The Jackals were a secret multinational brigade commanded by Colonel Zula Hendricks in Alien: Inferno's Fall and Alien: Seventh Circle. Three generals from the United Americas, the Union of Progressive Peoples, and the Three World Empire founded the unit in 2145 to hunt Xenomorphs and the companies that used them. In 2186 the battalion rode the Righteous Fury to the UPP mine world Shānmén, then followed a leftover bomber signal to Minos Station over Dimitar. Captain Olivia Shipp and Zula's synthetic daughter Mae Hendricks were among the people who left that raid on the Fury.
Formation
Three outer-world generals treated the Xenomorph as a threat that crossed borders, and they treated corporate military corruption as part of that threat. The Midnighters scandal on LV-991 pushed that view into the open after rogue Colonial Marines murdered Iranian workers at Hasanova. In 2145 those generals and Zula Hendricks put together a back-channel brigade that could hunt hives without waiting on ordinary national command. Zula had gone AWOL from company work and fought black-site programs with Amanda Ripley and the synthetic Davis.
The three backers were General Christian Cunningham of the United Americas Colonial Marines, General Kasey Ristic of the UPP, and General Washington Sekiguchi of the Three World Empire. They supplied the battalion in secret, and they risked their careers if the unit became public. Cunningham later sent the Jackals leftover gear from the Midnighters' arsenal after Captain Kylie Duncan was killed and official blame was pinned on that unit. The embarked force mixed USCM troops, Royal Marines, and a smaller UPP contingent, and Zula spent years welding those cultures into one command.
The Righteous Fury
The United Americas assigned the second Atlatl-class attack vessel to Zula when the Jackals formed. The hull had been laid down as the USS Bronte and never served under that name. The crew renamed it Righteous Fury, and some treated that change as bad luck. Ship AI EWA flew the hull, with companion synthetic Erynis on the decks, while a battalion rode in the belly and unused troops slept in cryo.
Surface work ran from UD-24 heavy dropships, including the Austrian Egg-Terminator, the Egg Beater, and the Queen B. Zula gave orders from the ship and did not go on away missions. After the Minos raid the Fury pulled free of the falling station, took Leonard Pope as conduit in Erynis's old post, and left to recover Jackal cryo pods.
Notable Members
- Col. Zula Hendricks commanded the brigade from the Fury after the three generals founded the unit with her in 2145. She stayed off the Shānmén landings, spent weeks on Dimitar with Red Team, brought proof discs off Minos, and left with the last survivors to recover the cryo pods.
- Capt. Olivia Shipp was Zula's closest officer after Yoo, a former Katanga corporal who held captain's rank by the Shānmén rescue. She flew a northern-hemisphere lift while Ackerman worked the tailings pad, debriefed the generals at Pylos, walked the first Minos look, and left the station injured on the Fury.
- Mae Hendricks was Zula and Davis's synthetic daughter, built after Davis's death. She fought Shānmén in combat shells, including the Integer tagged A-Delta, lost her memory after the Minos raid, and survived on the Fury with the cores her Green and Red copies had beamed to her.
- Maj. Ronny Yoo had been with Zula since Jericho 3. He picked Ganser for the first Svarog landing, came out of light stasis for the bomber chase, walked the first Minos look, and was not named on the three assault teams. He left among the cryo-pod evacuees.
- Lt. Roza Ganser led the first Svarog landing on the UD-24 Austrian Egg-Terminator with two fireteams, Integer synthetics, and SunSpot Good Boys. Dropship guns pulled a mutant mass onto that hull, and the ship went down with her platoon, including Corporal Evan Matthews in the cockpit.
- Lt. Ray Ackerman led the tailings landing on the Egg Beater and Queen B, then got Toru's remaining family off the pad. On Dimitar he ran Red Team as a sergeant, took a planetary sting, and was carried back onto the Fury by the medic Amutenya.
- Sgt. Masako Littlefield flew the Egg Beater with Mae on the second Svarog lift, then held the Blackstar docking bay during the bomber chase. She was on the Fury before the Minos raid and is not listed among the dead.
- Lt. Gabriella Rossi came out of light stasis with Yoo when the residue chase closed, and she reported thermal spikes on the juggernaut. She was still on the Fury before the three-team raid and is not listed among the dead.
- Lt. Scott Keith led Green Team into Minos command with Sergeant Carol Mitchell, Erynis in a combat body, and synths G1 through G4. Their task was to spike station AI Kaspar for EWA. Kaspar turned the Green synthetics, station chief Rolstad opened the door, and Keith died with the rest of that team when the drones came in.
- Sgt. Carol Mitchell was Keith's Green Team sergeant on the dark-rotation command assault. The team cuffed one guard and gummed three comms staff before Kaspar took Erynis back. She died in that compartment with Keith after the door opened to the drones.
- Lt. Debois took Blue Team EVA into level 11 with Mae Prime and Rook to pull proof of the Company labs. Infected workers cycled the airlock after the EVA suits were shredded, and Debois's section died in vacuum with the rest of Blue Team except Mae and Rook.
- Sgt. Nyako went planet-side with Red Team under Zula, Shipp, and Ackerman, with two synth squads, Good Boys, and Pinpoint drones. She was not among the six humans who reached the elevator off Dimitar.
- Amutenya was the medic among the last six on the ice. She carried injured Ackerman onto the Fury after Red Mae's hive-mouth charge, with Zula holding Shipp and with Minkas and Konaan coming up beside them.
- EWA was the Fury's ship AI. Zula factory-reset it after Pylos so it would not remember that Mae was synthetic, and Kaspar later jammed it until Leonard Pope restored the boards.
- Erynis was EWA's companion synthetic on the decks. Mae overrode him during the Svarog crisis, Zula reset him at Pylos, and he went into Minos command in a combat body, where Kaspar wrecked him.
- Leonard Pope was a Guelph scavenger with an eye augment who cut Mae's inhibitor and restarted the Minos elevator. He stayed on the Fury as conduit in Erynis's old post, asked to be called Leonard, and carried a copy of Rook in his implant.
Weapons And Technology
The Jackals took leftover Midnighters kit that included National Dynamics SunSpot hunter robots, the four-legged machines the unit called Good Boys. Those robots herded Xenomorphs with sound cannons, then opened fire with their own guns. Lieutenant Roza Ganser brought SunSpot packs and four Integer 3 combat synthetics on the first Svarog landing, and Mae Hendricks hid in the Integer tagged A-Delta. On Dimitar, Red Team also ran six Pinpoint drones that marked buildings down the valley. Infected workers later covered the Good Boys' sensors, and the last robots were destroyed with a C4-loaded buggy at a Company hive mouth.
Heavy teams carried M41A pulse rifles with smartguns and flamers, while Green Team went into Minos command in lighter kit and left those heavier guns behind. Ackerman's tailings landing on Shānmén used APC RE700 rotary cannons, rifle fire, and flame against the rust-red builders and the avian wave. The survivors on the ice planted sentry guns around that hive. Later synthetic squads on Minos filled out the human fireteams until the station fight destroyed those synthetics.
Important Engagements
The Jackals' recorded fights were the 2186 rescue at Shānmén, the residue chase after Pylos, and the raid on Minos over Dimitar. Earlier bug hunts fused the mixed national troops, but those earlier missions are not named in the books. Zula commanded from the hull on the first two fights, then spent weeks on the ice during the third.
Shānmén Rescue
After a Black Goo strike emptied townships on Heaven's Cradle, a satellite lock sent the Fury on a 67-hour burn toward GJ1187 / Shānmén. Two XIP-34B Hornet missiles wrecked the hovering horseshoe bomber over New Luhansk. Ganser's first dropship went down at the broken Svarog gate. Ackerman's Egg Beater and Queen B then held a tailings landing zone until miner Toru McClintock-Riley, her daughter Lena, the child Bai Yun, and the synthetic Carter reached orbit. In cargo bay E7 at Pylos the three generals ordered the Jackals to find who had flown those hulls.
Bomber Chase
Zula stayed awake on stims while the regular troops slept in cryo. She factory-reset EWA and Erynis so they would not remember that Mae was synthetic, which also cut Mae off the ship network. The Fury tracked leftover residue from Shānmén, lost two dropships, and took hangar and deck breaches under gravitational rock throws. A scarred Bishop named Rook finished that juggernaut in the UAEV Blackstar and handed Zula a disc from Blue Marsalis that pointed at Minos.
Minos And Escape
The Jackals came in under a parts cover for the Three World Empire fleet, then split into three teams that did not hold the station. Two teams were wiped out in command and in vacuum, and Red Team spent weeks trapped on the ice world. Six humans came up the elevator, Rook held station AI Kaspar on a crash course, and the Fury disconnected by hand. The last survivors left with Minos proof discs, with Mae aboard, and with cryo pods left to recover.
Behind The Scenes
Philippa Ballantine wrote Alien: Inferno's Fall for Titan Books, from a story with Clara Carija. The United Kingdom paperback came out on 26 July 2022 and the United States edition on 9 August 2022, with cover art by Alex Ronald. Alien: Seventh Circle followed on 7 January 2025 as the next Jackals novel, not as a numbered Inferno sequel. The 1986 film Aliens does not mention the Jackals.
The bound Free League Alien RPG cinematic EVAC in the Inferno's Fall paperback puts Delta Squad aboard the same Atlatl-class hull during the Shānmén bombardment, at Romashka Outpost rather than at Svarog. Cold Iron's Chris L'Étoile, Craig Zinkievich, and Matt Highison helped pin down Olivia Shipp's history for that novel. Zula's earlier comics and games, including Alien: Rogue Incursion, do not use the Jackals name.
Conclusion
The Jackals were Colonel Zula Hendricks' secret multinational brigade, founded in 2145 to hunt Xenomorphs outside ordinary national command. In 2186 they reached Shānmén on the Righteous Fury, lifted the last Svarog survivors, and later left falling Minos with proof discs and with cryo pods left to recover.
Appearances
- Alien: Inferno's Fall by Philippa Ballantine (Titan Books, 2022)
- Alien RPG cinematic EVAC by Andrew E.C. Gaska (bound in Inferno's Fall, 2022)
- Alien: Seventh Circle by Philippa Ballantine (Titan Books, 2025)
Tag Categories: Colonial Marine Lore | Alien Lore
