A dropship delivers the expedition to the surface of LV-426, where they find the colony deserted. Makeshift barricades and battle signs are inside, but no bodies; two live alien facehuggers in containment tanks and a traumatized young girl nicknamed Newt are the sole survivors. The crew finds the colonists beneath the fusion-powered atmosphere processing station and head to their location, descending into corridors covered with alien secretions. At the center of the station, the marines find the cocooned colonists serving as incubators for the creatures' offspring. The marines kill an infant alien after it bursts from a colonist's chest, rousing multiple adult aliens who ambush the marines and kill or capture many of them. When the inexperienced Gorman panics, Ripley assumes command, takes control of their armored personnel carrier, and rams the nest to rescue Corporal Hicks and Privates Hudson and Vasquez. Hicks orders the dropship to recover the survivors, but a stowaway alien kills the pilots and it crashes into the station. The survivors barricade themselves inside the colony.