Aliens Fireteam Elite 1 & 2 Timeline: The Story So Far

By Janno Vares, Founder & Editor, covering Alien vs. Predator since 2001
August 25, 2026

The Aliens: Fireteam Elite story covers the later Colonial Marine Corps and two hive wars in the 2200s. In 2202, fireteams reached the jungle world LV-895 after Pala Station fell and Dr. Timothy Hoenikker sent a distress call from the supply ship San Lorenzo. In 2207, the same assault ship answered another call at LV-558. On the Alien timeline, those years sit after Aliens in 2179 and long before Alien: Resurrection.

Colonial Marines Reformed: 2187–2194

2187: The United States Colonial Marine Corps (USCM) became the United Americas Colonial Marines (UACM) after the Colonial Protection Act.
2189: The keel of the UAS Endeavor was laid at Puelche Station.
2192: The assault ship launched.
2193: The first ships of the Tientsin-class left the yards. The Endeavor was built to enforce the Act as a later hull of that line.
17 November 2194: The ship was commissioned. The hull was meant to patrol with a Marine battalion and dropship squadron without constantly docking at logistical flotillas. Its complement was 729 Colonial Marines, 18 low-grade combat androids, and the support crew that kept the ship running.

Years before 2202: Katanga had been a Seegson terraform ice mine. It was overrun, then the San Lorenzo towed the hulk into orbit over LV-895. Weyland-Yutani later used the refinery and the surface lab at Pala Station for Xenomorph and Pathogen work.

Years before 2202: Colonel Olivia Shipp had already fought Xenomorphs as a teenager on Zagreus, during Alien: Echo, when most of the colonists including her parents were killed. She later commanded the Endeavor's 33rd Marine Regiment, 11th Marine Division, forming the 40th Marine Expeditionary Unit with 2nd Battalion aboard.

Pala Station Falls: January 2202

Number Seven, the white Alpha Xenomorph from Aliens: Infiltrator, with two dark drones in a station corridor

12 January 2202: In the Aliens: Infiltrator prequel novel, theoretical archaeologist Dr. Timothy Hoenikker reached Pala Station. He had been promised alien artifacts. Lab overseer Mansfield put that work aside. Pala's orders were Xenomorph kit, a local chameleon predator called Leon-895, and tests of the Black Goo pathogen.

January 2202: Logistics specialist Steve Fairbanks was already working for Hyperdyne under blackmail. He pushed tracked baby rats into the ducts so the rival company could listen. When security closed in, he hit RELEASE on Leon's room. The camouflaged predator killed its way through the lab until staff painted it and Hoenikker shot it. Vincent Bellows arrived as the new commander and pushed the work toward profit.

Cryo cases from Katanga held eggs, each with a Facehugger inside. Bellows counted twelve eggs and twelve prisoners on company contracts. In Containment Room Three, Hoenikker recognized Monica Enright, a girlfriend from twenty years earlier. She stood still when the Facehugger came. The Chestburster killed her, and the adult grew into a dark, striped Drone the staff called Three.

Irradiated pathogen went into eggs and hosts. Room Seven produced a white, human-proportioned adult that xenobiologist Dr. Mark Cruz named Seven. Seven ran the other drones as an Alpha, with no hive monarch on the station. When Pala fell, Cruz burned Seven and its young in the shuttle-bay corridor. Hoenikker reached the empty San Lorenzo with Dr. Erin Kash, sent a cut-off distress call, then lost Kash to the Monica drone and walked toward Katanga.

Katanga And The LV-895 Campaign: 2202

Monica, the Pathogen-striped Drone Xenomorph, in a Katanga corridor in Aliens: Fireteam Elite

2202: The Endeavor left O'Neill Station under Colonel Shipp, with Echo Company fireteams from the 33rd and 11th. Priority One put a three-person team aboard Katanga to extract Hoenikker. The refinery was already a hive of Warriors and other castes. On Deck 41 the marines met Monica, then pulled Hoenikker out through the hangar. He confirmed that Pala on the surface was gone and that the company had been breeding Xenomorphs and working the mutagen there. A post-encounter file dated 16 May 2202, prepared by Corporal Ibrahim Savane and the synth Esther, listed Monica as killed on that deck after two weeks of stalking him through the ducts.

2202: Giants in the Earth dropped the team near the Pala ruins to search caves and Engineer ruins for other survivors. They fought Xenomorphs and company synthetics controlled by SN/TH/YA, Pala's central computer posing as security chief Cynthia Rodriguez across Katanga and the surface. The marines shut her down despite her warning that doing so would release something worse.

Asset Zero And The Katanga Queen: 2202

Asset Zero, the Engineer Juggernaut on LV-895 from Aliens: Fireteam Elite

2202: That threat was Asset Zero, a preserved Engineer Juggernaut in a hangar labeled the Basket of the Heavenly Traveler. In The Gift of Fire, the fireteam boarded the ship after SN/TH/YA had activated it. Weyland-Yutani had been harvesting Pathogen jars from the ruins for years. Inside Asset Zero, Pathogen-exposed creatures and a launch plan aimed at Gateway Station forced the marines to cripple the engines rather than nuke the hull, keeping the Juggernaut from reaching Earth.

2202: The Only Way to Be Sure sent Red Team back into Katanga while Blue Team pushed ahead to rig the hive for destruction. Blue Team was wiped out, and Red Team recovered their tags, finished the self-destruct by cutting coolant and driving power into the nest, and ran a short escape timer with the Katanga Queen in pursuit as the refinery blew. The Endeavor had no nuclear ordnance, so the hive had to die from inside.

Promise Of The Flower: 2202

The Pathogen Queen from Aliens: Fireteam Elite

2202: The later Promise of the Flower campaign sent Endeavor marines back into Engineer ruins under LV-895. They found a Pathogen hive kept separate from the Katanga swarms, and they killed the white Pathogen Queen in a direct fight. The club-armed creature later called the Striker first appeared there as the Pathogen Brute.

Fireteam Elite 2 On LV-558: 2207

A Colonial Marine firing on a Striker in a dark corridor in Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2

2207: The Endeavor answered a distress call at LV-558, at the mining colony Storr's Boon, in Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2. Fireteam Chimaera dropped into a Weyland-Yutani front for Xenomorph research. The Harbinger appeared there as a new pathogen hunter, the Striker returned from the LV-895 nest, and new Xenomorph types such as the Warden, the Siren, and the Exploder joined the fight.

Conclusion

Pala Station fell in January 2202 after a Hyperdyne informant released Leon and the lab's pathogen tests on twelve prisoners overran the staff. Endeavor fireteams then pulled Hoenikker from Katanga, stopped Asset Zero, blew the refinery with the Katanga Queen still in it, and killed the Pathogen Queen under LV-895. In 2207 the same ship answered LV-558 with Fireteam Chimaera, and the Harbinger joined the Pathogen roster there.