BigDaveOctober 23, 2013i would say they are Ancient, how old.. we cant tell...
Certainly older than 2000 years ago, and maybe vastly older but maybe not as old as the opening Scene, because the Engineer Ship and themselves seemed to lack that Xeno Bio Tech look that the latter Engineers and Derelict had...
Ridley Scot suggested that the Derelict Tech was Millions of years old how many Millions well that just means more then 1 Million and less than a Billion lol
But thats not to say the Xeno or its orgins are older than that, it could be the Engineers found it and stole tech from it, genetically modified the Xeno or its Ancestor at a point after the Sacrificial Scene but Millions years before today.
The Sacrificial Scene is supposed to be over a Billion years ago but not at the start of Earth i.e 4 Billion or so.
Can we say the Xeno is many Billions of years old? We cant but i doubt it is.
Yes the Xeno seems to be able to survive in Hostile environments but we have to ask why was the Engineers trying to Terraform LV 223..
Certainly not for the Xeno or related organism, maybe for themselves or for Human Sacrifices etc.
Back to Topic of Perfect Life Form....... how is the Xeno Perfect?
it is Perfect in that it can withstand Harsh Environments, it has good deffencive traits and is a Strong, and Fast killing Machine.
But better still and especially if we use Aliens onwards as canon, it can Procreate its species and this seems the aim be that you look at Aliens or the Alien DC.
Take away Aliens and the Alien DC and all we got is a Stealthy Organism that comes from a Egg that comes from a unknown source that goes around killing its prey via Stealth...
some Praise the Alien DC cut as it shows the Alien was not just a killer, and that it actually had a Agenda and that was to capture crew to Procreate its species....
Some dislike the Aliens... Bugs idea....
But these Xenos in Alien are also intelligence, they cut the lights, they also capture victims to procreate its species, they do sacrifice themselves for the greater good of keeping Eggs and Queen safe and thus Bugs mindset..
But when we look at Bugs and if we look at Ants especially, they are for their purpose also Perfect... There agenda is simple its just to procreate its species.
And Ants have been around for millions of years longer than we have and they will be around for millions of years once Mankind has died out.
Back to the Xeno Perfect Organism, and if we take some comments above about how they are adapted to survival and procreation and if we then imply these organisms are more intelligent and also live for longer..
Then why would the Engineers uses them as a Weapon....
Only 3 outcomes are possible..
1) The Engineers use them as a weapon to destroy simple as... and once a world is infested well its a risky business to then obtain that world off the xeno... ask the Space Jockey how deadly dealing with a Cargo of them is.
2) The Engineers to a degree can control the Xeno, some how but maybe only Adult Xeno as it would carry some traits of its Host.
3) The Xeno control the Engineers and some other Organism is at the top of the Hierarchy that created the Xeno for a purpose and then the Engineers to help it perform that purpose.
Now 2+3 can be used to fit in with the Xeno being used to extract genetic material a Xeno may have obtained but surely a more Advanced Engineer race have other less risky ways to do that.
Only unless as with 3... there is some other being or Organism or machine or what ever that is the Lord of all this..... GOD?
R.I.P Sox 01/01/2006 - 11/10/2017