Realism, Grittiness & Future-Tech Projection

 One of the toughest parts of writing science-fictions, especially within a pre-existing universe, is dealing with the technology and the question of:
"How advanced is TOO advanced?"

Then you have to deal with tha fact that in movies like ALIEN, the tech of the day when the sets were made and the tech the production people presumed of the future...are both considerably lower than what exists in the Real World, today.

Smartphones...an omnipresent piece of tech that is in everyone's daily lives, even if you don't own one, you're aware of them. More and more, Smartphones are becoming more and more entrenched in daily life, every bit as much (or more) than wallet and keys.
However, even in ALIEN: Covenant, we don't see a trace of them.
In my works you do, the crew uses them a LOT, same as folks today.
Drones, never seen in the ALIENverse...but look around today, and they WILL be there in the future. Factor in that antigrav system the mapper-balls had in PROMETHEUS and you end up with an enormous wealth of possible drones, then factor in Synthetic AI, and Drones become incredibly useful.

However, we do see primitive cartridge-fed guns. I won't mention the 'Pulse Rifles' from ALIENS as there's Zero Canon info on how they work.

Now, there's a problem with guns as they are...they're fast becoming obsolete. There's bodyarmor now that uses carbon nanotubes, and is built into Armani suits.
How good is it?
It'll stop repeated close-spaced 9mm High-Velocity rounds with NO problems. We're not talking 1 or 2 bullets, we're talking about stopping a magazine's worth.
SO, how do you deal with that?
1: Make the cartridges more powerful?
NOPE, there's a hard-limit on how much recoil a Human can handle.
Fire a .500 AE revolver sometime, you'll see what I mean. ;)

2: Go with a laser. It can dump a LOT more energy into a target, on a smaller area, and much faster than any bullet. However, you have no real Munition Options. But for most situations, that's not really a problem. Also, Sci-Fi always gets laser-based weapons WRONG.
Frankly, I'd rather have a chestburster happen to me than be shot with a weapons-grade laser as I'd have a slim chance with massive medical help in surviving the chestburster's damage.
Laser wounds? A hit to the chest? Yeah, bye-bye.

3: Advanced munitions. Say, the bullet ignites a gyrojet-like rocket motor just as it leaves the muzzle, which keeps recoil the same as what would be normal for the cartridge, but the round continues it's acceleration to, say, 5X what it would be normally.
EG: .44 Mag = 1400 FpS on average. Multiplied by 5, that's 7000 Fps.
This ammunition can be made today, and doesn't require any changes to any given firearm.
Historical Note: Forget the 'Gyrojet' - Brand weapons from the past, they weren't made right to start with.

So, in the end of it all, you end up with something somewhere between (I hate to say it) 'Star Trek' and 'ALIEN'.
Yes, laser weapons will exist, so will extremely-personalizable smartphones, instead of some 'one size fits all' communicator.
Drones will be ubiquitous, despite what ST would have us believe, and while Synthetics will be Top-Shelf, even the average Drone will be smart enough to rarely need any Human assistance.

Genetic Engineering. The Pandora's Box, and Humanity's already opened it.
My 'Chimerans' aren't merely 'Plausible' they're Probable. Then there's things like what Weyland wanted, a cure for aging.
Well, if you have the tech (And Humanity almost does here in reality) to repair the Telomerase of the DNA in the body's cells, THAT cures aging, and a variety of other problems as well.
Realistically, Weyland would have benefitted from that tech and would not have been a wizened old man when they went to LV-223. Physiologically, he'd have been in his Prime.

And in the end, no matter what we write, time and tech move on, and even the most Advanced tech in a story from any writer will eventually come off like stone knives, digging-sticks and untanned animal hides. :D