The Raven was a unique armored Xenomorph from Aliens: Colonial Marines, the 2013 Gearbox campaign set seventeen weeks after Aliens. It hunted Corporal Christopher Winter and the USS Sephora fireteam through the sewers and industrial wreckage under the rebuilt ruins of Hadley's Hope on LV-426. Ordinary pulse-rifle fire did not stop it. Winter finally killed the creature in a cargo bay by breaking its neck with a P-5000 Power Loader while Bella, Reid, and O'Neal covered him from the floor.
History
Stalking Winters
The Raven hunted through the sewers and service tunnels under Hadley's Hope on LV-426 after the Sephora marines reached the surface. It had already taken victims in those corridors, leaving acid-scarred M10 Pattern Ballistic Helmets and other marine gear among the pipes. The Sephora fireteam under Corporal Christopher Winter entered that same underworks after fighting through the rebuilt colony and the labs Weyland-Yutani had raised around the Engineer wreck.
The creature used the ceiling, steam pipes, and sealed hatches to ambush from above. When it lunged, Winter's shoulder lamp cut out for the length of the attack, leaving the tunnel dark while the armored Xenomorph drove him from room to room. Ordinary pulse-rifle fire from Private Peter O'Neal, Private Bella Clarison, and Private Reid failed to bring it down as they pushed toward a hangar.
Power Loader Fight
The chase ended in a cargo space where a P-5000 Power Loader waited among the shipping crates. The Raven cornered the squad there again and forced them into the open between the stacked containers. Bella, Reid, and O'Neal stayed on the floor with rifles while Winter climbed into the frame. A motion tracker was zip-tied to the roll cage. The armored Xenomorph met the loader at close range before the claws could lock on.
The Raven took repeated strikes from the loader's cargo claws and holds from both arms, absorbing blows that would have finished a lesser Xenomorph. It kept coming even after the frame slammed it into the crates and pinned it against the deck. Winter stunned it, locked the loader around its neck and shoulders, and held on until the arm twisted hard enough to break the creature's spine.
Death
The Raven died when Winter broke its neck with the loader arm and left the body in the cargo bay. Its carapace no longer moved once the spine gave way, and the squad stopped firing. With the armored Xenomorph down, the fireteam pushed on through Hadley's Hope toward the company labs and the later Queen fight that closed the Sephora operation on LV-426.
Traits And Abilities
The Raven stood larger than a Warrior and thicker through the chest than a Crusher, with a height closer to a Praetorian or even a Queen. Almost its entire body was locked in a heavy chitin carapace that shrugged off ordinary bullets and other small-arms fire. The plates covered the torso, limbs, and much of the head, so pulse-rifle rounds that would drop a Warrior only scored the shell. It walked on its large hind legs in a Queen-like stance rather than the usual bipedal lean of a Drone, and its tail carried a ridge of spines behind a harpoon-like blade.
The Raven's head wore a ridged dome with a line of spikes along the crown and a recessed, scarred face that showed human features under the hide, including eye sockets, a nasal cavity, and blunt jaws that looked more human than the metallic teeth of most castes. It lacked the long canines of Praetorians and Queens. In the tunnels it hunted as an ambush predator, dropping from pipes and sealed hatches, then driving prey from room to room while the armor took the return fire. Rifle teams could wound it at best until a Power Loader gave them a frame strong enough to break its neck.
Behind The Scenes
Gearbox Software shipped Aliens: Colonial Marines in February 2013 for consoles and PC, with the Raven as the boss of the mission that shares its name. Early concept art showed a more Spitter-like head and used the working name Reaver before the finished design settled on the armored, skull-faced form in the cargo bay. Early demos of the game had shown a weaponized loader with an M56 Smartgun on one arm and an M240 incinerator on the other, but that kit was cut before release, so the finished fight used only the stock cargo claws. Killing the Raven unlocked the campaign achievement Quoth the Raven, a nod to Edgar Allan Poe's poem of the same name. Hiya Toys later released a Raven figure in the same Exquisite Mini Colonial Marines wave as its Crusher, which reached shops in August 2018 as a Previews exclusive.
The game never gave a definitive origin for the Raven breed. Some readings place it among the company specimens held near the Engineer wreck, while others treat it as a long-lived mutation from the Hadley's Hope hive after the atmosphere processor blast. The campaign itself only establishes that the creature lived under the colony, hunted Winter's fireteam, and died in the Power Loader fight.
Conclusion
The Raven was the armored Xenomorph that hunted Corporal Christopher Winter and the Sephora squad through the sewers under Hadley's Hope. Rifles could not finish it. Winter killed it in a cargo bay by breaking its neck with a P-5000 Power Loader.
Appearances
- Aliens: Colonial Marines (2013) - Mission: The Raven
Tag Categories: Individual Xenomorphs | Xenomorphs From The Games | Xenomorph Appearance | Alien Lore
