Derelict (Earth-9471)

"Ash, can you see this? Yes, I can. I've never seen anything like it."

- - Arthur Dallas to Ash

The "Derelict", codenamed Origin by the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, was a crashed ship of unknown origin left stranded on Aegis VII, a moon in the Zeta Reticuli system. Its pilot was able to send a warning beacon before it died, so that future travelers would not go inside the ship. In the 26th century, the ship was discovered by Weyland-Yutani, which covertly sent the freighter USCSS Nostromo as a guinea pig to investigate, without the crew's knowledge.

Origins
The origins of the Derelict is shrouded in mystery, as it is of its pilot, the Space Jockey. It is unknown how the ship crash-landed on Aegis VII, whether it was deliberately crashed by its custodian or unintentionally; the only known information based on records by the Weyland-Yutani Corporation and the crew of the USCSS Nostromo is that the ship carried a cargo of xenomorph Ovomorphs for reasons unknown; the fossilized remains of the Space Jockey seem to indicate the ship fell on the moon hundreds of thousands of years in the past. Before the death of the Traveler, the alien was able to send a message beacon to keep other potential sapient species from staying away from Acheron duo to the xenomorph cargo.

Discovery
In an ironic twist of fate, the beacon was detected by Weyland-Yutani on May 14th, 2523, and the crew of the Nostromo was intentionally rerouted to the Zeta Reticuli system, on June 2525, in order to investigate the signal and capture a living xenomorph, as ONI sought to use it as a bio organic weapon. Upon landing on Acheron, three of the ship's crew members - Arthur Dallas, Thomas Kane, and Joan Lambert - located the Derelict, and once they boarded, Kane was attacked and impregnated by a Facehugger while investigating the Ovomorphs. The ship left the system, and the subsequent xenomorph that was birthed from Kane started a massacre against the crew, leading its only survivor, Ellen Ripley, to destroy the ship in an attempt to kill the creature.

The Anesidora
"What the hell do you think we're going to find here, Marlow? Something big"

- - Charlie Smythe and Henry Marlow

On November 2547, the crew of the salvaging ship Anesidora detected the Derelict's beacon, landing on LV-426 to investigate the source of the signal and salvage any scrap they could find. The crew, led by Henry Marlow, discovered equipment that was left behind by the crew of the Nostromo, and Marlow was able to deactivate the beacon. While the crew continued to explore, Catherine Foster, Marlow's wife, found Ovomorphs that were left behind by Russ and Anne, ending up impregnated by a Facehugger. The crew immediately retreated to the ship with a comatose Foster, traveling to Sevastopol Station to seek medical attention. This proved to be a mistake, and the xenomorph that was born from her started to kill the inhabitants of the station.

Rediscovery
Despite the tragedy and failure of the Nostromo expedition, the Weyland-Yutani Corporation continued on their attempt to capture xenomorphs from the moon. On April 2578, fifty-three after the incident, Weyland-Yutani explorers were able to rediscover the beacon from the Derelict, which they explored, leading to the creation of the hidden Hive facility, headed by Dr. Charles Ashford to reach it. A massive outbreak eventually occured, leading to the Aegis VII Incident on 2578. The consecutive incidents led to the deaths of thousands of civilians and dozens of Wey-Yu personnel and Colonial Marines.

Specifications
The Derelict is large, asymmetrical and wishbone-shaped, possessing a thickened central section between two horn-like structures. The prong measures 161.6 meters in length and the starboard prong 174.3 meters. The ship is 116.6 meters wide and 61.0 meters wide between the starboard and the prongs, which bend upwards. The ships has three massive openings, one of which was the location from where Arthur Dallas, Thomas Kane, and Joan Lambert entered. The functionality of these openings is unknown, although Kane theorized they were airlocks that were left opened for emergency evacuations.

The interior of the ship resembles a living, technorganic organism than a spaceship, not dissimilar from xenomorph hives, possibly indicating a connection. Its walls and ceilings resemble bones and organic body shapes. Kane theorized that the ship was a biological construct, and that it was "grown, rather than built" by the unknown species who constructed it. What was explored on the ship by all arriving parties were only small sections of the entire vessel.

Beacon
"It doesn't look like an S.O.S. What is it then? Well, it looks a warning."

- Ellen Ripley and Ash

Perhaps the Derelict's most notable feature was its beacon, a device which transmitted an acoustic beacon, powerful enough to be detected light-years away from the Zeta Reticuli system. It was a warning set by the Space Jockey, the ship's pilot, to caution other sapient explorers to stay away from LV-426 duo to the danger of the boarding xenomorphs. Unfortunately, duo to the alien language it transmitted, instead of warning visitors off, it only attracted attention to itself, leading the three human parties that arrived on the moon to inadvertently release xenomorphs. The beacon was eventually deactivated by Henry Marlow, of the Anesidora.

Cargo
"The pit is completely enclosed, and it's full of leathery objects, like... eggs or something."

- - Thomas Kane he Derelict's cargo holds stored thousands of Ovomorphs, although for what purpose is unknown. The cargo was covered in flat, blue mist, that made vision difficult and fuzzy; it has been theorized by the Weyland-Yutani Corporation the mist was a technology devised the species that built the ship to keep the Ovomorphs subdued and inert. The cargo hold was theorized to be either a cockpit meant to use the Ovomorphs as bio organic weapons or to study the xenomorphs.

Crew
It is unknown how many crew members were originally aboard the Derelict, aside from the solitary fossilized body of the Traveler, the ship's pilot. Much like the rest of the alien's ship, the Traveler's body seemed to be biologically fused with the command chair it sat upon, and its chest possessed a huge, gaping hole, indicating it had been impregnated by a Facehugger and that a Chestburster originated from it, although its status is unknown. As all exploring parties that landed on Acheron found no evidence of life, it is likely that the resulting xenomorph died out as a result of no source of hosts for the continuing survival of the xenomorphs.