Corporal Hicks's History
Corporal Dwayne Hicks was a member of the United States Colonial Marine Corps, part of 2nd Battalion Bravo Team. He was a member of the combat unit deployed to LV-426 aboard the USS Sulaco in 2179, to investigate the sudden loss of contact with the colony of Hadley's Hope. He was subsequently involved in combating the Xenomorph infestation at the colony.
Under the command of the inexperienced Lieutenant Gorman, Hicks and his unit were dispatched to Hadley's Hope along with two civilian advisors: Weyland-Yutani representative Carter Burke and Ellen Ripley, the sole survivor of the USCSS Nostromo, which had set down on LV-426 57 years previously and discovered a deadly alien lifeform there. Hicks shared in the general consensus among the Marines — that the mission was a waste of time, and that they were simply going to discover a communications breakdown at the colony. During the drop, Hicks slept despite the extreme g-forces and turbulence.
Upon landing, Hicks and the rest of Second Squad began clearing the upper floor of the central administrative building, where the Corporal found evidence of the Xenomorph infestation in the form of holes burned in the floor by their acid blood. After the building was declared clear and Gorman and the advisors had joined the Marines inside, Hicks and his squad discovered several Facehuggers being stored inside the colony's med lab, along with medical notes on Marachuk, one of the creatures' victims. Soon afterwards, they found Newt, a young girl hiding in the structure's ventilation ducts and, apparently, the last surviving colonist.
The other colonists were soon traced to the sub-levels of the colony's Atmosphere Processing Plant, and the Marines set out to investigate. It was here that they first discovered the Xenomorph Hive, its secreted resin covering the inside of the Atmosphere Processor's lower levels. Despite their apprehension and a lack of knowledge in what they were dealing with, the Marines moved inside. Hicks himself voiced his concerns about where the obviously organic structure could have come from, a question that no one could answer. To make matters worse, Gorman ordered all of the Marines to unload their Pulse Rifles and deactivate the unit's two Smartguns to prevent stray gunfire causing potentially catastrophic damage to the Atmosphere Processor's fusion reactor. Hicks had no choice but to comply, and subsequently drew his trusty backup Ithaca Model 37 to defend himself.
The colonists were soon located, cocooned to the walls and victims to Chestburster births. Hicks himself took note of the empty Eggs and rotten Facehugger carcasses that littered the area. One of the colonists, Mary, was found to be alive, although she was killed almost immediately when the Chestburster inside her emerged. Sergeant Apone and Corporal Dietrich torched the creature, but its dying screams awoke the Drones in the Hive, and within moments the Marines were under attack.
In the ensuing chaos, Hicks along with Private Tim Crowe and Private Trevor Wierzbowski ran to the aid of Frost and Dietrich, not realizing the bag containing the section's confiscated Pulse Rifle ammunition was on fire at the scene. Immediately comprehending what was about to happen, Hicks pulled Wierzbowski from the rapidly cooking off ammunition satchel and ran for cover, managing to duck behind a pillar just as the ammunition detonated — the blast killed Crowe and badly wounded Wierzbowski when he failed to escape the blast radius in time. Hicks then tended to Wierzbowski and propped him against a wall before leaving briefly to check on Crowe. Just as Hicks discovered that Crowe was dead, Wierzbowski was attacked by a Xenomorph and dragged away screaming in terror, leaving Hicks calling his name in a vain effort to locate him.
As the mayhem continued, Hicks attempted to locate Apone, but learned that he had already been taken. With the unit falling apart, Hicks ordered the survivors to pull back, killing several Xenomorphs with his shotgun during the hasty, disorganized retreat; by the time the survivors reached the APC, more than half of their team had been killed or captured. Hicks was the last to board the APC, and was in the process of closing the door when a Drone attempted to enter the cabin. No match for its strength even with Private Hudson and Private Vasquez assisting him, Hicks rammed his shotgun into the creature's mouth and blew the back of its head away, the creature's acidic blood wounding Hudson in the process.
During the escape from the Atmosphere Processor, Gorman was knocked unconscious by loose items in the APC, effectively leaving Hicks as the acting commander of the mission. Ripley and Hicks quickly formulated a plan to destroy the entire complex with a nuclear strike from orbit to absolutely ensure all of the Xenomorphs were killed. However, before the survivors could be picked up by Corporal Ferro aboard her dropship Bug Stomper, the ship's crew were attacked in flight and the dropship came down, narrowly avoiding Hicks and the other survivors and destroying the APC as it crashed and burned.
With no alternative, Hicks ordered Hudson and Vasquez to salvage what equipment they could from the wreckage before heading back inside the operations center at the main colony complex. After fortifying the area by sealing access points and deploying Sentry Guns at key locations, Hicks did his best to remain optimistic about their chances of holding out until a rescue team could arrive. However, Bishop soon discovered that the Atmosphere Processor had been badly damaged during the initial firefight, as Gorman had feared it would be. It was going to explode in several hours, and the dropship crash had destroyed the systems that could allow the survivors to shut it down.
In response to this desperate news, Hicks helped to formulate a plan whereby the second dropship aboard the Sulaco would be remotely piloted to the surface by Bishop using the colony's transmitter, thereby allowing the survivors to escape. As they waited for Bishop to complete the mission, Hicks instructed Ripley how to use the M41A Pulse Rifle for self-defense. The Xenomorphs also probed the Marines' defenses, but while they managed to overrun the first set of Sentry Guns, they were halted by the second, just yards from the door into the operations center.
Hicks later responded to a fire alarm in the med lab adjacent to operations, and discovered that Ripley and Newt had been locked inside and the two live Facehugger specimens released. Hicks dove through the window into the room and rescued Ripley from the Facehugger that was on the verge of subduing her, before learning from her that Burke had likely been responsible.
After further discovering that Burke had apparently intended to smuggle live Xenomorph specimens back to Earth by getting Ripley and Newt impregnated, Hicks made the decision to summarily execute him for his treachery. However, before he could carry out his threat Ripley stepped in, explaining that Burke needs to be brought back to Earth and face justice for his crimes. At that moment, the Xenomorphs cut the power to the building and launched a large assault.
In the ensuing battle, Hudson was captured by the Xenomorphs, while Burke slipped away in the chaos and sealed the survivors in the operations room with the creatures — only to be attacked by another Xenomorph and either captured or killed. The remaining survivors made their escape through the colony's ventilation ducts, but Vasquez and Gorman were eventually cornered by the Xenomorphs and chose to commit suicide by detonating a hand grenade in order to escape being captured by the creatures. The blast from Gorman's and Vasquez' grenade traveled through the ventilation ducts and caused Newt to slip and fall down a separate shaft into the colony's sublevels. Hicks and Ripley used the locator bracelet that had been given to Newt to locate her, but before Hicks could cut through the flooring into the sewer where Newt had ended up, a Xenomorph captured the little girl, before another wave of the creatures forced Hicks and Ripley to flee.
As they attempted to escape the complex, a lone Xenomorph cornered Hicks and Ripley in an elevator, and while Hicks quickly dispatched the creature with his Pulse Rifle, its spilling blood severely burned his face and chest, quickly melting through his chest armor.
Ripley helped the wounded Marine to the dropship, which had just landed, where Bishop sedated and stabilized him. Somewhat delirious with morphine, he revealed his first name to Ripley as she prepared to rescue Newt from the Hive, prompting her to respond in kind. His final words to her were to ask her to hurry back. He subsequently passed out from the sedatives given to him by Bishop, and would remain unconscious until he was back aboard the Sulaco.
Although Hicks survived the events on Acheron, he and Rebecca Jorden were killed when their cryochambers failed following the crash landing on Fiorina 161, Hicks was impaled by a loose beam in the EEV when it crashed. His death was included in a report by facility superintendent Harold Andrews to Weyland-Yutani. Corporal Hicks was later cremated with Rebecca Jorden on Fiorina 161. As such, Hicks' death was included in a report to Weyland-Yutani by the facility's supervisor Superintendent Andrews, and Hicks was listed as officially K.I.A.. He was "posthumously" awarded a Distinguished Service Medal for outstanding bravery for his actions on LV-426.
