Cherokee (Cher) Hunt: Journalist & Shy's Sister

Full name: Cherokee Hunt
Also known as: Cher
Species: Human
Role: Journalist
Known for: Hasanova cover-up; survived the hive on LV-187
Family: Daughter of Ken Hunt; sister of Cheyenne "Shy" Hunt
Setting: Oregon, New York, New Albion, and LV-187, 2186
First appearance: Alien: Colony War (2022)
Status: Alive; left LV-187 on the Victory in July 2186

Cherokee Hunt, called Cher, was a New York journalist and the younger sister of Cheyenne "Shy" Hunt in David Barnett's Alien: Colony War. Their father Ken Hunt raised them in Oregon. In July 2186 Cher left Earth to find out why Shy had died on Hasanova. She reached the British colony New Albion, flew to the oil world LV-187 with Chad McLaren and the synthetic Davis, and left on the trade ship Victory with arrest warrants out for her.

Biography

Early Life In Oregon

Ken Hunt named his daughters Cheyenne and Cherokee, and they shortened the names to Shy and Cher. He told them the names honored First Nations blood in the family, and that the choice was political in the same way as everything else he put in front of them. Every evening he called them in for the six o'clock news, and they talked through what they had watched. Their mother died of cancer after Ken had been out of work for two years. Cher was the darker sister, with olive skin, and she stayed with books while Shy went into the woods behind the house.

When Cher was eight and Shy had just turned ten, Shy climbed a grain silo on Nesbitt's farm and could not get back along the ledge. Cher started up the ladder, could not finish the climb, and went down to fetch their father. Shy fell and broke both legs. In the hospital Shy treated the fall as Cher's failure. Cher promised she would not fail her sister again.

Shy's Death

Shy died on Hasanova in 2184 during the raid led by Captain Kylie Duncan. A hearing at The Hague cleared Duncan six months before Cher's trip and filed Shy and the other McAllen Integrations workers as collateral in a covert Colonial Marine operation. Cher did not accept that account. Four weeks before she left New York, a paper postcard of the Charybdis whirlpool arrived at her home with only the words NEW ALBION on the back. It took her a week to get a commission. Two days before she left Earth, a note under her windshield wiper read SMART MONEY SAYS DROP IT.

New Albion

Cher flew coach on a RyanSpace liner, three weeks in cryosleep, to LV-593 in the Weyland Isles. Promo films sold New Albion as parks, a river, and a clock tower. She found rain, concrete, an unfinished ditch the locals called the Thames, mines, and farmland they called the Midlands. The hotel that used the name Ritz was a concrete box. An envelope waiting there used the same block capitals as the postcard. The note said THIS IS WHY YOUR SISTER DIED, and the envelope held a photograph of a Xenomorph.

An encrypted tag on the package set a meeting at the Queen's Head. Chad McLaren had sent the postcard. He would not give his name until he decided he could trust her, then walked her through the Hasanova raid and named Duncan's Midnighters as the unit that killed the witnesses. Davis was with him in the body of a dog. Cher agreed to hear the rest.

The Elvik

On 17 July 2186, Prime Minister Maurice Pepper put New Albion on a war footing and declared it separate from Britain and the Three World Empire. The trade ship Victory had answered a distress call from the empty Independent Core System Colonies oil world LV-187, raised a flag, and claimed the oil. Chad and Davis treated that empty colony as a seeded hive tied to eggs stolen from the wrecked salvage ship Clara. New Albion then closed its airspace. Davis bit a guard, Cher put on a stolen uniform and called herself Corporal Poppins, and they took Chad's cruiser, the Elvik, off the terminus pad.

LV-187

The Elvik hit the pad in the storm with a damaged engine, so they could not leave. Captain Tom Moran of the Victory brought them into the comms tower with geologist Merrilyn Hambleton and her daughter Therese. A colonist who had been implanted, Frank Priestley, came back to the door with an adult Xenomorph behind him. After the lights failed, Moran opened the doors and adult Xenomorphs filled the corridor. The group shot out the observation glass, about fifty meters above the pad, and built a rope from blankets and cable. Acid from a Chestburster cut the rope while Therese hung on it. Cher climbed, took the child, and slid down.

Company Marines under Corporal Barrington Jones had seeded the colony with eggs taken from the Clara, and they wanted live adult Xenomorphs before a ship in orbit destroyed the site. Cher had watched nine-day-old security footage of the first Facehugger, the one Therese tore off before it could implant. New Albion captain Augustus Trent later took the survivors, then left them the Victory after his marines removed more than 150 eggs. A Queen fell into the fusion reactor. Davis and Therese shut the plant down and were destroyed in the heat.

Leaving LV-187

Cher, Chad, and Merrilyn lifted off on the Victory. In high orbit an ICSC warship, three New Albion troop transports, and fighters from a Union of Progressive Peoples hunter-destroyer faced one another. The ship's computer reported arrest warrants for Chad, Merrilyn, Therese, Davis, and Cher, filed by New Albion, Weyland-Yutani, the Colonial Marines, the ICSC, and the Three World Empire. The charges included industrial espionage, the deaths of the LV-187 colonists, war crimes, and destruction of Marine property. Cher asked where they could go, because Earth was closed to them. Chad set course for unaffiliated border worlds to find Zula Hendricks and to track the stolen eggs, and Cher and Merrilyn went with him.

Behind The Scenes

David Barnett introduced Cherokee Hunt in Alien: Colony War. Titan Books published the novel on 26 April 2022. Alex White's Alien: Into Charybdis tells Shy's death on Hasanova and does not name her sister. Barnett added the Oregon childhood, the names Cheyenne and Cherokee, and their father Ken Hunt. A Blackstone audiobook of the same novel followed in 2022.

Conclusion

Cherokee Hunt was the journalist who left New York to find out why her sister Shy died on Hasanova. In July 2186 she reached New Albion, flew to LV-187 with Chad McLaren and Davis, and brought Therese down from the comms tower. She left on the Victory with warrants out for her, bound for border worlds and the search for Zula Hendricks.