LV-593: New Albion And The 2186 Secession

LV-593 was a colony world in the Weyland Isles, and the British families who settled it called the colony New Albion. David Barnett's Alien: Colony War takes place there in July 2186, when journalist Cher Hunt landed in the rain and Prime Minister Maurice Pepper declared the colony separate from the Three World Empire. Free League's Alien: The Roleplaying Game supplement Building Better Worlds charts the same world in the Delta Trianguli system, as the center of the New Albion Protectorate.

The Planet

From six hours out, LV-593 looked Earth-like and about a tenth the size of Earth, in the habitable zone of a yellow sun. Building Better Worlds charts that sun as the main-sequence primary of Delta Trianguli, with an orange dwarf beside it, and gives the planet the map point −7.9 Rimward, 6.1 Spinward in the Weyland Isles sector. The same entry calls it a terraformed terrestrial world, temperate and seasonal, with a mean temperature of 22°C, forested valleys and rivers, one colony plus smaller settlements, and a population above 50,000. It lists platinum and palladium as the key resources.

The capital did not match that green survey, or the films played on the inbound liner. Cher Hunt came in on a RyanSpace liner and landed in the rain. She found no river, no parks, and no Clock Tower, only low concrete blocks, wide roads, and a ditch through the center, the unfinished Thames. A cab driver pointed to coal, tin, and oil mines in the north, farmland called the Midlands, and factories past the housing blocks. The colonial film had called the world the jewel of the Weyland Isles and had shown data analysis and transport work beside the mines.

The Colony

New Albion was settled by wealthy Old Money families from Britain during the Three World Empire's early push into the sector. Building Better Worlds places that push in the late 2080s, when the Empire marked the Weyland Isles as a link toward the far spinward colonies, then cut the budget after Weyland Corp stock fell in the 2090s. The colony took the showpiece spending: pubs, streets, and a planned London, including a Clock Tower. Big Ben was the name of the bell, not the tower. So much of the sector budget went into that plan that the other settlements stayed outposts and research stations. The colony held the local government, and over the following decades it lost influence in the Empire parliament.

Half a world from the capital, a low range called the Pennines had a single checkpoint of the First Duke of Wellington's Regiment, in serge green, with projectile rifles. Past that post, the Shires were mountainous scrub the colony had left empty. Chad McLaren landed a flyer there on a forged ore survey, with the synthetic Davis in a dog-shaped body. In the capital the Ritz was a concrete box the staff treated as a joke on the London hotel, and the Queen's Head had dark wood and flower baskets. People paid in New Albion shillings, and the pubs and chip shops were the part of the old England plan that had been built.

Important Events

The Clara Wreck

In July 2186 the private towing ship STSV Clara, under Captain Jamie Gambell, fell onto LV-593. Boarders had taken 27 Xenomorph eggs from the hold while the ship was in orbit, wrecked the drive, cut the ore tow free, and left no distress call. Gambell ran the ship for the family firm Gambell Reclamations, with his wife Kathryn, David Currie, DJ Roberts, and Paul Simpson. All five died in the crash, and Chad McLaren came to the planet looking for the missing eggs.

Cher And Chad

Cher Hunt reached the capital on a coach RyanSpace ticket after three weeks in cryosleep. A postcard from Hasanova had carried only the words New Albion on the back. The Ritz gave her a concrete room with no window. At the Queen's Head she met Chad McLaren and paid for the coffee in New Albion shillings. Weyland-Yutani had hidden the Xenomorphs that killed her sister Cheyenne Hunt, called Shy, on that data colony, and Chad had the photographs with him.

Secession

On 17 July 2186, Maurice Pepper declared the colony on a war footing and separate from Britain and the Three World Empire. He was a ruddy man with blond hair, in a suit that did not fit, and he spoke from a lectern with the colony crest. The trade ship Victory had found LV-187 empty, raised a flag, and claimed the oil for New Albion. That world belonged to the Independent Core System Colonies. A Reuters stringer on the colony called the break 3WExit. After the speech the Empire cut diplomatic and defense ties with New Albion and with any colony that backed it.

The Protectorate

On 20 July 2186 he spoke again, this time as prime minister of the New Albion Protectorate, and offered a place to colonies leaving the Three World Empire, the United Americas, the Union of Progressive Peoples, or the Independent Core System Colonies. He named a weapon Project A, would not describe it, and set the Protectorate's attack for the next dawn. By the morning after that broadcast, thirteen colonies had applied, and some governments had cut ties or declared war. Cher Hunt, Chad McLaren, and Davis left the capital on the cruiser Elvik for LV-187 before New Albion closed its airspace.

Behind The Scenes

David Barnett wrote Alien: Colony War for Titan Books in 2022. The paperback binds Andrew E.C. Gaska's one-act Fallout for the Alien roleplaying game. That scenario is set at Tark-Weyland Station and on LV-187, and it names New Albion as another colony in the same Weyland Isles sector. Building Better Worlds, from Free League in 2024, is the survey that gives LV-593 the Delta Trianguli chart, the population above 50,000, the platinum and palladium line, and the New Albion Protectorate affiliation.

Conclusion

New Albion was the British colony on LV-593, laid out as an old England the capital had not finished. In July 2186 Maurice Pepper took it out of the Three World Empire, claimed the oil world LV-187, and renamed the government the New Albion Protectorate. Cher Hunt left that capital with Chad McLaren and Davis for LV-187, and the colonial war that followed started from the break Pepper announced on New Albion.

Appearances

• Alien: Colony War by David Barnett (Titan Books, 2022), including the bound Alien RPG cinematic Fallout
• Alien: The Roleplaying Game, Building Better Worlds (Free League, 2024)