USM Auriga (Earth-9471)

"Damn, the shit's huge."

- - Ron Johner

The USM Auriga (hull classification symbol: UNSCV118) was a massive, top-secret scientific research ship of the United States Colonial Marine Corps and the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, where the company sought to recreate xenomorphs of their own through cloning the deceased Ellen Ripley under Project Lazarus. Most of its crew was killed when the xenomorphs managed to break from their captivity, and the Auriga itself was later destroyed by the synthetic Call, when she set it into a collision course with Earth, pulverizing the ship before it reached the planet to stop the xenomorphs from spreading through the planet, in 2561.

Construction and Project OZYMANDIAS
The Auriga's construction was secretly ordered by the United Systems Military in 2610, although the requirements for its size only made its commission only possible in 2611. By 2611, the ship was orbiting Pluto, and many xenomorphs had been produced from Weyland-Yutani's cloning efforts under Project Lazarus, where the DNA of the late Ellen Ripley was constantly remade to create more clones, both human and xenomorph, in an attempt to reproduce the Queen that was gestating within her. After the successful rebirth of Ripley, USM official, General Martin Perez had the smuggling ship Betty, captained by mercenary Frank Elgyn, to deliver kidnaped civilians to use them as hosts for the xenomorphs.

Skirmish on the USS Auriga
Soon after the Betty arrived with the convicts, the cloned xenomorphs were able to escape from their containment, prompting General Perez to order the crew to abandon ship. Only a fraction of the original crew was able to escape, with Perez and most of the science team being either killed or harvested by the xenomorphs to establish a massive hive. White Queen, the Auriga's shipboard artificial intelligence, eventually settled an automatic course to Earth under standard protocol, meaning that the xenomorphs would escape through the planet and spread, which would destroy humanity. The surviving crew members of the Auriga and the Betty, alongside Ripley 8, then devised a plan to reach the bridge of the massive ship and have the ship descend in terminal velocities that would pulverize it before it reached the atmosphere. They were sucessful, and Call, the Betty's synthetic officer, was able to interface with Father and destroy the Auriga in the stratosphere.

Legacy
After the Auriga's destruction, the knowledge of the existence of the xenomorphs and Project OZYMANDIAS were kept classified from the general public, and the massive explosion near Earth's surface was blamed on Insurrectionists. ONI placed a quarantine through Reach so that curious travelers and news pursuers would stay quiet. The destruction of the USS Auriga itself was estimated to be worth of 300 trillion credits.

Design
The USM Auriga was an unique massive stealth-capable research vessel, reaching 3,658 m (12,000 ft), towering even the colossal Phoenix-class colony ship, and thus being the biggest human ship ever created. It maintained a crew of forty-two Colonial Marines under the command of General Martin Perez, and a seven-personnel Weyland-Yutani science and research team under orders of Dr. Mason Wren. The Auriga was remotely controlled by the shipboard artificial intelligence White Queen, overseeing the systems of the vessel, including life support and auto-pilot. The ship had thirty-nine levels, which included a mess hall, sleeping quarters, cryo bays, recreation hall, as well as containment cells and laboratories to hold the captured xenomorphs that Weyland-Yutani were breeding.

Trivia

 * The USS Auriga is named after the Auriga constellation.