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- "My mommy always said there were no monsters, no real ones, but there are."
- —Newt[src]
Rebecca Jorden, better known to most people as Newt; was a colonist living with her family on the Hadley's Hope settlement on LV-426 and the sole survivor of the Xenomorph infestation of the colony. She was discovered hiding in a ventilation system by the USCMC team which was dispatched to Acheron to investigate a loss of communications in light of Ellen Ripley's report on the planet.
History[]
A Horrific Discovery[]
Her parents were out surveying the moon when they stumbled across a derelict crash site in 2179. The coordinates were passed on to the colony and to her family. Her parents went into the derelict to see if there were any prospects to claim. Unknown to the Jorden family that other hapless explorers came across a grim discovery in the past.
Her mother in a panic, dragged Newt's father back with something attached to his face and radioed the colony. Over a day after Newt and her family returned to the colony, her dad woke up and her mom went to go see him. Newt managed to crawl through the ducts to the infirmary to witness her father's gruesome death. Later, after more of the creatures that killed her father appeared, Newt and her family was moved to the sub level storeroom for protection until the Marines arrived. Some of the colonists opened the barricade to check on the status on those outside guarding the entrance only to let the creatures in. During the chaos, Newt's mother and brother were killed but she managed to escape through a vent. Newt managed to survive by hiding in the air ducts to avoid the monsters which came mostly at night to take people away.
Rescue[]
Newt managed to survive long enough for help to arrive. A squad of Marines was sent to investigate the loss of contact to the colony discovered her when she came up on a marine's motion tracker. Another Marine reached to get her but she bit his hand and managed to scramble back into the ducts. Ripley went after her in the ducts, she managed to follow Newt back to her hideout and bring her out of the ducts to safety. Newt was later received a check up from the squad's medic Dietrich, while she was interviewed about the location of the colonists.
Newt was taken with the Marines after they found where the colonists where taken and was asked to sit in the front by Ripley during the squad's mission. After the creatures struck; killing most of the squad in the process and Newt and the survivors escaping the hived area. Hicks called for retrieval by the Dropship, which didn't work out with everyone remaining stranded on the planet. She mentioned to the survivors that creatures "mostly" come out at night, which got everyone back to the administration building.
Escaping the Colony[]
Newt helped out the Marines while fortifying the administration building to hold off until Bishop brought down the spare dropship from the Sulaco. Ripley then had Newt take a nap and get some sleep and eventually had Ripley join her. While they were sleeping, Carter J. Burke freed a couple of the facehuggers to impregnate Ripley and Newt. While the two were trapped in the room with the creatures, Ripley used her lighter to set off the fire alarm to get the Marines attention. The Marines arrived and neutralized the two facehuggers.
Before Burke could be dealt with for trying to kill Ripley and Newt, the creatures struck and cut the power. While everyone was anticipating for the creatures' ambush; Newt kept trying to tell Ripley that they needed to go. The creatures struck taking Hudson and the others retreated to a back room. Newt then said she knew the way to get outside of the facility through the ducts. She led the survivors out of the ducts but as she was climbing, an explosion knocked her down into the reservoir for the complex. Ripley and Dwayne Hicks attempted to use a cutting torch to get Newt out before the creatures showed up. Before Ripley and Hicks could get through a Xenomorph appeared out of the water taking Newt back to the hive.
Newt woke up hived in the colony with an egg in front of her that was about to hatch. She let out a scream as the facehugger scrambled out of the egg for Newt only to be shot by Ripley. Ripley got Newt out of the hive webbing and made their way out of the processor only to run into a hived Carter Burke. Ripley and Newt unintentionally ended up in the Queen's lair of the hive. After Ripley threatened the queen by attacking the eggs, the queen called off her guards on Newt and Ripley. An egg started to hatch, and Ripley wiped out the eggs as well as the Queen's egg sack and guards.
Enraged the Queen chased after Newt and Ripley, to get revenge for her lost children. Ripley, still carrying Newt eventually made their way back up to the upper levels of the atmospheric processor to be rescued by Bishop at the last second. Newt, along with Ripley, Hicks and Bishop managed to escape the meltdown and make it back to the Sulaco.
As Ripley was thanking Bishop for rescuing her and Newt from the Queen, who stowed away on the dropship and ripped Bishop in half and went after Newt. Newt managed to escape by hiding under the floor grating and crawling away from the Queen until Ripley attacked the creature with a power loader. Ripley eventually opened the pressure door into space and Newt was almost sucked into space if it wasn't for Bishop to grab a hold of her. To Newt's relief Ripley survived and managed to space the Queen and the four survivors went to hypersleep. During hypersleep, Newt dreamed about everything from her father's death up until she slept.
Death[]
Although Newt survived the events on Acheron, she was attacked by a stowaway facehugger while in cryosleep. The creature had to burn holes into her cryo chamber to impregnate her, but did not and instead impregnated Ellen Ripley, who was in a nearby cryo chamber. Newt and Turk (who was mistaken for Corporal Hicks) were killed when their cryo-chambers failed following the crash landing on Fiorina 161. Her cryo-chamber crashed into Fiorina's ocean, and because the facehugger had burned holes in her chamber, she drowned in her sleep. After her body was recovered, Fiorina's computer was unable to identify her, but it estimated her age to be 10-years-old. Ripley suspected that Newt was carrying an alien at the time of her death and Ripley convinced the the resident doctor, Jonathan Clemens to perform an autopsy with the reason she may have had cholera, although no Alien embryo was found in her, much to Ripley's relief. Newt was later cremated with Corporal Hicks on Fiorina 161. Warden Harold Andrews performed their funeral.
Personality & Traits[]
Rebecca, or Newt to most people was a young girl who had a good relationship with her parents and appeared close to her brother, who was the only one who could call her by her first name. She, along with other kids in the colony liked to climb through the vents but Newt was the only one who could fit in them. Newt was a happy girl until the Xenomrphs killed her parents and brother and was deeply affected by that loss. She would suffer nightmares of that and managed to survive sometime until the Marines arrived.
She developed a strong bond with Lt. Ripley during this time and appeared to develop a surrogate mother/daughter relationship having both lost their families. Newt was helpful as well when the Marines were attempting to hold out in the administrative building. She helped move supplies to re enforce the barricades. She was also very mature for a young girl, telling Ripley that Casey (her doll) couldn't have bad dreams because she was a piece of plastic.
Alternate continuity[]
Expanded Universe[]
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The following information follows the continuity from Dark Horse Comics' Aliens comics and all related media, therefore unrelated to the primary continuity.
Life After Acheron[]
After escaping Acheron with Hicks and Ripley, the battered survivors made it back only to be put in quarantine for several months. After this, Hicks, Ripley and Newt parted ways with Hicks returning to the Corps and Ripley leaving her. Because she had recurring nightmares of the creatures on Acheron, she was eventually instated in a mental institution on Earth. Under the care of Dr. Jarren, Newt was constantly drugged to deal with her nightmares. Constantly in a drugged haze Billie began to question whether the creatures in her nigthmares were real.
13 years after the events on Acheron; Newt was told by a fellow patient that she had a visitor. This surprised her because besides the patients and staff of the institution were the only people she knew on Earth. She made her way to the visitation room and found herself looking through the glass to see a middle-aged man with scars on the left side of his face. The man introduced himself as Corporal Hicks, the marine that saved her thirteen years ago and in her dreams. Newt then realized that what she dreamt about really happened and realized that she wasn't crazy. She begged Hicks to get her out and started talking about her treatment and therapy; which was one of the conditions she broke during her talk. Newt was taken away by a couple of orderlies begging her savior to help her again. Frustrated and unable to help her Hicks left.
Stowaway[]
Hicks soon rescues her because he needs her on a trip to the Xenomorph homeworld. The two make an illegal escape and Hicks sneaks her into a stasis-pod and hides her on board. When she awakes, a soldier starts to act strange around her, but is nice. She soon realizes he likes her. Hicks warns her to stay away, but she doesn't listen. Butler, a Marine, and Newt soon developed a mutual bonding aboard the ship.
Afterwards another ship docks and mercenaries take control of The Benedict. Butler, Hicks and the rest of the Marines are taken hostage after they realize that their weapons were sabotaged. The Marines and the crew were sent down in their combat armor, but without weapons, to be used as bait for the xenomorphs on the planet. Luckily, Newt remained hidden during the hijacking and managed to avoid the merc's android troops. Newt also managed to take out one of the androids that were patrolling the ship. Newt took its weapon since she figured there were more androids on the ship. She eventually found Hicks being held by a merc at gunpoint in the com room.
Discovery[]
Newt entered the control room and ended up catching the attention of the merc. Newt and Hicks got into a scuffle with the merc, with the merc being shot and killed by Newt. It turned out that the merc was reaching for a grenade when Newt shot him. Hicks and Newt then searched the ship for the remaining androids to regain control of the ship. After the synthetics were dealt with Newt wanted to rescue Butler and the rest of the crew that was stranded on the Aliens' planet. Wilks also set the nuclear payload he was able to smuggle on board to carpet and sterilize the planet in six hours.
Hicks and Newt took the other dropship down to the surface to rescue the stranded marines and crew. Butler's squad was the last one surviving. The squad managed to acquire some weapons from the synthetic guards that were ambushed by the local wild life, and after the rigged dropship exploded the marines decided to rescue the crew members taken to the hive. During the raid on the hive the marine squad lost most of its members to the creatures leaving Butler and Blake the sole surviving marines to make it to the cocooned crew members.
Hicks and Newt landed during the squad's rescue mission and waited at one of the entrances for the survivors. Newt was relieved to see Butler among the survivors escaping the hive. Hicks activated the automated turrets on the dropship to provide cover for the survivors. When it seemed like the coast was clear a drone ambushed Butler and ripped him in half. All Newt could do was scream not just at the horror of her lover being ripped in half, but instead of seeing red blood she saw Butler bleed white fluid, meaning he was an android. Blake managed to carry the fear-stricken crewmember and the immobile Butler to the drop ship. As Blake worked to temporarily patch up Butler, all Newt could do was stare in shock and disbelief as Butler apologized to her.
Escaping Earth[]
After the harrowing escape from the planet as it was nuked, the five survivors set course for Earth and report the mission's failure as well as Stephens' betrayal. Unknown to the survivors, that a Xenomorph infestation started on Earth and was rapidly getting out of control. The transmissions from Earth were flooding in while the crew slept on their way back home. When they awoke they intercepted a transmission from Orona which was his last stand and suicide. Parks called out to Hicks that they had company following them.
The Benedict was given clearance to land with specific orders to not damage the ship. When the survivors landed, they found a general and several marines welcoming them with their weapons drawn. The general filled the survivors in on the situation and that he was commandeering The Benedict for himself and his men, he also stated that he wouldn't hesitate to kill all the survivors if they got in his way. A junior officer told the general that the xenomorphs compromised the base and that it was a matter of time before it was overrun.
The general pulled his pistol on Hicks and Blake stepped in the way telling the general that she won't allow him to do that. The general remarks that he has no issues with killing a few more people and shoots Blake several times killing her. Parks runs away screaming and Hicks takes out a few soldiers to make their escape into the base. The three survivors frantically look for a transport offworld as the sounds of the fighting gets closer. The three come across a small, beaten up freighter to escape the chaos on Earth.
Destination: Unknown[]
Newt, Butler and Hicks found that the ship they were on was automated and couldn't be switched to manual. Butler and Hicks stayed in the control center to keep an eye on the ship and viewed some transmissions that were still streaming from Earth. Newt went to sleep after having a strained conversation with Butler. Newt had another nightmare regarding Xenomorphs and Hicks. Newt awoke from the dream and insisted to Hicks and Butler that they search the ship because Newt felt that there were some Xenomorphs on board the small freighter.
After insisting to check out the ship to be sure that it was clear Newt and Hicks armed themselves with what few weapons they had from escaping Earth and started checking out the ship. Eventually they came to a locked door that Newt wanted to check out while Hicks figured the ship was clean. Then Newt smelled something burning in the ship and Hicks and Newt grabbed an extinguisher as the smoke alarm went off with the fire suppression system kicking in. Wilks went to see the trouble spot and saw the door was destroyed by acid burns.
Hicks and Newt cautiously made their way into the room and came across a Xenomorph's body and four bloody crytubes with bloodied remains of four people. Hicks noted that the cryotubes were set at the lowest non-lethal setting, speculating that it was known that the four were infected. Hicks and Newt made their way back to the cockpit and with Butler's help used one of the maintenance robots with a camera to seek out the other three xenomorphs on the freighter. The bot found one with Newt and Hicks heading out to exterminate it. They managed to take out one more creature but its acidic blood caused a hull breach. Newt made it through the bulkhead before the hatch closed and Hicks got himself caught under the hatch. Newt managed to prop the hatch temporarily with one of the guns and drag Hicks in before the hatch crushed him.
During the breach the other two creatures were spaced but managed to get a grip on the outer hull and start smashing on it to get back in. With Hicks injured and Butler still not repaired, that left Newt to go out into space and get rid of the creatures. Armed with four shots in the carbine, she went EVA exploring the hull and stumbling across one of the creatures. She fired a couple of round at it, drawing its attention and ended up missing the other two. The creature lunged at Newt missing her and was stuck free falling in space. Not yet convinced the last one would give up getting inside, Newt continued exploring the ship unarmed much to Hicks' and Butler's protests. Newt found the last creature by the thrusters on the freighter with only a moment to spare Newt got out of the way as Butler hit the thrusters and blasted the last creature into space.
Held Captive[]
Two days after dealing with the stowaways, the freighter began to pick up transmissions from a nearby Colonial Marine base. Hicks was unsure what type of greeting the three would get when the freighter landed.
To be continued
Behind the scenes[]
Newt first appeared in the 1987 film Aliens and is portrayed by Carrie Henn. Henn won a Saturn Award for Best Performance by a Younger Actor. By the time of filming Alien³, Henn was unable to reprise her role due to her age difference with her character, instead Newt was briefly portrayed by Danielle Edmond.
Expanded Universe[]
Name Change[]
Dark Horse Comics' Aliens comics were originally intended as a direct sequel and continuation to Aliens. After the release of Alien³, which featured the deaths of Newt, Hicks and Ripley, in order to keep these stories relevant to the Alien film franchise, Dark Horse changed the names and therefore identities of the characters for future printings and novel adaptations. In these reissues and adaptations--and in all other following Aliens stories which referenced Book One and Book Two, Newt's name was changed to Billie and the events on Acheron took place in Rim. Billie was also given additional relatives that reside on the planet Ferro, unlike Newt who had no other relatives in the original printing.