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"A commercial vessel, the Anesidora, has recovered what we believe to be the flight recorder unit of the Nostromo."
Samuels, to Ripley (from Alien: Isolation)

The USCSS Anesidora, registration number NCC 88-LS, was a Lockmart CM-90S Corvus G-Class[3] deep space salvage vessel[5] privately owned[6] and captained by Henry Marlow. It was notably the vessel responsible for unleashing a lone Xenomorph on Sevastopol Station in 2137, leading to the death of virtually all of its inhabitants. The Anesidora was destroyed when its reactor was set to overload by Marlow in an attempt to destroy Sevastopol and wipe out the Xenomorph infestation.

History[]

Pandora's box[]

In 2137, while conducting salvage operations in the Zeta2 Reticuli system, the USCSS Anesidora stumbled across the flight recorder unit from the USCSS Nostromo. After recovering and accessing the recorder, Captain Henry Marlow and his crew elected to follow the flight data in the hopes of finding and salvaging the ship itself. Their search led them to Acheron (LV-426), where the crew soon found the derelict ship previously discovered by the crew of the Nostromo fifteen years previously. Within, Marlow found and disabled the derelict's beacon, while Catherine Foster, Marlow's wife, was attacked and subdued by a Facehugger from one of the Xenomorph Eggs in the ship's vast cargo hold.

Hoping to get medical aid for his wife and unaware of the Chestburster now gestating inside her, Marlow took the Anesidora to Sevastopol Station. Foster was taken to Sevastopol's medical center, but the Chestburster duly emerged, killing Foster and beginning a Xenomorph infestation that rapidly overtook the station. Marlow was placed under arrest by the Colonial Marshals for his role in the disaster while the Anesidora remained parked in orbit around KG-348.

Destruction[]

"I'm going to overload the fusion reactor."
"That'll turn the reactor into a God damn nuke! You'll destroy the ship! And the station!"
"It'll annihilate every trace of the creature. Ripley, it's the only way. I can't let it live."
Marlow and Ripley (from Alien: Isolation)

During the chaos of the Xenomorph infestation and the revolt by Sevastopol's Working Joes, Marlow managed to escape from his cell at the Colonial Marshal headquarters and made for his ship, intending to overload its reactor and destroy Sevastopol with the blast, thereby wiping out the rampaging Xenomorphs. Although Amanda Ripley and Nina Taylor attempted to stop the overload, they were unsuccessful; the blast was mitigated, but the Anesidora was still destroyed in the resultant explosion, which damaged Sevastopol's orbital stabilizers and eventually resulted in the station's destruction.

Crew[]

Behind the scenes[]

In reality, Anesidora is another name for Pandora, the first human woman created by the Greek gods, and means "she who sends up gifts"; this is likely a reference to the Anesidora bringing the Alien aboard Sevastopol. In an alternative version of the myth, the gods create Pandora/Anesidora to punish humans after the Titan Prometheus (the forethinker) gave to them the secret of fire, contrary to Zeus' orders. The gods thus send Pandora to the humans carrying a jar (often mistranslated as a box, hence "Pandora's box") filled with "gifts", which are in fact diseases. Epimetheus (the afterhinker), brother of Prometheus, subsequently opens the jar with no knowledge of the diseases it contains, thereby unwittingly releasing them to plague mankind. This can be seen as another ironic reference to the ship's role in the game; it is Pandora's box and it unleashes the Xenomorph upon the station. Likewise, Marlow's accessing of the Nostromo flight recorder and following its data to unexpected ruin also bears parallels to the myth of Pandora's box. Greek history and mythology are a recurring point of reference in the Alien franchise; other notable examples include the moon Acheron, the comics Aliens: Rogue and Aliens: Dead Orbit (which contain numerous references), the ship Archimedes, the novels Alien: River of Pain and Alien: Into Charybdis, and references to the Titan Prometheus in both Prometheus Tech and the film Prometheus.

Concept Art Wallpaper

The 1920x1080 version of "Concept Art Wallpaper".

The Anesidora was first revealed in a piece of concept art released on Alien: Isolation's official site around March 7, 2014,[7] called "Concept Art Wallpaper".[8] Although somewhat hard to read due to a light shining on it, "ANESIDORA" can be seen on the ship's hull. In the wallpaper, it appears that synthetics are on top of the Anesidora. Although never actually seen in-game, the vessel had a completely designed and realised exterior, based on microscopic parasites (a design direction inspired by it's role in delivering the Xenomorph) and deep sea crustaceans.[9] Other elements were inspired by its roles as a salvage vessel, such as the underslung cockpit, which was designed to allow the captain to oversee his men as they worked on the ground collecting and loading scrap.[5]

The Anesidora was the namesake of Priority One: Audio Log 005 - Anesidora, released around August 8, 2014.[10] The podcast was the first to have a namesake not related to Alien. In the podcast, Nee, Alien: Isolation's community manager,[11] says of the title, "what it means is up to you to discover when you play the game".

Appearances[]

Gallery[]

References[]

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