Contain xenomorphs with a modern military base

[Ted C]

Will a xeno "worker" spontaneously metamorphose into a queen if its alone? I recall some speculation about that in the Alien novel, but I don't know if there's an good evidence. The embryo Ripley was carrying in Alien 3 was recognizable on medical scans as a queen, so the adult metamophosis doesn't seem to be likely.

If that's the case, one containment measure would be to only have adult workers at the facility; even if one were to escape, it wouldn't be able to generate a large infestation.

The xenos seem to become dormant if frozen (if Aliens vs Predator is any indication), so locating the facility in Antarctica seems to be a good idea. Also, keeping the specimens frozen when not under direct observation would be wise. Freezing them for any kind of transport would probably also be a reasonable precaution.

As for questions about their aquatic nature, they don't seem to be specifically aquatic creatures, but they're certainly comfortable enough in water. They actually seem to be able to handle vaccuum for pretty long periods, so they presumably can hold their breath for several minutes, at least (in Aliens the larva seemed to be doing fine immersed in those little holding tanks for weeks).

I agree with keeping them contained in liquid-filled tanks. Keep them immersed in water (buffered if necessary) to keep their acid from becoming an escape mechanism: they've been seen to use that trick on more than one occasion, now. Also, make the tank large enough and smooth enough on the inside to keep them from being able to used their full strength against it (why take chances). They do seem to be able to coordinate their hunting and escape efforts pretty well, so I'd want to restrict their communications on general principle.

Apart from that, I would want a sealed environment for experiments, and there should be an airlock system for entering and leaving so that anyone coming or going can be checked for contamination before leaving the facility. Also, anyone working near the larvae should have to make frequent voice check-ins: anyone with a face-hugger attached wouldn't be able to respond, and that would be cause for an alarm.

Provide plenty of armed guards, and you should have all you need to keep the little bastards contained.

The real question to me is, why? W-Y always seemed to want them for use as bio-weapons, but turning loose a bunch of xenos on a enemy seems about as smart as unleashing a killer virus.

[Bladed_Crescent]

Will a xeno "worker" spontaneously metamorphose into a queen if its alone? I recall some speculation about that in the Alien novel, but I don't know if there's an good evidence. The embryo Ripley was carrying in Alien 3 was recognizable on medical scans as a queen, so the adult metamophosis doesn't seem to be likely.

To answer your question: yes, if we're counting the novels. But only in the absence of a queen. If a drone metamorphosizes when there already is one, you get a dominance battle. In Nightmare Asylum, a rogue military operation was conducting extensive research on the aliens and maintained a pair of hives for this purpose. I think that's how they got their second queen.

But just from the movies, as you've said, it's a great deal more ambiguous.

There are queens born as embryoes from established hives (obviously); royal jelly plays some part, but exactly what I can't recall.

Isolated drones will die off, but those able to hunt, make a nest and secure prey will eventually undergo a "hormone storm" and become a queen themselves and establish a full colony. Apparently this change takes very little time as in AvP:Prey, the yautja leader wasn't sure whether a colony's queen was on the one from his wrecked ship, or if one of the drones had undergone metamorphosis - and he had only been on the planet for about a day.

[Vendetta]

The real question to me is, why? W-Y always seemed to want them for use as bio-weapons, but turning loose a bunch of xenos on a enemy seems about as smart as unleashing a killer virus.

Given what we've seen and debated in the past, it's likely that W-Y are just stupid. (In the novels/comics terminally so, since they have all their alien research done in dense population centres and no-one seems to be able to shut the aliens down once they get loose, CF: Earth War)

Though in a spacefaring society they'd be a low cost, hard to detect alternative to a suicide bomber, slip an infected individual onto a ship, let them pop, and you have an alien running around you can't safely shoot up without compromising the ship.

Not much good otherwise though.

[Admiral Valdemar]

I always figured it was a good terror weapon against mostly civilian populations. A killer virus is one thing, but you only see the after effects of the invisible bug days later and even then, maybe not all that horrifically. An acid blooded black dæmon has far more of a "Oh shit!" factor. Doubly so when you're a host.

[MKSheppard]

In the novels/comics terminally so, since they have all their alien research done in dense population centres and no-one seems to be able to shut the aliens down once they get loose, CF: Earth War)

Writer's FIAT! Yarr!

then again, the Soviets did put their major biological weapons plants near major cities (Ref: Sverdlosk), so it's not infeasible....just improbable after the first few disasters.

[Admiral Valdemar]

Yeah, but the Soviets were meant to be faceless overlords who didn't care about what happened to the people, while Weyland-Yutani was... ah, nevermind.

[frogcurry]

Cut their arms and legs off at birth and fuse the scar tissue with a flame to destroy any stump that could regrow. The only other containment required is rooms to keep them in, straightjackets with handles for moving them in, and masks to stop them spitting acid on you.

No need for any of this expensive water tanks and acid proof glass walls and nukes nonsense.

[Shroom Man 777]

Or just dump them in a place designed to contain hazardous toxic melty sludge.

Hm, what if we tied them explodey Battle Royale collars on the xenos? Run out of the base, boom. Get too close to staff, boom. Mess with the collars, boom.

[Stark]

Or you could just make it impossible for them to escape. They're hardly intelligent, and even without simply sealing them in a separate part of the base and using drones you can use their predeliction for darkness, dampness and heat to control their movements. The idea of them coming into contact with staff is simply insane.

[Vympel]

Did Hudson say "wall to wall"? I thought he said "they're all over the wall in there", which makes it even more blindingly obvious that shitloads of them got killed.

And was I just imagining the continuous Alien death screams?

And another thing- those guns operate on motion. If they didn't have targets, they wouldn't have been firing non-stop. Of course, suggesting as Hooligan did that the Aliens somehow dodged machine gun fire is laughable.

[THEHOOLIGANJEDI]

Did Hudson say "wall to wall"? I thought he said "they're all over the wall in there", which makes it even more blindingly obvious that shitloads of them got killed.

He said they were "wall to wall".

And was I just imagining the continuous Alien death screams?

No.

And another thing- those guns operate on motion. If they didn't have targets, they wouldn't have been firing non-stop. Of course, suggesting as Hooligan did that the Aliens somehow dodged machine gun fire is laughable.

Great way to misrepresent my point, BUD!
I wasn't trying to say they were skillfully dodging Machine gun fire. I was merely stating that they sentries obviously missed in both scenes. The First Sentry sequence alluded to this since we do have Xeno that were still around to knock on the pressure door.

Now before I get painted some "Xeno wanker" I would really actually like to get my point across and at least attempt make my point on quantifying Alien xenomorphs based Strictly on the films. (Just categorize the strengths and Limitations) Just so I can correctly represent myself to the benefit of all who participate.

[THEHOOLIGANJEDI]

In the comics they'd be aciding on powerlines to create shorts, destroying communication equipment and using small numbers of drones to draw out the marines. Or - get this - CONTROLLING THEM WITH DREAMS.

What? That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. On of many reason why I never bothered to pick up the comics.

[THEHOOLIGANJEDI]

Whats the canon policy of the Alien universe? I've read a few of the books and their quality was crap at best. And from what I've heard of the comics there even worse.

That's what I have heard too. I don't think there is a canon policy.(As mentioned earlier) But I would in debates limit it to what we see in the films. As for film Novelizations, I would assume that there is some sort of"official" status given to them because they are based (and expand) on the films.

[THEHOOLIGANJEDI]

Naturally. The only reason I would think that they are separately powered is because the AP needs A lot of Power for converting the Atmosphere within a reasonable amount of time, thus it gets it's own Power plant. The Colony get's it's own for it purposes. Or it could be for redundancy reasons.

That doesn't exactly fit in with Weyland-Yutani's known cheapskate ways. If they can get away with having the atmosphere processor power itself and the colony I'm sure they will.

I don't completely recall WY being known for cheapskating. Take that back. They actually are somewhat cheap, but they haven't been shown as a company that would cut corners as you suggest.
But what makes me think that The Processor is separately powered is: When the power is cut to the Command center much of the facilities equipment still functions. Lifts and lighting still worked even when the AP is mere moments from going critical.

[THEHOOLIGANJEDI]

And if you read my whole post then you would have noticed that I mentioned that The combination of Liquid and a lack of leverage needed to create the right momentum to break through obviously hindered any escape.

Oh please. Momentum is directly related to mass and given that the thing can easily be carried around in one hand makes any momentum in the thing pretty much negligible. Probably the same mass as if the thing were made out of rubber (which the prop probably was).

Your right. But at the same time, you have to look at the strength of facehugger. It's obviously stronger than it looks or otherwise Kane could have attempted to just rip it off his face plate. Momentum is part of why Kane got impregnated. The facehugger's speed an strength were another factor.

How does that invalidate my point?? For starters we don't know if Kane's helmet was first cracked and then dissolved through. One can assume that the Glass cracking in places is was caused the melt of the faceplate. (Because the broken Glass cut the Facehugger, causing it to bleed )

Damn, does anyone have a pic of this because I seem to recall the only damage to the faceplate. There weren't any cracks on the part of the faceplate that wasn't melted.[/quote]I was saying that the cracks must have been on the part of the faceplate that was dissolved. There had to have been a crack (obvioulsy a small one) at some point during the attack that would allow the Facehugger to bleed out and successfully penetrate the the faceplate.

[THEHOOLIGANJEDI]

As for questions about their aquatic nature, they don't seem to be specifically aquatic creatures, but they're certainly comfortable enough in water. They actually seem to be able to handle vaccuum for pretty long periods, so they presumably can hold their breath for several minutes, at least (in Aliens the larva seemed to be doing fine immersed in those little holding tanks for weeks).

It is possible that they don't need to breathe out right. We know that their blood neutralizes over time when it is exposed to Oxygen. Seeing as how one of the reasons for breathing for many organisms is to Oxygenate the blood which is something that would be detrimental to a xeno. (since it would neutralize it's defense mechanism) But that's just one way of looking at it.

[THEHOOLIGANJEDI]

Conceeded on the hobo point.

Well naturally. If you know their basic tactics then you don't build facility that can give them advantages if there is a breakout.

No, but you would just build a facility that won't give them advantages if there's a breakout. With a five hundred megaton nuclear bomb for good measure.

No that, would be just the beginning of it. IIRC, whan I posted my response, it was just a vague concept. I didn't have time to write up the whole thing.

Anyway, has it been conceeded that a small number of xenos cannot escape a smartly run facility barring something remarkably stupid happening?

I don't dispute that. But there are variables.

Oh, and I just finished reading The Femal War novel. It seems like we don't really need some complicated watertank to contain the xenos at all, just stuff made out of the same materials used to contain hazardous materials. I can't believe that's been overlooked.

Oh, and the giant xenos that guard the Queen Mother aliens, which are as big as normal Queens, can be dropped by non-excessive carbine fire. So no, even the T-rex sized xenos are still deadable to an amount of bullets not exceeding than usual xeno-deading quantity.

And if the book is cannon, then the Colonial humans are even more utterly stupid. Remarkably moronic, in fact. Get this, their APC gets banged up a bit, scratched by by some giant xenos, and because of that its reactor melts down and explodes five minutes later. Jesus.

UGH! I hate The Alien Novels. They badly represent both Humans and Xenos. Which is something that I would liek to see done right. (It's also the reason I hate Alien Resurrection)

Hm, how high can aliens jump? Can they climb on 90 degree walls? If we push our luck, we might not even have to build ceilings, heh. But that's dumb.

I have seen anything in the movies that gauge their jumping ability. Oppps Alien Resurrection shows it in one scene. But I don't recall how high, It's been ages since I veiwed. As for climbing 90 degrees, I do believe that they can do it. (they can "cling" to walls like Spider-Man) There are some example in the films. Alien 3 has the most memorable take on it. It shows a xeno perspective as it chases the prisoners. It moves from floor to wall to ceiling with ease.

[NecronLord]

Sweet Zombie Jesus! Get notepad, and make all your replies into a big post, next time.

[THEHOOLIGANJEDI]

Sweet Zombie Jesus! Get notepad, and make all your replies into a big post, next time.

My computer is a bit outdated to say the least. This isn't my home computer. But I see what you mean.

[Aaron]

I don't completely recall WY being known for cheapskating. Take that back. They actually are somewhat cheap, but they haven't been shown as a company that would cut corners as you suggest.

The Nostromo broke when she landed on LV426 during routine landing operations, that strikes me as cutting corners during her design.

But what makes me think that The Processor is separately powered is: When the power is cut to the Command center much of the facilities equipment still functions. Lifts and lighting still worked even when the AP is mere moments from going critical.

Clearly they only cut the power line running from the processor to the colony not the entire power grid.

[THEHOOLIGANJEDI]

I don't completely recall WY being known for cheapskating. Take that back. They actually are somewhat cheap, but they haven't been shown as a company that would cut corners as you suggest.

The Nostromo broke when she landed on LV426 during routine landing operations, that strikes me as cutting corners during her design.

Perhaps. But also take into acount that they landed in a pretty lousy area of an unknown planet. Generally the ship was Ill suited for any other duties that it wasn't assigned to. Perhpas it was only designed to land on designated landing pad and it wasn't intended to be used as a rescue ship capable of landing in a very craggy surface. Was the ship cheap? It's likely. But I still don't think that it is a testament to the Company cutting corners. It's merely poor planning and shortsightedness.

But what makes me think that The Processor is separately powered is: When the power is cut to the Command center much of the facilities equipment still functions. Lifts and lighting still worked even when the AP is mere moments from going critical.

Clearly they only cut the power line running from the processor to the colony not the entire power grid.[/quote]I can buy that. But it also dismisses the notion that the reason the light went out in the Command center was not the Processor's damage, but it was xeno interference (if that's the "They" you refer to). Which is what I was responding to.

[Aaron]

Perhaps. But also take into acount that they landed in a pretty lousy area of an unknown planet. Generally the ship was Ill suited for any other duties that it wasn't assigned to. Perhpas it was only designed to land on designated landing pad and it wasn't intended to be used as a rescue ship capable of landing in a very craggy surface. Was the ship cheap? It's likely. But I still don't think that it is a testament to the Company cutting corners. It's merely poor planning and shortsightedness.

The ship landed on a flat part of the planet, the damage appeared to come from a landing strut coming down on a large rock. I'd call it poor design if the ship wasn't designed with enough give in her landing gear. Cutting corners in ship design would account for that oversight. Clearly the ship was meant to put down on surfaces other than a prepared pad as the crew never gave it a second thought when they set down on LV426.

I can buy that. But it also dismisses the notion that the reason the light went out in the Command center was not the Processor's damage, but it was xeno interference (if that's the "They" you refer to). Which is what I was responding to.

Who else would I be refering too? It's not like the Marines cut the power. It's possible that the power cut was a result of the damage to the processor power plant. We have no evidence either way that it was the Aliens doing it. But I'll take the characters dialogue as proof. I think if the damage to the reactor was severe enough to cause a power outage they would have had some advance warning.

[THEHOOLIGANJEDI]

Not really. I have seen the scene in question many times. All it shows was:
Part one: The First sentry gun scene shows the guns blazing. The cut back to the command center showing the counters on the Guns winding down. They transition like this back and forth until both guns are empty.(there is a scene where a Xeno gets wasted in between these transitions) At the end there is a pounding sound on the pressure door. It Stops and the Marines relax.
Here is the picture of the Hallway in question.
Part two: Pretty much the same thing happens as in Part one. Including another xeno getting wasted oncreen. Both scenes are nebulous on casualities. We never see a row of Xeno getting cut down onscreen.Nor is there much of anything to indicate that they waltzed in there an got mowed down.

"Wall to wall", asshole. What does "wall to wall" mean in your world? One guy? It means the corridor is full of them, and those guns are blasting away right into them.

No Shit! That actually debunks your declaration that they charged in there row by row. As I've been saying, (and this goes back) they used the walls in an attempt to avoid the guns. (Which had varying degrees of success) Wall to Wall means that they obviously tried to use the walls. Looking How we see them move in the series, Xenos do use their agility to evade attacks by using their surrounding enviroments. Aliens clearly shows this.

It's enough to show me that there is a lot of carnage going on. We can assume that there were hits and misses, if you are tyring to insinuate that those guns hit more most of the targets they fired at then you must have watched a different movie than I.

How the fuck could they not hit targets if the corridor is full of aliens? Do you figure Hudson was just lying?[/quote]Obviously not. Where have I said that he was lying? I stated that in all of the chaos that there is room for error on the sentries. Or do you believe that xeno's don't attempt to dodge an attack. (and no I'm not saying that they can skillfully dodge bullets) As I said Above they do use evasive tactics to varying degrees of success.

But the fact that you are trying to say that this is some proof that I'm not seeing is ludicrous to say the least. There is even a brief look at one of the monitors in the corridoras the battle raged (there's movement): We don't see rows of Aliens be mowed down because they aren't moving in way you suggest. They didn't charge through it in rows like you suggest. Watch the movie again.

You can't see shit in that scene; all you can see is glimpses of the grainy video camera footage from the sentry guns, one brief shot of an alien being blown apart (which tells you how many losses they must be taking if they're advancing on the guns, since that ammo is more than powerful enough to rip them to shreds), and Hudson saying that the aliens are "wall to wall in there". Not "one guy, I think we might have hit him but missed most of the time".[/quote]Now where in my response did I say that the sentry guns Missed most of their targets?? Hmmm?? Never. I was saying that throughout the carnage that there is an obvious chance that many tagets were missed. If you think I'm alluding to the ridiculous notion that the only casualties suffered were the ones we see onscreen then stop before you start.
Here's a screen cap:

http://www.planetavp.com/al/Aliens/Dele ... ut17p1.jpg

I'm just putting it un for future reference.

Do you understand the mechanics of this situation?

Yes I do because it pretty simple: Factor 1- Sentry guns with high cyclic rates. Factor 2: Aliens with Great speed and agility. That problem is that you are assuming that the sentries didn't miss partly because you think they ran down the corridor in rows and were summarily cut down. (I'll get to that later)

Great speed and agility? Compared to machine-gun fire? You really are a fucking wanker.[/quote]Ha!! Wow! I predicted that you would label me some xeno wanker! And before I can even make a clear point. The Fact is: Xeno's are very fast, very Agile and They can "cling" to walls.
Just so I can make this clear: I DON'T THINK XENO CAN SKILLFULLY DODGE BULLETS!! NOR DO I THINK THAT THEY ARE REMOTELY FAST ENOUGH TO DO SO. (beyond being lucky)
I just had to get that point straight, because I could see that this debate was moving in that direction.
Beyond all that, my point stands. The Gun hit tagets and they missed them as well. It all depends on how you think the xenos moved in the scene which in my view: they obviously attempted to avoid being hit by leaping from walls to the ceiling and attempted to use whatever cover they could to bypass the guns. (minimal at best)

The Problem with your counting method is that you forget that While there was a massive frontal assault with an ambiguous number of Xenos. There were others that got by: Hudson was grabbed By a xeno that came from beneath him. Whcih showed that they came from both the ceiling and from the floors. Burke used their only escape route which was flanked, as he was grabbed by a xeno. The truth is that they were attacked from Above, below and Behind throughout that entire scene.

And aliens above the roof and below the floor would also be picked up by the motion tracker, you fucking idiot. Or didn't you notice that it was picking up aliens above the ceiling?[/quote]
Thank you for stating the obvious!! Obviously they would be picking up the ones from the ceiling. My issue is that seem to be trying to quantify the number of xenos in that attack based on the motion tracker. The Problem with doing that is that in all instances of it's usage it didn't give a clear, consise number of moving targets, it just gave a vague, cloudy representation of an object orbeing in motion and it specific distance. If you are basing it on the motion tracker then your quantification is meaningless.

The fact is that we never saw any number of aliens greater than what we saw on that motion tracker, which was about 30. Your bullshit notwithstanding.

See above. The motion trackers never gave a clear number on moving tagets. If that's the only basis of you quantification then it is meaningless. Look at the the scene in which Newt was captured. The Motion showed a similar reading for one Alien as it did for a larger number of them in the preceding scene. It was a big cloudy blob. There was nothing distinct in the readings as you suggest. Who's bullshitting now.

Never Happend?!? Now I think you are being dishonest Here. Where in that quote (or on this thread) do I say that the scene or your interpretation didn't happen at all. I CHALLENGED YOUR POINT OF VIEW JACKASS!!

What "point of view", you fucking liar? You said there were no visuals; I pointed out the sentry gun scene. You said there was no dialogue; I pointed out Hudson's dialogue saying that they were "wall to wall in there". A point which, by the way, you have conspicuously ignored in your reply.[/quote]What you are forgetting is that in all those times that I stated those arguments, Is that they still don't support you. As for the "wall to wall" quote I'm glad you brought it up. To me, That supports one of the Point's I've been trying to bring up. That the xenos used the wall as a means of Limited cover. Like I said earlier they attempted to dodge them by moving from wall to ceiling using their speed and agility. Which didn't work seeing as how they took casualties. (the number is ambiguous)

The fact that you are accusing me of lying when I haven't even posted a a declaration of my opinion on the scene in question is dishonest.
I have never stated that the scene never happened. I have (albeit barely) shown an alternative of what you think happened. Lying would be saying that the xenos Suffered absolutely no casualties in the scene in question. All have have said, (and this was a debate we had before) is that I take issue with the notion that the xenos suffered Massive casualties in the scene. That is all. I have yet to even give an alternative opinion on the matter at all. I just disagree with yours. If you want to hear my opinions I'll post them.

Then where the fuck did all these aliens go, you blithering idiot? This "massive" and "huge" assault force of yours never numbered onscreen to more than 30.

A number now shown to be arbitrary based on the reference. The Motion tracker doesn't give precise numbers.Unless you have something else that backs up the figure, I suggest that recalculate. (As will I)

And the Queen had only a pitiful handful of guards left to defend her base at the end when Ripley went in. So if the sentry guns didn't mow down most of their force, what the fuck happened to them?

The first solid point made here. I'll give you this point. BUT, take into account the fact Ripley walked in there alone. By The Queen's rekoning she was much of a threat until she used her flame thrower. For all we know the rest of the xenos were Either not close enough to reach the queen at the time she need them. (which would make sense since she sent out an attack party) The Processor was a pretty considerable distance from the Command center they occupied. Ripley had a Head start with the Dropship.
The Next possiblity is that the Xeno Attack force was dwindled down by the marines in their last stand at the command center. Mostly by Vasquez and Gorman's suicide attack which was considerable explosion. Of a combination of both.

If you're going to tell me that your idea of contradictory evidence is to use qualitative terms like "massive" and "huge" with no real attempt to generate an actual number whatsoever, you're going to quickly learn that we expect a higher standard of evidence. Especially when I can produce a number, and you have done precisely jack shit to show that anything's wrong with it.

It's not meant to be contradictory evidence. I was just challenging you viewpoint. But you are right. More is needed.

If you want to ban me that's your call enetirely. Do I ask for it? No. But if you want to put me in my place, please do.

You ask for it by being a fucking liar.[/quote]Where have I lied?? Seriously!

No need. I have them on DVD. But to go back to your commentary. You are still dead wrong. You conclusions are unsupported completely. Two sentry guns ran dry in the first part of the attack and an unknown number of xenos knocked on the nearby pressure door and probably retreated. All we know for sure is that they Got past one depleted Sentry gun pair and backed off. As for the second part, we actually get a glimpse of the battle through one of the monitors and it contradicts you presumtion that they charged headlong without cover. (I watched the scene today) If you are trying to say that the guns being emptied (or close) as a means of supporting you claim: What are you getting at? Are you say that most (or all) of the rounds connected?? They obviously missed on some occassions (Automatics are less accurate) and hit on others. (Of course if you do in fact run headhong row by row into a pair of Sentry gun with high cyclic rates they sentries will probably at least have an initial accuracy rate of 90-95% percent, give or take) But That isn't the case here. On the Monitor we don't see any of that at all.

Once again, you're full of shit and you're proving that you're a liar. You can't see shit on that monitor and you know it, yet you are assuming that Hudson calling it a "wall to wall" advance must be wrong ... because you say so. I'll be the first to say that character dialogue isn't infallible, but you have to produce evidence that it's wrong, rather than just calling it an "assumption". But oops, I forgot, you decided to simply ignore that point, didn't you?[/quote]Never said it was wrong I just didn't address it until now.

My only two issues with you are that your assumptions aren't supported any more than mine but you are crying about how they are supported simply by declaring that they are and saying that I am blind and stupid for not seeing them. That's not a point! If you want to convince me then do so. We can talk about this until Doomsday. Neither one of us can concusively prove their point with the evidence given, Speculation is the only thing we can do.

See above, you lying sack of shit. For someone who claims to have watched the scene repeatedly in order to verify your claims, you seem to have suffered a sudden case of hysterical deafness.[/quote]Not really seeing as how I addressed the scene and quote in question.


I'll finsih this tommorrow..

[THEHOOLIGANJEDI]

Perhaps. But also take into acount that they landed in a pretty lousy area of an unknown planet. Generally the ship was Ill suited for any other duties that it wasn't assigned to. Perhpas it was only designed to land on designated landing pad and it wasn't intended to be used as a rescue ship capable of landing in a very craggy surface. Was the ship cheap? It's likely. But I still don't think that it is a testament to the Company cutting corners. It's merely poor planning and shortsightedness.

The ship landed on a flat part of the planet, the damage appeared to come from a landing strut coming down on a large rock. I'd call it poor design if the ship wasn't designed with enough give in her landing gear. Cutting corners in ship design would account for that oversight. Clearly the ship was meant to put down on surfaces other than a prepared pad as the crew never gave it a second thought when they set down on LV426.

I can buy that. Seeing as how it took them quite a while to deal with the damage, which was considerable, I can see that WY obviously didn't really think things through in their design. However it also leaves a lot of other reasons. It could have been the age of the ship. Plus comparing WY products between decades (approx 40 year difference)can be problematic. They could have more recources and better technology to build better machinery.

I can buy that. But it also dismisses the notion that the reason the light went out in the Command center was not the Processor's damage, but it was xeno interference (if that's the "They" you refer to). Which is what I was responding to.

Who else would I be refering too? It's not like the Marines cut the power. It's possible that the power cut was a result of the damage to the processor power plant. We have no evidence either way that it was the Aliens doing it. But I'll take the characters dialogue as proof. I think if the damage to the reactor was severe enough to cause a power outage they would have had some advance warning.

I'll agree with you there. I would also think that seeing as how the lights conveniently went off right before the xeno attack alludes to the xenos interfering.

But I do still think that it is likely that the Processor was separately powered. I do think that Powering a device that would convert the atmosphere to being breathable would require LOTS of power to get the job done within a reasonable amount of time. It is never stated that it is the powerplant of the entire installation, but it is defined by Burke as being "One big Fusion reactor". It's kind of sketchy but open to interpretation.

[Vendetta]

No Shit! That actually debunks your declaration that they charged in there row by row. As I've been saying, (and this goes back) they used the walls in an attempt to avoid the guns. (Which had varying degrees of success) Wall to Wall means that they obviously tried to use the walls. Looking How we see them move in the series, Xenos do use their agility to evade attacks by using their surrounding enviroments. Aliens clearly shows this.

Actually, it doesn't. It doesn't show any form of agility from the Aliens at all, (because the suits were large, bulky, and not conducive to free movement). It shows them using walls, floor and celing crawlspaces, and vents for surprise attack and concealment. They don't do anything agile in the whole film.

Hudson's quote was clearly intended to portray the fact that the Aliens were packing the corridor wall to wall (a scene the film couldn't show, because they only had six Alien suits). Attempting to portray it as otherwise is a clear misrepresentation.