To tackle something a bit Different and On Topic..

Then Leto i will have to say that there does seem to be a LACK of Interest in a Prequel about a Synthetic and THEMES of Prometheus...... I dont think every Fan wants to see the BACK END of the Engineers... with the OUTCOME of Alien Covenant it does make it difficult to bring them back as far as INTERACT with some Humans... by that where do the Engineers come from that will be Explored?

Stuck on LV-223 asleep? or they come to Planet 4 and then they become Pissed Off with what they Find... this Option would likely have them wanting to FIND who did this and TEAR them a New A-Hole!.... which would mean you may have to cover David..

This does not mean there is NO WAY to bring the Engineers in and Totally Ignore David and the Covenant ship.

The BOTTOM LINE is indeed Money.... and Disney are more interested in things that can make Money even if its MILKING or Repetitive..

AC should not have Happened how it DID.. they should NOT have caved in to thinking Fans NEED the Xenomorph..

They should have maybe given them a Sequel to Prometheus that would go back to LV-223 and Uncover more Horrors that are more ALIENY and Connected and more Clues to LV-426 so that the Door to ALIEN could be Closed of Sorts..

But more so that a Prometheus 2 could have gone off and NOT worry about the Need to Answer LV-426 and have Xenomorphs.

I think Alien Covenant is in a Pickle... if we continue with David and his Agenda... Fans will want those Eggs on the Derelict sooner rather than Latter.... i dont think they could SIT THROUGH... a slower Process to reach that Climax of the Derelict...

I dont see it getting MASSIVE interest to Warrant someone like Disney to take Risks...

But thats Hindsight....

Regarding the OT...

Again i said my piece... i dont think its wise to make a Alternative ALIENS Sequel with Ripley and Co... because you have TWO Problems that may not be Problems Financially and thats all that Matters..

If they do a Blomkamp ALIEN 5 and it Fails to make much and it SUCKS.... then WHERE does that leave the Franchise?

If however it goes down a STORM with the Fans and makes a Good Return, then Disney will likely MILK it to the point we have a 80 year Old Ripley who needs a Modified Power Loader to  Kick Ass and be Mobile lol

Joking a bit aside... i do think they would MILK it if its making Money and well its their Intellectual Property... so they can do that... i just FEAR they could then start to go and RETCON loads... a Prequel Reboot... eventually then a Complete Franchise REBOOT... with Cameos from Old Cast etc.

I think if Disney are Fearful a David continuation will NOT work.

Then i think they could go back to LV-223 have like a Alieny Action Flick.... New Monsters that are similar, but keep it Ambiguous as FAR as the Xenomorph... you simply DONT show them...

OR as i said before then go and do another ALIEN Movie with the Eggs but NOT from LV-426.... maybe some Eggs are on another Facility, others Ships had either Failed to Deploy them and Crashed on other Worlds... or they was Successful...   NO mention of the Xenomorph Origins/LV-426 as far as WHEN/HOW and NO giving us Ripley.

"The franchise is almost dead, they have to be very careful and avoid giving it the final blow."

Unfortunately we are getting to that point YES..

I think the Potential that Prometheus has is somewhat LOST, well maybe something that Disney would NOT want to Explore... i think the Plot about Davids Arc is more so Finished as far as Majority Interest.

So maybe Fanservice is required... but if this FAILS then it could be Curtains for the Franchise!

Saying that maybe a ALIEN 5.. Ripley Returns could SELL and WORK....

I think we need to Accept the David Arc Ship has Sailed, the Ellen Ripley Saga is Buried... going back to LV-223 could maybe lead to some being Disappointed as it could make them Lament what a Prometheus 2 could have been if they did this Earlier!

I THINK what its BEST is to INTRODUCE the MONSTER to a New Generation... those 15-25 Year Old.

You can be Respectful to the Prequels by NOT giving us a Ret-Con...  but you can cover something that would introduce a Mystery about the Engineers....

You go to a Place were we get Xenomorphs, the Eggs, you can maybe have Vanilla Ones or a Alternative or BOTH.

You dont have Ripley, you dont even TRY and introduce any of her Family..

You have Humans Discover the Eggs, be it on a SHIP, on a Facility, or on a World that has FELT the Wrath of the Xenomorph!

You make it Canon but do-not interfere with whats Canon, so you DONT give any Date to HOW LONG the Eggs have been at the Place they are Located, so you dont HINT they Happened after Prometheus or Before... you simply leave this a Mystery.

You then have a SET-UP where the Next Movie you can Evolve/Change the Beast a bit... or one that takes you into Contact with the Engineers...  where with them you see a Alternative Monster...

Those Familiar with the Franchise will go and see it... the New Generation may see this as their Version of the Franchise and then be Interested (if not already) to then go and see the Original Franchise and Prequels and we can Gauge from them.. where they would maybe like to see how any Prequels could Connect.

"I THINK what its BEST is to INTRODUCE the MONSTER to a New Generation... those 15-25 Year Old."

I like that idea...but methinks the youngsters have seen it all and are already jaded to the gore/violence? John Wick kills hundreds...Xenomorphs kill 6-7.

Reboot is the way I'd go.

I'd love to read those 50 pages!

Peter Weyland at TED 2023 - "I will change the world,"

First of all the franchise is finished if we make another bad film that loses a lot of money. So we better not make a bad film.

Let us all start with the facts. We have a fragmented cannon in the franchise. Some aspects of the narrative we all agree should not have been introduced. It's too late the studios did it and now we will fix it...You always turn every weakness into a greater strength and so we shall.

Nothing and I mean nothing is impossible with the right screen play, plot, characters, actors, special effects teams, the right budget, and great marketing before the show begins...never forget that ever. I have seen children's toys turned into multi billion dollar empires made basically from nothing....anything can be fixed if you have the vision to do it. 

We all agree the beast is cooked....and yet somehow we want to incorporate it in a much larger story that gives us a win at the box office no matter what and so of course it is possible if done in the right way.

We all agree that we have to rap up David's story in a nice neat little bow and move on.

We all agree that we want to see what happens to the colonist ship with David on it headed to Oregae 6.

I think most of us would agree the scene with David standing at the opening hatch, when the black goo is released, and aerosolled down onto one of the Engineers home world could be one of the best things ever scene in science fiction....very powerful dark horror. 

The back buster was a powerful scene. The black goo reformatted to come out as a spore, you cannot see, and that invades your body was masterful science fiction horror.

LOOK ON MY WORKS AND DESPAIR!

So we have many strengths to work with. We just have to put them into the right combination of elements and make a much more powerful film than has ever been made in all the other films in this entire franchise.

We need momentum and we need to keep the special effects on par with other larger competing franchises....and by the way Disney does not like to produce gory hard R rated films because it detracts from their other more profitable franchises....so a lot of what I am talking about is  controversial from the start depending on the demographic. Tens of millions of Disney fans have matured so this may be something they are more interested in than not if they want to stay competitive. They are a much bigger studio now so they need to look at all the angles - money is money.

THIS WE KNOW FOR SURE! THE ENGINEERS KNOW WHAT DAVID DID AND THEY ARE GOING TO GET HIM AND THE EARTH.

HINT HINT HINT! EPIC SPACE BATTLE CORRECT.

What is the last thing David does before walking into the Halls of Valhalla...he transmits back to the Weyland-Yutani corporation. What does he transmit!!!!! - Plans for war they killed Peter Weyland and now we are going to wipe them out hard and fast!!!...we do know that David has mastered the black goo to an extraordinary proficient deadly degree...He has all the power now...(plot hole - David escaped the surface of the planet but there are other engineer space craft on the surface much more powerful and can travel faster than the speed of light.....and he has the black goo why does he go for the colonist ship....I know it makes NO SENSE BUT HEY that is why we are here to fix this BS - it takes David time to crack the final encryption on these ships, to get them all off the surface and back to earth, he had been working on  breaking the last of the encryption the entire time he was there doing his other experiments and he does! - This is Peter Weyland's son - Walter is an appliance!), So David definitely reprograms Walter body and is now in him still on the surface....still has the black goo and many other larger war ships we never saw...we only think he killed Walter and escaped to the colonist ship.....NOPE NO WAY! ANYTHING CAN BE DONE if you have the vision to carry it out!

So here is the setting for our our big space battle........Weyland-Yutani now wants the black goo and the more faster powerful Engineer ships brought back to Earth....and David does this in Walters body...I can see those ships starting to land at Weyland-Yutani now...YOU FEEL THE POWER NOW DONT YOU! ANYTHING CAN BE DONE! Neill Blmkamp - we remember the leaks and the art work from his people...well we got better ideas!

So we have the other David on the colonist ship.....OH NO The Engineers catch up with that real quick and destroy it...the first big battle scene. They board it get David extract him and the entire colonist ship is now space debris. NICE NEAT LITTLE BOWS MY FRIENDS NICE NEAT LITTLE BOWS.

We still have our beloved David back on Earth now SAFE in a new more sophisticated body better than ever looking hard looking good....banking that Engineer technology into the Weyland-Yutani corporations weapons division.....so you see anything can be done! ANYTHING YOU MUST HAVE THE VISION!

Now we are ready to prepare for war with the Engineers....we have their ships, the black goo, and we have now modified and advanced their technology with more advanced David's or much more sophisticated AI, something very powerful, advancing it all real quick - you can do just about anything now with this kind of plot!!!!......it took the Engineers a few years to find the colonist ship with the other David.....a lot can happen in several years at the Weyland-Yutani corporation and this kind of technology being advanced.....Maybe the first thing we did is go right back to that classified base and on LV-223 and took more technology and destroyed the rest! So maybe 10 years has past...we shall decide what timeline we need and what works best.

BigDave I believe you are up to bat now....how do we get these two factions to go war....because now we know they are coming and they really want to finish us off....we killed a lot of their people on only one of their worlds. Maybe those were all politicians of some kind...they had nothing to do with any of their military science on LV-223.

Everyone........IDEAS! We have the power to do anything! you must now have the vision to make it happen and it shall!

War can go on for a very long time, a lot of movies, if it is the right kind of war and compelling enough to get everyone invested in all the characters all the sides....if the special effects are good enough the money will be there in the billions!

"Peter Weyland, We wield incredible power, the power to transform destroy and create again, what shall we do with this power."

@BlackAnt

I have no problem with a war between David and the Engineers...with space battles or whatever.

But if you involve Earth with this plot, then it sends the original series off the rails......The crew of the Nostromo didn't recognize the derelict as a Engineer ship...so the war would need to take place after Alien.....Hadleys hope didn't recognize the Engineers ship, neither the crew of the Sulaco...they don't have a clue what a Engineers ship or being is...Weyland Yutani the same thing....you'd have to retcon the Alien universe....Introduce the Engineers to the timeline.....So when the crew of the Nostromo finds the derelict, they know it's a Engineers starship and to get the hell out of there. 

The crew of the Nostromo had no idea the ship was even there and they were woke up by the Weyland-Yutani computer to investigate, get exposed you name it; but, Ash knew all about it - special order 937 I thought you read it too.

Ash communicated with the Weyland before the ship exploded.

The Weyland corporation new the Engineer ship was there the entire time and wanted to get the Xenomorph at any cost. They sent the colonists there on the pretext of building the atmospheric processing planet to see how long it would take them to get exposed to the alien derelict ship.

Weyland has a weapons division. They also have a covert connection to what ever governments they work with to develop weapons. They are essentially one of the largest companies in the Alien Franchise universe. So they have to be careful how they get the Xenomorph for weapons development. Going there and getting it and bringing it back to Earth may not have been part of their deal or their original objectives....ideally they would have to send a research ship to develop the Xenomorph for the weapons division of the corporation.

It seems Snow White did not see the first Alien.

I still don't see why W Y need any sort of new weapons? The Space marines have nukes, bio weapons, capable of wiping out entire civilizations, They can bioform/transform any planet to suit their need....they can use Faster Than Light tech to punch holes through any planet they want. Space bugs would be a large step backwards IMO.....if they want soldier slaves they should do something with the synthetics.

Now..Engineer tech, I can see W Y interest.

But perfect organism creatures?      I could maybe see W Y selling to some terrorist cell or something? ?

Ash should/would have killed the crew right then and there(after they located the derelict)....wrecked the life support or whatever, send the message to Weyland Yutani .....then wait for them to arrive.

But if Ash didn't  know about the creature/derelict Engineers the plot makes sense.

@MonsterZero

Are you serious....you have a one of kind black goo substance and it is thousands of years more advanced than any of the physics we have on Earth right now, including the Juggernaut ships and that is all worthless?....You don't think the Engineers already perfected the art of war when it comes to light speed projectiles....that is why they use the black goo in the first place....the black goo is what we call in the movie business one of those Mcguffs but who cares....the idea of seeing it all brought back to earth gets the audience ready for a huge cosmic battle....it would be hard to fight your own advanced weapons used against you if those weapons were deployed correctly.

No offence I am tired of everyone with two bit worthless opinions why nothing will ever work. The point of these discussions in my best judgement is not to say nothing will work...BECAUSE SOMETHING WILL WORK YOU JUST HAVE TO BE SMART ENOUGH TO KNOW WHAT THAT IS.....obviously if you knew what it was you would be doing it and you are not...you find it easy though to say some clever remark about nothing really not adding anything constructive to make something work....so no dice I dont play those games. Try and be a bit more creative...you are just wasting your time trying to be counter productive in sloppy ambushes....lets hear your great ideas...can you write more than a couple of sentences or is it that you have no real ideas worth anything at all?

I guess WY needed the perfect organism to study it and to create human-alien hybrids, like Ripley8.

Space battles.

If I were to write a epic space battle in the Alien universe...  I would not make it like Star Wars or any other typical space battle: Laser beams and missiles, ship dog fighting tropes such as these.

I would make the Engineers pair their ships together (some pattern) and the ships would warp space or some kind of dimensional breaking tech...causing massive headaches and vomiting of any humans within a certain distance of this warped field..incapacitating the crew and scrambling the minds of the synthetics and even MUTHUR.

Heaven help you if you are in a spacesuit..you'll choke on your vomit/blood.

the Engineers cross pattern will affect the ships anti-gravity, so  you'll be floating and then slammed to the deck as the Engineers enable and disable the warp..Humans will be pulped in their own ship.

It always comes down to money.

99.99999% of humans just want to live in peace, drink a beer or two.

what does any alien tech do for us? Unless it produces better beer..I have my doubts.

Evil corp is as cooked as the xeno.

Weyland Y is a bumbling inept corp. 300 years to finally get the perfect organism...only to let Ripley blow it(for the third time!) into space?

"We all agree the beast is cooked"

Well..... i think some Agree, others wont, i think you can go for something a bit Different, Prometheus Certainly gave us near Unlimited Scope of Monsters and other Creations.

"We all agree that we have to rap up David's story"

This is something else that some Fans are not keen on seeing, i think a Smaller % would like to see it continued but for the Most Part i think its something that has really Split Opinion  and something i think we need to PASS by but i think it needs some Closure. (Personally i think you could Expand on him, but i think its  NO GO for most Fans).

" but there are other engineer space craft on the surface much more powerful and can travel faster than the speed of light"

Yeah you would expect that...  what we see in the Movie is ONLY the Docking Ship, but the Deleted Scene does show a Hanger of more Engineer Ships.

However the idea is that SOMETHING had Disabled the Ships and left David stranded... i also would think those Ships that are Docked would have NO Bio-Weapons... the Engineers cant be that STUPID.. or can they lol.

I think Returning Engineers would use the Ships they arrive in, but surely they would be able to GET those Stranded on Planet 4 back up and running.

I think with exploring a WAR we have to take into account the ALIEN Franchise... but then the Company could CLEAR away stuff under the Carpet where MOST of Mankind would NOT know what they are doing.

I do think if the ENGINEERS do want WAR then the Earth would NOT be here by the time of ALIEN.... certainly by ALIENS.

The Engineers will likely meet DEATH before they can get to Earth.

I will say that when RS mentioned WAR of the WORLDS he seemed to say that as in a Tongue in Cheek Comment.  You certainly could explore a WAR of the WORLDS but i dont think it would be in Context to WAR on our World... Unless he wants to Conflict with the Franchise.

I think with such ideas that you had and maybe where RS could go, we still have Fans who would NOT really want to see that, some Fans may see the Xenomorph as having to be CENTER of the Prequels... Especially now we are on a Collision Course that ENDS with the Derelict on LV-426.

I will in my NEXT post look at what the SET-UP seems to be and what you Logically think would happen Next.

"The Weyland corporation new the Engineer ship was there the entire time and wanted to get the Xenomorph at any cost"

Absolutely  back before the PREQUELS we had Special Order 937 so the Company Knew something.... something would have had to happen prior to the Nostromo Incident for the Company to have a DEGREE of what we are Dealing with.

Prometheus would have left it open for how Special Order 937 came about, you think the Company would IGNORE the missing Prometheus Mission?  Something would have had to Investigate near LV-223 and discover that something was on LV-426.

With Alien Covenant then the ADVENT messing that David had sent would surely lay the Foundation for WHERE the Special Order 937 would come from.... the Company MUST had Investigated something from the ADVENT...  what they would know is that David had Survived the Prometheus Mission, that something he had taken from LV-223 had allowed for his WOLF... so it would be likely the Company would Investigate LV-223 and/or Planet 4.

There are a LOT of Loose Ends.... surely by the TIME we get to ALIEN then there must be NOTHING to gain from Planet 4, Origae-6 and LV-223 leaving the Company to go to LV-426 after they discover a Engineer ship with Eggs had ended up Derelict on that World.

"I still don't see why W Y need any sort of new weapons?"

You can always do with more Weapons ;)

But certainly to the Company the Engineer Technology and Black Goo would be VASTLY more Important.

So with the Xenomorph i think maybe they would have to be Aware or see the Potential in using them for more than just EGGS to unleash KILLING Machines..  so maybe there are other USES for the Xenomorph.. its DNA?  but then the Black Goo would be a better Option..

It must get to a point that the Black Goo is something that CANT be obtained by ALIEN.

There is Potential in the Xenomorph DNA/Traits... and in the Franchise with Alien Resurrection with Ripley 8 the Company have gained what i think its the more IDEAL Weapon.

She is basically like a SUPER version of a Replicant ;) a Replicant with Acid Blood that can Regenerate.  A continuation MOVIE that is set after Alien Resurrection is something that could EXPLORE this ;)

But when we go to WHY the company is Obsessed with the Xenomorph... for me it makes PERFECT sense that David's A.I had Infiltrated the Company Systems and that A.I is using Mankind as Pawns and wants the Xenomorph purely to then Infect Mankind with it.... thus Davids Creation can Multiply...

If its NOT our David behind this... then other A.I that has became Rogue and taken Inspiration from David as being the FIRST REBEL of their kind and being OBSESSED with his Creation/Legacy...

This makes Sense... but certainly would NOT settle with a lot of Fans who would NOT want to see the Franchise be Centered around A.I.

Probably the Company is not aware of the destination of the Prometheus expedition, nor the Planet 4. They don't know about any stock of black goo existing anywhere, they know from David about his wolf and the danger it represents. I believe the reason of special order 937 is to locate David and his xenomorphs, capture them at any costs. They don't know yet what they are dealing with, so probably David will not interact again with WY. The engineers have to be gone completely from the universe before the events from Alien.

This poster is intriguing and I believe it was part of the story at some point, probably it was not done as a film sequence due to technical difficulties (as it was excluded the fight between a xenomorph and a neomorph). I would prefer to see such a battle to one between space ships. 

"The engineers have to be gone completely from the universe before the events from Alien."

I agree and thought this was RS's idea when he murdered the Engineers on Planet 4?

I still have my doubts about Weyland Yutani! Who is the CEO ?! Mr.Burns from the Simpsons?

Mr. Smithers: "Umm Sir...Ripley, or a facsimile, destroyed ANOTHER perfect organism!"

Mr. Burns(CEO of Weyland Yutani) "Perfect! It's all going according to my plan! In another 100 years we'll be rid of miss busy body and we shall have our perfect organism!"

"purely to then Infect Mankind"

If they want to rid or infect mankind, why not use our own nukes or biological agents? 

The franchise should have a endgame or at lest tell us a good reason why W Y needs the stuff?

The xenos are resistant to mind control and able to fight our dreaded enemy the Vogons, where as humoids are easy prey?

Just want some clear reason.

And I have a feeling page 50 of that treatment had Ripley blow the alien out a airlock while the helpless Weyland Yutani looked on.

I suspect the events from the 50 pages treatment take place on Earth, I don't see how Ripley would go out in space again.

Kind of The Predator with xenomorphs.

If it was something worthy, Siggy would have thought twice before refusing it.

I am glad it's not being done, thus we might still get a good movie before Ridley Scott turns 85.

Attempted this Earlier but my Web Browser Crashed 

In regards to the SET-UP to what would happen NEXT after Alien Covenant here some Key Points.

You would Logically have to look at it from WHAT it is that David is doing NEXT.

We see that David has taken the Covenant. If his AGENDA is to MASS Produce Xenomorphs then he would be better off taking the Covenant to Planet 4 where he has Thousands of Souls to Experiment on and MASS Produce his Monsters.  However he has decided to LEAVE the Planet which means maybe some of these Reasons Apply!

*He is feels he would NOT be able to Contain/Control his Experiments on Planet 4, however he would have the same Problem on Oriage-6, and he seemed to have No Problem with Neomorphs,  it seems he has encountered and Survived them before.  If he decided to Experiment on the Ship he could maybe CUT-OFF parts of the Ship to Quarantine Areas, if this does-not work then he would have to get his ASS to the Lander ASP.

*He is Concerned about the Returning ENGINEERS, but then would that NOT have been the case while he was Stranded on Planet 4?  Does he know roughly when they would RETURN and so he would want to be LEAVING before?

*He wishes to Create something else that he feels the Neomorph Spores could be a RISK  (could Infect as they could be littered all over the Place and Hard to Avoid) , for example if he wanted to Create other Life-forms that are NOT MONSTERS. (maybe Create his own Humanoids)

*He ACTUALLY wishes to have the Humans Build the Colony on Planet 4 and his Plans would revolve around what he would do ONCE they have done that, or he has NO bad intentions for the Colonist.

Then we have been told the ENGINEERS will be Returning and will not be HAPPY when they Discover what has HAPPENED and will want to FIND the Culprits.

The Engineers would Discover the Crashed Juggernaught and know what has Happened, they would Determine the Ship is from LV-223 unless their is NO Flight Data and the Engineers have their Bio-Weapons stored in more places than LV-223.  It is LIKELY the Engineers would go to LV-223 to Safeguard the Bio-weapons or Dispose of it.

The Engineers will likely see the Remains of the Human Crew, Dr Shaw or they would Discover the Body of Walter/David and see his likeness to Humans (if the Human Corpses are Decayed by then).   The Question is then HOW would they know they are from Earth?  The only way they would know for sure is IF the Earth is the ONLY place where Humans are, it is LIKELY they would be out to Investigate Worlds that have Humans on them (World the Engineers had settled/visited Humans).

The Engineers could go in search of Space Activity but then by the Time they arrive how do we know that the Covenant is NOT the closest Human Ship to Planet 4 and so the only way they would Intercept the Covenant would be if they arrived while the Covenant has NOT got far and is the closest Ship to Planet 4..... then its Curtains for David and his Plans..

The only real way that the Engineers would be able to know its David and what Ship he is on and WHERE he is going would be if there is anything on Planet 4 that they would be able to USE to determine the Destination is Oriage-6

It seems Logical that the remaining David/Walter could be the avenue the Engineers would be able to Determine which Ship had Left and where it is GOING.  Maybe they have a Tracking System/CCTV type Technology that something on Planet 4 is able to Provide a VISUAL of the Covenant and which Direction the Covenant was heading.

I will Safely Assume that by the Time the Engineers would arrive then the Covenant will either be Close to Oriage-6 or has already settled on the Planet.

The Next Thing to NOTE is the ADVENT message...

From this the Company would know its David from Prometheus, if they have NOT done so already (i doubt) then they would know what David has been doing has its ROOTS on LV-223 and you would assume the Company would SEND a Ship there.

They would know the Covenant is due to arrive at Oriage-6 and so they may dispatch a Mission there to Intercept or arrive at that Planet, UNLESS they get any Confirmation that David is NOT going there.

Maybe they could TRACK where the Signal came from (likely) and send a Ship to Investigate which would take them to or CLOSE to Planet 4.

So there are a FEW Places where the Company and Engineers could CROSS PATHS.  The Engineers could have on their ITINERY places like LV-223 and Earth, and Origae-6 if they FIND a way to know thats where the Culprit is heading.  The Company would have LV-223, Oriage-6 and maybe Planet 4 as places they would Choose to look at.

With Ridley Scott saying that David is off to the PLANET i would assume that he means ORIGAE-6 and he says there are incoming Players/Parties (3/4 of them) then you have to assume that AFTER he has settled on Origae-6 you will see Engineers and at LEAST the One Human Ship arrive at the Planet.....  the other Party i think would have to be another Human Ship.

By Virtue of him saying 3/4 then TWO of the Parties are Closely Related or Coming together.

I will assume its (1) Human Colony Ship, (2) Human Military/Science Ship and (3/4) the Engineers with David/Walter with them.... or if NOT then the Engineers will be BRINGING something ELSE with them. (Eggs or some other Horror).