was the Ilium range high and dense enough to prevent the nuclear blast from hadleys hope destroying the derelict ??

I always got the impression that the derelict was miles away from the colony, so was probably out of range of the nuke.

i ask because there is menu i think on an alien game (i think isolation ) that indicates the derelict was destroyed. there is also a novelisation that indicates the same - which one - i dont know

mayabe sea of sorrows.

I don't know about those. I personally only consider the films cannon, well, the first 3 films.

ugly thing of games being canon. i also read about the weyland yutani report that was supposed to be canon .

apparently it has been published but what it says i dont know.

https://www.sideshowtoy.com/collectibles/alien-alien-the-weyland-yutani-report-collectors-edition-insight-collectibles-902252/

http://avp.wikia.com/wiki/Alien:_The_Weyland-Yutani_Report

here 's the wiki link

screenshot of the game . not sure whuch one. a the bottom it says destroyed

apparently michael biehn was very upset with the wat things ended with A:CM . he was apparently involved in the making of it.

so perhaps it is the juggernaut.

if it is promeheus has strong ties to alien 5. ridleys producing

Plus if it's Weyland-Utani that we're talking about then the chances are the status: Destroyed for the Derilict was so they coud keep the true identity of its current status a secret so they could micro-manage the salvaging rites/operation but could do so in total secrecy and maintain control of th Site as was the similar case in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The military there attempting to squeeze out any non-personnel who shouldn't have been on the mountain so there wouldn't thus be any living, breathing, uncontrolable witnesses to a momentus, historic event in th history of human kind.

Exactly Odu...we can't trust the damn Company!

Whatever unknown material the derelict and Juggernauts are made from, I think it can withstand just about anything.

The Derelict from ALIEN may have been on LV426 for thousands of years or more, and had no obvious damage. The Juggernaut in Prometheus hardly sustained any outer damage, even after a direct hit from the Prometheus plus it's ion propulsion engines exploding!

I think the egg silo is potentially still intact too, having gone back to dormant mode.

There's probably a lot the Company doesn't tell its employees. 

Yes, I believe the illium range's height + the distance from the colony created enough of a ridge to protect the Derelict from the blast.  Depends on the topography.  The ground on LV-426 isn't very stable: it's subject to sudden changes, landslides, fissures, sinkholes, seismic activity lava rivers.

Things were going on beneath the surface, which necessitated that the Derelict be moved.  Something we may need to understand.

The Derelict started slipping into a fissure that opened up when the rock/plate underneath shifted.  Unbeknownst to us, this placed it even further beneath the mountain range at the time of detonation.  The Company moved the Derelict piece-by-piece to prevent it from tumbling further into the planetoid's interior (began making preparations as soon as the outbreak started). 

The large pieces were airlifted and transferred to the nearest colony world. There they were repaired and welded/stitched back together from the outside.  It was almost like they glued together a 3D puzzle to preserve the context of whatever may still be inside (also for posterity).

Why were facehuggers in jars at Hadley's Hope?  This indicates scientists may have been present during the outbreak. They managed to capture a facehugger, which Burke frees to try to infect Ripley.  Burke lies to Ripley every waking second.

The first colonists to arrive began laying foundations for the air processor, digging out the subterranean chambers, then wondered what the hell they were doing out there, establishing a colony on such an inhospitable world. Weyland corp provided them with cover stories.  One might wonder why the colony was called Hadley's Hope, while simultaneously referred to by its code name: Archeron. The code name refers to the River of Pain in the Greek Underworld. It earned the name by causing much pain & woe.

If the Company didn't prevent the Derelict from sliding into the guts of LV-426, then it would have fallen into the rivers of lava beneath, and all would be lost. Lava is one way to kill Aliens.

The beacon was deactivated during the ground shifts, leaving the Company without coordinates. 

I would be happy if they done the next film from the alien river of pain novel. That goes after alien and begore aliens. You get to find out how the colonists lived and what happened to them when Anne and russell jordon came back with the face hugger on russells face.. I be happy seeing that as a film

You know,I like to think the first derelict ship in Alien survived. No telling how long it was there before the Nostromo discovered it,or what that ship was made of.

I really appreciate Neill Blomkamps Alien artwork,but his derelict in the huge hangar(?) seems to be a bit smaller than the one depicted in Alien(1979). Maybe they found another one,like in Prometheus.

Foresure  it was! how are they going to make Alien 5 without revisiting the Derelict?   Newts family was sent there in the begining of the Novel version and it was quiet a journey out there Most likely it was far enough from the blast radius like the Journey the Jockey made to get there.  If it wasn't...well I think that the Derelict would have not been that damaged.  My personal opinion about the cashed ship is also that the crash would not have damaged it...unlike it was originally suggested: Hadleys Lost Hope.

As for the eggs in the underground caverns...the ship is probably still terrorforming!

@D1amond74  I see you've read River of Pain. I'm actually not done it yet, been busy lately.  I've taken inspiration from events depicted in the novel in my last post, which you seem to have picked up on. 

It seems the Weyland scientist (who discovers that the other scientists have an escape vessel) will come into play in the end. Basically, I'm predicting it but still need to verify who escapes.  Thinking she saves Newt's brother, doesn't realize Newt is still alive.  Which would be heartbreaking for the older brother, who has to leave her there.  Wouldn't it be funny if Newt and her brother are both alive somehow?  Like Ripley and Hicks.  Maybe they form a family, become like Swiss Family Robinson in space.

Those events might not reflect reality.  Perhaps that's one possible version of the story.  It may come down to what we choose to believe.  The Company won't tell us the whole story: any answers the new novels/comics provide may be a trick. It's tough to explain

To get to the truth, we may need to consider all the data; however, we shouldn't focus on the novels/graphic novels as much as the movies and more official sources. 

The official data in Weyland-Yutani files and other Company approved documents is as close as we can get to the truth at this point: not representative of the whole story, the truth, and nothing but the truth.  Weyland corp will even lie to official sources and gov't officials.  Fox symbolically acts as the Company at times to deceive us with the answers.  The Company approves the messages & cover stories.  What's clear, is that a number of "officially approved" sources indicate Newt's parents were the first ones sent to the Derelict from the Colony.  The rest is unclear