Dr. Waidslaw Orona was a scientist and geneticist affiliated with the Terran Government who was working as a civilian advisor to the United States Colonial Marine Corps. He was responsible for getting disgraced Colonial Marine Cpl. Dwayne Hicks reinstated into the military and releasing him from prison. Orana wanted a Xenomorph specimen for weapons research and wanted Hicks to get it for him.
History
Retrieval Mission
Dr. Orona was set up an expedition to obtain a Xenomorph sample for the Terran Government based on information regarding an incident that involved a Xenomorph and the Coast Guard vessel, Dutton, retrieved through the Coast Guard vessel's Blue Box recording.
Needing someone who had prior experience with the creatures, Orona knew there were three experienced individuals, Ripley was MIA, Newt was institutionalized and Hicks was rotting in a prison cell on Earth. Choosing Hicks as the most suitable individual to lead, Orona ordered the imprisoned Corporal to be released. Orona and Colonel H.S. Stephens met with the cynical marine and asked him to come along.
After talking Hicks into joining the mission and having him promoted to Sergeant, Orona received objections from Stephens, who stated that he didn't like having Hicks along on the mission. Orona replied that the order came from the top, on bringing someone with experience with the creatures along and that the other Marine that saw action against these things disappeared shortly after. Orona told Stephens that if he didn't like it he should talk to the higher ups at MILCOM HQ and Stephens begrudgingly accepted Wilks on the team. Stephens, Wilks, and a platoon of Marines assigned to the USCM battleship The Benedict, which departed at 0900 hours.
Alien Cultists
Some time after The Benedict left Earth orbit, Orona received word about a cultist named Salvaje and his organization that worshiped the alien creature as a "Messiah", and surveillance was put on those associated with the organization. After bringing in Salvaje's videotech for questioning, interrogating him personally and receiving a recording from him on what Salvaje's next move was going to be, Orona discovered that the Bionational Corporation was holding a Queen in its Lima facility. As Orona gave the order to take the facility, the agent with him said that that wouldn't be possible and showed Orona footage of Salvaje's organization assaulting the facility and getting themselves infected in the process. After asking about what happened after that the agent responded that the facility self destructed much to both the dismay yet relief of Orona.
Infestation
After the Lima facility's destruction, Orona had a discussion with two executives and the project leader on the situation since the company lab was breeched, stating that the year end bonuses would be the least of the executives' worries when the creatures that escaped matured into queens. The creatures soon hatched and started setting up nests around the world, which were at first easy to find and deal with. Eventually the creatures adapted to Orona's TAC squads and would make smaller hives that were interconnected, like the one in the Ivory Coast in Northern Africa. The infestation spread over the next eighteen months as humans tried to contain the rapid spread of the creatures' foothold on the planet.
Sometime during the Earth's infestation, Orona created a large nuclear stockpile within a mountain. He also moved himself to a secure location during the later stages of the infestation. Being against leaving Earth like most people were doing amid the chaos, Orona decided to stay on the infested planet, musing that since acquiring the creatures was his brainchild, he, like a captain of a ship, would stay until the end.
Death
While sending out his final transmission, Orona again mused, this time that if he were a god, he would find this folly amusing. The creatures managed to compromise his complex and were banging on the door and breaking through as Orona stated that his desire to harness the creatures was foolish, pulled out a pistol, put it in his mouth and pulled the trigger as one of the creatures reached for him.