Lieutenant Gorman's History
Lieutenant Scott Gorman was a member of the United States Colonial Marine Corps, part of 2nd Battalion Bravo Team. He was commanding officer of the combat unit deployed to LV-426 aboard the USS Sulaco in 2179, to investigate the sudden loss of contact with the colony of Hadley's Hope. He was subsequently involved in combating the Xenomorph infestation at the colony.
In 2179, Gorman was sought out by Weyland-Yutani representative Carter Burke to lead an operation to investigate the terraforming colony Hadley's Hope, with which contact had been lost; unbeknownst to Gorman, Burke had specifically arranged for the inexperienced Lieutenant (Gorman had only a single combat operation to his name at the time) to be placed in command of the mission. One of Gorman's first duties was to assist Burke in the recruitment of Ellen Ripley, the sole survivor of the USCSS Nostromo's encounter with a Xenomorph lifeform on LV-426 57 years previously.
Initially Ripley, still traumatized by her previous experience, refused to take part in the mission despite Burke's promise that she would be reinstated as a flight officer and Gorman's assurance that she would not be involved with risky combat operations on the ground. However, she later relented, preferring instead to face her fears and accompany Gorman's Marines.
After enlisting Ripley, Gorman and the men posted under his command set out for the colony on board the USS Sulaco. At breakfast, Gorman failed to integrate himself with the men, immediately earning their scorn and disrespect; as Corporal Hicks put it, "Looks like the new Lieutenant's too good to sit with the rest of us grunts." This lack of respect became obvious during Gorman's briefing on the mission at hand, when several members of the unit responded to his statements with sarcasm and mockery. Gorman's response was to impose upon them unrealistically harsh deadlines for their preparations.
During the drop, Gorman was clearly uneasy, and his lack of experience came out when questioned by Ripley and his men, creating further tension. After landing at the colony, the Lieutenant oversaw the securing of the main administrative building from the section's APC before heading inside. Gorman and Second Squad soon came across several Facehugger specimens stored in the colony's medical facility, as well as a single surviving inhabitant, Newt, a young girl who had been hiding in the building's ventilation ducts. After unsuccessfully trying to ascertain what had happened at the colony from Newt, Gorman led the Marines to the nearby Atmosphere Processing Plant, where the rest of the colonists had been traced through their PDTs.
Gorman's inexperience showed once again when he allowed his troops to enter the Atmosphere Processor, which was essentially a large nuclear reactor, armed with armor-piercing ammunition that could potentially cause damage capable of creating a massive nuclear explosion; when this was pointed out to him by Ripley and Burke, Gorman had the Marines' ammunition confiscated rather than pull the team out, severely compromising their firepower.
The mission quickly fell apart when the section discovered a large Hive within the Atmosphere Processing Plant and was ambushed by a swarm of Xenomorph Drones. Gorman panicked and froze as he watched his team being slaughtered on the monitors in the APC, forcing Ripley to take over, recklessly driving the APC to the scene of the ambush to try and effect a rescue. Gorman attempted to physically stop her, but was subdued by Burke. While the vehicle was careening through the Processor's service tunnels, a container broke loose inside the cabin and knocked Gorman unconscious. Such was Gorman's failure of command that Hicks later had to restrain Private Vasquez from assaulting Gorman's comatose body.
Gorman was unconscious for several hours, and by the time he eventually came around he seemed to accept that he was no longer in charge of the mission, deferring instead to Hicks' command. When Burke attempted to have Ripley and Newt impregnated by the two live Facehuggers stored in the med lab, Gorman assisted in their rescue and later guarded Burke at gunpoint. When the operations center was assaulted and overrun by Xenomorphs, Gorman was forced to release Burke in favor of defending himself. The party retreated into the ventilation tunnels of the complex to escape.
While Vasquez brought up the rear of the retreat, she engaged a drone that dropped from an overhead tunnel. While shooting the creature, its blood spilled onto her lower leg and she became severely injured and unable to move. Ahead in the tunnel, Gorman sent Hicks off, went back for Vasquez and began to drag her out. Despite saving Vasquez from several Drones, the two soon became surrounded, and with their ammunition exhausted, Gorman pulled the only weapon he had left — an M40 grenade. Not wanting to be taken back to the Hive and impregnated, Gorman and Vasquez detonated the device together, killing themselves and taking several Xenomorphs with them.
