh Yzerman** (known to her friends as **Ashleigh**) was one of the colonists and miners who lived in the Nexus Prospect colony on the planet Nexus. She was one of the initial colonists to evade the beginning of the Xenomorph infestation along with her close friend and love interest, Ryan Lee. She had perhaps one of the biggest roles in the whole event, having successfully fought and killed a Yautja Young Blood single-handedly when separated from the others.

She is arguably the main protagonist, having the most encounters throughout the events of the novel, surviving single-combat against a Young Blood, defeating three Praetorians and killing Weyland himself. She was one of only three people known to have survived the incident, the others being Willow and Jonathan.

## History

### Living in the Colony

Ashleigh was one of the first colonists to move to Nexus. Unlike most of her fellow colonists, Ashleigh works at the administration block and appears to have a much closer relationship with Ryan than the others. She is seen by Ryan taking out the garbage and waves to him before he departs. Later, when Sierra moves to Nexus from the colony on Neptune, Ashleigh invites her to stay with her after introducing Karsten to her. While talking, Ashleigh learns Sierra was moved to the Nexus Prospect colony by Ms. Yutani herself.

### Infestation

Ashleigh was inside her hovel when the colony was set upon by the recently escaped Xenomorphs. While the colony's security force was quickly overwhelmed, several of the colonists, including Ashleigh and Sierra, head down to Administration to seek shelter. They took cover in the viewing room and remained there for a while as the Xenomorphs attempted to get inside before ultimately being called away. Ashleigh was shown to worry about Ryan's fate, as he had left earlier that day.

When Ryan and Jonathan arrived in Administration, she was so relieved to see him alright that she (albeit without thinking) hugged him in front of everyone, though they ended up looking rather embarrassed afterwards. Ashleigh agreed with them that it was best if they left the colony. On their way out, they encountered Corporal Willow of the United States Colonial Marine Corps, who recommended they use the sewers to leave the colony. Before they departed, Willow gave a military-grade walkie-talkie to Taylor and an extra Pulse Rifle to Ashleigh. Ashleigh was present when they ran into Caleb in the sewers.

### Outside the Colony

After reaching the jungle and having lost communications, Ashleigh goes to the swamps with Ryan and the others at Karsten's suggestion to re-establish communications. She was to glad to learn Willow was alright and flying shotgun in the dropship *Tornado*. After the dropship is shot down, Ashleigh insists they go help her. Arriving at the crash-site, they discover the survivors of the crash, except that Willow was dragged off by what the Marines describe as a "bigass motherfucker." After an attack from a Predalien leaves Taylor wounded, Ashleigh and the others disembark to locate the nearby Alien Hive where they believe Willow was taken.

However, they are attacked by a Young Blood Predator that subsequently kills Sierra and separates Ashleigh from the others. Ashleigh continues on ahead to search for the Hive against Karsten's protests and stumbles upon the ancient combat arena in the ruins where she came face-to-face with the Predator. After a fierce battle, Ashleigh defeated the creature and rescued Corporal Willow from the nearby Xenomorph Nest before she could be impregnated with a Chestburster. Leaving the Nest, they reunited with Ryan and the others.

At Karsten's insistence, they went back for Taylor at the crash-site, only to find everyone there dead. Ashleigh is upset by the loss of her friend but agrees that it's time to get off-world. In the midst of fighting between the Xenomorphs and Weyland-Yutani Combat Androids, they breached the research facility and split into two groups; Willow went with Karsten, Caleb and Jonathan to secure Weyland's shuttle while Ashleigh and Ryan went to the Yautja Pyramid to confront Karl Bishop Weyland himself.

### Confronting Weyland

*"Ashleigh. Glad to meet you, finally. I've been monitoring your progress. I knew you'd make it this far. With your boyfriend, of course."* —Weyland, taunting Ashleigh

Heading towards the Pyramid elevator, Ashleigh and Ryan faced a Praetorian before they descended to the Pyramid entrance, where they engaged a horde of Warriors and two more Praetorians before they could head inside in search of Weyland himself, hoping to retrieve his datapad, which would allow the survivors to contact his personal shuttle and escape. Ashleigh confronted Weyland but was caught off-guard by Combat Androids fitted with cloaking devices created using stolen Predator tech. With help from Ryan, Ashleigh slaughtered the androids and then set upon Weyland himself, who proceeded to shoot and fatally wound Ryan.

Ashleigh managed to defeat Weyland after a fierce firefight before going to Ryan's side. She tried to get him to hang in there, but he succumbed to his injures, not before telling her how he felt about her. Ashleigh was heartbroken and mourned him, only for a revived Weyland, revealed to be an android, attacked her again. Furious at him for killing her friend, Ashleigh finished Weyland with a single shot to the head, causing the android to plummet into the pool of lava beneath the structure, killing him and avenging Ryan.

Ashleigh barely escaped the collapsing Pyramid with the datapad and boarded Weyland's private dropship with Willow and Jonathan. As they entered stasis, the dropship's pilots began transmitting information from Weyland's datapad about the Xenomorph homeworld to another synthetic copy of Weyland.

## Personality and Traits

*"Your loyalty blinds you to the possibilities, think of what we can achieve!"* —Karl Bishop Weyland, to Ashleigh

Ashleigh is very carrying toward her friends and is shown to be very worried when she is unaware of their status, as shown when she was in Administration and concerned about Ryan. Perhaps her strongest emotion is the genuine feelings she has toward Ryan, in which she likes him more than just as a friend. She is also shown to be very capable, able to handle herself very well even when by herself, as she successfully overpowered a well-armed Predator and defeated Weyland himself. It is her compassion and caring that makes her well respected by those around her.

## Notes and Trivia

* Ashleigh is shown to have a firm friendship with Sierra Meyer, although the novel never specifies just how they met each other.
* Her closest friendship is shown to be with Ryan.
	+ It is likely Ashleigh and Ryan would've started a relationship had Ryan survived the events of the book.
* Ashleigh is shown to be gradually upset when her friends are killed in front of her.