DAY ONE
The USS Sulaco, on a course for Gateway Station above Earth (by orders of the Colonial Marine Corps) is intercepted in deep space by an interstellar shuttle adorned with the insignia of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation. The only apparent inhabitants of the Sulaco are the sleeping forms of Ellen Ripley, Dwayne Hicks, Rebecca "Newt" Jorden, and the artificial person known as "Bishop", all secure in their cryo-pods.
The Company cruiser (only about twice the size of the escape shuttle Ripley uses at the end of Alien) matches speed with the Sulaco and extends a docking walkway to one of the military vessel's airlock ports. Four figures in space suits clamber through the walkway, the flexible transparicrete alloy of the unfolding tunnelway being one of only two boundaries separating their bodies from the infinite void of the cosmos.
They reach the airlock to the Sulaco. One of the spacewalkers, whose suit is labeled "MACK", orders another walker, whose suit is labeled "CALVIN", to use a laser cutter to open the doorway.
After thirty seconds of bright light and sparks, the metal bulkhead of the Sulaco topples over like domino. The four walkers enter the ship, taking a second to adjust to the artificial gravity. After Calvin reads a positive check on his wrist-mounted atmosphere scanner, Mack orders the squad to remove their helmets.
Mack, the squad leader, is revealed to be a short-haired blonde female in her late thirties. She readies her pistol, an efficient killing tool of finesse and precision.
Calvin, the technician, is a somewhat diminutive-looking man of bronze complexion.
The third squad member, Portnoy, the doctor, is a balding, bitter-eyed man who appears to be pushing 50.
The last squad member, Rodan, the security operative, is a tall, musclebound, goatee'd black man with a steely look of grim resolve in his eyes at all times. He clicks on the sparker of his flamethrower, ready to meet any threat with a storm of fire.
Mack sends a message to their cruiser's computer, causing another figure to cross over to the Sulaco. This last member of the group is O'Neill, the Company executive in charge of facilitating mission outcomes, a somewhat portly man with an overfriendly demeanor befitting a corporate weasel.
The Company detachment moves down a cavernous, poorly-lit hallway towards the cryo-pods.
The cryo-pod area of the Sulaco.
The four survivors of the Hadley's Hope incident lay tranquil and oblivious.
Then the five Corporates show up, with Rodan taking point. He holds his flame unit at the ready, having heard tales about the monstrous creatures of Hadley's Hope, he keeps his eyes peeled more than the others.
Rodan is followed by Mack, with Portnoy, Calvin, and O'Neill at the rear. On beholding the sleeping forms of the four survivors, Portnoy begins accessing the cryo-pods' computers. After a brief analysis, the doctor determines that the three human subjects have not suffered any permanent physical injury and can be safely re-awakened. Calvin examines the deactivated Bishop and determines that he can be only be re-activated for a short amount of time.
Calvin wonders aloud what in the universe was strong enough to rip a Synthetic in two like that...
--------------
More to come soon!