Aegis VII (Earth-9471)

"Aegis VII's not too far from here - well, what's left of it."

- - Dwayne Hicks

Aegis VII, known formally as LV-426, is one of three natural satellites of the gas giant Calpamos and a former human outer colony in the Zeta Reticuli system, at the Orion Arm, formerly governed by the Weyland-Yutani Corporation. In 2560, the colony was the site of a xenomorph outbreak that wiped out the city of New Alexandria, leading to the New Alexandria Incident.

Prehistory
Roughly 100,000 years in the past, a ship belonging to a member of an unknown species crash-landed on Acheron, holding multiple xenomorph Ovomorphs for unknown reasons. The pilot died, apparently impregnated by a Facehugger, but not before sending a warning message for any sapient explorator to not approach the ship.

Human discovery
LV-426 was first discovered by humanity on May 14th, 2523, when the Weyland-Yutani Corporation observed and cataloged it with a slipspace probe. The initial comprehensive survey would only be carried on 2524. When Weyland-Yutani discovered the moon, they also detected a mysterious transmission hailing from the derelict vessel, where they found out about the xenomorph species. With the threat of the Resource Wars, the company sought to use the alien creature as a bioweapon in order to gain more profits against other megacorporations and national governments. The agency then sent Ash, a 7149 operative, to replace and pose as a member of the ship's USCSS Nostromo crew after a routine delivery on the outer colony Thedus, and land on the moon to acquire a xenomorph.

The Nostromo landed on LV-426 on June 16th, 2525 after acquiring the signal from the derelict at Acheron, as per Weyland-Yutani protocol. Despite the fact the ship's Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine was damaging during the landing, Captain Arthur Dallas, First Officer Thomas Kane, and navigator Joan Lambert formed a trio to explore Acheron's surface, eventually discovering the derelict and the signal coming from it. While they explored the ship, the trio discovered the fossilized remains of the ship's pilot and the many Ovomorphs that were stored on the ship for reasons unknown. Once Kane approached them, he was attacked and impregnated by a Facehugger. Dallas and Lambert then took Kane back to the Nostromo, which departed from the moon. Hours later, the xenomorph that had been incubated on Kane birthed aboard the ship, leading to the massacre of the crew and the destruction of the vessel.

Aftermath
After the loss of the Nostromo and its crew, the incident was covered by the Office of Naval Intelligence, and the Nostromo declared 'lost with all hands'. Years after, on September 29th, 2544, the warning beacon was deactivated by the salvaging vessel Anesidora, further placing Acheron in obscurity. During their expedition, crewmember Catherine Foster was attacked and impregnated by a Facehugger, which later matured into a grown xenomorph aboard Sevastopol Station.

Founding
LV-426 would be colonized by the Weyland-Yutani Corporation in 2548 as one of the initial outer colonies, naming it "Aegis VII". The company immediatly sent one of its colony ships with an Atmosphere Processing Plant to mine invaluable resources at the planet. Much like the other outer colonies, Aegis VII's inhabitants came from several different backgrounds on Earth. New Alexandria, the colony's first and only city was founded on January 7th, 2549, and at the same year the city's population saw the birth of the first Aegis VII native.

2500s
Rebbeca "Newt" Ashford was born to Dr. Charles Ashford and Anne Ashford in New Alexandria, on March 15th, 2550. By 2558, New Alexandria had a population of 654,736 inhabitants.

After the disastrous xenomorph massacre on the United Nations' outpost Con-Am 27 on the moon Kamchatka in the M-344/G system, the Weyland-Yutani Corporation continued on their attempt to capture xenomorphs. On June 28th, 2558, a Weyland-Yutani searching team rediscovered the Derelict and built the Hive around it, an underground facility underneath New Alexandria, where scientists sought to study the Space Jockey and Chemical A0-3959X.91 – 15. The population of New Alexandria was unaware of the existence of the Hive and the Derelict.

Battle of the Hive
In 2558, Chemical A0-3959X.91 – 15 escaped into the ventilation systems of the Hive, prompting a malfunction in the installation's systems that released a xenomorph Queen that had been buried in the moon for thousands of years. The Red Queen, the artificial intelligence that headed the installation, gassed all personnel with halon to stop the xenomorphs from impregnating them and dropped all occupied elevators at high speed, killing all occupants. Weyland-Yutani later sent a unit of the Umbrella Security Service to retrieve information about what happened in the installation alongside Ellen Ripley.

The team entered the Hive, where they discovered the xenomorph outbreak had been intentionally manufactured by Weyland-Yutani scientist Spencer Parks in an attempt to witness the capabilities of the xenomorphs and weaponize the chemical. Hours later, only Ripley emerged as a survivor from the Hive, but they were seized by a team of the United States Colonial Marine Corps and brought aboard Gateway Station, in the Troisi system, to recover.

New Alexandria Incident
One week after Ripley was taken away, Weyland-Yutani sent a research team to open the Hive. As soon as they entered the installation, the entirety of the research team was slaughtered by xenomorphs and clickers that were still alive and sealed in the complex. With the underground entrance between the Hive and Aegis VII opened, the xenomorphs and the humans infected by the pathogen were free, and as ordered by the living Queen, they headed towards New Alexandria.

Once the xenomorphs escaped from the Hive, they started attacking and harvesting colonists and moving them to New Alexandria's Atmospheric Processing Plant, constructing a hive, forming more xenomorphs and a fully developed Queen after the xenomorphs captured members of a Colonial Militia team sent to investigate the attack. Linking with the colony's communication were purged, impossibilitating the colonists to call for the USCMC's help.

Knowing that containing the outbreak would be impossible, Weyland-Yutani sought to evacuate key personnel from the city, including researchers and colonial administrators. After two-man teams were able to succesfully remove Weyland-Yutani survivors aboard UH-144 Falcons, the city was sealed and was deemed "lost with all hands". In order to stop the xenomorphs from possibly escaping aboard ships to other planets, including Earth, all traffic and gates were closed.

As more and more colonists were being killed by the xenomorphs, many of New Alexandria's inhabitants attempted to hide through the nearby vicinities, building barricades and sealing doors so that the alien creatures would not reach them. However, their efforts were in vain, and the colony soon became overrun by the xenomorphs and all of its colonists, save for Newt, who had hidden within Origin Facility, were either killed or impregnated. Four colonists, Dr. Derrick Mori, Demian Brackett, Julisa Paris and Luisa Cantrell, were able to escape Paraíso by hijacking the excavator freighter Onager.

After the loss of contact with Aegis VII, the USCMC dispatched the USS Sulaco, a Conestoga-class destroyer, to investigate the colony, with the USCMC 2nd Battalion Bravo Team, led by Lieutenant Scott Gorman and attaching to Ellen Ripley, the only survivor of the first recorded encounter with a xenomorph on Acheron. Upon their arrival, the Marines found a ruined Hadley, as well as Newt hiding at the ventilation system of Origin Facility. When the crew tracked the colonists' personal data transmitters to the Atmosphere Processing Plant, the Marines, led by Master Sergeant Al Apone rushed to investigate, only to be mostly killed and harvested by the xenomorphs, while the D77-TC Pelican pilot Colette Ferro was killed by a xenomorph, making their evacuation from the planet impossible. The surviving Marines then hid at the Hive, setting many UA 571-C sutomated sentry guns to defend their position.

The xenomorph outbreak was put to an end when Ellen Ripley and the synthetic Bishop took the Sulaco's Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine and detonated it at the side of the Atmosphere Processing Plant, which caused a nuclear explosion that complete destroying the xenomorphs and heavily damaging Hadley's Hope. While the survivors of the battle were reduced to three humans and one synthetic, they were able to escape aboard the Sulaco, although at the cost of their slipspace engine, meaning they would be traveling in space at normal speeds. Afterwards, the Weyland-Yutani Corporation kept all details about the engagement highly classified, covering the presence of the xenomorphs.

Locations

 * New Alexandria
 * Hive

Notable inhabitants

 * Dr. Charles Ashford
 * Anne Ashford
 * Rebbeca "Newt" Ashford
 * Timothy "Timmy" Ashford
 * Dr. Derrick Mori
 * Al Simpson
 * Bradley Lydecker

Trivia

 * In Greek mythology, the aegis is a shield carried primarily by Zeus, which he sometimes lent to Athena.