UNSC Sulaco (Earth-9791)

"It's an ugly ship, honestly. It's battered, overused, too slow for this time. A mountain of titanium and composites and ceramic. What a piece of crap."

- - Commander Carter Burke

The UNSC Sulaco (HCS: AC-8812) was a Conestoga-class light destroyer of the UNSC Navy, assigned under the UNSC Marine Corps' 2nd Battalion Bravo Team. Captained by the Office of Naval Intelligence Commander Carter Burke, the warship was mostly known for its investigation of the city Hadley's Hope on the outer colony Aegis VII, which led to the Battle of Aegis VII. Old and battered, the Sulaco became an infamous ship for the damage it suffered through its service.

Early history
Commissioned in 2520, the UNSC Sulaco was involved in multiple engagements of the Insurrection, notably during the Battle of Linna 349 in 2498, where it was the only vessel on its fleet to be damaged by Shiva-class nuclear missile under the possession of Insurrectionists. Even though the ship attempted to misdirect the missiles, two of them struck the cargo hangars of the Sulaco, destroying a portion of its interior. The crew managed to control the fire by opening its hangar doors and letting the space atmosphere vent it, eventually jettisoning its cargo. This incident led to the Sulaco being seen as an unlucky ship and thus gain a bad reputation within the UNSC Navy. This feeling only worsened two years later, in 2500, when the ship docked at Gateway Station, causing an accident that killed five of its crew members. Eventually, many Navy officers and Marines simply serve aboard the ship, many believing it was "cursed" in a way.

Battle of Aegis VII
On July 1st, 2552, the UNSC Sulaco, captained by Commander Carter Burke, was sent to the outer colony Aegis VII, transporting the 2nd Battalion Bravo Team under the command of Lieutenant Scott Gorman. Their mission was to investigate the planet's settlement, Hadley's Hope, after the UNSC lost contact with the colony. When they reached the planet, Gorman led a small contingent of Marines and the civilian consultant Ellen Ripley aboard the D77-TC Pelican Innie Stomper, leaving the Sulaco orbiting the planet. After the Marines on the surface discovered a xenomorph outbreak had occurred on Hadley, they were slaughtered in an ambush by the aliens, prompting Mathius so send a backup GA-TL1 Longsword, the Smart Ass with the ship's Shaw-Fujikawa translight engine, piloted by the ship's synthetic Executive Officer Bishop, who was able to evacuate the survivors and use the engine to detonate the settlement, destroying the xenomorphs.

Once the survivors returned to the Sulaco, they stumbled upon a massive Aegis VII Gravemind, who survived the detonation of Hadley by stowing away in the Smart Ass, killing Captain Mathius and tearing Bishop in half. Ripley was able to battle the Keymind using a Caterpillar P-5000 Work Loader, and in the end, she ejected the Gravemind into space through the ship's airlock. As the crew sacrificed its Shaw-Fujikawa translight engine, they were lost in space at normal traveling speeds. Without any other choice, Dwayne Hicks, the only surviving Marine of the crew, sent a distress call to the UNSC, hoping that someone would find them someday, before the crew entered in cryosleep.

Lost in space
"Does ONI know? ONI knows everything that happened on the ship."

- - Ellen Ripley and Bishop Unknown to the crew, the Keymind was able to leave an Ovomorph inside the ship, which hatched and released Facehugger that impregnated Ellen Ripley inside her cryo chamber, while the Sulaco was still lost in space. The ship's hull eventually suffered an electrical fire, which saw the Sulaco's cryo chambers jettisoned into space with Ripley, Rebecca "Newt" Jorden, Hicks, and Bishop inside a Type 337 EEV. The EEV would remain years stranded on space for the next five years, until it crash-landed on the penal colony Fiorina 161 on August 9th, 2557.

Crew

 * Commander Carter Burke †
 * Lieutenant Scott Gorman †
 * Executive Officer Bishop (synthetic) †
 * Gunnery Sergeant Alphonse "Al" Apone †
 * Corpsman Cynthia Dietrich †
 * Corporal Colette Ferro †
 * Corporal Dwayne Hicks
 * Private First Class William Hudson †
 * Private First Class Daniel Spunkmeyer †
 * Private First Class Jenette Vasquez †
 * Private Timothy "Tim" Crowe †
 * Private Mark Drake †
 * Private Ricco Frost †
 * Private Trevor Wierzbowski †
 * Ellen Ripley †

Battalions

 * 2nd Battalion Bravo Team

Transports

 * Innie Stomper
 * Smart Ass

Trivia

 * The ship is named after the fictional town of the same name featured in the novel Nostromo, by Joseph Conrad.