NOTE: For the terms of reference for this piece, please read the intro to Part 1Contact #2-1
Jorden, R.; Jorden A. – Weyland-Yutani Planetary Engineers, Hadley’s Hope
Location: Derelict spacecraft, LV-426 (Acheron)
Date: June 21 2179
Contact with: Facehugger
On orders from Carter Burke, Russ and Ann Jorden, along with their children Tim and Rebecca (Newt) travel out to a set of uncharted co-ordinates and discover the Derelict previously investigated by the crew of the Nostromo. As the Derelict appears to have been damaged by geological forces, Russ and Ann enter through a rend in the hull, leaving Tim and Newt in their all terrain tractor. Some time later Ann arrives back at the tractor, and radios for help, and we see Russ has a facehugger attached to his head Fig 2-1. Ann has dragged Russ back unconscious. We don’t actually see what happens on the Derelict, but we can safely assume that Russ, at least, discovered the chamber where Kane was attacked. If Ann was with him, or went searching for him and found him hugged she too was exposed to the eggs – we can only assume they were the same eggs Kane encountered. Yet she made it back to the tractor. Dragging Russ would be no mean feat, so there was ample time for another hugger to hatch and attack her, but she was spared. Do facehuggers have enough reasoning power to realise that the human would take the host back to a populated area, thereby giving the species a better chance of spreading?
Contact #2-2
Marachuk, J. L. - Weyland Yutani Employee, Hadley’s Hope
Location: Medical Lab, Hadley’s Hope, LV-426 (Acheron)
Date: June 2179 (exact date unknown)
Contact with: Facehugger
We don’t actually see what happened to Marachuk, but find out from the USS Sulaco synthetic Science Officer L Bishop that he died during the procedure to remove the facehugger. The details aren’t mentioned. It could have strangled the host with it’s tail, stopped breathing for him, or perhaps acid was involved either accidently or by design.
It should be noted at this point that the deaths of 154 colonists are not recorded. Many were used as hosts for Alien embryos, though whether all were is not apparent.
Contact #2-3
Burke, Carter J. - Weyland Yutani Special Projects Director
Location: Medical Lab, Hadley’s Hope, LV-426 (Acheron)
Date: July 27 2179
Contact with: Facehugger (in stasis tube)
Two live facehuggers are discovered in the Med Lab, and one lunges at Burke after a few seconds, as he takes a close look. We see a tube like proboscis snaking along the inside of the stasis tube as the creature tries to escape Fig 2-3. Presumably this is what deposits the egg inside the host during implantation, and also possibly fulfills the respiratory functions for the host. Whatever the facehuggers are suspended in obviously neutralises their acid to such a degree that they can’t escape. Kane’s hugger got through his helmet, but these ones are successfully trapped. However, exactly how did the colonists get them into the tubes? One could assume they got their hands on a couple of Alien eggs, or they grabbed them after implantation and the huggers were sustained by the stasis fluid, unlike the hugger on the Nostromo which, lacking further options for hosts or sustenance, died after it implanted Kane?
Contact #2-4
Bishop, L. (341-B model synthetic) – Science Officer USS Sulaco
Location: Medical Lab, Hadley’s Hope, LV-426 (Acheron)
Date: July 27 2179
Contact with: Facehugger (deceased)
Bishop is the first person we know of to do extensive studies on a facehugger. If Ash studied the hugger further, he kept any information to himself. We can see on Bishop’s dissection table that the hugger has several small internal organs, and an internal skeletal structure Fig 2-4. Beyond this we don’t really learn anything. Bishop says it’s amazing, but only goes into detail when he says later on that the blood oxidises after the creatures death completely neutralizing. This backs up Brett’s assumption that the acid is in fact blood (see Contact #1-2).
Contact #2-5
Unknown Weyland Yutani Employee, Hadley’s Hope
Location: Sub-Level 3, Atmosphere Processing Station, Hadley’s Hope, LV-426 (Acheron)
Date: July 27 2179
Contact with: Chestburter
Corporal C Dietrich discovers in intact, unconscious colonist, who immediately wakens on contact with the marine medtech. Though Dietrich tries to reassure the woman that the marines are going to get her out, she pleads to be killed. Kane was experiencing a mild amnesia when he woke after impregnation, and didn’t remember anything about being hugged. The woman encountered in the AP Station knew exactly what was going to happen. There’s a pretty good chance she also experienced the same amnesia that Kane suffered from, but after waking realised where was and had her memory jogged. Kane’s impregnation took around 12-16 hours, which means the colonist was only abducted in the days leading up to the marines arrival so there’s a better than average chance she had seen the Alien life cycle in action previously. Or she remembered being taken to the hive by the Aliens.
She starts to convulse very shortly afterwards, and a chestburster rips it’s way out of her chest. This chestburster has active arms as opposed to Kane’s, which had small stumpy appendages, which it didn’t use. The creature is immediately torched by Sergeant A Apone with a flamethrower. It struggles and screams but eventually dies hanging out of it’s hosts chest, showing us that even at this seemingly vulnerable stage, the Alien is resistant to fire Fig 2-5.
Contact #2-6
Dietrich, C. Corporal (MedTech), - United State Colonial Marine Corps. 2nd Battalion, 9th Regiment
Location: Sub-Level 3, Atmosphere Processing Station, Hadley’s Hope, LV-426 (Acheron)
Date: July 27 2179
Contact with: Adult Alien
Dietrich, Private R Frost and PFC W Hudson are quickly descending into a state of panic despite Apone and Corporal Dwayne Hicks trying to keep them focused. Hudson’s tracker indicates a mass of movement in the dark and smoky Alien hive, this movement is as good as invisible to the marines. Apone instructs the marines to use infra-red scanning. Dietrich looks around the hive, clutching her flamethrower and comments that “Maybe they don’t show up on infra-red at all.” Dietrich actually looks at an Alien hiding in the hive wall at one point and doesn’t see it Fig 2-6a. So either they really don’t show up on infra-red, or they have the same body temperature as the hive. Also in regards to temperature, Frost comments earlier on the heat in the hive. Is this heat generated by the hive itself, or the fact they are located under the AP Station’s primary heat exchanger?
When Dietrich’s back is turned the Alien lunges out of the wall and grabs her with it’s left arm Fig 2-6b. She reflexively fires her incinerator, engulfing Frost in flame. Frost’s flaming form collapses over a safety rail, and plummets three levels to his death. Dietrich is dragged away kicking and screaming, ie. alive. The Alien seems to lunge out of the wall with it’s only purchase on the wall itself (ie. no feet on the floor). Does it have the same disregard for gravity that the Alien that attacked Brett had, or did it use it’s dorsal tubes as it may have again done with Brett, or did it use it’s tail in a prehensile manner – essentially as an extra arm to steady it’s lunging out towards Dietrich? A subsequent shot shows the Alien with sceaming Dietrich tucked under it’s left arm as it continues to climb Fig 2-6c.
The first Alien we see here is slightly different from the one we saw on the Nostromo. The most obvious difference being it’s head has ridges, rather than the smooth dome of the original Alien. Is this difference due to the age of the Alien – the one on the Nostromo was only about 24 hours old, yet these Aliens have been here during all the time it took for the marines to get from Gateway to LV-426 and may have developed further physically? Is it a different type of Alien to the one we saw on the Nostromo – we saw no ‘hive’ on the Nostromo, yet we do here, hinting that the Alien has a social structure similar to insects? Is it a mutation caused by the proximity to the AP Station’s fusion reactor? Or is it simply for camoflague? Smooth domed heads would stick out of the hive wall rather more obviously than the ridged heads.
Another theory revolves around the ridge headed Aliens being one sex and the smooth heads another, though it seems odd that the ridge and smooth heads are never seen together, and on top of this the Alien lifecycle involves the facehugger being the ‘father’ and the host the ‘mother’, so different genders seems a little redundant.
The chestburster that emerged from the colonist had a smooth head, the same as Kane’s, so why the adult looks different is ultimately not known.
After the attack, back in the Armoured Personnel Carrier, Hudson comments that while her signs are very weak, Dietrich is in fact still alive. A brief discussion about the merits of going in after her is quashed when Weyland Yutani advisor Lieutenant Ellen L Ripley informs them Dietrich is being coccooned just like the colonists, and they can’t help her.
Contact #2-7
Wierbowski, T. Private, - United States Colonial Marines Corps. 2nd Battalion, 9th Regiment
Location: Sub-Level 3, Atmosphere Processing Station, Hadley’s Hope, LV-426 (Acheron)
Date: July 27 2179
Contact with: Adult Alien
We don’t actually see what happens to Wierzbowski. Frost’s ammo bag is set on fire the same time Frost is, and falls to the ground. Private T Crowe and Wierzbowski try to get to the bag, but Hicks pulls Wierzbowski back, realizing it is about to explode. Crowe is caught in the blast, dying instantly. Wierzbowski is also thrown across the hive by the explosion, though is only stunned. As Hicks checks Crowe for signs of life, Wierzbowski is heard screaming nearby. Hicks looks to where the screaming is coming from, but of Wierzbowski there is no sign. In the Armoured Personnel Carrier, Lieutenant S Gorman, Burke, and Ripley see the image from Wierzbowski’s helmet camera spin around, before dissolving into static. Either Wierzbowski’s camera was destroyed, his whole head was destroyed, or the camera lost it’s power source and/ or transmitter.
Contact #2-8
Apone, A. Master Sargent - United States Colonial Marines Corps. 2nd Battalion, 9th Regiment
Location: Sub-Level 3, Atmosphere Processing Station, Hadley’s Hope, LV-426 (Acheron)
Date: July 27 2179
Contact with Adult Alien
While Gorman is ordering Apone to arrange a retreat from the hive, the distracted Sargeant only notices the Alien when it’s on top of him. It’s crawling along the ceiling over Apone’s head and lunges when he turns to face it Fig 2-8. The APC crew see Apone’s helmet camera image dissolve into static, possibly hinting that Wierzbowksi suffered the same fate.
Like Dietrich, it is discovered later that Apone is in fact still alive in the hive. No mention is made of Wierzbowski’s fate. Dietrich’s camera is still operating after she is grabbed; Apone’s isn’t, yet both are still alive, so no proper conclusion can be gained from the camera, as to whether Wierzbowski is alive or not. One could deduce that Hudson doesn’t mention him, so he’s dead, but the film offers no proof either way.
Contact #2-9
Hudson, W. Private First Class (Comtech) - United States Colonial Marines Corps. 2nd Battalion, 9th Regiment
Location: Sub-Level 3, Atmosphere Processing Station, Hadley’s Hope, LV-426 (Acheron)
Date: July 27 2179
Contact with: Adult Alien
We see during the evacuation of the hive, that Hicks is supporting a limping Hudson Fig 2-9b, though we don’t see what actually happened him. Shortly after Apone is attacked, we see via Hudson’s helmet camera Hicks shouting “Hudson look out!” with Hudson shouting “Get it!” Fig 2-9. Hicks fires a few shots from his pump action shot-gun and we hear an Alien scream. This would make Hudson one of the few unarmed people to get that close an Alien and survive the encounter.
Contact #2-10
Drake, M., Private (Smartgunner); Vasquez J., Private First Class (Smartgunner) - United States Colonial Marines Corps. 2nd Battalion, 9th Regiment
Location: Sub-Level 3, Atmosphere Processing Station, Hadley’s Hope, LV-426 (Acheron)
Date: July 27 2179
Contact with: Adult Alien
A number of Aliens are shot during the retreat from sub-level 3. The exact number is not known, and the extent of the damage done by the marines weapons is also open to speculation. We see Aliens lose limbs and ripped open by the smart guns Fig 2-10a, but we have also seen Kane’s facehugger heal from wounds in an instant. Are adults also able to heal quickly? Are they able to regenerate limbs or other major organs, and at how much damage must they suffer before they can’t regenerate? We don’t get a chance to see any bodies at this point to know whether the Aliens survived their wounds.
What we DO know is the viciousness of the Alien’s acid blood. As Vasquez boards the APC, a previously unseen Alien rises up, ready to attack Drake, who is covering their exit with a flamethrower. Vasquez yells for Drake to “Come on!” and the Alien whips around to face her. This tells us that, at the very least, whatever senses the Alien has, both sight and sound are important ones. Before the Alien can attack though, Vasquez shoots it, tearing it apart and spraying acid blood over Drake. The acid spray hits Drake, instantly eating through his face, and incapacitating him. Though we haven’t seen what adult Alien blood is capable of previously, we can safely deduce from what the facehuggers blood did to the Nostromo’s deck, and Drake’s wounds that he would be dead within minutes if not sooner.
Going back to an earlier point, the Alien takes several rounds from Vasquez smart gun, and although we see bits of the creature flying off it Fig 2-10b, it is still more or less intact (head, two arms, two legs still in place) when it falls Fig 2-10c.
Contact #2-11
Hicks, D. Corporal - United States Colonial Marines Corps. 2nd Battalion, 9th Regiment; Hudson, W.
Location: Armoured Personnel Carrier, Sub-Level 3, Atmosphere Processing Station, Hadley’s Hope, LV-426 (Acheron)
Date: July 27 2179
Contact with: Adult Alien
As the marines are about to depart from the sub-level, Hicks goes to close the door of the APC when an Alien lunges in through the gap, using it’s claws to try and prise the door open. It should be noted here that these Aliens only have five fingers, as opposed to the six fingers of the Nostromo Alien. Furthermore this Alien’s hand has the index finger fused to the middle finger and the ‘ring’ finger fused to the little finger. As with the difference in the heads, the reason for the different fingers is not known.
The Alien is too much for Hicks to handle alone, so Hudson and Vasquez assist – but are still unable to close the door, meaning it’s as least as strong the three marines. As the Alien opens it’s mouth to strike at one of the marines with it’s inner jaw, Hicks shoves the business end of his shotgun into it’s mouth and fires. The shot blows a hole through the top rear of the Alien’s head, it falls away from the APC, bleeding a small amount of acid on Hudson’s arm, lets go of the door, and the APC departs. As the Alien Vasquez previously shot, seemed to lose a hand in the volley, it is unlikely that this is the same creature.
Contact #2-12
Ripley, E.L.
Location: Armoured Personnel Carrier, travelling, sub-level 2, Atmosphere Processing Station, Hadley’s Hope, LV-426 (Acheron)
Date: July 27 2179
Contact with: Adult Alien
As Ripley tears through the lower levels of the AP Station, an Alien smashes the APC’s small windscreen, and sticks arm and it’s mouth in trying to get to her. The marines only encountered the Aliens in the hive, so did this Alien hitch a ride from when the APC was in the hive, or was it acting as a sort of sentry, and jumped on at some point during the marines escape? Another example of the Aliens strength here. It could be safely assumed that the APC windscreen is bullet proof, yet the Alien smashes it with one blow.
Fortunately the opening is too small and Ripley slams the brakes on, sending the Alien flying off the front of the carrier and onto the floor – thus all but proving that Aliens are affected by gravity just the same as humans (see Contacts #1-6 & #2-6). However the Alien shows no signs of any damage from the fall, and is up in an instant, ready to attack. Ripley, however, hits the accelerator and runs the Alien down, crushing it’s head under a wheel.
Ripley smashes through the doors to the AP Station and out onto the windblasted Acheron plane. Hicks informs her that she’s “blown the transaxle”. What the transaxle is isn’t completely clear, but suffice to say the APC is too damaged to continue driving. With the amount of collisions Ripley had in the AP Station tunnels, it’s difficult to determine whether the transaxle was “blown” by this, or caused by the massive amount of acid that surely bled from the Alien that was run over. Probably the latter.
Contact #2-13
Spunkmeyer, D. Private First Class (Dropship co-pilot/ crew chief); Ferro, C. Corporal (Dropship pilot) - United States Colonial Marines Corps. 2nd Battalion, 9th Regiment
Location: Dropship 01 “Bug Stomper”, travelling colony - Atmosphere Processing Station, Hadley’s Hope, LV-426 (Acheron)
Date: July 27 2179
Contact with: Adult Alien
Ferro radios Spunkmeyer to board the dropship, where he discovers some slime left by an Alien on a ladder in the cargo bay. He tries to let Ferro know, but she ignores him instead telling him to get to the cockpit. As the ship flies over to the AP Station, Spunkmeyer has still not shown up in the cockpit, and Ferro’s attempt to raise him on the radio fails. The door to the cockpit then opens and Ferro turns expecting Spunkmeyer, but is greeted by an Alien. Ferro reaches for her sidearm, but the Alien extends it’s inner jaw and lunges at the pilot. Blood spatters all over the interior of the starboard cockpit window and we see Ferro’s hand wiping the inside, as if trying to clean the blood off. Though the physical contact between Ferro and the Alien is off screen, this is very likely just a reflex action as Ferro’s brain is cored.
Ferro turns to the door and we see the Alien from her POV. We then see her from the Alien’s POV. She reaches for her gun and the Alien lunges around her chair, then we see from her POV again at the Alien lunging further Fig 2-13a. Judging from the very quick splatter of blood just near Ferro’s forearm Fig 2-13c (and none on any of the flight controls) we could deduce that the inner jaw impaled Ferro’s head (helmet and all) or her (more exposed) neck.
We’ve had two confirmed bites to the head previous to this, but no cranium impaling. If it did indeed pierce Ferro’s head – AND helmet – it gives us some idea just exactly how powerful, not to mention long, the inner jaw is. Especially since this inner jaw was already partially extruded Fig 2-13b, unlike the attacks on Brett or Parker.
Could this mean Ferro was killed in some other manner. We see the Alien round her chair leading with it’s left arm, so maybe it clawed her in some way? No Alien has used it’s claws in an attack up to this point, and one would think the use of claws would leave more blood sprayed over the flight controls, rather than the single gout that splattered onto the window. Nevertheless the use of claws must be considered. An attack with the tail is highly unlikely, and going back to the way the scene is presented, teeth being involved is the most likely conclusion.
Taking the fact that Spunkmeyer couldn’t be raised after the dropship took off, and Ferro’s manner of demise, Spunkmeyer was probably killed outright by the Alien.
The death of Ferro causes the dropship to crash.
Contact #2-14
UA 571-C Sentry guns A, B, C, D
Locations: Sub level colony-AP Station access tunnel; Level 2 junction, operations/ medical wing, Hadley’s Hope, LV-426 (Acheron)
Date: July 28 2179
Contact with: Adult Aliens
We don’t really get to see much of what happens when the sentry guns are defending against what is perceived to be an Alien horde – Hudson comments that it’s “wall to wall”. Since we don’t know the exact number of Aliens to begin with (taking into account how many colonists were killed as opposed to impregnated, and how many of the Aliens were killed by the colonists), and we don’t how many were killed by the marines, it’s impossible to accurately determine the number of Aliens that mount the assault on the colony. From the initial sweep of the colony and the acid corrosion in some corridors, we do know that either a) Aliens can bleed a lot and survive, b) they carry their dead away, or c) in the case of the hole Hudson found, the Alien’s body could still be in the colony’s sub basement reservoir.
Most of what we see of the sentry guns is Aliens taking heavy fire, and there is a lot of screaming from the creatures, meaning these Aliens, like their Nostromo brother can feel pain and/or rage. The physical damage suffered by the Aliens, is similar to the damage inflicted by the smart guns – bits of the creatures (sometimes limbs) are torn off by the guns Fig 2-14Fig 2-14c, the Aliens DO suffer damage (otherwise they would’ve just walked right past the guns), but we still don’t know if they were killed outright. Nearly two thousand rounds of ammunition later, and the Aliens halt their assault on the guns, presumably looking for another way in. The guns in the access tunnel are dry within seconds. Did the Aliens know the guns had limited ammunition? Or in the confines of the tunnel, did the Aliens have little choice but to run them dry? The junction guns took longer to run down and one was eventually left with 10 rounds. When the Aliens finally retreat, from what we see of the smoke-filled corridor, there are no Alien bodies (the corridor still has power to walls lights). Did they actually survive hits from the guns, and had gone elsewhere (there are doors in this corridor, that would provide access to other rooms and therefore cover Fig 2-14bFig 2-14d) to heal from their wounds, or are the bodies beyond our limited range of vision due to the smoke? Smoke from acid or the guns themselves?
Contact #2-15
Ripley, E.L.; Jorden, R. (aka Newt) – Minor; Hicks, D.; Hudson, W.; Vasquez, J.; Gorman, S. Lieutenant United States Colonial Marines Corps. 2nd Battalion, 9th Regiment; Burke, C.J.
Location: Operating Theatre, Medical Lab, Hadley’s Hope, LV-426 (Acheron)
Date: July 28 2179
Contact with: Facehuggers
After sleeping for an unknown amount of time under a bed with Newt, Ripley wakens and notices the two stasis tubes that recently held the live facehuggers are now empty and in the theatre with them (previously being in another room off the main medlab). Ripley wakes the child up, before moving the bed away from the wall and reaching for the pulse rifle she left on top. It is gone.
A hugger then launches itself at Ripley, which she narrowly ducks, and traps the thing between the bed and the wall before she and Newt scurry out from under the bed and throw it on the hugger. Ripley and Newt head for the door which is locked and Ripley spots her gun outside, as the hugger scuttles around the edge of the room out of view behind some equipment. Ripley pleads to the security cameras for Hicks to help them, then at Newt’s urging tries to break the observation window to the rest of the medical suite with a chair – to no avail. While Ripley is shouting to the camera, we see Burke in Operations turning the monitor off, out of view of the others. This pretty much settles any argument as to how the huggers got from one room to another, how they escaped, how the gun got outside and how the door got locked. “It was Burke.”
However how did he get the huggers from one room to another and release them without getting attacked himself? Rough calculations suggest the stasis tubes could weigh between 50 and 70 kilos, when full of fluid. Something of a struggle for a man of Burke’s stature especially when trying to do it quietly– though not out of the question. Could he have emptied them of fluid prior to opening them in the theatre where Ripley and Newt were sleeping? Not a good idea. The huggers didn’t react instantly to the human presence when they were initially discovered (see contact #2-3), suggesting they were perhaps ‘sleeping’ or in some state of suspended animation. Emptying the tubes of fluid would certainly make them more active, thus endangering Burke. Considering there wasn’t a large amount of water on the floor, the most likely chain of events is Burke sneaked into the room where Ripley and Newt were, took Ripley’s gun, drained the stasis tube of fluid without removing facehuggers, took the tubes to the other room, opened the tubes, and ran out as quickly as possible, locking the door behind him, and leaving the pulse rifle perhaps as a final taunt to Ripley, as if to say “You crossed the wrong guy.”
Ripley sets off the sprinklers and fire alarms with her cigarette lighter, and clutches Newt close as the water rains down, waiting for Hicks and the others. It is now the second hugger chooses to attack, diving out from a cluster of medical instruments attached the ceiling. How did it get up there? We’ve seen adult Aliens crawling on walls and ceilings in a hive environment, so do facehuggers also possess this ability, even though this isn’t a hive? Or did it merely jump up there? And it had ample opportunity to attack Newt or Ripley prior to Ripley setting of the alarms – did it deliberately wait for a better opportunity, such as the sprinklers going off? In fact both huggers had opportunities to attack Ripley and Newt while they were asleep, but didn’t. When Ripley wakes up and sees the empty stasis tubes, one is rolling side to side. Had it just been vacated by the facehugger and that’s what woke Ripley up? Or was it just the air-conditioning? Are the facehuggers attracted to movement, and didn’t immediately sense the slumbering humans? Or are they attracted to heat, and the portable heater near the bed masked Ripley and Newt’s presence?
The hugger from the overhead hits Ripley in the chest, but she manages to throw it to the floor. She crawls, backing away, the creature now running after her before again pouncing, forcing her into a corner. She manages to get her arms between the creature and her face, but it whips it’s tail around her neck, forcing her to gasp for breathe, obviously weakening the potential host, and making the insertion of it’s impregnation tube that much easier. At this point, the first hugger sneaks up behind Newt from behind an instrument trolley. Thinking quickly the child jams the trolley against the wall, trapping the facehugger’s tail, though with the downpour of the sprinklers, the hugger slowly manages to extricate itself, and forge on toward Newt. The way the tail is jammed between the trolley and the wall would seem to indicate it doesn’t have any bone in it, but rather is purely muscle. Though it may have a more flexible skeletal structure than our own, maybe something like cartilage as evidenced in Bishop’s dissection (contact #2-4).
At this point Hicks, Hudson, Vasquez and Gorman arrive in response to the alarms. Hudson shoots out the observation glass, and Hicks dives in to aid Ripley. Hudson helps Newt by sticking a boot against the trolley and firing numerous rounds into the facehugger. Here we discover that huggers aren’t as resilient as their larger brethren, and are literally blown to small pieces by the pulse rifle fire Fig 2-15a. It takes the combined efforts of Hicks, Vasquez and Gorman to stop the hugger getting to Ripley. When they finally manage to extract the tail from Ripley’s neck, Hicks and Gorman throw it into a corner, and Vasquez dishes out the same punishment that Hudson did. Once again the hugger is torn apart by the gun fire.
Contact #2-16
Ripley, E.L.; Hicks, D.; Gorman, S.; Hudson, W.; Vasquez, J.
Location: Operations, Hadley’s Hope, LV-426 (Acheron)
Date: July 28 2179
Contact with: Adult Aliens
As Burke is about to be executed by Hicks, the power goes out in Operations and the emergency lighting kicks in. Ripley surmises that the Aliens cut the power, but Hudson asks how they could have cut the power when they’re just animals. Vasquez and Hudson walk a perimeter inside the barricaded area with motion trackers. Hudson starts getting a signal – a big one - with movement on all sides.
After pulling back to Operations, Vasquez and Hicks weld the door shut, and the defenders face it waiting for the Alien onslaught. When Hudson reports the movement at just 6 metres, Ripley responds that’s impossible because it means the Aliens would already be inside the room. Ripley looks at the second tracker, then raises it to the ceiling, and it’s pinging pitch gets even higher. Hicks removes a roof tile, then his torch falls on half a dozen Aliens in a crawl space of less than a metre in height. So it’s entirely likely that Ripley is correct in that the Aliens did cut the power, but whether it was intentional or just an accident remains unknown, despite the amazing coincidence that the power went out shortly before the Aliens came into range of the motion trackers.
Hicks falls to the ground firing his pulse rifle, as the Aliens come showering through the ceiling. Hudson and Vasquez open fire with their own rifles, as Gorman fires a small sidearm and Hicks soon joins in. The gun fire does slow the Aliens down somewhat, but once again we don’t know if it’s actually killing them. Aliens that are hit scream, are forced back, and fall, but again – no bodies are visible.
Burke gives the others the slip, and escapes into the medical lab, locking the door behind him. The other fall back to the locked door, but Hudson – in something of a berserker rage, is grabbed when several Aliens erupt from under the floor beneath him. Hudson fire a few rounds into the Aliens, and acid is seen spurting, but he pays it no mind, as Hicks desperately tries to keep the comtech from being dragged away. It is futile though, and Hudson disappears beneath the floor, presumably down to level 1, and then back to the AP Station for impregnation.
An Alien takes a running jump at Hicks, which he ducks under, firing at the creature Fig 2-16b. Any acid from the Alien clears Hicks and he nails it with another volley before it can get any closer. Hicks then starts to burn through the locked door, as Vasquez fires two grenades at the advancing Aliens. The explosions throw the Aliens around, (though they still appear to be in one piece Fig 2-16a), and buy the humans enough time to get through the door, only to find the junction door to Medlab also locked. Vasquez welds the door shut as the Newt and Ripley lead the others into the air ducts.
Contact #2-17
Burke, C.J.
Location: Medical Lab, Hadley’s Hope, LV-426 (Acheron)
Date: July 28 2179
Contact with: Adult Alien
Panicking and on the verge of hyperventilating Burke backs his way through the Medlab, when a door behind him opens automatically – something it shouldn’t be doing considering the fact that there’s no power to the doors at this point. Burke turns to find an Alien standing in the open doorway. It extends it’s inner jaw, and in a repeat of the attack on Ferro, descends on the special projects director. Bearing the attack on Ferro in mind, it’s highly likely Burke suffered the same fate (see Contact #2-13) Fig 2-17.
It’s unclear why Burke seems to be killed at this point. He’s unarmed (Hudson wasn’t killed outright and he was armed) and would seemingly make perfect host material.
Contact #2-18
Vasquez, J.
Location: Level 2 air ducts, Hadley’s Hope, LV-426 (Acheron)
Date: July 28 2179
Contact with: Adult Alien
Vasquez brings up the rear, as Ripley and Newt lead the others through the ducts to the landing field. Vasquez fires several shots through the door to operations as she falls back, then more shots as the Aliens follow them into the tunnels. Repeating efforts earlier, the Aliens are wounded and slowed down, but any fatalities remain unseen. It is only after Vasquez runs out of pulse rifle ammo, and turns to her small sidearm, that we get any idea of any firearms true effectiveness, (apart from Hicks ‘shotgun in the mouth’ tactic). Hurrying after her colleagues, an Alien descends from a vertical shaft on top of the smart gunner. She fires twelve shots at the Alien, including four in head, and the Alien STILL is kicking and thrashing around - having some sort of fit. Obviously those four shots had some sort of detrimental effect, beyond tearing large chunks away from the creature’s head.
The acid from the Alien’s wounds eats into Vasquez’ ankle, and, out of ammunition, she is unable to continue after the others.
Contact #2-19
Gorman, S.
Location: Level 2 air ducts, Hadley’s Hope, LV-426 (Acheron)
Date: July 28 2179
Contact with: Adult Alien
When Vasquez does not catch up with Gorman and Hicks, the lieutenant tells Hicks to go on while he goes back for her.
Gorman finds Vasquez on the verge of unconsciousness, and begins dragging her through the ducts, only to be cut off when an Alien bursts through a vent in front of him. Gorman fire a couple of shots at the Alien, but the only seem to ricochet off the front of it’s head. Which would seem to indicate that Vasquez hit the Alien in a ‘soft spot’ - the front of the head just to the side, where a humans temple would be – of course the damage could’ve been done simply due to the fact she shot it point blank range.
The two turn to see an Alien advancing over the Alien Vasquez previously shot – which now has stopped thrashing about and seems to be quite dead Fig 2-18, and with Gorman’s shots having no affect on the Aliens in front of them they realise the situation is hopeless.
Yet another question to which there is no answer brought up at this point is whether Alien acid has any sort of sedative affect. Vasquez is looking extremely weak by the time Gorman finds her, which is probably less than a minute from the exchange with the Alien. Whether she is nearly passing out from what must be excruciating pain, or there is something in the acid that is weakening her further is not known. Hudson didn’t seem to be under any sort of sedative when he received an acid wound on the APC. However he wasn’t required to do much in the way of physical activity after receiving the wound, plus it wasn’t a part of his anatomy that would cripple him (as opposed to Vasquez), plus the wound was treated shortly thereafter. Hicks tells Hudson to “pick it up” when they evacuate the APC – whether Hudson is showing ill effects from the acid, or Hicks is just encouraging him is not made apparent.
Rather than being taken alive, Gorman pulls out a grenade and he and Vasquez clutch it as the Aliens close in. At last possible second, an Alien descends on Gorman, in an identical fashion to the ones that got Ferro and Burke, and the grenade explodes. We see some debris in amongst the flames, and as there isn’t anything in the ducts apart from Vasquez, Gorman, and the Aliens, it’s a pretty safe assumption that a number of the creatures were blown to pieces along with the marines.
Contact #2-20
Jorden, R. (aka Newt)
Location: Sub Basement colony reservoir, Hadley’s Hope, LV-426 (Acheron)
Date: July 28 2179
Contact with: Adult Alien
After the explosion, Newt is separated from Ripley and Hicks, and slides down a series of ducts, ending up in the colony reservoir – a man-made body of water, approximately 2 feet deep, underneath the Basement level. Ripley and Hicks find the girl using a wrist locator, but as they are cutting through the Basement floor to get to her, an Alien emerges from the water behind her, and lunges. Newt screams, but by the time Hicks finishes cutting seconds later, the only evidence of the girl is the slowly sinking head of her doll, Casey.
Interesting to note that there was very little warning of the Alien’s underwater attack Fig 2-20. Either the Alien was waiting there all along, or they are able to swim underwater, leaving no trace of their presence on the surface – no mean feat with their elongated heads, dorsal spike and dorsal tubes. Ripley’s motion tracker was pinging while Hicks was cutting through, which tends to give the latter theory more credibility justice than the former. However, it’s quite on the cards that Ripley was expecting an attack on the same level and not from below – despite the recent experiences in Operations – especially since they were rather close to the access tunnel the Aliens were using to go back and forth between the colony and the AP Station.
Also there is only a matter of seconds between the Alien appearing, Newt screaming and Hicks and Ripley busting through the floor – yet there is no indication of where the Alien went, or which direction it went in. The water is choppy from the Aliens emergence, and probably Newt’s reaction, but it has all but disappeared. Did it submerge again with Newt? We’ve seen facehuggers sustain hosts in environments that would normally kill them (ie. Kane). Can an adult Alien do something similar to potential hosts in order to sustain them until they get to the nest/ hive?
Ripley is distraught, and sobs to Hicks that “They [the Aliens] don’t kill you! She’s alive!”, even though Brett’s death would’ve left a lot of blood behind, and Ripley said at that time, that she believed Brett was dead. The most likely scenario here is that Ripley wanted nothing more to believe that Newt could be rescued, though she does seem to go into some sort of shock and Hicks has to practically drag her to the elevator.
Contact #2-21
Hicks, D.; Ripley, E.L.
Location: Elevator, Basement Level, Hadley’s Hope, LV-426 (Acheron)
Date: July 28 2179
Contact with: Adult Alien
Hicks hustles Ripley into an elevator at the northern end of the colony, and hits the button to take them up to Level 1 and the landing field. As with most elevators they take their own sweet time, and with the motion tracker signalling approaching Aliens, Hicks hits the button a couple more times and the door begins to close. But not before an Alien lunges into the lift. Note the angle at which it lunges from, as if it was crawling along the wall. And where did it actually spring from? Hicks would’ve seen it coming down the corridor, which would lead us to believe that it came from an air duct or electrical access tunnel that opened onto the corridor Fig 2-21.
Hicks fires at the Alien from extremely close range. The Alien is forced back as the door closes, but acid sprays on Hicks’ face and chest. It is only here that Ripley snaps out of her shock to help the corporal out of his armour, before the acid burns through. Within seconds they reach Level 1, and armour Hicks recently shed now has a large corroded hole in it.
As with Vasquez, either the extreme pain or a sedative effect from the acid leaves Hicks incredibly weak, and Ripley can barely support him as they meet Bishop at the landing field and head into the dropship.
Contact #2-22
Ripley, E.L.; Jorden, R. (aka Newt)
Location: Sub-Level 4, Atmosphere Processing Station, Hadley’s Hope, LV-426 (Acheron)
Date: July 28 2179
Contact with: Facehugger
Ripley arrives on Sub Level 2 in the bowels of the AP Station and heads down further through the nest on Sub Level 3 and down to Sub Level 4, following the signal from Newt’s locator bracelet. Ripley eventually finds it – and it’s not attached to Newt, but simply lying on the floor of the nest.
Nearby Newt wakens to find herself stuck in the wall of the nest with an Alien egg opening in front of her. She screams, and Ripley hears. The woman rushes in and blows the facehugger to pieces. Now, why was Newt asleep? Did she pass out from fright when she was abducted? Or do the Aliens administer some sort of paralysing agent to a potential host in much the same manner as a facehugger puts the host into a coma for implantation. It’s difficult to believe that Hudson would’ve gone quietly or just passed out when he was abducted, as it seemed he was extremely pumped up on adrenaline. Or maybe potential hosts aren’t always unconscious. It’s entirely likely that a 6 year old girl would feint from fright, but a pumped up marine, even one who displays such cowardice as Hudson does, wouldn’t. Since we don’t see Hudson anywhere in the hive when Ripley is rescuing Newt, we don’t know if he was conscious when he was coccooned or not – if indeed he wasn’t killed. If there is a paralysis agent involved it is very mild, as only approximately 20 minutes passes between Newt being taken, and Ripley finding her.
This is the second time in the series we have seen an egg open, but here it is quite different to the one encountered by Kane. Kane’s one virtually exploded out of the egg through a fleshy membrane, likely using it’s tail as a spring. Newt’s presumably punctured the membrane, then casually crawled out of the egg, before being shot by Ripley Fig 2-22b. This could lead one to believe that the manner in which the facehugger exits the egg is dependent on the mobility of the host. Kane’s hugger did wait some time before attacking (possibly it had been waiting in the Derelict for so long it had gone into some type of hibernation from which it took some time to waken), but when it did, it was extremely fast, thus giving a mobile host no chance to dodge. Newt on the other hand, wasn’t going anywhere, so there was simply no need for the hugger to exert itself.
On the subject of the wrist locator. When Ripley finds it, the band is undone – meaning it didn’t slip off Newt’s wrist – it is still operating, and has fresh Alien slime on it. Some possibilities for it being on the ground could be, it snagged on something and came undone while Newt was being taken through the hive, or – a more sinister option – the Alien transporting her recognised it’s significance and purposely took it off to confuse any potential rescue attempt. The slime could point to the second possibility, or the slime was just from the hive floor, which is pretty gooey anyway.
Also note that as Ripley bends down to retrieve the locator braclet, we can see what seems to be an Alien forearm embedded in the hive wall Fig 2-22. Could it be that dead Aliens or dismembered limbs are not wasted, but used to as hive making material?
Contact #2-23
Ripley, E.L.
Location: Sub-Level 4, Atmosphere Processing Station, Hadley’s Hope, LV-426 (Acheron)
Date: July 28 2179
Contact with: Adult Alien
As soon as Ripley blasts the facehugger, an adult Alien lurches out of the darkness. Ripley fires at the creature and it falls, whereon she gives it another burst (it’s difficult to determine whether there’s actually two Aliens in the sequence, or one that gets shot and then gets up and is shot again – for arguments sake we’ll say there was only one). She then rips apart the hive material – ‘secreted resin’ as earlier theorised by Dietrich – and frees the girl. Though this seems to be rather difficult for Ripley she does manage it, leading us to believe that the resin we saw on earlier colonists isn’t as unyielding as it seemed. Either that, or the stuff covering Newt was fresh, and therefore hadn’t set.
Which can lead us back to our earlier musings about Aliens using paralysing agents on hosts. Say it was Hudson who’d just been cocooned. A child couldn’t break out of the cocoon (Newt tried), but an adult could. Or at least an adult can break out if they had anything more than an arm free. It’s possible that if the Aliens paralyse the hosts, that upon waking, the host is still too weak from the affects of the paralysis to do anything about breaking out of their cocoon before the facehugger attaches itself.
And to top all this off, Newt had an adult Alien waiting nearby, so if a host were able to break the resin, the chances of them actually escaping are close to zero.
Also note that the Alien Ripley shot, didn’t get up during the time it took Ripley to extract Newt, suggesting that if it was healing as previously theorised, it takes at least the amount that amount of time, or Ripley did indeed kill it.
Contact #2-24
Ripley, E.L.; Jorden, R (aka Newt)
Location: Sub-Level 4, Atmosphere Processing Station, Hadley’s Hope, LV-426 (Acheron)
Date: July 28 2179
Contact with: Queen, Adult Aliens
With the AP Station literally falling apart around them, Ripley and Newt try to get back to the elevator, and at some point take wrong turn. Ripley suddenly discovers they are surrounded by Alien eggs. She slowly turns around and we see it – the Alien Queen. Confirming the earlier theories of Bishop, Ripley, Hudson and Vasquez she is suspended over the eggs by long strands of what seem to be the same sort of material that makes up the rest of the nest. Extending from her abdomen is a gigantic, off-white, egg sac. Roiling around in the egg sac, the shape of new Alien eggs can be seen, and as Ripley and Newt watch a new egg – white and glistening - is deposited on the ground. Is this a different sort of Alien egg? Or just what they look like freshly laid? And how did the rest of the Alien eggs end up in their current positions, or out in the rest of the hive? The Queens arms don’t reach to the end of the egg sac to place the eggs around the chamber, let alone out into the hive tunnels, so it stands to reason that the normal adult Aliens place the eggs.
As for the Queen herself, she about 4 times the size of a normal adult Alien, but rather than having a ridged head like the other Aliens we’ve seen or a smooth head like the Nostromo Alien, the Queen has sort of large ‘crown’ that extends some 2-3 metres on her head. And more than this as she senses Ripley and Newt’s presence, her ‘face’ actually extends out from under the crown, and we see huge jaws with a wicked set of teeth. She has a smooth bump similar to that of the other adult Aliens above her mouth, which may be some sort of visual organ. She hisses at Ripley, almost as if she is challenging the intruder, and we see two adult Aliens appear at exits from the chamber to the left and right of Ripley.
The heat haze evident in the chamber gives us some idea of just how hot it is, backing up earlier comments by Frost that it was “Hot as hell”. So it’s unlikely the heat is caused by the AP Station meltdown, but either there is a heat generated by the hive itself, the same temperature as the Alien’s body heat, thus masking them from IR tracking, or the heat is a natural by-product of such close proximity to the AP Station’s primary heat exchanger. But why did the Queen choose such a location? Are the eggs and Alien better suited to such a warm environment? Kane mentioned that it was like “the Goddamn tropics” when he encountered the eggs on the Derelict. Or did the Queen decide to build the nest under the heat exchanger because she knew it would make the nest a much more difficult target – anyone going in there to kill Aiens or rescue hosts, wouldn’t be able to fire any projectile weapons, or risk rupturing the cooling system, and thereby doom themselves in the process, as Ripley pointed out before the initial ambush. And which is pretty much what happened anyway.
Before any of the Aliens can attack Ripley, she fires her flame thrower just over the top of the eggs, and the Queen becomes enraged. Or is she? We assume she’s enraged – she could on the other hand simply be terrified at the thought of Ripley frying the eggs. Because the Aliens sole purpose is to breed, and breeding involves the death of humans, we naturally make the assumption that they’re evil. However they have never really displayed any particularly evil tendencies, and we shouldn’t assume they can’t feel scared. They just do what they do to survive like any other species. On the other hand they do seem to prolong the deaths of some victims. Parker, Brett, Ferro, and Burke all had to wait at least several seconds as the Alien peeled it’s lips back before striking. And as for Lambert, her death was especially long. Do the Aliens pause before attacking, to purposely strike fear into a victim? Or is it physical concerns that prevent them from striking immediately. We theorised earlier that perhaps the Alien requires sustenance in order to move quickly. Maybe this is the reason for the relatively slow attacks on Ferro and Burke.
Ripley releases the trigger of the incinerator and angles her weapon down at the eggs, leaving no doubt what will happen if the Queen tries anything. The Queen now turns to each of her children, hissing at them, and the two adults back away into the shadows, and for the first time we see Aliens communicating with each other. We’ve assumed that the first hiss from the Queen was a challenge to Ripley, but it could just as well been a cry for help to the others. The Aliens ‘language’ seems to be based on vocal sound, and possibly body language, with the Queen’s head turning to look straight at the adults as she hisses.
It should be noted that as the adult Alien to Ripley’s right backs away, the dorsal tubes of another Alien can be seen to the Alien’s right Fig 2-24a. This could be more ‘dead/ dismembered Alien’ being used as hive material as we witnessed earlier when Ripley was searching for Newt? If not why did it not also rise up to defend the Queen?
Ripley and Newt now back away towards an unguarded exit, standing on tendrils coming from the base of the eggs, and an egg opens. Ripley seems to realise that there is no reasoning with the Queen – that she will do anything to have more hosts, so Ripley lets fly and napalms the eggs. The Queen again starts screaming in rage/ terror, and the Alien’s who had just retreated now rush Ripley. She shoots both of them, plus a third that also attacks. Is this the one we previously thought was part of the wall? It seems to be coming from the direction where the dorsal tubes were seen. Now, with the fire rapidly spreading, Ripley starts firing her pulse rifle at the eggs, the tops of which explode on impact. These small explosions are most likely from the rifle rounds which are, as Gorman pointed earlier, explosive tipped. However the tops of each egg is also aflame. Is this the ‘breathing’ as observed by Kane on the Derelict at work again here, and is that breath indeed a flammable gas? What we do know is that the eggs are indeed highly flammable and the chamber is very soon an inferno.
Did Ripley standing on the egg tendrils signal the egg to open? No doubt she would have stood on the tendrils of dozens of eggs while passing through the chamber, so why did only one egg open. And how would an egg pick up someone standing on the tendrils, if they were stuck to a hive wall? Maybe the egg is effectively ‘wired’ into the hive via the tendrils and the slightest movement from the potential host (ie. merely breathing) send vibrations through the nest to the egg.
Ripley now fires four grenades into the Queen’s egg sac. Each of the grenades easily punctures the sac and explode inside sending the Alien version of amniotic fluid everywhere. Ripley and Newt back out with Ripley still firing her flamethrower, when another Alien attacks from the ceiling behind them. Ripley quickly swings around and nails it with her rifle, then fires a few more rounds into it as it lies on the ground. During all this the three Aliens whom Ripley has recently shot don’t get up and try to attack again. Although Aliens don’t seem to mind high temperatures especially, it’s unknown that if these Aliens were alive whether the fire would help or hinder any healing. Either way none of the four Alien Ripley shoots in this sequence give chase.
Rounding a corner, Ripley removes a bandolier of grenades and flings it into the Queen’s chamber, the ensuing chain of explosions causes the Queen to be toppled from her ‘throne’ and she falls to the floor. As Ripley and Newt rush to the elevator, the Queen detaches herself from the egg sac and pursues, apparently unharmed by the explosions or the fire.
Contact #2-24
Continued at:
Location: Elevator 27 & 28, Sub-level 2, Atmosphere Processing Station, Hadley’s Hope, LV-426 (Acheron)
Date: July 28 2179
Contact with: Queen
At the elevator, Ripley pushes the buttons for both lifts, intending to take whichever one turns up first. Soon enough we hear the Queen coming, her screeching getting closer. As Ripley is about to give up on the lift and start climbing a ladder, the Queen rounds a bend to the corridor that leads to the elevators. Ripley backs away from the ladder as lift 28 arrives. She and Newt get in and the doors close just as the Queen approaches. Ripley tries to fire her flamethrower through the lift gate but it’s running low on fuel. After a few nervous seconds the door closes and the lift ascends. Meanwhile the Queen observes lift 27 arriving and opening.
Contact #2-24
Continued at:
Location: Elevator 27 & 28, Dock 7, Atmosphere Processing Station, Hadley’s Hope, LV-426 (Acheron)
Date: July 28 2179
Contact with: Queen
As Ripley tries to shelter Newt from falling debris on the dock, which Bishop has abandoned, she notices that lift 27 is now ascending. She holds the child and backs towards a safety rail, beyond which is a drop of several hundred metres, her intention very likely to jump off.
Then the lift arrives – and with it the Queen. But how? How did the Queen know what a lift was? There is actually an answer to this one. The Queen would have observed Ripley and Newt’s lift going up and she would’ve seen the other lift arrive. Showing basic problem solving ability she was able to put two and two together and arrive at the conclusion ‘There’s a pretty good chance taking this lift will allow me to pursue the humans.’ So how did she know which level to go to? When Bishop drops Ripley off at dock 7, both lifts are already waiting. When Ripley gets off at sub-level 2, the lift closes and ascends again – presumably back to dock 7. When Ripley and Newt get back to the lifts, they have to call the lifts again. Ripley doesn’t hit a level button when she and Newt get into the lift, but it still gets them back to dock 7. Obviously dock 7 was the default location for the lifts to return to when not in use. Whether this was due to the current emergency or normal procedure is not made clear. So the Queen was just along for the ride.
Bishop pilots the dropship into view at the last second and picks up Ripley and Newt. A nearby explosion slews the ship over the docking platform towards the lifts, before Bishop guns the engine and flies out of the station moments before it explodes.
To Contact #2-25
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