Aliens: The Best Ship to Nuke a Site From Orbit With – The USS Sulaco Breakdown
Sound advice, but then you wouldn’t have a movie. Join us as we breakdown one of the unluckiest ships in the USCMC: the USS Sulaco.
Superstitions have had a strange and enduring life throughout humanity’s history. Some are quickly proven to be false. But some ideas dwell on in spite of all hardships. And it was the unhappy endurance of how unlucky or cursed the number 13 could be, that haunted the Conestoga-class troop transport ship known as the USS Sulaco.
The Sulaco had the unlucky distinction of being the thirteenth Conestoga-class ship constructed out of the Lunnar-Welsun Industries shipyard. And misfortune seemed to follow in its wake.
The Sulaco – A Curse Follows
The Sulaco was originally commissioned in 2169. Not two years into its life, it was called up for a major operation on the planet Linna 349. While flying missions against rebel forces, the Sulaco was struck by two ASAT missiles while still in orbit. A distinction because the Sulaco was the only ship damaged during the orbital stage of the action.
Despite the efforts of the crew to divert the oncoming warheads, two missiles still hit home. Worse, the warheads struck at valuable cargo hangars, detonating fuel and stores in a single blow. The only way the fire could be controlled was by opening the hangar doors and venting the atmosphere to space while jettisoning the original cargo within. And though the quick thinking of the Sulaco’s crew stopped things from being worse, the reputation was cemented. The Sulaco was an unlucky ship.
Misfortunes would follow the Sulaco for a while. After being involved in “a docking accident” in 2176 that resulted in the deaths of five crew members, the ship’s “cursed reputation” was locked in.
Mission to Acheron
And so it was that the Sulaco was dispatched in 2179 to Acheron. Following the loss of the colony of Hadley’s Hope, the Sulaco was sent to investigate. While there, the crew discovered an infestation of the deadly Xenomorphs at Hadley’s Hope. Ambushed, the colonial marines were devastated. The Sulaco barely managed to evacuate survivors in time.
Only a small crew of Sulaco survivors remained: Bishop, Dwayne Hicks, Rebecca “Newt” Jordan, and Ellen Ripley. Unfortunately, the Xenomorph’s Queen had stowed away as well. Ripley alone managed to fight the Queen off, using the ship’s onboard Power Loader to emerge victorious.
Ultimately, the Sulaco would crash, after one of the Xenomorph’s larval forms, caused an electrical fire in the ship’s hypersleep chamber. The fire caused occupied cryotubes to be jettisoned, as the ship subsequently crash-landed on Fiorina Fury.
Arms, Armament, and Capabilities
As a military frigate, the USS Sulaco was heavily armed and armored. A suite of Gates-Heidman GF-240 rockets helped lift the Sulaco. While a Romberg-Rockwell Cygnus 5 tachyon shunt hyperdrive helped reach distant planets at fantastic speed.
But the Sulaco, like most Connestoga-class light assault starships, had significant firepower aboard. Alone, the Sulaco boasted 8x XIM-28A Long Lance ASAT missiles. Twin 800-megavolt particle beam weapons gave it some striking power. While twin railguns in the dorsal and ventral turrets could cover all angles.
But none of these weapons was enough to prevent the Sulaco’s destruction. Ultimately it was the strength of one woman (and the powered mech used to load the Sulaco’s dropship) that would stop the Xenomorph Queen.
Let that be a lesson to us all.
