What if... The USS Sulaco doesn't exist?

The suggestion that USS Sulaco may have had a team of special forces, black ops like marines onboard has got me thinking more and more as to how this could answer the issue of the mystery eggs seen in Alien 3. Although some fans seem to favor the idea that Bishop acquired two eggs from somewhere I have always had a problem with this theory, as Bishop only had three places where he could acquire the eggs - 1, the Alien hive where Ripley was rescuing newt, 2, the colony lab even though they were all dead and 3, the derelict Juggernaut. Could Bishop have traveled to the Juggernaut grab (at least) two eggs hide them on the drop ship and return in time to rescue Ripley and Newt? Personally, I doubt it.

Then I was hit with an idea that works well within the corporate conspiracy threads of the franchise. We know that Lt. Gorman and Sgt. Apones team of Marines were purposefully chosen for the mission of investigating the colony at Hadley's Hope because of their inexperience, with Weyland-Yutani likely hoping the team and their escorts Ripley and Burke would fall foul to the Xenomorph infestation they had already witnessed (via CCTV over the Network) overwhelm the colony. Because of the marines ineptitude we can also speculate that they were likely fresh out of the academy and likely hadn't been assigned a starship of their own, with the USS Sulaco likely being leased to them.

That is unless the USS Sulaco never actually existed and the secret team of marines speculated by some has already been featured in the franchise...

What if after witnessing the infestation unfold at the colony on LV-426 Weyland-Yutani requested the services of the colonial marines through Burke, with Ripley in the hope of eliminating both Burke and Ripley, thus tying up any loose ends connecting them to the colony. Fresh out of the academy the marines are leased a Constega class starship, labeled the USS Sulaco, which in actuality is the USCSS Patna. What we witness unfold in Aliens is a cover mission, with the true, covert mission being tasked to the crew of the Patna.

The team of the Patna remains onboard, their presence unknown to the marines. Once the marines drop down onto LV-426 the Patna's team use the second drop ship to travel to the coordinates of the derelict Juggernaut (pictured below) and using synthetics (like Bishop) gathers as many eggs as the drop ship will carry before returning to the ship in orbit, freezing the eggs and waiting to learn the fate of the Marines.

Remaining hidden the ships team patiently wait until the survivors Ripley, Newt, Hicks and (mostly) Bishop have entered cryosleep before moving them to a second bay of hypersleep chambers (explaining the difference in cryo-pods) where an elaborate trap is set up, placing an egg nearby on the ceiling to ensure that Ripley becomes a host. The pods are then ejected into an EEV with another egg and launched toward Fiorina-161's ocean, in the hope of drowning the other survivors and using Ripley to acquire a fully grown yet manageable specimen of the creature (explaining why they didn't acquire the Queen earlier and their interest in the "dragon" from the assembly cut).

The ship then waits nearby as the events of Alien 3 unfold, only making their way toward the prison colony upon receiving Ripley's bio-scan showing the Queen gestating within, arriving in time to witness Ripley sacrifice her life. Morse is taken into custody, Ripleys blood samples taken, the prison is shut down and the USCSS Patna, returns home with its cargo of Xenomorph eggs ready for delivery to Weyland-Yutani's bio-weapons division.

Whether or not their commander Michael Bishop (pictured above) is Bishops creator or just another Synthetic is another debate altogether.