Babe was one of the oxen used for menial labor at the Fiorina 161 correctional unit. It was impregnated by the Facehugger that arrived on the planet on board the USS Sulaco's EEV. It later died of seemingly natural causes, before birthing the Runner that had gestated inside it.
Biography[]
When Ellen Ripley crash-landed on Fiorina 161, Babe and the colony's other oxen were used to recover the EEV from the shore. At some point, unseen by the prisoners assisting in the process, Babe was attacked and impregnated by the Royal Facehugger that had stowed away on board the EEV.
Babe later died of seemingly natural causes and was taken to the prison's abattoir by Frank and Murphy, to be cut up and used as food for the inmates later on. However, while the prisoners were attending a funeral service for the deceased Newt and Turk, the Runner that had been gestating inside Babe emerged and escaped into the prison's ventilation shafts.
Trivia[]
- Babe and the other oxen do not appear at all in the theatrical cut of Alien3. Instead, the Runner gestates inside Spike, a Rottweiler that Thomas Murphy keeps as a pet.
- The reason Babe dies before the Chestburster inside it hatches is never explicitly stated. However, the fact that the Runner emerges far more fully-developed than other Chestbursters seen in the films and games (with completely formed arms and legs) could be interpreted as a sign that it had grown beyond the point at which it would normally birth. This in turn may suggest the Runner had been growing inside the ox for longer than it should have, perhaps because it was unable to break through the ox's rib cage at the typical time (an ox's chest cavity is far more sturdy than that of a human). It follows that as the embryo continued to develop within the ox, the growing creature became so large it interfered with Babe's internal organs and caused it to die.