This is a key issue.  The combination of not only organic DNA but also metallic/mineral substance.  This is the very essence of the original big fella.  My assumption, based on the evidence so far, is that David is going to be a key player in this.

What is the interface or mechanism that allows organic and non-organic material to combine?  This is the original Giger concept, as seen through his artwork.  Is this what the black goo is capable of? Yeah, very good question.

Sci-Fi has explored this before, lifeforms evolving into bio-mechanical form, or maybe even completely "artificial" lifeforms able to "re-produce" themselves.  But this has always been mechanical combination of the two.  What if a lifeform could "re-produce" with both organic and inorganic material already present in it's DNA?  As Milburn might say "...whew"   

I haven't read the comics about what happens when the goo spills at a plant but maybe it gets poisonous and infects those that try to eat it?

Hello Everyone,

I am absolutely fascinated by the Alien series and Prometheus. My favorite part and most of my fascination is with the Space Jockey/Engineer from the first Alien movie. I can still recall when I first saw that part I was like "What in the world is that! Than years later we get Prometheus and that left me even more hungrier for answers. 

Anyhow I absolutely love reading your guys post's here on this topic which has helped me with some of my theories and questions as to WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHY, and HOW. I also found a webpage that tries to explain just that, named.. Attempting to Explain Prometheus. I agree with a lot of his views, I think it is right on and actually some of what is said they're is said here by a few of you. Check it out you will not be disappointed I promise.

He also looks at the Murals one by one that were in the movie and explains away what he thinks and its pretty darn good.

http://www.ign.com/blogs/conkersbadfurday/2013/01/27/attempting-to-explain-prometheus

Pardon my English..

@Apecheizm

Welcome and thank you for the link to the site. It sounds slightly patronising but it again celebrates  the thought that someone has looked beyond the surface of the movie to find answers and found the pieces of the puzzle but not placed them in the right place within the puzzle, or left the puzzle incomplete. Two examples :-

1) The implication is the Engineers Promethean failure was to give mankind the fire and or that we were an unauthorised Pitri Dish experiment.

2) The Zenomorph co exists separately within the mythos and has its own narrative.    

Answers to One.

Within the mythos, which already stretches in Ridleys mind to Newt/Hicks and Ripley having survived, mankind is alive and "well" and the Engineers are a fallen ancient force whom mankind have happened upon. If the hierarchy considered us an aberration not part of their plan would they not have intervened so there was no story. The hierarchy did "intervene" and the Engineers have suffered a disaster following their fall. We remain the Engineers do not. We are meant to be here in this mythos and earth or not the opening of Prometheus points in only one direction. We are not the interlopers the Zeno strain is. 

Answer to Two 

Everything in Prometheus points to LV223 being a failure. What is the failure a mutagen has caused havoc, a mutagen which is kept in a controlled environment and ritualistically placed in front of an image of ……, now that we cannot be certain of but their God representation which appears in the storm on the top of the Pyramid makes sense, but the room is part laboratory part mausoleum and so the Engineer culture are proud of this mutagen they have created. What does the mutagen produce, Zeno related outcomes, what is the Zeno a weapon created by whom?

Its hard to contrive an argument that doesn't suggest the mutagen with the Zeno strain comes directly from the Engineers ingenuity which has done them no good at all. Some argue it may have been stolen I am with Ridley this is the equivalent of the Ebola myth an unintended consequence of experimenting with G.M.

So if you look at those two arguments I would suggest some pieces in the puzzle need to be reset. ha ha    

The zenomorph ritual is parasitical it needs some thing to feed off to survive that alone should indicate to us it is not first or pre eminent but a contrivance which we know got out. It is not in the train of the Gods it is the result of the Gods servants fall.  

Another very good point, MJ.  Zeno repro is all about the "artificial insemination" as it were.  It is external, mix as you go, asexual reproduction.  More akin to making androids (hence the bio-mechanical aspects) versus something with complete DNA that can gestate on it's own, after sex between two similar beings, and without an invasive cycle into another host.

So yes, evidence points towards zenos as being this aberration that was created by another race, which on the face of it, seems to have gotten away from them. If not actually destroyed them.

Now you can either go the route of trying to explain all this, which is fascinating, and I really enjoy it, or you can be a bit more pragmatic. like Janek, and say, ok, here's what we know.  Let's just deal with that.

I see value in both routes.  The philosopher in me wants to know more about my origins.  The myths and legends used to create more questions than answers here.  The soldier in me says Fuggit, it don't matter; just worry about what you can control.  We may never know our origins; the answers may simply not be out there. 

Now as this pertains to a movie.  Here is where I sometimes have trouble suspending the pragmatic, as in what would I do, versus what is desired/ required to make a movie. 

For example, the number of people involved.  For a horror/sci-fi movie with a creature to chase around and kill the crew, you obviously need to limit the amount of personnel involved so this works.  In reality, as I tried to explain in my thread, you would many more personnel on one of these ships, with the security element alone out-numbering the small amount of crew we are being presented with.  A creature such as this, as terrifying as it is, could be overwhelmed by sheer weight of numbers and/or projectile weapons.  Since that's not what we want to explore (and also too time-consuming and/or expensive) you have to suspend belief here a bit to buy into the story.

Also, as to the origin theory, Ridley is being deliberately vague, as a story-telling device.  Just as in "2001, A Space Odessy", a Ridley favorite, leaving the questions unanswered sometimes makes for a larger statement than trying to give your own answer.

Look at all of us here discussing all this theory amongst ourselves.  We are being stimulated to find answers, where they may be none.  Both from the movie-makers, and in reality. 

@Diz

On the ^^ one of the qualities of on line reaction is to forget the basic principle of storytelling the need to suspend disbelief and apply artistic licence . Naturally if some one doesn't enjoy a story or character it doesn't capture their imagination thats part of the mystery of taste and response but a good deal of criticism in the internet age is about dissembling detail ignoring the reason behind the choice. Just one example and its pertinent to the Jockey thread. Ridley could have gone for a 22 foot CGI Jockey to match the scale of  A L I E N. But the far more important story telling revelation is "they are us we are them" it  would have been much harder to pursue if they were 3 1/2 times the size !

As Ridley has said they are superior, more ancient astronaut, than God and it helps with the layering and intimacy of the story to triangulate mankind/engineer and zenomorph.  

Hi,

I'm a patron of all Alien-related movies. Having seen all "Alien" movies as well as "Predator" movies, I have to say that the origin, the purpose and the evolution of Xenomorph have become convoluted in each movie by each director. The original "Alien" was a big hit, then the second one was better than the first, but the later ones were running out of steam, being remakes of the first two. I like the prequel Prometheus a lot because Ridley has added more mysteries behind the Xenomorph for the continuation of the franchise and story line.
However, his attempt to present the idea of human were engineered by alien species on Earth in the opening scene was just a reiteration of the story line used in the Alien vs Predator franchise. The Xenomorphs were preys engineered for recreational hunting purpose. These creatures can easily be reproduced using any biological hosts. Their unstable DNA structures can easily be assimilated with DNA of another life form. The "Black Goo" is the "soup" for which living cells can undergo rapid mutation in any environment. With this "goo", Ridley has stretched the plausibility of how a tiny worm/larvae can evolve into a giant face-hugger attacking the Engineer. Unfortunately, the plot becomes obscured on how Dr. Shaw's fetus (after having sex with the "black goo" infected Dr.Halloway 10 hours ago) can grow into a giant face-hugger without an incubating host, in an isolated chamber and under a short time. I understand when watching SciFi movies, we need to give and take some. I have to admit that the monster size face-hugger looks impressive in the movie. 

So for the upcoming Alien: Covenant movie, Ridley most likely will borrow the opening scene concept of Alien 3 and combines with the "colonist" idea of Aliens. Since synthetic David knows how to operate the Engineer's cryo-pod, he would have sabotaged Dr. Shaw's pod to breed another fetus with her body inside using the black goo long before crashing on to planet Paradise. Everyone would buy the idea that the aftermath of a cargo ship carrying thousands of xenomorph larvae crash-landed on Paradise would bring total chaos to the planet before the arrival of Covenant. Massive xenomorph mutations would have taken over the entire planet in a short period of time. Similar to Jurassic World, xenomorph species will compete for survival and the ultimate surviving species would be the face-hugger and xenomorph similar to the original Alien movie. By the time Covenant reached the planet, Paradise is already in a ruined state. The encounter between Covenant's crew and synthetic David would bring about new perspectives to the story. A completely flipped out version of David who proclaims himself as the creator of xenomorph on Paradise would do everything to bring back the xenomorph species to Earth. At this point, we can pretty much guess the rest of the story. 

Well, yeah that's one interpretation of it.  David does seem like a very likely candidate for bringing "hell" to "paradise".  Something did happen between him and Shaw.  And there is that possibility that David becomes the SJ that crash-lands on LV426.  This has been mentioned before and does have some merit, although other theories abound.

I don't think Ridley has been that linear in his story-telling.  Prometheus opened up so many possibilities that it's really hard to predict what will happen.

It also appears the story has changed a few times, along with the title.  And, depending on how the final cut is done, you never really know until you see the movie.

Just as in Prometheus, you had Ridley, then Spaights, then Lindelhoff, AND the final editing with input from Fox execs.  So the story gets pushed and pulled from multiple directions.

But yeah, I too am pretty much guessing David will have a central role here, in whatever goes down.  I also suspect he is the source of the bio-mechanical aspects of the xeno.             

@Sciencenotfiction

Whilst the concept of the Engineers as intergalactic gardeners for the hierarchy echoes some of the symbiotic quality of the AVP back story, partly because the Predator does not resonate with me, and partly because of the lack of depth, I do not get the broad sweep or the intellectual/spiritual reach from it in the same way.

On the question of David "bringing hell" I to had considered he is the catalyser for Paradise Lost. However I think it does create some difficulties.

1) Paradise is a seemingly beautiful world which yields terrifying dark secrets rather than being a fully fledged broken planet, like say the planetoid LV426.

2) If the Engineers society was thriving at the time of David's arrival that provides plausibility issues for their non interference on LV223 and if it is in the past LV426.

3) For me the big one is the notion of "Paradise Lost" The Engineers are fallen angels and Paradise  is merely an extension of what has happened on LV223, attempting to break their bond of sacrifice, experimenting with sub creation and rebellion which lead to appalling consequences. We know that some of the motifs of LV223 will re appear Ridley and the Urns as well as some unscheduled indications. This maybe the part of the narrative that has undergone the most revision from Pandemonium to Covenant, Paradise  is not a living hell but a moribund potential hell which will ignite with the arrival of the Covenant which will reveal and lead to us understanding the tools and knowledge that David has gained since getting ahead and through that will explain why "it' was created by whom and for what purpose.  Mind you Uli Latukefu is 6 foot 6 inches tall and was in New Zealand in March at the same time as the shoot so who knows  Engineers may appear real time or the Ultramorph which is not vertically challenged either.   

David getting "ahead"... funny.

Im think that maybe there are many factions of engineers. A war has played out between a military faction( zues engineers ) obessed with power and belief they should alone be gods ...using a specific goo designed to millitarise their DNA ( Very specifically engineer DNA !!!! ) hence the engineer seen in the film with bio implants etc. missuse leads to mutant  and disasterous results.

..and  a creative faction ( promethian) using another goo ( DNA catalyst )  designed  to seed their DNA life on worlds, spreading in an almost science/religious fervour. hence the engineer in the start of the film.

this war has lead to the destruction of paradise and contaminated the planet ...the xeno is an accident quickly mutating animals or slugs etc it was not designed to interact with. creating the very seeds of their destruction.

when they played god they were destroyed.

The planet in prometheus was a staging point for promethians and was one of many worlds undergoing terraforming. the zues faction invaded in an attempt to stop them and it ended in disaster.

when woken the zues engineer was confronted with the humans who represtented the corruption of his species. killed them and tried to continue his mission to destroy that which the promethians created. the obomination to its purity.

the idealogical war 2000 years ago that destroyed their civilisation both on paradise and the LV planets and the DNA catalyst and the religious beleif they could play god was ulimatly their undoing.

Humans stumble onto traces of this aftermath. discovering mysteries and xenomorphs engineers and installations paradise etc and eventually the horror of the DNA catalyst and like infects them too. we were not meant to be gods and neither were the engineers like icarus flying too close to the sun.

excuse spelling and possible stupid errors.

@Tobor123

I think you express very clearly one of the big questions for Covenant. 

A "disaster" occurred on Paradise was it :-

1) The result of an inter Engineer War. 

2) The hierarchy's judgement. 

3) David "bringing hell".

Whichever one it is, as you say, out of this kind of dysfunction emerged the Xenomorph. 

My own view is it is the intervention of the "hierarchy" because quite clearly the Engineer society is not in the present, where as the consequences of the Engineers both good and bad are with us. 

If the Engineers are merely "more superior" than us and not gods who made them and who intervened that I suspect is the potential question for the third movie.  

Another aspect that was mentioned is the time-line here.  These events presumably happened around 2,000 years ago, which is essentially when "modern man" emerged and evolved.  So we are so far behind the curve, as far as being a space-faring race, that by the time we get to outer space, the original race is long gone. 

That seems to be part of the deal; the worlds that are seeded by (whoever) take so long to develop, that meeting "the creators" may be a sporty proposition.  Especially in this case where the engineers fall from grace from their elders.

So yeah that's a fascinating concept to explore: where is the human race in the time-line of other worlds and races out there.  And how long would this time-line presumably be?  Could their be millenniums of ancient civilizations that preceded us? How many other worlds were seeded?  If there ARE other worlds, on roughly the same time-line as us, could we eventually link up?

That would be a fascinating add to the story.  As other seeded planets get off their planets and seek the same answers as us. 

As this relates to our story, "god" may be dead, but his children live on, and may eventually meet up.        

Diz:

These events presumably happened around 2,000 years ago, which is essentially when "modern man" emerged and evolved.

I'm still holding out for the Space Christ theory! I think Christ's crucifixion is going to play a role. However, they sort of implied it in Prometheus and dodged the subject, so I wonder if they're still going to be too afraid to really be straight forward about it.

Mmmm, yeah, and I think they would still get too much push back from conservative Christian views, which has to be considered in the bottom line. 

The story of Christ might be a parallel track to the engineers/zenos, or as some have thought, be directly tied to it.  But I don't think Ridley would ever be that direct about it. 

I think Ridley likes being sort of irreverent, though. So part of me thinks they might still sneak it in there, but have it subtle enough still that it's ambiguous and not definitive. I mean, he's already spoken about some "Godlike" being, so that should be fun!

They have to stay somewhat within this creator storiline.  The engineers left a being on earth from which we evolved and then they planned to come back to earth with these pods.  Dr. Shaw's parting words still need a response: They created us then they tried to kill us. They changed their minds. I deserve to know why.  We deserve to know why and Ridley won't let that go.  I am sad Dr. Shaw won't play much if any role in this movie but I'd like to think she is not dead, perhaps locked away in the alien horseshoe ship.  

This brings up something else, David the Head tells Dr. Shaw there's more ships on LV-223.  So Prometheus happens upon the one ship where the shit hit the fan with the Engineers and their bio-weapons.  Were the other ships empty? 

Dr. Shaw and David take off in this alien ship and knowing what we know about Elizabeth she would: A. Remove or destroy all the pods lest to end up like the Engineers.  B.  She would either not put David back together or take precautions he would not knock her off while in kryo.  Yes Ridley could come up with some devious plot but he loves the heroine...hello, Ripley.

Please forgive the newby here if I've touched on issues long since put on a shelf.  I love Prometheus and the Alien franchise, minus the versus, and can't wait for the next installment.  I just can't see them walking away from the "Sometimes to create, one must destroy."  It all comes back to us.

The Dude Abides:

They created us then they tried to kill us. They changed their minds. I deserve to know why.  We deserve to know why and Ridley won't let that go.

Yeah, this needs to at least be brought up again. Definitely. I think the scenes with Shaw are going to be pretty pivotal. Probably won't conclude anything, but I suspect they will at least set up for some revealing stuff.

"Unfortunately, the plot becomes obscured on how Dr. Shaw's fetus (after having sex with the "black goo" infected Dr.Halloway 10 hours ago) can grow into a giant face-hugger without an incubating host"

The way to look at this is if we consider the Black Goo in those Urns... Evolves Life it comes into contact with, it infects Organisms DNA passing Xenomorph related DNA onto it while also taking the Organisms best traits and Evolving them.

If we take this stance, and then consider that a Female Egg is a basic canvas for Life.... and that a infected Egg will evolve into a Stage 1 Embryo in which almost all creatures on Earth (Mammals, Fish, Reptiles, Birds) all look very similar at Stage 1 Embryo......

We can consider a Stage 1 Embryo as a Blank Canvas with less Native DNA to re-write and so what we have is something more Xenomorph related...

A Xenomorph is born from a Egg... a Egg is laid and inside this Egg is the Face Hugger the first prime/active stage of the Life Cycle

Shaws infected Egg acted like the Xeno laid Egg, only instead of having a Organism grown inside a Egg like Birds, Reptiles do... Shaws Organism Evolved into a Face Huger instead.

Shaws Baby was a Hybrid Human/Xeno Face Hugger.

As far as how fast it grew, we are talking a Rapid Evolving Cycle that the Xeno Strain DNA has..... in Alien note how quick the Xenomorph Grew from the Small Chest Buster thats maybe a Foot Tall, (not inc Tail) to the Adult Xenomorph that was 7ft (not inc Tail) then you can see how fast these related Organisms can grow/evolve.

Alien Covenant and Prometheus are pretty open to what they can explore...  there are a number of conflicting things that need to be covered to prevent potential Plot Holes......

As far as Paradise goes.... Covenant hints that all that remains when the crew of the Ship arrive is David 8 from Prometheus... but there is also something evolving on the World......  that has something to do with what the Engineers had created...

This does not mean the Engineers creating this Evolving Creature, as Ridleys comments are ambiguous... but it certainly at least means what ever the Evolving Creature is... it would not be possible for it to be evolving without some Biology the Engineers had created.

This thus does not rule out David 8 using something the Engineers Created... i.e Black Goo.

Previous to Alien Covenant, Ridley was going the route that David and Shaw would find some beings on Paradise, but these beings are not Benevolent... and certainly not Gods.... this does not bold well for Shaw and David..... as we saw how a single Engineer had wrecked havoc after he tore Davids Head Off..

But Ridley had said then... that David was bringing Hell with him, and what happens if the Black Goo infects God, or a Machine?

This Plot is not what we are getting now, but it does not mean we wont see some of it.... Alien Covenant could set us on the path of the Aftermath of when David and Shaw arrived on Paradise... Prior to the Covenant Crew.

We dont know what David and Shaw found.... but originally they was going to find some remains of a Ancient Race and its Culture and we have to assume it maybe could not be a very population Race.... and so maybe only a small amount remain... and maybe some conflict thousands of years ago.. decimated their once thriving community.

So i doubt Paradise after 2000 years ago, had thousands of Engineers or Related..... but i also dont think it would have ended up with No Survivors at all.

It was hinted that what little remained, may have ended up being destroyed by the Actions of David...

I think they could still run with this and Alien Covenant we will gradually find out the Aftermath of such a event.

We dont know how long it took David and Shaw to get to Paradise... but we know the Covenant ship arrived 10 years after Prometheus in the year 2104 or abouts.. and its a Weyland-Yutani mission and not Weyland and so its safe to assume the Covenant had not set off on its voyage prior to Prometheus.

So the Covenant would have to at the most taken 9 years to get there but we just dont know when the Covenant set off to Paradise, it could have taken a year, two, five years or less.

But what we can assume for sure is that the Engineer Ships would surely be able to get to Paradise Faster than the Covenant or any Human Tech at the time... maybe even faster than the Technologies in 2150+

So its safe to Assume David has been on Paradise for at very least 5 years.... and we dont know what they found when they arrived and how David has kept himself busy within that time..

And what about Shaw?

The movie does seem to have some scenes showing Humanoids facing some kind of disaster or punishment....  are these Humans?  They are all Bald and there are Large Stone Walls with Engineer Writting on them...

Are they Engineers? but this would mean they have Females.... or are they some other Faction/Order related, a missing link between Mankind and Engineers, a earlier Evolutionary Step prior to Mankind... or another Race created by the Engineers.

It would be safe to assume this scene is maybe thousands of years ago... and not as a result of David 8's actions but we cant rule this out.

We need to look at key elements here... elements that Prometheus was setting up...... they are as follows.

*Interpretations that Alien Humanoid Beings, are in the Galaxy who play a role in the creation of life, and they had done so on Earth and their interactions with Mankind are where the stories of Mythos and Religions all stem from.

*Particularly we are looking at Promethean Mythos... which gives us a Hierarchy of Gods, and it specialized in Two Factions... Titan Gods and their offspring/creation the Olympian Gods of which there is the constant theme of Father/Son Creator/Creation and Rebellion of Son/Creation to overthrown their Father/Creator.  The Greek Titanomy Mythos is filled with conflict, betrayal and rebellion and punishment.

Prometheus was a Titan who had betrayed the Hierarchy a number of times, he had aided Zues the leader of the lower caste of Gods the Olympians against overthrowing the other Titan caste..... then he also betrayed Zues in the aid of Mankind.... Prometheus is credited as being behind the creation of Mankind or reasons for our creation and then also giving us knowledge that maybe was forbidden to be given to us....

*We are also looking at the Biblical Events but more connected to those with the Paradise Lost Poem that deals with the Rebellion between God and his first creations (Angels) the Fall of some of these Angels, as lead by the greatest of them Lucifer, they rebelled against Gods rule.... Mankind was created as a replacement..... but Lucifer now Satan... had caused Mankind to Sin against God, by tricking them to gain forbidden knowledge and thus see God as not being the all powerful and only figure to Worship (Adam was after the Forbidden Fruit more committed to Eve)

*Both these have a similar theme, both deal with Subcreation on multiple levels and how Creation will rebel against Creator and see themselves as not being insignificant/in superior to their creators.  We see this is happening with David 8 too....  Both these themes also deal with Punishment.....

I think we need to look at Prometheus/Lucifer to be a similar connection here, and to be loosely explored within the Franchise...

Therefore we have Multiple Hierarchy of Creation.... if we look at it in the following orders....

1) God/Titans/Annunaki

2) Angels/Olympians/Igigi

3) Mankind

4) Androids

But there may be multiple levels than those 4, the caste that is 2nd Titans/Angels etc.... there may be a number of different Races Created than just one.... the same can go for the next Level as in Mankind... is Earth the only place with Humans?  Are there other similar creations created in the Galaxy?

I think so but i doubt we would be touching upon these much....

Looking into the history of Prometheus... what we are shown and what Alien Covenant has shown... and taking the Source comments into account.....

I think Rebellion between Factions/Gods and Hierarchy is what is going to be key and that the Punishment for this is going to be where our Xenomorph connection comes into it.

The Two main Themes, being explored are Prometheus Mythos... and Paradise Lost version of Biblical Events....  here seems Prometheus/Satan are the rebellious instigators and ones responsible for Mankinds Forbidden Knowledge...  Both also get severely Punished for their Transgression against God.

Prometheus is cast down, and tied to a Rock, where the Giant Caucasus Eagle would Eat his Liver, and each day it would grow back and he would suffer this eternal torment...

The Caucasus Eagle  was created by Echidna (Half Woman/Snake) the mother of Monsters including the Hounds of Hell that Guard the Gates to Hades..

Lucifer is also cast out, he faces Two Punishments.... First from his head he gives birth to a daughter Sin who is a Half Woman/Snake who is constantly Pregnant to a host of monstrous hounds, constantly tearing at her insides as they are born..... these Hell Hounds Guard the Gates of Hell.

Lucifer has no knowledge of this Birth of a Daughter..... until he arrives at the Gates of Hell..... his 2nd Punishment is to be transformed into a Horror... he becomes Satan and some of his followers are Cursed and Changed into Serpents.

I think there is a connection between Prometheus/Lucifer and Echidna/Sin   and Prometheus Liver being Torn out over and over and Sins fate of have her entrails torn by the constant birth of Hounds of Hell.

I think a mixture of these elements could make a back bone for how the Xenomorph came to be.... its from the Sources vague clues that drive me to this conclusion...

But time will tell.....

It does back up my theory about the Prometheus Fresco being one that does not Show a Adam and God... but instead the Prometheus and Eagle Fresco....

This Fresco is nearly the same as the Prometheus one... similar pose, similar scar... similar look on the Prometheus/Engineer Face....  The Fresco beaked Creature is maybe a Punishment sent to Punish a Prometheus Engineer or Engineers.....

The result of this eventually maybe leads to something that is the Progenitor to the Xenomorph... In my opinion.

---

The movie had a lot of mystery a lot had evolved from draft to draft as far as reasons for this and that.

There is no single one shoe fits all theory or answers to most of what we saw in the movie, it is very ambiguous indeed.

As for the Beaked Creature... the Fresco is there for a reason, at least it had to had been when they was working on Production... The Organism in that Fresco has some Genetic Link to the Xenomorph, we just cant be 100% sure what this is.... there was a 2nd Fresco we never got to see fully in the movie but here is a close up of it.

This clearly shows a Egg that is similar to the Original Ones, the Creature holding it does have Xenomorph like Hands... but also it could be the creature from the other Fresco instead.

I would say this is the same Creature... as for its connection who knows, but there has to be some connection between this creature in the fresco the Egg in the other Fresco and Experiments on LV-223 that led to the Black Goo and the Deacon Mural....  i would assume this creature predates the Urns Black Goo, and Mural Deacon... i would assume this is the missing link.

The pose of this creature holding a open Egg reminds me of the HR Giger Pose Below..

But this is just a assumption and trying to make a similar connection which i feel shows that HR Giger Created the Egg... and so this creature in the Fresco is the Chicken to the Egg.

I would be keen to point out a alternative HR Giger Face Huger concept for Alien below.... notice this Face Huger is Beaked... and this Face Hugger appears in the Prometheus Mural on the bottom left.

Also of note is prior to Ridley looking at HR Gigers Work and deciding he wanted to use one of his ideas as the basis for the Alien (Necromon IV)  Alien Original Screen play writer Dan O'Banon had done this concept for how he intended the Alien to look

If you look at this creature design and HR Gigers 2nd Face Huger design concepts... you can see both have a similar look to the Prometheus Fresco Creature.

Here is the Mural Room concept for Star Beast which Alien was based off, and Prometheus used many unused ideas from Star Beast that never made it to Alien.

You will notice the Mural shows a Creature being Sacrificed... it looks like it could have Mandible Jaws like a Ant... or O'Bannons Alien design..... or they could even be beaked like HR Gigers 2nd Face Huger.

Note also the Chest Buster is very similar to the Prometheus Trillobite.

Maybe coincidence?  or they are using previous unused concepts... as the Urns are from Star Beast too.

The Trillobite/Deacon was the result of a experiment David had made on Holloway, that led to a event that ended up with either

*Mutated Holoway Xeno-Sperm

*Nano Worms (in the Goo) have to remember Spaights original draft there was no Goo, but tiny Nano Scarabs that did the same principle as the Goo.

Either way one of these had infected Shaws Womb and Fertilized a Egg that led to the Trillobite.

As far as what the Engineers where running from... its not sure.. the sound could just be a red herring... but the Juggernaught did have chest busted Engineers in Cryo Sleep Pods..

But the movie seemed to hint that the Engineers where infected by the Goo that was altering their DNA, and they was attempting to get to the Big Head/Mural Room as the Environment inside maybe prevented the infection from spreading or slowed it down.

Earlier Drafts the running Engineers all jumped down a large Chasm/Well to Sacrifice themselves because they was infected.

If i can go back to the OT....

Here is what we know so far........

*10 years after the failed Prometheus Mission, a Weyland-Yutani Colony Ship the Covenant arrives at a World that the crew/colonist (which is mostly couples) believe would be a Habitable Paradise to begin a new life... a World that has similar conditions to Earth in its primordial days... a Paradise of which there would be no need to Teraform....

*They find a World, that has seen some kind of disaster and its only inhabitant is the surviving Android David 8 from Prometheus.  There could be no sign of Shaw... at least not at first.... 

*The Covenant sets down on Paradise or a Drop Ship does, things soon start to turn bad.... the ship is involved at some point in some kind of explosion. 

*There is something Evolving on Paradise that the Engineers or their Evil Biology is responsible for..... soon people are infected and we see Chest Busters and we get the crew of the Covenant being picked off a few at a time.

*We will see a Organism that is similar to the Original Xenomorph, and it looks like there would be more than one.  These eventually get onboard the Ship, in which case it seems Daniels may sabotage the Ship preventing it from being able to travel anywhere with such deadly Organisms.

*We know there is onboard another David or at least a look-a-like is this a latter Model? is it a Android? Human? or some other less Synthetic Construct... what role does this David play?  does David from Prometheus swap places and pretend to be this Covenants David?  We dont know...

*David and his doppelganger are likely to play a Key Role in the Plot and events of the movie as far as real time year 2104 etc.

*Shaw will appear but it seems only in a minor role, and its unknown if this would be in a Flashback, or if not in what capacity she is in... for example would she actually have any dialog and contact with the crew of the Covenant?

*There is a scene of disaster, and horror maybe a punishment that is happening to some Humanoids who look like they are related to the Engineers and includes Females, this scene could be a Flash Back?    Be it from thousands of years ago.... or from after David interacts with those beings.... i think a Ancient Flashback makes more sense.

*We know there would be a link to Ripley in the movie, and its speculated that its via Daniels somehow... possible relative?

*This is the first of what seems a new Prequel Trilogy that would be showing us the seeds to how/when/why the Xenomorph came to be.... by the time they finish there would be at least another 3-4 hours after Alien Covenant to cover the aftermath and link back to the 1979 Alien movie and what became of the Space Jockey.

@BD good summary again.  The broad stokes are all there, just be interesting to see the details.  And of course the visual presentation.

Huge shout out @Big Dave,@Diz, @The Dude Abides @ Michelle Johnston. Fascinating stuff all of you.

@Big Dave, incredible stuff. I love the photos you posted and elaborated on. Everything you post is just amazing like the looking into the history of Prometheus... "what we are shown and what Alien Covenant has shown... The Rebellion between Factions/Gods and Hierarchy."

I just can't get enough of this. The whole thing about the Space Jockey/Engineer scene in Alien has always drove me crazy. I was more fascinated with the Space Jockey than the actual Alien. I can't believe we have to wait till next August lol

I saw Alien 1 when it came out in the movies so I been waiting a long time.

@ The Dude Abides "The engineers left a being on earth from which we evolved and then they planned to come back to earth with these pods.  Dr. Shaw's parting words still need a response: They created us then they tried to kill us. They changed their minds. I deserve to know why.  We deserve to know why and Ridley won't let that go.  I am sad Dr. Shaw won't play much if any role in this movie but I'd like to think she is not dead, perhaps locked away in the alien horseshoe ship."

I totally agree with you here I hope they keep with this and answer that in some way or form.

 @Big Dave thanks for speaking on what we know thus far in the OT. Excellent summary as @Diz said.