- "It’s a big universe out there, Kora. Things go missing all the time. Things disappear without a trace, and no matter how much the corps might like to be able to blame people for every little thing that goes wrong, there simply isn’t time to go chasing after every misplaced trinket."
- ―Delia Burton to her daughter Kora
Delia Burton was the Governor of Zagreus colony in the late 22nd century.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Delia Burton was born in a Corporate mining world whose name was just a twenty digit numerical designation.[1] At one point, she moved to Zagreus to start a new life and remove herself from the corporate, which she found claustrophobic
Life on Zagreus[]
While on Zagreus, she and her husband conceived a daughter named Kora. Delia had also climbed up the social ladder until she earned the rank of Planetary governor. As such, she enforced all laws about causing zero-impact to environment.
When a Lion-worm attacked and devoured an unsuspected colonist, she hired the Shipps as planetary biologists, and charged them with describing and cataloging all animal and plant life in the continent. She allowed John and Katherine Shipp to establish their home outside the colony and living off the land by refining food and water thanks to the fair prices and secrecy they wanted.[2]
Deals in the Black Market[]
About three months after the Shipps' arrival, Delia Burton was tipped off about an abandoned science ship which was transported to a scrapyard, the ship was being sold on the black market. Delia had saw that as an oportunity to expand the colony tenfold. She purchased the ship and realized it wasn't decomissioned but was infact stolen by some smugglers, the ship was still operational but the science team aboard was killed.[3]
The smugglers wanted the ship gone and Delia was looking for below-market price raw materials, so they came to a mutual benefit arrangement. The abandoned science vessel was left in orbit around Zagreus, ready to be scrapped and used for colony expansion. Delia planned to expand the main settlement, fortify the two seasteads and even build a second colony at the other edge of the forest.[4]
Delia, suspecting the ship could still be biologically active and pose a potential hazard to the colony, assembled a scout team who would investigate the ship before the real work started. The team included John Shipp and Ms. Petrov.
Infestation[]
Merely hours after the team reached orbit and docked with the ship, the team was attacked and killed by unidentified creatures. Delia Burton lost contact when the shuttle crashed in the mountains of Zagreus, fifty miles from the colony.
After her daughter Kora, along with Olivia Shipp arrived at her apartment with news about the creatures, Delia confessed to them how she acquired the ship and what she knew about it. She then received a transmission from one of the seasteads, hundred miles away. The creatures described as 'knives that hunt' overran the settlement and killed twenty people before the transmission stopped abruptly.[5]
She activated the emergency transmission system and randomly started to inform the people about the situation. The colonists were then told to lock themselves in safe places as soon as possible.[6]
Death[]
- "I was greedy and foolish and it's only fair that I should pay the price for that..."
- ―Delia, expressing remorse at the end.
Delia locked herself in the apartment she shared with her daughter. The full horde of the xenomorphs assaulted the dome and using their blood, they melted a hole through it and overrun the defenses, eventually turning the settlement into a new hive. Delia was captured and cocooned on the apartment's wall where she remained until an alien brought an egg before her, Deliah was subsequently impregnated once the egg had opened.
Delia was found by her daughter when Kora and and Olivia Shipp returned for her to the colony after raiding the cave hive. After being freed from the cocoon, Delia was killed when a Lion-worm alien attacked and mauled her, bisecting Delia and killing the unborn chestburster inside her.
Appearences[]
Trivia[]
- Although Delia mentions that the xenomorphs brought an egg to her and that the creature "hadn't been gentle" in entering her, the egg or dead facehugger is absent.