USS Marlow

The USS Marlow was a Bougainville-class attack transport ship in service with the United States Colonial Marine Corps, assigned to the 1st Battalion, 3rd Regiment.^[1] It was dispatched to BG-386 to investigate a distress call sent from the Freya's Prospect colony, during which mission it was crewed by Marines under the command of Major Thomas Van Zandt.

The Marlow was destroyed in orbit above BG-386 by a Yautja frigate piloted by Dark's clan members.

History

"No warning, just 'BANG!' No more Marlow…"

―Unidentified Marine Sergeant (from Aliens vs. Predator)

The Marlow arrived at BG-386 in response to a distress call sent by Katya following a major Xenomorph outbreak at the research facility on the planet. The ship had barely got landing operations underway when a Yautja vessel decloaked nearby and immediately opened fire, blowing the Marlow clean in half with a single salvo before the ship could even respond. The vessel quickly broke up in orbit, and burning pieces of its hull rained down on the planet surface below for some time following its destruction, though at least one Type 337 EEV was successfully launched beforehand. The loss of the Marlow effectively stranded the Marines deployed on BG-386.

Crew

Major Thomas Van Zandt [K.I.A.]
Corporal Teresa Aquila
Private 'Rookie'
Private Gibson [K.I.A.]
Adams [K.I.A.]
Bores [K.I.A.]
Connor [K.I.A.]
Connor [M.I.A.]
Danone [M.I.A.]
Franco [K.I.A.]
Heath [K.I.A.]
Hennessy [K.I.A.]
Jackson [K.I.A.]
Johnson [M.I.A.]
T.J. Jones^[2] [K.I.A.]
Mac [K.I.A.]
Mathers [K.I.A.]
Moss [M.I.A.]
Nolan [K.I.A.]
Prezbolewski [K.I.A.]
P.T. Rodriguez^[2] [K.I.A.]
Roper [M.I.A.]
C. Standen^[2] [K.I.A.]
Custer [K.I.A.]

Behind the scenes

The Marlow continues the tradition of naming spacecraft in the Alien franchise after elements from Joseph Conrad novels — Charles Marlow is a recurring character featured in several of Conrad's works — although the vessel's name was originally going to be spelt Marlowe, according to concept art seen below. The name Marlow was used again for Henry Marlow in the video game Alien: Isolation and later in the 2022 video game Aliens: Dark Descent for the character of Joseph Marlow.