USM Auriga
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The USM (United Systems Military) Auriga is a fictional spaceship depicted in the fourth instalment of the Alien quadrilogy, Alien: Resurrection and is by far the largest vessel depicted in the Alien series. A large, well-equipped military vessel, the Auriga is primarily used for illegal medical research and biological weapons development. It has a small crew of medical scientists and security personnel, and is commanded by the corrupt USM General, Ramón Perez.
The vast majority of the film is set on the Auriga, where the long-dead Ellen Ripley has been cloned from frozen DNA taken from the prison planet Fiorina 161 in Alien³, along with the embryonic Xenomorph Queen growing inside her. The Auriga's scientists manage to successfully extract the Queen, and the Ripley clone quickly recovers, having somehow retained all her former memories and intelligence. However, the Alien drones being kept for study soon escape, slaughtering the ship's guards and scientists, including General Perez and his aides.
The rest of the film details the exploits of Ripley and a motley crew of renegades (including the good-intentioned female android, Call) as they attempt to escape with their lives. Many of them are killed in the process, but Ripley, Call and a few others manage to escape on board the renegades' transport ship, the Betty.
The Auriga is destroyed when Call programmes its engine controls to send it into a collision course with Earth. The impact obliterates the ship and all the Aliens on board.
[edit] Ship Details
("The Making of Alien Resurrection" states that the Auriga is 3,658 meters (12000 ft) long, 718 meters (2355 ft) wide and 628 meters (2060 ft) tall. They also state that the Auriga would have to be travelling at 3,169,777,333.333 Kilometers Per Hour to make the journey from Pluto to Earth.)
Dimensions: (Hull) 480 m (1440 ft) x 92 m (276 ft) x 88 m (264 ft); (Superstructure) 116 m (348 ft) x 32 m (96.5 ft) x 25 m (75 ft).
Total Weight: (Empty) 72,550 tons (78,000 tonnes); (Fully Loaded) 83,000 tons (91,200 tonnes).
Crew: 12 Command Staff (inc. bridge officers, Gen. Perez etc), 8 Maintenance Personnel. 12 Science Personnel, 23 USM Guardsmen.
Propulsion: (Sublight) 2 x US/SLD-400/A Plasma Fusion Drives; (FTL) 2 x US/FLD-270/C Ion-Ram Hyperdrive Slipstream Engines.
Top Speed: (FTL) 3,169,777,333.333 km/h (Sublight) Unknown.
Defensive Armament: 6 x Raptor AX/II-A Computer-Guided Anti-Ordnance Weapons Platforms; 4 x Viper D-220 Zero-Gravity Hypervelocity Turrets; 5 x Shryke-2 XN/V-32 Electron Railgun Units.
Offensive Armament: N/A.
Electronics: TM/A-R8 Mid-Range Sensor Antennae; SO/S-V2 Orbital Survey Radar Array; B-FZ/22-A Defensive Fire Control Radar Array.
