Hello, delvers of lore
This next piece is a little introduction of the infamous Weyland-Yutani corporation, it beginnings and it's future. As you may notice, I took both origin stories and melded them into one plausible timeline. To those who questioned about what films are being followed, this one to you Dakkaman77, it follows up to Alien 3 and ignores Alien Resurrection (Seeing that's 200 years after Alien 3), so yes, Ripley and co are dead. I'm not including Aliens: Colonial Marines, PERIOD. well... maybe in a better form then the COD clone we got, but that's for another time. Alien Isolation gets a nod here though.
So, much of this history is from what i can gleam from AVP Wiki. And it is also written in a style that's neutral to both sides.
Anyway, i hope you lot enjoy this!
Weyland-Yutani Corp
Weyland-Yutani was founded in the mid 1960's, initially under the name of Weyland Industries, by billionaire industrialist Charles Bishop Weyland. Throughout it's existence, Weyland Industries was one of the top developers of robotics and one of the principle researchers of nanotechnology. Weyland Industries also had a contributing hand in the fields of pharmaceuticals and space exploration, having provided materials and expertise for the later space missions. The company's motto and drive, which Weyland followed throughout his life, was "Building a better future."
By the end of the 20th century, Weyland Industries was one of the largest corporations in the world, with offices and facilities in all major nations.
In 2004, following Weyland's disappearance in Antarctica, part of an exploratory expedition, Weyland Industries was then inherited by Weyland's chosen successor, his great nephew Peter Weyland, a budding genius in his own right who created over twelve patents by the age of fourteen. After coming of legal age, Peter Weyland assumed control of Weyland Industries and formally renamed the company Weyland Corp in 2012. Building on the slogan of his predecessor, Peter Weyland coined a motto that would go down in history: Building better worlds.
Throughout Weyland's charismatic leadership and drive, the company has made many substantial research and discoveries for the betterment of mankind. One of the most notable accomplishments was the development of RLF reactors, nuclear powered generators capable of powering power grids of whole mega-cities with blackout ratios of only 1%. This, combined with the revolutionary Solstice orbital solar array, effectively solved the planet's ongoing energy crisis. Thanks to Weyland Corp Terraformers, another of Peter Weyland's innovations, colonisation of planets was now a reality. In fact, the first usages of the Terraformers allowed Mars to the colonised and, within years, a thriving colony was established, named Wayland's Promise after his keeping his motto.
Building better worlds.
However, Weyland Corp was caught up in a lawsuit with it's main rival, the Japanese Yutani Corporation, in a series of lawsuits that lasted throughout the late 2020's over the patent and creation of the advanced prototype David series of androids. The extensive court rulings eventually passed in favour of Weyland Corp, effectively protecting it's investments. However, this did not end the feud between the two corporate entities.
Peter Weyland eventually passed away in 2092 at the grand age of 101 shortly after seeing off the the exploration vessel USCSS Prometheus on it's maiden mission. A mission that had yet to return from. His last wish, according to company records, was to be buried in space. Wether this was carried out or not is unknown. At either rate, his body was not found to be interred on Earth.
Despite the passing of it's founder and his successor, though the Weyland family are still a significant part of the company, Weyland Corp continued to expand until 2099 when it acquired the Yutani Corporation in a hostile takeover, the end of the long commercial feud between the two corporations. Weyland Corp become Weyland-Yutani, the first mega-corporation.
Weyland-Yutani continued to expand as humanity began to expand into the stars, becoming the leading mega-corporation as other corporate entities began to reach mega-corp status. Prominent entities were Bionational (prominent biomedical researchers), Hyperdyne Systems (Pioneers in the fields of Synthetics, including the legendary Bishop series in conjunction with Weyland-Yutani), Grant Corporation (leader in pharmaceuticals) and Seegson (former pioneer in development of deep space stations until the recession). Weyland-Yutani eventually acquired Seegson in the 2137. It was during this time that the 'Espionage War' between corporations began.
Weyland-Yutani suffered it's first notable loss in 2122 when the M-class star-freighter USCSS Nostromo went missing, and the ore refinery it was tugging, causing the company a minor but substantial loss of forty-two million in adjusted dollars, minus payload from the refinery. It wasn't until fifty-seven years later that the Nostromo's lifeboat was found drifting through the Core Systems with the only surviving crew member aboard. Warrant Officer Ellen Ripley. Her account, that of setting down on a barren moon orbiting the gas giant Calpamos, since been designated LV-426, in the Zeta Reticuli system under company contract to investigate an unknown signal, which was revealed to be emanating from a derelict alien ship, was not believed by the court. The lifeboat's flight recorder only had fragmentary records such as the ship arriving and departing from the moon, not the reason for. Even less so when she described an organism, that gestated within the executive officer before killing him during birth by bursting out of his chest and having molecular acid for blood, that slaughtered her entire crew within 24 hours. She had activated the Nostromo's self destruct in an attempt to kill the creature but it had stowed away on the lifeboat, which she then vented out of the shuttle's airlock. Forensic teams, however, were unable to find any evidence of said creature. After the tribunal, after a particularity vocal rant, Ripley was suspended from active duty, pending psychiatric rehabilitation.
The loss of Seegson's Sevastopol station orbiting KG-348 in 2137, when it's orbital stabilisers failed and the station burned up in the gas giant's atmosphere, was not considered a major loss, given the dilapidated state the station was in, and Seegson in general at the time of acquisition. Although, Weyland-Yutani did have plans to recycle the station for scrap.
The Company's second major loss occurred months after Ripley's tribunal when the colony of Hadley's Hope, established on LV-426 since 2159, went dark and no contact could be made. A platoon of marines accompanied by Ripley, owing to her previous experience on the moon, was sent to investigate. They and their ship, the USS Sulaco, were reported missing after seventeen days overdue. The colony on the other hand had been levelled to the bedrock when the atmosphere processor went into meltdown, giving off the blast equivalent to forty megatons. The loss of the colony and the terraformer ran into the hundreds of millions.
Ripley was later found on Fiorina 161, on the planet's former convict class C correctional facility which held a custodial population of twenty five inmates and staff. A fire had broken out on the Sulaco and she and three other survivors from LV-426 were jettisoned via EEV. Ripley was the only one to survive the crash. A rescue team led by Micheal Bishop (Descendant of founder Charles Bishop Weyland and lead designer of the Bishop series androids) was sent to retrieve Ripley after gaining confirmation of her presence. When the team arrived days later, an incident had occurred in which nearly the entire population had been killed by a 'hostile organism', leaving Ripley and two others surviving in the facility's lead foundry. One of the survivors attacked Bishop in a case of mistaken identity and was gunned down by Bishop's bodyguards. Ripley however, committed suicide by falling in the active foundry. The lone survivor, a convict named Morse, was taken away for relocation to another correctional facility. The facility was then formally decommissioned and remaining equipment was sold as scrap. Morse had written an account from his experiences of the incident but the manuscript was banned, on account of it's graphic material.
Despite these setbacks, Weyland-Yutani was still the dominant mega-corporation and was continuing to expand. Until the Xenomorph Infestation of Earth in 2192. Suffice to say, the near loss of the homeworld had hurt many a business venture. When the time came for Operation Extinction, Weyland-Yutani, with their private military contractors in the field, proved suspiciously knowledgeable about the xenomorphs. Despite this being the first recorded contact with the species.
It wasn't until after the infestation that Weyland-Yutani was forced to diverge all it's information, under threat of crippling infractions. And to the newly fledged Federation, in regards to all the billions that died, it was not pleasant. Weyland-Yutani knew about the Xenomorphs from the very beginning, right from the moment that the Nostromo was rerouted to LV-426 after picking up the Derelict's beacon, from before Sevastopol burned up to destroy a xenomorph infestation, when Hadley's hope was lost and right to the moment when Ripley committed suicide on Fiorina 161 to prevent the queen within her from falling in Weyland-Yutani's hands.
However, owing to Weyland-Yutani having provided much of the rebuilding effort, Weyland-Yutani was not abolished. Instead, every xenomorph related piece of data and research was requisitioned by OSIRIS and some assets, such as their bio-weapons division, were frozen and restricted, barring tightly sanctioned work directly from OSIRIS. The Federation made it perfectly clear to the Board that it would not be so forgiving if any more cover ups led to a second infestation.
In the present day, Weyland-Yutnai had lost some of it's prestige after the infestation, but is still the dominant mega-corporation. And it was continuing to 'Build better worlds'.
Weyland-Yutani divisions:
Bio-Weapons Division- Bio-Weapons Division was responsible for the research and development of biological and viral weaponry. Primary goal was to acquire xenomorphs for research and eventual deployment as a viable replacement for frontier force projection, where traditional armed forces would be non-viable. The division was effectively disbanded after the Xenomorph Infestation of Earth, apart from tightly sanctioned control from OSIRIS. However, there are other projects that even OSIRIS do not know of in some remote installations.
Reverse-Engineering Division- Reverse-Engineering Division is in charge of deciphering and researching alien technology, be it living or extinct races. Common work is found in researching Yautja technology from encounters with hunting parties and excavating Yautja temple complexes. Always willing to risk the lives of their employees in the name of scientific progress.
Special Services Division- Special-Services Division is tasked with overseeing all operations, research and development throughout the corporation's many divisions, often on specific assignments. The most secretive asset of the Corporation.
Weapons Division- Weapons division is tasked with developing weaponry and equipment for the armed forces. One of their most famous weapons, from the days of Weyland Corp, was the Weyland Storm Rifle, direct ancestor of the now iconic Pulse Rifle of the UEFDF.
Weyland-Yutani Security Corps- Private security force tasked with providing security and enforcement to Weyland-Yutani controlled assets. Composed mostly of Private Military Contractors.
Weyland-Yutani Special Forces- Weyland-Yutani's primary military force, assigned with the task of 'assisting' researchers in the field and to eliminate anything in the way. Comprised of PMC troops, commandos and other branches. Comparable to OSIRIS' Special Operations Division.