'The official prequel to the huge new Alien video game from Cold Iron Studios, as a Weyland-Yutani scientist arrives at Pala Station and finds the researchers there courting disaster... of the Xenomorph kind.
'Dr. Timothy Hoenikker arrives on Pala Station, a Weyland-Yutani facility. Lured there by the promise of alien artefacts, instead he finds a warped bureaucracy and staff of misfits testing the effects of Xenomorph bio-materials on living creatures. Unbeknownst to the personnel, however, there is an infiltrator among them whose actions could spell disaster. Also on staff is Victor Rawlings, a former marine who gathers together other veterans to prepare for the worst. As the personnel receive a delivery of alien eggs, the experiments spin out of control, and only the former Colonial Marines can stand between the humans and certain death.'
Aliens: Infiltrator is billed as the prequel novel to the upcoming video game Aliens: Fire Team, but it's still very much a stand-alone adventure that's sure to satisfy any fan of the Alien franchise.
The story follows a few characters, but the main lead is Dr. Timothy Hoenikker, a xeno archaeologist for Weyland-Yutani, who's just been assigned to the remote Pala Station. Having been promised the opportunity to work with alien artefacts he's surprised to find that no such research is actually taking place on Pala, and is assigned to assist some of the other scientist with their biological experiments.
The other scientists at Pala Station are working with different alien organisms to try and create new defensive technology for the Colonial Marines; injecting this mutagenic black goo into various creatures to enhance their natural abilities. Already a dangerous enough, these experiments become even more hazardous when the station receives a shipment of Xenomorph eggs, and prisoners that are to be hosts to their deadly embryo's. Now Hoenikker faces the moral dilemma of having to engage in experiments that will result in the deaths of people, despite being for the greater good. Unfortunately, the deadly new versions of the Xenomorphs they create prove to be too hard to contain, and soon everyone of Pala Station finds themselves fighting for their lives.
Like many of the other entries in the Alien saga Aliens: Infiltrator sees the duplicitous Weyland-Yutani corporation wanting to use the Xenomorphs for their own ends. However, unlike most of the other stories that involves facilities where the Xeno's eventually break out, this book actually sees the scientists achieving some of their goals, and developing some pretty useful technology from the creatures. It makes the book feel different from similar stories, mainly because most of the times when the Xeno's are being experimented on they break out and cause chaos before anything can really be done with them.
In this book we actually see a somewhat competent lab, one where the scientists seem to understand the deadly nature of the alien creatures, and aren't trying to weaponize them. Instead of turning the Xenomorphs into biological weapons to be unleashed upon the battlefield they're trying to find ways to combat them; to protect people from them. These are things that I wouldn't be surprised to see appear in the upcoming game, things such as acid resistant armour, or pheromones that hide you from the creatures for a while. They're the kinds of things that work well in this story, and that I can also see being used as items in a game, allowing players to survive a bit longer, or going on frightening stealth missions. I'm not sure how much of the book is going to be tying into the game, but I hope that the things developed on Pala make an appearance.
Unfortunately, not everything developed on Pala Station is something that can be used for good. Using the strange mutagen (which is heavily hinted at to be the black goo from Prometheus and Alien: Covenant) the scientists at Pala are able to create some shocking new lifeforms; and not just Xenomorphs. This means that when things inevitably go wrong the people on Pala not only have to deal with enhanced versions of the Xenos, but other strange new creatures too. There's a degree of body horror involved in these new creatures too, which is no surprise given how closely the franchise is connected with body horror, but it's used in ways that feel new and more twisted than we've seen in other entries in the Titan Alien books.
The book isn't all about new alien creatures though, as there's a collection of really compelling characters for readers to get invested in. I've already mentioned Dr. Hoenikker, who we go through some interesting moral ups and downs with, but there's a lot more on offer too. There's Cruz, one of the scientists on Pala who used to be in the Colonial Marines. At first he's presented as a cold, almost sadistic man who enjoys hurting the creatures he's experimenting on; but over the course of the book we get to discover that he's a very damaged man, dealing with a lot of PTSD from his time in combat, and becomes a character who you're never sure how to feel about.
Similarly, there's also Rawling, another former Colonial Marine who's become something of 'friend' to everyone on Pala, making connections with people and doing little favours. This has led him into a position where he's able to go most everywhere on the station, able to chat with anyone and accrue good will and hidden items of contraband. He very much seems to be something of a future version of one of those people who collects weapons and supplies for what they see as an inveitable disaster, drawing up plans for what to do when the shit hits the fan. Whilst in most situations these kinds of people prove to be wrong, it makes Rawlings one of the people on Pala that you definitely want around when the Xenomorphs escape.
There are other interesting characters, who like those already mentioned tend to be quite complex, with evolving motivations and slowly revealed backstories. People such as Fairbanks, a man being blackmailed into corporate espionage, Dr. Kash, a medical scientist with some skeletons in her closet, and Etienne, a man who becomes so obsessed with his work that it seems to wear away at his mind. None of the human characters in Alien: Infiltrator ever felt dull. Everyone seemed to have complex motivations, and the central characters would have you questioning how you felt about them, and changing your opinions on them more than once. For a franchise that can sometimes fail to create compelling human characters this book really excelled.
Weston Ochse isn't just a writer who's able to create interesting characters though, he's also able to write some tense action and creepy horror. Considering that he's written military action horror in the past I can see why he was allowed to play in the Aliens sandbox, as he feels like a perfect fit for this kind of story. What could have been uninteresting or lacklustre scenes of people sneaking through dark hallways in the hands of another writer became tense moments where the reader is left constantly on the edge of their seat. There was never a moment where you feel bored, or where things seem to just be going through the motions. Ochse was able to take a formula we've seen before in this franchise and make it tense ans frightening and exciting all at the same time.
Aliens: Infiltrator might get overlooked by some because of it's connection to the upcoming game; there may be some readers who might be reluctant to pick it up because they're not gamers, or because they're worried that the book won't satisfy on it's own. But this is a book that very much can. It stands on its own as a compelling read, one filled with interesting characters and nail-biting horror. If you've read any of the Alien books before, or watched any of the films and enjoyed them this book will definitely be one that you'll want to check out. A great addition to the franchise.
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