Marcus Parker is the Chief Engineer aboard the commercial towing vessel Nostromo.
History[]
Parker was close friends with fellow engineer Brett. Although they were both competent at their jobs, they frequently found themselves in disagreement with the ship's captain, Dallas. Specifically, Parker disliked the fact that Brett and he received fewer trips end bonus shares than what the rest of the crew was earning. He and Brett would often steer crew conversations towards what he referred to as The Bonus Situation.
Parker often found himself at odds with Warrant Officer Ellen Ripley, although his hostility towards her faded somewhat as Ripley demonstrated clear logical thinking and leadership.
In the year 2122, the Nostromo was returning from a job in the Solomons and passed through the Zeta II Reticuli system. Due to a command program in the ship's computer, the crew of the Nostromo came out of hypersleep early in response to the interception of a distress beacon. Upon learning that the ship had been re-routed, Captain Dallas alerted the crew that they would be following the beacon to its source to investigate it. Parker complained about the situation and demanded full shares for his work, sighting that the Nostromo was not a rescue ship.
The crew parked the Nostromo’s cargo rig in orbit of LV-426. They then detached the main ship from the trailer and piloted it down to the surface of a planetoid (which later became known as Acheron), During in atmosphere flight the Nostromo’s engine intakes became clogged with atmospheric dust, which caused over heating of one of the ships four engines. When asked about how long it would take to affect repairs, Parker hedged the estimate and told Dallas that it would take twenty-five hours to fix everything.
While Parker and Brett were manning the repairs, the away team found an alien entity that attached itself to the face of the first officer, Kane. Despite quarantine procedures, Kane was brought back onto the ship and placed in the infirmary. Once the repairs were completed, the crew and the alien "facehugger" were brought back to the Nostromo. The entity impregnated Kane with its seed and used him as a host body to give birth to a larger, more aggressive alien. This alien, often referred to as a Xenomorph, grew to a size of more than seven feet in height and began systematically killing everyone on the ship.
Following the deaths of Kane, Brett and the abduction of Captain Dallas, Warrant Officer Ripley took command of the ship. She accessed the ship's computer and discovered a horrifying truth. The company they worked for, the Weyland-Yutani Corporation had installed an android spy aboard their ship masquerading as their science officer. This spy, Ash, was under orders to recover the alien organism and return it to Earth, even at the expense of the crew. After being exposed as a traitor, Ash tried to kill Ripley. Parker came upon them and tried to restrain Ash, but the android was more powerful than him and shirked him off. Parker clubbed Ash across the head repeatedly, practically knocking it off. It was at this point that he learned that Ash was a synthetic. The group interrogated Ash, after which, Parker incinerated his robotic remains.
Although the problems with Ash had been dealt with, they still had to contend with the Xenomorph still loose aboard the ship. Ripley decided that they should take their chances with the shuttle and activate the Nostromo's self-destruct sequence. Parker and Lambert went down to the maintenance bay to collect coolant canisters and were attacked by the alien. Although armed with a flamethrower Parker was unable to open fire on the Alien as it was positioned between the engineer and terrified navigator. The creature lunged at Lambert and Parker tried to save her, by charging and attempting to use the flamethrower as a club. The alien easily swatted him to the side with its spiny tail. It then turned towards Parker and killed him by spearing him with its secondary jaw.
Parker's remains were discovered mangled along with Lambert’s corpse, by Ripley when she investigated the navigators screams. Both bodies had become mutilated and then abandoned when the alien attempted to retreat back into the narrow air vent with its prey. Parker’s remains were destroyed when Ripley set off the self-destruct sequence.