Why did the folk of Hadley’s Hope not send a signal?

[xShadowFoxX]

Don't mind me, i'm just here, eating my popcorn.

But I'm going to go ahead and chime in and say, sending a transmission would've been irrelevant at that point considering it takes weeks if not months for ships to arrive to LV426. Whether they tried to or not, well who knows? It's not said on screen, nor does it need to be for us to fill in the blanks.

[Xenomrph]

It's been a very long time since I read Aliens: River of Pain, does it cover the downed transmitter?

[xShadowFoxX]

It's been a very long time since I read Aliens: River of Pain, does it cover the downed transmitter?

I don't remember. But I remember Colonial Marines stationed at Hadley's Hope, which made me raise a brow or two, a couple of survivors who actually survived, etc. As fun as that audio drama was... it was kind of dumb at the same time.

Like, why Marines? Why not Colonial Marshals?

Actually, you know what? That story just makes the Marines seem more inept.

[Local Trouble]

Doubt Gorman had much say in it. She potentially had intel and pumped up her tyres about the marines studying her report.

I'm sure he didn't have any say, but that probably only rankled him even more.  To his credit, he bit his tongue (most of the time) and tolerated her presence without complaint.  At least, no complaints that we witnessed.  Who knows what, if anything, he said to Burke about her in private?

[SM]

I don't think there's any reason to assume he had a huge problem with her, other than her being an "expert" who might potentially undermine his fragile hold on command.  Which she only ever really did once by driving the APC into the hive.  She'd questioned him a couple of times before, which he'd pretty much ignored.  I can imagine it would have frustrated him to have an expert who - while proven to be correct about the Aliens - didn't really know that much about dealing with them.

[ralfy]

As someone who works in maintenance, I can tell you that shit breaks all the time for no reason, and sometimes it can take days to figure out what's wrong, and even longer to repair it . You chase all the wires, check all the connections, replace all the associated parts, and the damn thing still doesn't work. WHY??? Idk,  I just work here.

So a downed transmitter is nothing unusual. They probably lose contact with colonies all the time. It was the duration that was cause for concern.

Think of it as a transmitter on a ship in the middle of the ocean or on a remote island. Given that, I think the last thing you want is for something usual to happen, especially given emergencies. Also, in the real world, businesses don't like losing contact all of the time, especially when it comes to things like settlements involving large amounts of investment in heavy equipment and facilities.

[Xenomrph]

As someone who works in maintenance, I can tell you that shit breaks all the time for no reason, and sometimes it can take days to figure out what's wrong, and even longer to repair it . You chase all the wires, check all the connections, replace all the associated parts, and the damn thing still doesn't work. WHY??? Idk,  I just work here.

So a downed transmitter is nothing unusual. They probably lose contact with colonies all the time. It was the duration that was cause for concern.

Think of it as a transmitter on a ship in the middle of the ocean or on a remote island. Given that, I think the last thing you want is for something usual to happen, especially given emergencies. Also, in the real world, businesses don't like losing contact all of the time, especially when it comes to things like settlements involving large amounts of investment in heavy equipment and facilities.

Sometimes shit just breaks, and you can't control or predict it. Sometimes shit breaks often.

Also this ain't the real world. Maybe "faster-than-light interstellar transmitters are unreliable and break often" is just the state of the (fictional, nonexistent) technology in 2179.

[Local Trouble]

Maybe "faster-than-light interstellar transmitters are unreliable and break often" is just the state of the (fictional, nonexistent) technology in 2179.

Maybe, although the one on Fury seemed to work fine despite the lack of a technical staff.

[Xenomrph]

Maybe "faster-than-light interstellar transmitters are unreliable and break often" is just the state of the (fictional, nonexistent) technology in 2179.

Maybe, although the one on Fury seemed to work fine despite the lack of a technical staff.

Sure, but Fury 161 wasn't in the process of being terraformed and under the onslaught of constant torrential wind storms. Or maybe prisons are built better than shake-and-bake colonies, who use cheaper/shittier parts or something. Or maybe Hadley's transmitter failed once, they didn't have appropriate supplies to properly fix it, they're in the ass-end of nowhere so they're real low on the priority list for new parts requisitions, and since the transmitter is now held together with duct tape and luck it just breaks every Tuesday.

[ralfy]

More details on what happened, from two authorized works: River of Pain (novel with an audio drama version) and Newt's Tale (comic book set).

I think the gist is that the company had a colony with a Marine detachment operating as security (which makes sense as settlements, especially with expensive assets owned by large companies, need to have armed groups to ensure law and order plus even government officials), and then the events mentioned in the movie took place. The colonists sent another survey team (!!), leading to more infestation.

Later, the colonists and Marines fight back but are overwhelmed.

I can't remember if there are details about sending signals, but they logically should have done that given the amount of time involved, i.e., send at least one message about the derelict ship, if not Jorden and the facehugger.

Also, it makes sense for a colony with large amounts of money spent on equipment and facilities to have several transmitters, or at least a second one acting as a back up. Even the Marines would have probably had their own transmitters and other back up equipment, similar to what happens in the real world.

[Local Trouble]

ralfy sure does love him some Alien Theory.

[Xenomrph]

He also loves the "real world", even when the events of the film run contrary to it.

[Acid_Reign161]

Ok, here's the answer provided by the Colonial Marines Technical Manual:

For context, the final chapter is written entirely from the point of view of Weyland Yutani / Company employees who are working on gathering all available intel on the Xenomorph, having learned of its existence from the Sulaco's flight recorder during the opening of Alien 3, Ripley's scan in the EEV, and all the data they obtained from recovering Bishop from Fury 161 (they did not know / believe in its existence prior).

So, first, the colony transmitter;

It went down three weeks from Burke sending instructions to the colony to check out the co-ordinates. To quote the movie;
"Hey Al, you remember those wildcatters you send out to the middle of nowhere LAST WEEK past the Ilyum range?"
"Yeah, what?"
"Well one of them is on the horn, a mom and pops survey team, wants to know if their claim will be honored?"
"Why wouldn't his claim be honoured?"
"Well because you sent them out there on company orders maybe, I dunno!"
"Christ, some honch in a cushy office back on Earth says go look at a grid reference, they don't say why, and I don't ask.. I don't ask because it takes TWO WEEKS to get an answer out here, and the answer is always don't ask."

So two weeks for the company to receive Burke transmission from Earth, one week of searching; there is your three weeks. The transmitter was down. There was no communication.

That quote from the CMTM is also when Weyland Yutani first learn what Burke has done. You know.. since he was working alone with his own interests in mind.

Why didn't WeYu believe in the alien prior? Two reasons, first;



They thought Ripley was a nut job, and second;



The company never knew about the Xenomorph. Special order 937 was initiated by another greedy slime ball like Burke who were operating with their own interests at heart and quickly covered their tracks when the Nostromo went missing. This was the first WeYu learned of that also after digging through files.

So to finally put this to bed, no, there was no communication from the colony at all as the transmitter was down for whatever reason, and there definitely wasn't any conspiracy at play. Weyland Yutani get conclusive evidence of the Xenomorph from the sulacos flight recorder through the network and immediately mobilise a task force - this is the first time it's actually 'The Company' perusing the xeno and not just greedy employees working alone hoping to score a payout from the Bio Weapons Division.

[ralfy]

Here are more details from pp. 134 onward of the Aliens Colonial Marines Technical Manual, which was readily discussed in this board and AFAIK authorized by those who own the Alien franchise:

Several W-Y personnel knew very little about the Sulaco or what Burke did, but the military found the Sulaco while "Bioweapons" and "D15" have locked down the situation.

The military recovered photos from the extraction team, some first- and second-hand accounts, and the Sulaco flight recorder. They also had the exact coordinates of the Nostromo landing position (which means that both W-Y and the military knew.)

The military also received enough information from Ripley to give an adequete description of the facehugger and its physiology.

The transmissions also contained details on the eggs plus analysis from Bishop, including even the type of toxin used by facehuggers to immobilize hosts, the hive, the queen, etc.

Finally, W-Y sent another ship, the Shinyo Maru, with an extraction team, to investigate the derelict ship. Members of the Science Division were on-site. (This is probably the R&D division of the company.)

[SM]

The timeline of events is based on this.