THE ALIEN ENCYCLOPEDIA (version 2) by Markus Friebe Contents 1. Preface......................................................................................................3 2. About this book........................................................................................4 3. The A-Z of the Alien Universe.................................................................7 4. Appendices.............................................................................................60 5. Acknowledgments..................................................................................69 6. Resources................................................................................................70 7. History....................................................................................................71 1. Preface „In space, no one can hear you scream.“...do I need to say more? I could make a long list of quotes from the Alien movies to illustrate how present the franchise still is, even after over 30 years, prob- ably starting with „Game Over, man!“. But I don't want to bore you with common knowledge, be- cause if you read this, you may already know all these quotes in your sleep. I go out on a limb and say that EVERY person has some kind of angle to these films, whether you're art house or main- stream. Starting with the unsettling and sexually suggestive imagery over creating the first (and, surprisingly, pretty much the only) female action hero of cinema history to Aliens featuring one of the greatest movie showdowns ever. And it didn't end with the movies. Like every successful movie franchise, the Alien saga has spawned a vast Expanded Universe in the form of comics, novels, video games and even action fig- ures. But as fictional universes get bigger, problems arise. Things can easily get confusing, and sometimes, also even contradict each other. Now multiply this problem, and you get a picture what the folks doing Star Wars have to work with. I feel you, guys! Considering Alien, I'll get into this problem in the „About this book“ section, but just take the first Aliens comics. They made these be- fore the third movie came out and of course, they contradicted Alien³, who can blame them? They tried to fix this in reissues, but still... So, the need for some kind of guide arises that tries to make sense of the whole mess and provides an overlook when the situation gets foggy. Unfortunately, a definitive guide to the Alien universe has yet to be made. This is where this book comes in. And while we're at it, this is actually not the first encyclopedia I have written. I have done this for the Matrix universe, too, and for some time, it was available on www.matrix-faq.com. Long story short, the website is now defunct (personal budget cuts...) and due to a USB stick formatting screw-up on my behalf, the guide is now com- pletely lost. Sorry, almost completely lost. There is still an old printed-out version of it in my be- longings. Perhaps, one day, when I get over how disappointing Matrix Revolutions was... I write these words in late Summer 2011, with Prometheus, a new movie set solely in the Alien con- tinuity, looming over the horizons. Details are still sparse, but things look good. I may be right, or I may be horribly wrong, but we'll see. In the meantime, come with me on a journey to the darkest corners of the galaxy where, somewhere, the „perfect organism“ bides its time... -Markus Friebe P.S. The first entry I wrote for this encyclopedia was, of course, „Ripley, Ellen L.“ 2. About this book As the its name implies, the main part of this book consists of an in-depth database of entries cover- ing characters, events, locations, vehicles, weapons, equipment and more from the “Alien” universe. This database is structured based on the conventions of an encyclopedia, meaning that the entries are sorted after the English alphabet and that character entries are named after the pattern “family name, first name” and are placed accordingly. However, there are some specific characteristics you should know about. If you are aware of them, you can not only use the encyclopedia efficiently, but also have the most fun while doing so. Most of these characteristics are connected with how the Aliens universe is set up, so the following guidelines are useful for both newbies and Aliens veterans. I suggest reading this section before us- ing the encyclopedia for the first time. Don't worry, I kept the guidelines really simple, and if you are not interested in the reasoning behind the guidelines, you can just read the first paragraph and skip the rest. An exception is the first part about using the encyclopedia, which should be read as a whole. If you miss something in this book, have trouble finding something or wonder why things are written and organized how they are, it is always a good idea to go back here. a) Using the encyclopedia: A word about Tags and the Appendices A typical entry in this encyclopedia is nothing special. It follows the standard pattern of the entry name in bold letters followed by the actual entry. There is, however, one notable exception: Tags. At the end of each entry, you'll find one or more abbreviations in bold letters. They tell you in which movie, novel, comic or video game the entry is referenced. For example, Hudson appears in Aliens, the second movie. Therefore, the “Hudson” entry has the tag A2 attached. Many tags are self-ex- planatory, such as the A2 tag standing for the second Alien movie. Others may confuse you the first time you see them. This is where the first Appendix comes in. The first Appendix, following the actual encyclopedia, is a reference list, explaining all tags used in the encyclopedia. I tried to make the tags as simple and obvious as possible, so after you have looked up a tag for two, three times at most, you should be able to recognize it while using the en- cyclopedia without having to rely on the codex anymore. Additionally, the codex is sorted after cat- egories (like movies, comics etc.), thus also serving to give you a handy list of all Alien-related me- dia containing in-universe information. Additionally, there is a second Appendix consisting of multiple entry lists sorted after specific themes and categories. I recommend to use them as they are useful tools to find your way around the encyclopedia other than relying on the alphabetical sorting. Additionally, they give an overlook over interesting overarching topics, regardless where the relevant entries originate from. For ex- ample, you can use the lists to browse through all ships from the Alien universe, no matter if the ship appeared in one of the movies or a video game. b) Regarding the Aliens vs. Predator universe and alternate movie scripts As a rule of thumb, I included information from the Aliens vs. Predator universe ONLY when it doesn't contradict information from the Aliens universe. Likewise, this applies to information from alternate scripts and early drafts. The Aliens lore is difficult to handle as it is, and Aliens vs. Predator only makes it worse. For ex- ample, you won't find anything about the Predator/Alien hybrid from Aliens vs. Predator 2: Re- quiem, because the hybrid is supposed to be a young queen and is able to impregnate victims with multiple Chestburster embryos via literally regurgitating them into the victim's mouth. We already have a problematic Xenomorph life cycle without AvP, with the dubious canon of the Alien being able to transform victims into eggs as seen in the Director's Cut of the first Alien movie. The hybrid would further complicate things, demanding answers to questions like: “Why does the hybrid be- have in this unique way? Is it exclusive to a Predator-based hybrid? Has it something to do with Predator reproduction? But wouldn't that contradict the reproduction method of the Xenomorph, for which we have no evidence to be influenced by species-specific reproduction methods?” This would also force me to incorporate AvP and even Predator lore to a great, possibly complete extent, and I wanted to keep the focus of this encyclopedia solely on the Alien franchise. However, there are still interesting tidbits featured in AvP media which I felt expanded on the Alien lore and there- fore, included it, one example being S.E.T.I. still existing in 2229. The same goes for lore unique to alternate scripts (most of them written for Alien³) and early drafts. For instance, I included general information about the Union of Progressive People, an element from the alternate Alien³ script by William Gibson. However, I omitted information from the plot involving the UPP that contradict Alien³ as we know it. As a side note irrelevant to this guideline, the UPP happened to be recently introduced into the regular canon by the Nintendo DS game Aliens Infestation. c) The writing perspective This encyclopedia is written from an in-universe perspective, meaning that entries are written as if they really happened or they really exist. Therefore, no entries regarding or references to the movies, comics, novels etc. themselves, their creation or the persons involved exist. Information originating from behind-the-scenes material is incorporated in in-universe form. To see what I mean, compare the Wikipedia entry for “Xenomorph (Alien)”, more specifically the section about the Newborn: In Alien Resurrection, due to significant genetic tampering in an attempt to recover DNA from the deceased Ellen Ripley and the Alien Queen within her, the resulting cloned Aliens show a number of minor human traits.1 This quote references the real-life movie instead of solely the events that happened inside the Alien universe. The plot of the movie Alien Resurrection is present in this encyclopedia as its in-universe counterpart, the Auriga incident. Compared to Wikipedia taking a real-life approach, this encyclope- dia is like, for example, an encyclopedia about dinosaurs - creatures which really existed, a fact which is reflected in its writing. I chose this approach for several reasons: • Reason 1: Precedents. Most prominent are the non-fiction works covering the Star Wars uni- verse, which are often written in-universe. An example are the Essential Guides. It even has an Aliens precedent in the form of the Colonial Marines Technical Manual. It seemed a lo- gical thing to do it for this encyclopedia, too. • Reason 2: To separate and define the purpose of this book. You won't find any entries about real-life content related to the Alien franchise. This is not “The Making of the Alien uni- verse”, as it is not supposed to be a making-of book. So, instead of making things blurry by including real-life perspectives in the context of an in-universe topic, things are clear-cut here. A mixed approach may work for a Wikipedia entry, aimed to be a single, isolated docu- 1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenomorph_%28Alien%29 (document version as of October 7, 2011) ment about a topic, to be complete (meaning covering both lore and behind-the scenes as- pects) and accessible to people who may never heard about the Alien franchise and just want to know who the heck Ellen Ripley is. But this is about the fictional Alien universe, and only the fictional Alien universe. • Reason 3: To sidestep continuity issues for the sake of being consistent. The best example for this would be, again, the “Alternate Xenomorph life cycle” depicted in the Director's Cut of Alien. The thing is that this life cycle at least potentially removes the need for a queen in the life cycle. So instead of admitting that I have two conflicting canon sources or having to skip this information entirely, I incorporated it as “unconfirmed reports.” This way, the en- cyclopedia can acknowledge the possibility without taking sides, saying “yes, it does exist” (therefore possibly creating a contradiction) or saying “no, it does not exist” (omitting inter- esting information). However, there are two special cases in which we have two versions of the same source directly contradicting each other, which I will cover in the following sec- tion. There are other but minor reasons like to make the reading experience more involving. d) Alternate versions of Alien³ and the 1988 Aliens comics This encyclopedia regards the expanded Assembly Cut of Alien³ as canon, with the exception of re- garding the Xenomorph seen in the movie to be born from a dog as shown in the Theatrical Cut. The encyclopedia also regards the revised version of the 1988 “Earth War” comic storyline as canon to avoid conflicts with Alien³. The Assembly Cut of Alien³ as featured on the Quadrilogy DVD set and the BluRay release restores much of the cut footage and incorporates back into the storyline of the film, expanding it with about half an hour of additional scenes. There are also alternate scenes featured, but they don't pose any continuity problems, as it is, for example, basically irrelevant whether Ripley is found inside the EEV or washed upon the shore. There is, however, one major exception: Whereas in the Theatrical Cut, the Xenomorph is born from a dog, the Assembly Cut instead shows it being born out of an ox. Thus, this creates an irreconcilable discrepancy where I have no choice but to take sides. I decided to go for the “dog birth” as it seems implausible for a Drone to be this small when originating from an ox. Consider that the Alien³ Xenomorph is no larger than the human-bred Drones we have seen in other cases, possibly even a little bit smaller. Considering the DNA Reflex, a Drone from an ox, an animal which has far more body mass than a human and is also larger, would have to be signific- antly larger than a “human” Drone. Another case of “irreconcilable differences” is the “Earth War” storyline as shown in the early Dark Horse comics. Released in 1988, way before Alien³ would be made, the comics were intended to be a sequel to Aliens, showing the further adventures of Hicks, Newt and later, Ripley. In 1991, Alien³ threw a monkey wrench in the continuity by killing off Hicks and Newt before they even had the chance to wake from hypersleep. Reissues of the “Earth War” comics kinda fixed this by renaming Hicks and Newt to Wilks and Billie, turning them into new characters, and making Ripley an an- droid. The encyclopedia reflects the “Earth War” storyline as shown in the reissue. I realize the reis- sue fix was a “bend over backwards” in the first place, but it is the only way to incorporate the pivotal events of the comics without screwing up the continuity. 3. The A-Z of the Alien Universe *** A *** Aaron: A male human serving as the assistant of Superintendent Andrews at the penal colony on Fiorina 161 during the Fury 16 incident in 2179. Nicknamed “85” by the prisoners, referring to his rather low IQ. Was married and had children. Andrews shared Andrews' believe in a tight leadership and tried to help enacting his decisions dur- ing the first stages of the Fury 16 incident. This often brought him in conflict with the prisoners, es- pecially Morse. These conflicts became more tense after Andrews' death and the escape of the Xenomorph from the vault, for which he blamed Morse. Aaron also helped Ripley operating the medical scanner inside the crashed EEV and was the first to know of the Queen embryo gestating inside Ripley. However, when Ripley, knowing that the Weyland-Yutani party inbound for Fiorina 161 would do everything to secure a Xenomorph specimen, wanted to send the team away, Aaron refused to provide access to the terminal, thinking that it would be suicidal to reject the only armed reinforcements they had at their disposal. But when the rescue party replied to the warning about the Xenomorph infestation with orders to stay away from the creature, Aaron began to have second thoughts. He did not participate in the attempt of the prisoners to lure the Alien into the blast fur- nace and instead stayed at his office and eventually received the Weyland-Yutani team at the en- trance to the facility to lead them to the furnace. During the final confrontation between Michael Bishop and Ripley, Aaron attacked Bishop with a steel pipe, only to be gunned down by the accom- panying soldiers. (A3) Acheron: One of the five rivers of the underworld in Greek mythology and a nickname for LV-426, established during the 57 years of Ripley's hypersleep. This nickname is also referenced in the sci- entific name of the Xenomorph species, “linguafoeda Acheronsis”. (A2) Alien: A colloquial term for extra-terrestrial lifeforms. Often used as a synonym for “Xenomorph”. Andrews. Harold: A male human and the administrator of the Fiorina 161 penal colony by the time the Fury 16 incident took place in 2179. Born in Barnsley, Yorkshire, United Kingdoms on April 2, 2121.In his capacity as Superintendent, Andrews enacted a harsh leadership with the help of his as- sistant Aaron and regarded the prisoners as dangerous and fanatic. When Ripley arrived on Fiorina 161, Andrews considered her presence to be a potential disturbance of the relatively peaceful status-quo and only allowed Ripley to leave the infirmary in company. After he had formally informed the prisoners, Andrews proceeded to send a request to Weyland- Yutani to pick up Ripley. When Andrews found out that Clemens had performed an unauthorized autopsy of Rebecca Jorden on Ripley's request, he came into conflict with the doctor and threatened him to tell Ripley about his troubled past, should he continue to ignore his orders. After the first prisoners were killed by the Xenomorph, Ripley tried to warn Andrews, who did not believe her story and ordered her confinement to the medical wing, also ignoring Golic's account and having him fixated in the infirmary. Andrews was in the mess hall trying to organize a search party for the missing prisoners Boggs and Raines when he was taken and killed by the Alien in front of the pris- oners, making the Xenomorph threat a known fact to the inmates. (A3) APC: The abbreviation for Armored Personnel Carrier. Describing a class of military ground vehicles designed to deploy and transfer troops while also fulfilling limited combat capabilities. An example for an APC is the M577 used by the USCM in the late 22nd century, including the Hadley's Hope incident in 2179. (A2, A:CMTM, A:INF) Apone, Al: A male human serving in the USCM corps in the capacity of Gunnery Sergeant by 2179. Nicknamed 'Top' by his subordinates. Was the point man of the unit involved in the Hadley's Hope incident. Apone led the foray of the Marines into the colony before he was left behind incapacitated during the Xenomorph ambush inside the colony's hive and presumably impregnated afterward. Details of Apone's exact fate are unknown, but his death his certain, either by giving birth to a Xenomorph or during the destruction of the colony several hours later. Hicks, the B-Team leader, rose to the posi- tion of commander to replace Apone after the ambush. (A2) Armat: A weapons manufacturer. Famous for being the creators of the M41A Pulse Rifle. (CMTM) Arthur: A male human and one of the prisoners involved in the Fury 16 incident in 2179. Arthur was killed by Golic when he was standing guard at the vault where the captured Xenomorph was held. (A3) Ash: A science officer serving aboard the Nostromo during the events of the Nostromo incident. Has the ID number 111/C2/01X. Pragmatic and cold, but gifted with scientific curiosity. Nothing is known about Ash's life before the incident, and he joined the crew only shortly before the Nostromo would leave Thedus for Earth on June 12, 2121. Halfway en-route and about a full year later, the Nostromo received the Spacey Jockey signal emanating from LV-426 and was pulled out of hyperspace. The crew went on to investigate the signal, and when the search party returned to the landed ship with a Facehugger attached to Kane's face, it was Ash who allowed them back in against Ripley's objections concerning proper decontamination. During Kane's impregnation, Ash observed the process and was responsible for Kane's medical treatment and preliminary research on the alien organism. It was not after the Xenomorph had already killed half the crew when Ripley discovered the science officer's true motivations. Ash made an unsuccessful attempt on Ripley's life after she had learned of Weyland-Yutani's inten- tion to capture the Xenomorph and, if necessary, sacrifice the Nostromo's crew in the process. When Parker and Lambert subdued Ash, he was revealed to be a Hyperdyne Systems 120-A/2 android. On Ripley's orders, Parker reactivated his remains, and during the interrogation that followed, the an- droid disclosed that Weyland-Yutani had known of the Xenomorph from the beginning and that he was introduced into the crew to protect and secure the specimen. What was left of Ash was inciner- ated by Parker after the interrogation. (A1) Atmosphere Processor: A machine used to transform the atmosphere of a world into a composition breathable for humans. Such a processor is a vital part of the terraforming process used to render in- hospitable worlds into into environments able to sustain human life. The transformation process ba- sically consists of drawing in the atmosphere, splitting it up into its basic atomic components and releasing the breathable elements while discarding the non-breathable elements as waste products. Atmosphere Processors are massive structures, and, depending on the initial atmosphere, several of them have to be installed on a world's surface in order to produce results within a reasonable amount of time. Atmosphere Processors were used on a number of worlds during the second half of the 22nd century, but a notable example is LV-426. In mid-century, about 30 Atmosphere Processors were installed all over the planetoid and managed to create a breathable atmosphere within two decades, although by the time of the Hadley's Hope incident on LV-426 in 2179, the actual terraforming process was far from complete. Looking like huge artificial volcanoes and spanning a height of 1500 meters, these processors were partially financed and constructed by Weyland-Yutani. One of these Atmosphere Processors, which was located adjacent to the Hadley's Hope colony, played a major role during the Xenomorph infestation of the colony in 2179. When the organism overran the colony, it set up a hive on Sub-Level 3 of the processor. There may have been several reasons why this location was chosen, whether it was because it provided a climate of dry heat where these creatures could thrive or because it placed them in a position where it would be virtu- ally impossible to destroy them without critically damaging the processor. While the latter possibil- ity may attribute an unlikely level of abstract intelligence to the Xenomorph, this was what happened when the recon mission sent to investigate the communication breakdown with Hadley's Hope was exploring Sub-Level 3 following the discovery of the missing colonists' PDT signals em- anating from the Atmospheric Processor. The Marines were ambushed inside the hive, and during the ensuing firefight, the cooling system of the fusion reactor was ruptured, setting off a fatal chain reaction which eventually caused the processor to explode with the blasting power of 15 megatons, taking Hadley's Hope and everything else within a radius of 30 kilometers with it. (A2, A:CMTM) Auriga: A USM research vessel involved in the Xenomorph outbreak which became known as the Auriga incident in 2381. Spanning over 3,5 kilometers in length, the further specs of the Auriga are kept secret, although a prominent feature is a large docking shaft, opening to the ventral side. In the late 24th century, the Auriga was assigned to be the location for a project to clone Ellen Ripley and harvest the Alien Queen that died with her. For this purpose, the Auriga was set on a course in the outer reaches of the Sol system, far outside of the local trading routes. The ship was also equipped with research facilities customized to hold a limited number of Xenomorph specimens and an artifi- cial intelligence mainframe called FATHER tasked with automating and supervising operations. During the outbreak, FATHER directed the Auriga's course towards the USM home base, Earth, fol- lowing protocol for a case of emergency. However, the android Call managed to access the main- frame and re-direct its course to crash on an uninhabited part of the African continent. A short time later, the Auriga was destroyed during the impact, taking all Xenomorphs aboard with it. (A:RES) Auriga incident: The events surrounding and including the cloning of Ripley and the subsequent Xenomorph infestation aboard the USM research vessel Auriga in 2381. In the aftermath of the Fury 16 incident in 2179, a Weyland-Yutani research team collected genetic samples of Ellen Ripley from the infirmary of the penal colony and put them into storage for pos- sible use later on. After the downfall of Weyland-Yutani, these samples found their way into posses- sion of the United States Military. By the end of the 24th century, technology had advanced to a state where the cloning of a human being became possible. In order to harvest the Xenomorph organism for study, the United States Military initiated a project to clone Ripley and the Queen embryo inside her aboard the USM research vessel Auriga. This project was not authorized by the United States government, and the Auriga was placed on a location on the far reaches of the Sol system to avoid unwanted attention. While General Perez was assigned as the military commander of the operation, the science was led by Dr. Mason Wren. It took years for the project to succeed. The first seven clones that managed to surpass the micro- scopic stage were monstrous failures, twisted hybrids of human and Xenomorph biology. As these clones were nonviable, let alone be able to host the Queen embryo, they were discarded and put into stasis storage. However, in 2381, the science team under guidance of Dr. Wren were successful: Ripley 8 was a perfect replica of the deceased woman, at least on the outside, and due to accelerated growth therapy, she grew from an infant to an adult in roughly a month. However, there were sever- al side effects: Ripley 8 was stronger and faster than an ordinary human and wounds healed on a highly accelerated speed. Another legacy of the Xenomorph were genetically stored memories of the old Ripley, although those memories only resurfaced slowly. In the end, these characteristics were of of secondary interest to the scientists, who followed their main objective and surgically ex- tracted the Queen embryo from the host and put her into a holding facility, where she transformed into full size within days. On the request of his assistant Dr. Gediman, Wren allowed Ripley 8 to re- main alive for further study. With the Queen secured, the second phase of the Auriga project began. General Perez, had contac- ted an acquaintance of his, the smuggler Frank Elgyn, and in exchange for hard cash, Perez struck a deal with Elgyn to procure and deliver human host bodies to the Auriga. Elgyn and the rest of his band of smugglers proceeded to hijack a passenger liner en route to Xarem and transfer the occu- pied cryosleep tubes to their own ship, the Betty. Soon after, the Betty arrived at the Auriga and docked with the ship. The goods were exchanged, and with Perez's blessing, the crew decided to stay on board for a few day. The scientists immediately began with the impregnation process. With- in a short time, a population of twelve adult Xenomorph was cultivated. What nobody knew was that there was someone among the crew of the Betty who had her very own agenda: Annalee Call. She gained access to the cell where Ripley 8 was held with the intent to kill her in order to prevent the scientist to retrieve the Queen embryo. However, Call soon realized that she was too late. Also, Wren had noticed her unauthorized entry, took Call into custody and brought her to the mess hall where the rest of Elgyn's crew was present at the time. Wren's accusations of terrorist activity escalated into violence. Elgyn and the other smuggled quickly overwhelmed the se- curity guards, took Wren and an USM soldier called DiStephano hostage in order to fight their way back to the Betty, when a ship-wide alert was activated. The Xenomorphs had managed to escape from their cages and began to decimate the Auriga's soldiers and scientists. Perez ordered the evacuation of the ship, and while an undisclosed number of Auriga personnel was able to escape in time, most of the remaining staff, including Perez, were killed off in the initial at- tack. The Xenomorphs proceeded to free the Queen and set up a hive in a waste tank of the Auriga. However, the Queen had in turn been mutated by Ripley's DNA and developed female reproductive organs, which caused the Xenomorph to cease their efforts to take victims for impregnation soon after the hive had been created. Meanwhile, the crew of the Betty made their way towards the Auriga's docking bay. Ripley had also noticed the outbreak and escaped her cell. She found the smugglers just in time to save them from a Xenomorph, which had just killed their captain, Elgyn. A fragile alliance between the two parties was formed, and following directions provided by Wren and DiStephano, Ripley took the lead. However, time was running out as the Auriga, following emergency procedure, had set course to the USM home base: Earth. During their trek through the Auriga, Ripley 8 found and destroyed the remains of the first seven clones. The crew also picked up a civilian called Purvis, one of the human hosts from the passenger liner. Despite the fact that Purvis had already been impregnated, the crew decided to take him with them so that Wren could remove the embryo later. While traversing the flooded kitchen of the ship, the survivors were attacked by two Xenomorphs and lost the crew members Hillard and Christie to the creatures whereas Wren took the opportunity to leave behind the rest of the group. Call had been injured by Wren when he made his move, and when the survivors took a short break, it was revealed that Call was a second-generation android who had made it her mission to prevent humanity from unleashing the Xenomorph on the galaxy. Ripley convinced Call to manually log into the ship's mainframe, where she unlocked an escape route to the Betty and set the Auriga on a collision course to Earth. The survivors had almost reached the Betty when Ripley 8 was abducted by the Aliens into their hive. Unable to help her, the rest of the group was forced to move on without her. Inside the Xenomorph hive, Ripley witnessed the birth of the Queen's Newborn, a grotesque hu- man/Alien hybrid. Meanwhile, the surviving crew members had reached the Betty only to be con- fronted by Wren. However, the chief scientist of the Auriga was killed by Purvis, who managed to overwhelm him and pull his head to his chest just as the Chestburster erupted. The crew made short work of the creature and proceeded to prepare the Betty for take-off. At the same time, Ripley 8 es- caped the hive and reached the Betty just seconds before it left the docking bay. When the Auriga was obliterated during the impact on Earth's surface, Ripley, Call and the rest of the group believed the Xenomorph threat to be eliminated. However, the Newborn had managed to escape destruction as a stowaway aboard the Betty. The hybrid killed DiStephano, but was destroyed when Ripley used her acidic blood to melt a nearby viewport, which sucked the Newborn into vacuum. Ripley, Call and the other two survivors from Elgyn's crew, Johner and Vriess, subsequently safely landed the Betty on New Zealand, Earth. (A:RES, A:OS)