No More Hosts, What Next?

Going from the Alien or Aliens life cycle?

Well both can be used, as both films are canon.

I would say that after all the life that was originally there on the planet is wiped out. Perhaps the Space Jockey race has a way of either suppressing or killing the xenomorphs off with a viral or other means. That leaving the planet free of any obstruction for the Space Jockey to either mine the planet for needed resources or to set up a new civilization.

That's something I have posted some time ago. From a biological point of view it would be rather illogical and inefficient. I know the authors didn't think about it, their task was to come up with an entertaining story, not to invent a biologically consistent species. Anyway, from my point of view there could be 2 explanations: -the aliens can also impregnate themselves, keeping their numbers fairly constant (unless they can also breed twins) -they are born as a weapon of mass destruction, and as such their only task is to annihilate their hosts. Once no other hosts are available they just end their life-cycle and die, with no need for their creators to perform a disinfestation. This would be especially true with the original lifecycle, in which one host is turned into egg and another into a host for the embryo. In that case the extermination would be much faster (though more inefficient for a natural organism).

@ LV426... 1. Surely if all life has been extinguished the Aliens would die, leaving their eggs (a la Noxwords suggestion)? 2. Are you suggesting the Alien is means to allow the SJ's to mine/repopulate a planet? @Noxword... 1. Self impregnation, we have never seen this! Are you suggesting the Alien may have a way to continue after hosts have been used up? 2. So the Aliens die, leaving there eggs? Then what?

two things snork 1) why the SJ would have populated a planet with an animal race like our classic xenomorph ? Just to wipe out some other wildlife ( and birds ? ) It doesnt make sense to me 2) we see that there is really not a classic xenomorph race ...but is more like a ..plague ...shapeless ...dipendent to the host ...

@ Frantz... 1. To avoid anyone saying "we kill them all", if I had said Earth. 2. Although it does take traits from its host the Xenomorph does have a base form, but thats another discussion altogether. ...Basically, what I'm saying is... If the Xenomorph/Alien was allowed free reign on any planet, and encountered no effective resistance what would happen when they have extinguished all suitable hosts?

But whose to say the Alien/Xenomorph is natural, I don't think it is.

they probably enter in a form of hibernation like it did happen on the derelict until a new host arrive ,,, OR they cant wipe out all the other organisms ...think about the lion ..is an alpha predator but he didnt extinguish all the other animals of his ecosystem . Plus the "hive" nature of the aliens dont make them walk away from a certain range . Remember that nature find always a balance ....

Frantz makes a good point about Lions not being able to possibly kill all other wildlife. What you have is an apex predator on a universal scale.

That is my thinking exactly, that the Alien/Xenomorph was created to be the perfect and universal apex predator, both through its lifecycle and its biology. Or as Ash put it - the perfect organism.

if they not natural , then its a artificial creation ( bio or biomechanoid ) then will be used "until it last " and the "master" will not care if they survive or not , maybe its even better if they dont survive or they return in the "derelict" state ( i mean with only the eggs in a sort of hibernation , adults all dead ). Btw its hard for me to think about something that live and its not under the law of nature .

Frantz, use your imagination within the world of the Alien films - imagine the Alien got on earth tomorrow, and we were unable to stop them. Then imagine them using every suitable living creature as a host until they run out then ask yourself what next... do the adults and Queens die leaving the eggs to be collected or do they have another trick up their sleeves...

Because of their biology I don't think they can be a natural species, while being bio-engineered to serve a purpose would explain quite well their inbred mechanism of self extinction or indefinite hybernation when no more hosts are to be found. In that case they would need some external intervention to be put in contact with a new host race. The only way for them to be natural, given the strange life cycle, would be having them originating from a world where they are part of a larger ecosystem with predators (lower case p!) and preys that share some similar life cycle, so to maintain the balance. Something like this was depicted in one of the Dark Horse comics (but I only remember a colonial marine throwing his saxophone towards an alien on their homeworld while swarms of reds fought swarms of greens).

I think it is pretty obviouse that the Xenomorph is an unnatural species. The way they breed proves it was created to destroy other life. If it was a natural species then they would breed specifically with each other to preserve the race. Even if they breed the way it did in the first film it still has the need for a host. No host, no race. The Xenomorph has a natural instinct but that is the only natural thing about it. Acid for blood should be a giveaway that these creatures were created. Acid is a weapon in its own. A biological life form is given a biological blood to keep it alive and to make it hard to destroy or at least more dangerous to destroy. There is no reason for the question, what if they used up all possible host, what would happen? They would die. If not than the ship in the first film would have been sworming with Xenomorphs because they would have been reproducing without the need for hosts. The Xenomorph grew at unnatural speed as well. The embryo was a chestburster within the day the face hugged finished its work. The chestburster was a full grown Xeno the next day. No natural life form can grow that fast. It would not make sense, especially given the fact that it had nothing to eat. Natural beings need food or minerals or whatever to grow and sustain its life.

So what happens if nobody turns up? The eggs just sit there gathering dust forever?

what like on LV-426 you mean :p

I can think of two likely scenarios: 1) The xenos are a doomsday/WMD - SJs drop the load and bugger off, and deal with the consequences later, or not at all... 2) It's a plot hole. Shh!

Assuming the xenos are a biological weapon, they are ideal. Planet has population of 8 billion, it would take a LOT of troops to take over. However, put a queen egg, soon the population is in the fight for its life. Native race dies out, Aliens die out soon after. Then you have a world cleansed of unwanted species and can go about settling the world or salvaging there stuff and technology.

Perhaps, as in the Aliens versus Predators comics of the 1990's, in time, nature inevitably creates two, even four spin-off species, like ants. Black ants vs Red ants, the piece in the comics was called Genocide and the Xenomorphs both attempted to annihalate each other whilst at the same time vie for supremacy. Then I think the Predators came along and tried to hunt them both down in and amongst the inter-species chaos. Like in Jurassic Park, even with the Xenomorphs, life WILL find a way, even if it is Bio-engineered, some portion of the organism will make it through, mould, adapt, break through some barriers some of them painful but nature would insist that it MUST be done to ensure survival at ALL costs!

i'm with the planned self-termination scenario. eggs last forever. face-huggers seem to live for a short time outside of the eggs. aliens, however, are designed to hunt, kill, reproduce and die. The acid for blood is not just a defense mechanism. it's an extraction medium. when they die and decompose, the acid dissolves them from the inside out. That explains the hole in the floor next to the SJ in Alien. The SJ's xeno died and dissolved there. I'm working from the belief that the xenos are meant to be a pure weapon. They kill until they can't kill anymore and then they die and dissolve, leaving the conquered area completely cleansed.

Well my theory is that once they made a fully operational hive they will balance. I think the hive wants to reach a certain number of xenomorphs. If that number is reached the Xenomorph will only hunt for prey to eat. A prey to eat can be shared with other Xenomorphs and because the Xenomorph is very social it will share. In the time the hive doesn't need any hosts the other animals on the planet can balance their number again. If a lot Xenomorphs die of age or other reasons the hive will need hosts again. Then the animal population will lower again but because they need no more hosts after a while the animal population will become stable again. Of course when a hive has reached it's highest number a small group of Xeno's will abandon the hive to make a new one and so on. I think the population of the planet will become stable if a Xenomorph hive can spread. I do think the animal population will decrease but not so far to extinct all other life forms on the planet.

The biological weapon thing sounds about right...there are many theories which suggest adult aliens dont live very long, which makes sense because, as far as i can tell, they don't eat - humans are generally coccooned then left to rot after impregnation. The bodies aren't eaten, and when no impregnation takes place they are just killed outright, and still don't get eaten. But then again if this were true, the hive on LV-426 should all have died out by the time ripley and the marines got there.