Ripley: Ash, can you hear me? Ash?
Ash: [speaking in an electronic, distorted voice] Yes, I can hear you.
Ripley: What was your special order?
Ash: You read it. I thought it was clear.
Ripley: What was it?
Ash: Bring back life form. Priority One. All other priorities rescinded.
Parker: The damn company. What about our lives, you son of a bitch?
Ash: I repeat, all other priorities are rescinded.
Ripley: How do we kill it Ash? There's gotta be a way of killing it. How? How do we do it?
Ash: You can't.
Parker: That's bullshit.
Ash: You still don't understand what you're dealing with, do you? Perfect organism. Its structural perfection is matched only by its hostility.
Lambert: You admire it.
Ash: I admire its purity. A survivor... unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality.
Parker: Look, I am... I've heard enough of this, and I'm asking you to pull the plug.
Ash: [Ripley goes to disconnect Ash, who interrupts] Last word.
Ripley: What?
Ash: I can't lie to you about your chances, but... you have my sympathies.
...and here's the mama of all horrific creatures from Hot Toys as a 30th Anniversary tribute to Ridley Scott's 1979 ALIEN. This completes the twin fav creature film of all time, together with da original Predator scored couple of months back. Otherwise, the figure, whilst nice, severely lacking in terms of articulate fluid-ness (the legs and feet could only support the figure at selective angles, there is a nagging feeling that the "covering"/skin of the figure might tear if too much odd posing is done, cannot do the classic Alien pose ie squatting down with two hands extended) and the release button for the extending inner jaw is a pain to the thumb as well as not working as smooth as I thought it would. Again, have some fun on coming up with a view of the creature life cycle base on the original concept (no queen), and took a chunk of infos from the website Alien Universe Timeline on some fantastic facts for the chronology. But be forewarned, coz the followings are a composite of self indulgent, psycho babbling mess...
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A (mis) interpretation.
Timeline :
Mid to Late 21st Century ~Faster-Than-Light (FTL) technology is discovered and the human race expands into deep space. Space traffic control station established in Antarctica.
Early 22nd Century ~ Deep space mining station established by Weyland-Yutani Corporation on the planet Thedus beyond the Outer Rim. Space port established in the Solomon Islands.
Circa 2101 ~ The National Security Act establishes the Colonial Marine Corp. M-Class Star cruiser Nostromo (180924609) constructed.
2104 ~ The Northern, Central, and Southern American continents consolidate their economic might to form one nation known as The United Americas.
2106 - 2108 ~Torin Prime Civil War occurs in Outer Rim Territories.
2116 ~ USCSS Nostromo refitted as a commercial towing vehicle.
January 4, 2120 ~A.J. Dallas (ID# 032/V4-07C) is given command of USCSS Nostromo (flight status B).
January 5, 2120 ~ G.W. 'Thomas' Kane (ID# 825/G9-01K)and J.M. Lambert (ID# 971/L6-02P) are assigned to the USCSS Nostromo as Executive Officer and Navigator respectively.
January 7, 2120 ~ USCSS Nostromo leaves the Solomons bound for Thedus.
August 10, 2120 ~ Ellen L. Ripley (ID# 759/L2-01N) joins crew of USCSS Nostromo en route to Thedus, as Warrant Officer.
September 10, 2120 ~ J.T. Parker (ID# 313/S4-08M) and S.E. Brett (ID# 724/R4-06J)join the crew of the USCSS Nostromo en route to Thedus, as Engineer and Engineering Tech respectively.
April 2121 ~USCSS Nostromo arrives at Thedus and commences cargo loading.
June 12, 2121 ~ USCSS Nostromo leaves Thedus with 20,000,000 tonnes of mineral ore, bound for Earth. Her science officer is replaced with Ash (ID# 111/C2/01X).
July 3 to 6, 2121 ~ USCSS Nostromo encounters what is assumed to be a distress signal emanating from LV-426, a planetoid, measuring 1200km in diameter with 2 hours rotation and some gravity, orbiting a giant ringed gas planet at the Zeta-2-Reticuli system together with two other smaller moons. USCSS is damaged during descent. Dallas, Kane, and Lambert investigate the source of the signal on foot, at 2kms away, which lead them to a derelict spacecraft of extra-terrestrial origin. Within they come across an enormous fossilised remain of an unknown alien species and thousands of egg-like objects within the spacecraft lower chamber. Ripley re-runs the signal and suspects that it could be a warning instead. One of the eggs hatch and an organism attaches itself onto Kane’s face. It implants an embryo within him, which then hatches, killing Kane. The hatchling grows to over 7 feet tall and kills Brett in the landing gear hangar. Dallas is presumed kill by the xenomorph while trying to flush it out via the air duct into space. Parker encounters the xenomorph within the airlock and attempt to flush it out into space. The airlock alarm goes off un-expectantly which alerts the xenomorph. Lambert is killed when the airlock door closes and severs the xenomorph tail, releasing droplets of molecular acids which destroy the airlock with Lambert traps inside. Ripley later learns from USCSS Nostromo's computer, "MOTHER" after overriding Special Command 937 that the company, Weyland-Yutani Corporation, wants to obtain any extra-terrestrial species of value to their Weapons Research and Designs Division should the crew encounters any during the journey. The crew safety is secondary and their lives expendable. Ash attempts to kill Ripley and after the intervention of Parker, it is revealed that Ash is in fact a Hyperdyne Systems 120-A/2 android, and has been tasked to protect the xenomorph from the beginning. Parker renders Ash inoperative when it continues to attack them. Ripley and Parker decide to activate the Nostromo self-destruct system. Parker is killed by the xenomorph whilst securing supplies for the lifeboat. Ripley encounters the xenomorph nest which contain a barely alive Dallas and Brett's mutated corpse within the landing gear hangar. Dallas has been cocooned by the xenomorph and in the midst of metamorphosis into an egg to continue the xenomorph life cycle. Ripley performs mercy killing upon Dallas. Ripley activates the self-destruct system and escapes on board the lifeboat Narcissus with a cat, Mr Jones. The xenomorph also escapes on the shuttle, but Ripley manages to blow it out of the airlock, and kills it by incinerating it with Narcissus's plasma afterburner.
August, 2122 ~ Beacon onboard Shuttlecraft Narcissus fails and reaches the Frontier.
2123 ~ USCSS Nostromo and its crew are declared missing by Weyland-Yutani Corporation.
Mid 22nd Century ~ Vast advances are made with star ship travel and FTL technology. Advances made in the area of artifical intelligence. Gateway Station is constructed in orbit around Earth. Shuttle craft Narcissus drifts un-noticed through the Core Systems. Volcanic activity on LV-426 damages and partially buries the derelict spacecraft previously investigated by the USCSS Nostromo. The 'distress' signal the Nostromo were investigating is shut off.
2157 ~ Hadley’s Hope terraforming colony established on LV-426 for the purpose of mining Helium-3 from the gas planet which it orbits. There is no sign of any signal from the derelict investigated by the Nostromo 35 years earlier.
2165 ~ The Colonial Marine Corp reaches a peak 240,000 personnel at the end of the Tientsin campaign.
Circa 2169 ~ Conestoga Class starship USS Sulaco is constructed.
May 6, 2179 ~ Shuttle craft Narcissus is discovered by a deep salvage team, and Ellen Ripley and Mr Jones the cat are rescued, setting the record for the longest ever hyper sleep.
June 8, 2179 ~Ripley arrives at Gateway Station and is placed into hospital, where she later learns what has happened.
June 12, 2179 ~ Ripley is discharged from hospital and learns about the death of her daughter, Amanda Ripley-McClaren at the age of 66 of cancer 2 years earlier. At a board of enquiry, Ripley’s comprehensive report on the "Nostromo Incident" are dismissed. Her flight status was revoked. Ripley warns the board about the danger the xenomorph poses to the Hadley's Hope population. She eventually takes up residence aboard Gateway Station, working at the loading bays. Base on the information and Ripley's report from the enquiry, Weyland-Yutani Colonial Administration Executive, Carter J. Burke provides Hadley’s Hope with the co-ordinates to the derelict spacecraft with the intent to verify Ripley's claim and if true, to bring back a specimen for the company's Weapons Research and Design Division.
June 19, 2179 ~ Russ and Ann Jorden are sent investigate a set of grid co-ordinates provided by Carter Burke, beyond the Ilium Range on LV-426, with their children, Timmy and Newt.
June 21, 2179 ~ The Jorden family discovers the derelict with their children. Russ is similarly attacked and impregnated with a xenomorph embryo. He is taken back to Hadley’s Hope.
July 3, 2179 ~ Colonial Administration loses contact with the colony.
July 6, 2179 ~ A Colonial Marine squad from the 109th Tannhauser's Gate Regiment is sent to LV-426 to investigate on board the USS Sulaco.
July 26, 2179 ~ The last pockets of resistance at Hadley's Hope are over-run by the xenomorphs.
July 27, 2179 ~ The USS Sulaco arrives at LV-426. The marines dropship departs the Sulaco for Hadley's Hope.
July 28, 2179 ~ The Colonial Marine squad discovers all 158 population of Hadley's Hope, with the exception of a sole survivor, Newt, have succumbed to the xenomorphs attacks and turned into cocoons within a massive nest locates right beneath the atmosphere processing station. The Colonial Marine squad is ambushed inside the nest. The Colonial Marine squad engages the xenomorphs in a violent firefight, damaging the cooling tower in the process. This causes the atmosphere processing reactor to meltdown. Marine dropship at the rendevous point is attacked by xenomorphs. The commanding officer sends a second dropship and successfully retrieve two sole surviving Marine privates and Newt. An orbital bombardment is ordered and directed at the atmosphere processing station, resulting in a massive thermonuclear detonation which vaporises the entire Hadley's Hope colony, its atmosphere processing station, the derelict spaceship and its cargo of remaining eggs. J.Carter Burker is forced to resign and accept responsibility for the disastrous operation. He stands trial and is subsequently imprisoned at the Venus Rehabilitation Penitentiary for twenty years. Surviving marines from Sulaco are debriefed and honourably discharged from duties but not before signing the legal obligation of non-disclosure pertaining to the Hadley's Hope incident. Newt is legally adopted by Ripley months later.
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The 8th passenger.
The extra-terrestrial malevolent creature encountered by the ill fated crew of Nostromo on LV-426 at Zeta 2 Reticulli system between June 3 to June 6, 2121, within a derelict spacecraft of another equally mysterious, fossilised, dead alien pilot, is an endoparasitoid extra-terrestrial species. Its sole purpose of existence is the propagation of their species and complete obliteration of any other life forms. Among hundreds of catalogued planetary systems, no such description of extra-terrestrial species or organisms have been encountered nor described. It has a complex life cycle which consists of several distinctive stages. It begins as an egg which contains a parasitoid larvae within. The egg is shaped like a ellipsoidal leathery objects between 2 to 4 feet high with a 4 lobed patterned opening on top. A form of blue colour mist is exhaled by the egg, acting as a motion sensor which alerts the larvae if a potential host is within proximity. Once the host is within reaching distance, a singular, hissing sound is released and the upper portion of the egg will begin to thin and melt, dripping drops of liquid akin to perspiration on upward motion. The stationary larvae will also begin to stimulate and flutter. The egg's lobe then unfold like a flower accompanied by a visceral, sinewy sound, undoubtedly reflecting the strength of an enclose egg to protect it from external harm. It is believed that an egg could survive for a long time. The eggs within the derelict extra-terrestrial spacecraft are at least fifty seven Earth years old.
The parasitic larvae would ejects itself at a violent speed towards the host, and attaches onto the host's facial structure. It should be noted that in the case of Kane, the larvae excretes molecular acid which melts Kane's space helmet face plate instantaneously in order to reach him. The larvae is shaped like a chelicerate anthropods like arachnids and horseshoe crabs. It has 8 long fingers like legs and a long tail. The larvae is parasitoid, its sole purpose is to make contact with the host's mouth for impregnation process. It does so by gripping its legs tightly around the host's face and head, while its long tail coils and wraps around the host's throat. The larvae causes the host to loose consciousness and into a state of induced coma by depriving the host of oxygen via asphyxiation. It will then inserts a proboscis into the host chest cavity behind the sternum and impregnate the host with an embryo. It keeps the host alive by feeding the host with minimal oxygen. Attempts to remove the larvae is highly fatal to the host and dangerous, as witnessed and reported by Ripley, when Dallas and Ash applied this option. The larvae will tighten its tail further, to the point of severing the host's neck joint. Any attempt to pry off the legs will result in it gripping the facial structure tighter, which would lead to severe laceration to the extent of tearing the facial muscle and scalp off the host as reported in the documents retrieved from the Hadley's Hope Colony. More frighteningly, and perhaps the most powerful naturally occur defence mechanism ever encounter by humankind, is that the larvae, apart from shedding its polysaccharide cells and replaces it with hardened external silicon, contains molecular acid. Any attempt to dissect it would results in destruction of the surrounding area. Ripley reported that a single drop of the substance was sufficient to melt through three levels of the Nostromo before stopping.
Upon impregnation of the host, the larvae dies and drops off from the host face. The host will then wakes up from the induced coma, while showing no considerable outward negative symptoms. Symptoms build up shortly after waking up include sore throat, temporary amnesia, slight nausea, increase congestion and tight sensation in the chest, and extreme hunger. During the gestation period, the embryo will replicate some of the host's DNA and traits. These horizontal gene transfer would results in the creature taking on some basic physical attributes of its host, suspected to allow the creature to adapt to the host's environment. The gestation period will lasts between one to three hours. The embryo would absorb nutrients from the host throughout the gestation period. Once the gestation period is over, the embryo would have grown into a 20 to 30 cm long nymph. The host would begin to cough, choke and vomit, follows by violent spasm as the nymph rips apart the host's chest internally and tear itself out, killing the host in the process. The nymph has a phallic-like appearance, without arms nor legs but has a pair of jaws and slithers away like a snake. The "birth" process is extremely violent, and according to Ripley's report, it left the remaining crew highly traumatised.
The nymph would instinctively seeks out a hiding spot. It will molt instantaneously, and undergoes drastic growth spurt. The nymph reaches maturity within two hours. The adult creature in Nostormo measures approximately seven feet in height and fourteen feet in length. It takes a bipedal stature, akin to a plantigrade organism but sometimes adopt a hunched, quadrupedal stance. It has a bio-mechanical, skeletal appearance and is blackish in colour, although it has been noted that when Brett was attacked, the creature has a slightly much lighter coloration, perhaps due to recent molting. During the disastrous operation at Hadley's Hope, the creatures did not register on the Colonial Marine squad's heat spectrum auxiliary system, leading to speculation that the creature does not radiate heat and its body heat matches the ambient temperature of the environment. The creature possesses immense strength, capable of breaking through steel doors and support its entire body weight by using only its segmented tail. It has the ability to crawl along ceilings and walls. The creature's skin consists of polarized sillicon, making it incredibly hardy and strong. Nevertheless, it could still conceals itself within narrow air ducts and compress in between tight spaces. The creature has an elongated, dome-like, cylindrical head with no visible eye and is semi-translucent. A basic outline of a human skull can be visible from within, a testament to the aforementioned DNA transfer of basic traits from it's host. The creature has two sets of jaws, the primary jaw with serrated silicon teeth, and the second being an inner pharyngeal jaw, which is located at the tip of its long, probosis like tongue. Uses as a weapon to kill or subdue its prey, this inner jaw shoots out at an incredible speed, aiming at the prey's head, and punches through the skull with a deadly impact of force before quickly withdrawing it back into its mouth. It has been reported that it is strong enough to punch through a steel door. The creatures possesses six webbed fingers on each hands. Like during the larvae stage, the adult creature contains molecular acids or some forms of hydrosulphuric acids which are highly potent, capable of corroding any physical substance it comes into contact with alarming speed. The creature is immune to its own "blood" due to an endobiological built up similar to a human stomach's ability to protect itself from its digestive fluids and bio-organically produced Teflon isolation. It would secretes liquid silica from its mouth continuously. The creature uses the secretion to built nest. The unknown actual composition of the silica could alter inorganic matters down to the molecular level. Contradicting all laws of biological nature, an adult creature does not need to feed, deriving reserve energy within itself. As such, including its incredibly fast growth and maturity rate, an adult creature would not live beyond forty eight hours. Upon its death, the adult creature would secrete all its bodily molecular acids and silica from its pores, disintegrating in the process.
To continue its lifecycle, the adult creature would ambush its preys, whether alive or dead, to be cocooned and metamorphosis into eggs, as observed by Ripley in the case of the half transformed, barely alive Dallas and egg-like corpse of Brett within the landing gear hangar of the Nostromo and the Colonial Marines when they found the population of the Hadley's Hope underneath the atmospheric processing station. The adult creature would release a form of enzyme which alters the host DNA, breaking it down and altering it into eggs. Then the larvae within the eggs would await another host for it to continue its life cycle anew. This complex life cycle has been much debated by the scientists observers of Weyland-Yutani. Most hypothesised that it could be a form of control over the propagation of the deadly creature, which leads to the another hypothesis that it could be a genetically engineered life-form.
Nothing much is known about the creature's intelligence and communication skills, if any. However, based on both the Nostromo and Hadley's Hope Incident, it has been speculated that the creature may have a certain degree of observational learning and problem solving abilities.
It has been theorised that the dead alien pilot found by the Nostromo crew within the derelict spacecraft may had been killed in the similar manner like Kane, due to a large hole-like implosion found on its fossilised body. Its entire crew may had been turned into the eggs found by Kane within the ship chamber. Another theory is that the spacecraft may have been a intergalactic bomber of some sort, with the eggs serving as some form of weapon of mass destruction. If this were to be true, the creature which killed all the Nostromo crew with the exception of Ripley and wiped out the entire Hadley's Hope population, leaving only one survivor Newt and two Colonial Marines, may served as a form of genetically engineered biological "clean up" organism, with the sole aim of total annihilation of life form on planetary scale.
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