Christopher Winter

Unnecessary category

"Name and rank?"
"Corporal Christopher Winter, 118th Battalion aboard the USS Sephora."

―Bishop and Cpl. Winter (from Aliens: Colonial Marines)

Corporal Christopher T. Winter was a member of the United States Colonial Marine Corps. He was part of a search and rescue mission sent to Acheron (LV-426) aboard the USS Sephora in 2179 to investigate the disappearance of the USS Sulaco and its crew 17 weeks earlier.

Winter and the other Marines from the Sephora discovered Weyland-Yutani were undertaking extensive research of the Xenomorph species on LV-426, and became the targets of the Weyland-Yutani PMCs hired by Weyland-Yutani to protect that research. The USS Sephora was ultimately destroyed in orbit and Winter and the other survivors were forced to take refuge inside the ruins of the Hadley's Hope colony on LV-426.

Biography[]

Early life[]

Winter was born and raised in Pender, Nebraska and was soon recruited by the USCM. Winter displayed strong leadership skills and excelled in detection and firepower. He also performed well under pressure. He attended three tours out of O'Niell Station, one from the Gateway Station. Within two years, Winter was given increasing responsibilities and was promoted from Private to Corporal. The USCM view him as a strong candidate for officer candidates and recommended him for low orbit hot zone combat.

Aboard the Sulaco[]

In 2179, Winter's battalion was deployed to LV-426 in response to a distress call received from Corporal Dwayne Hicks aboard the USS Sulaco, stating that his unit had been all but wiped out following an incident on the moon. Upon arriving, Winter was among the last Marines to board the Sulaco. While the ship was apparently deserted, it was host to a sizable Xenomorph infestation, and the initial wave of Marines sent aboard was all but wiped out in the opening attack, leaving only a few Marine survivors. Winter immediately set off in search of squad Rhino 2-3, who had last been reported nearby. When he reached their location, he found the corpse of Garnett and another Marine, Sgt. Keyes who had survived, but had been cocooned in some kind of nest.

After fighting off a Xenomorph Lurker and freeing Keyes, Winter relayed the situation to his commander Captain Cruz, who subsequently ordered them to abandon the ship. At Keyes' insistence, the two Marines instead headed for the ship's data recorder, their original objective, hoping that it may shed some light on what had happened aboard the Sulaco. On their way there, a group of Warriors attacked, but Keyes and Winter managed to fight them off and recovered the data recorder. Returning to the hangar, the two encountered more Xenomorphs, but again managed to fight through them, arriving in the Power Loader storage area. The main door to the hangar was still open, but Keyes tossed a grenade at the Smart Ass, the dropship in the hangar creating a large explosion. The explosion locked the main door to the umbilical and Keyes had to run a bypass to reopen it as Pvt. O'Neal, Cpl. Winter and Paluski repelled the Xenomorphs. Once Keyes opened the door, the team headed to the umbilical connecting the Sephora to the Sulaco, closing the door to the hangar behind them. However, the Chestburster implanted within Keyes erupted out of him, as the Marines crossed the umbilical, and in his panic he detonated a hand grenade, severing the passageway and sucking Paluski out into space.

Stranded aboard the Sulaco[]

Winter barely made it back aboard the Sulaco, where he was now stranded with Private O'Neal. Cruz contacted them, demanding to know what had happened. O'Neal told Cruz that they lost Keyes and that "something exploded from his chest". Winter proceeded to tell Cruz that he and O'Neal were safe for the moment and asked him if he had "any thoughts on the exploding-chest issue", but Cruz told him that all of their dropships were en route to provide cas-evac and ground support, estimating eighty Marines en route and Winter needed to clear an area for them to land. He relayed to Winter that the Hangar was out of commission, but that there was still plenty of room in the Cargo Bays.

As they headed for the Cargo Bay, Winter and O'Neal entered the quarantine area where they found Weyland-Yutani equipment. They contacted Cruz sending back live feed and mentioned that they had come across equipment that wasn't Colonial Marines tech, and that it had the Weyland-Yutani logo on it. O'Neal told Winter that everything had been time stamped after they received the distress call and asked Winter the Marine's name who had sent the call. Winter told O'Neal that the Marine was Cpl. Hicks. O'Neal contacted and asked Cruz if someone was still aboard the ship and Cruz told him that Bishop was sending a signal to Wey-Yu and told them that there was no time to sit around and ordered them to get back to the Cargo Bay.

As they again made their way for the Cargo Bay, they were contacted by a survivor of Rhino 2-3, Private Bella Clarison who told Cruz that she woke up gagging on a spider-like creature that had wrapped around her face when she got separated from her squad. Cruz told her that the rest of Rhino 2-3 had been killed in combat and the remnants of Rhino 2-1 were on their way to Cargo Bay. Winter demanded to know what had happened to her and O'Neal told him that she had some "thing" in her chest. As they entered the gravitational well, they ran into huge group of Xenomorphs that began to assault them, coming out of the vents air shafts and ducts. Winter and O'Neal fought their way through the gravitational room via the control room and metal gallery all the way up to the top of the Gravitation Well and escaped from the Xenomorphs. They proceeded through the hallway and contacted Cruz again, telling him their current situation and that they had arrived to the cargo bay and were making their way to the Control Room. Another group of Xenomorphs then entered the cargo bay and proceeded to attack them. Winter managed to hold them off while O'Neal attempted to get the door open (eventually doing so) and they escaped into the Control Room, locking the door behind them. Winter then headed for the terminal and used the keyboard to open the massive cargo bay door, opening the entire cargo bay to the vast vacum of space, which sucked out the remaining Xenomorphs and supply equipment which had not been secured down. The dropship pilot, Lt. Reid was then able to enter the ship and landed in the cargo bay.

Battling the Weyland-Yutani PMCs[]

Cruz contacted the Marines demanding to know what had just happened and who was with them in the Sulaco. Bishop told Cruz that the Marines no longer had control over the Sulaco's weapon system and Reid also told Cruz that they had made contact with human hostiles who began firing on the Marines, but Cruz remind her that they had human friendlies in there.

O'Neal then contacted Cruz explaining that his team was under attacked by unknown human hostiles and asked him how to engage the situation. Cruz told them to follow the rules of engagement and not to fire unless fired upon and order them to get to the bridge before all Marines on both the Sulaco and Sephora were killed. As they headed for the bridge, Winter and O'Neal were engaged again by the unknown human forces and subsequently killed many of them.

After recovering Pvt. Clarison, who had a chestburster implanted into her, the group encountered the private military contractors who opened fire upon them. Moments later, the Sulaco itself, hijacked by the PMCs, began firing on the Sephora. Winter, O'Neal and Clarison returned fire on the PMC's and fought their way to the bridge to stop the assault, but they arrived too late and the Sephora was destroyed. With the Sulaco also critically damaged, the survivors boarded one of the few remaining dropships and escaped to the surface of LV-426.

Stranded on LV-426[]

They survived the crash landing and traveled on foot. Winter, Bella, O'Neal, Reid, Bishop and Cruz arrived at the ruins of Hadley's Hope, where Winter opened the airlock with his ComTech Hacking Device and the team entered the ruined colony. The team proceeded upstairs until they arrived at the door to Operations where Winter cut the door open with his welder and the team entered. Once inside, Winter turned on the map table and Cruz ordered Winter and O'Neal to sweep the perimeter of the compound and plant five Motion Sensors so they can monitor the perimeter. Once all five were placed, Winter contacted Bishop to tell him that all sensors were in place and shortly afterwards the sensor in the Morgue went offline and Winter reconnected it.

As soon as the Motion Sensor was reconnected, a group of Xenomorphs ambushed Winter and O'Neal and the two fought through them and returned to Operations where they assisted Cruz in repelling the remaining Xenomorphs. Cruz then told Winter to retrieve the sentry gun in the main hall that he saw on Winter's helmet cam. Winter and O'Neal returned to the main hallway and retrieved C Gun and brought it back to the Operations, deploying the turret next to the ammo stash. Winter, O'Neal, Cruz and the sentry gun then killed the remaining Xenomorphs.

After all Xenomorphs were eliminated, Cruz told the survivors that they overloaded the generator when they cycle the power to the mess hall then he orders Winter and O'Neal to get to the relay tower via sewer line and rescue Reid and Bella. Cruz opened the weapon case that containing an M56 Smartgun and Winter equipped it before him and O'Neal entered the sewer line. The sewer was infested with Xenomorphs, which O'Neal and Winter managed to fight off. Once the two were near the elevator, Winter was contacted by Cruz who told him that Bishop boosted the shortwave signal and that they were now able to track their movement which was about thirty meters from the elevator.

Capture and escape[]

As they approached the elevator, Winter was attacked by the Raven and passed out. He was subsequently cocooned to the wall in the Raven's lair. As soon as the Raven left, Winter managed to free himself from the resin and contacted O'Neal who was surprised that Winter was alive. O'Neal also told Winter that he had used up the last of his ammo and left his tracking beacon in the elevator. Winter opened a panel on the floor and jumped down, escaping from the Raven's Hive just as the creature returned. The Raven followed Winter and ripped open grates in an attempt to get to Winter, but the Marine managed to evade his attacks. Arriving in an open room, the Raven began banging on a window in an attempt to break through, but Winter escaped into a small vent, just as the Raven broke through the window.

Winter proceeded through the vent and exiting into the sewers where he found the corpse of Private William Hudson. Trapped inside a room, Winter shut down steam, allowing him to access a lever which opened a nearby gate. In the sewers, Winter came across the corpses of Boilers and contacted O'Neal who told him that some of them still alive and that you have to move pass them slowly. O'Neal also told Winter that they are attracted to sound and if one of them gets too close, stay motionless until it goes away. Winter came across several live Boilers in the sewers which he managed to evade. Eventually Winter found a closed door which he cut open. Inside, Winter found O'Neal on the other side of some bars. O'Neal told Winter that they're closing in on the signal and almost to the elevator. Winter continued through the sewers, bypassing the remaining Boilers. O'Neal contacted Winter and told him that the Raven is right on him, before being cut off.

O'Neal recontacted Winter and told him that he made it to the elevator and doesn't know where the Raven went. As Winter proceeded to the elevator, the Raven appeared on the other end of a corridor. As Winter was evading the Raven, he welded shut doors behind him until he reached the elevator. At the top of the elevator, Winter found O'Neal who had retrieved Winter's gear. Winter retrieved his gear and the two proceeded outside.

Regrouping and restoring the uplink[]

Once outside, they ran into group of several Xenomorphs, some of which were attacking a container. Winter and O'Neal were able to repel them and found Bella inside the container. Bella told them that Xenomorphs took Reid. O'Neal and Winter decided to rescue Reid.

Going through the other end of the container, they encountered more Xenomorphs which the group killed. Winter found Reid on the ground and rescued her before another wave of Xenomorphs attacked the group, which were also killed. The humans headed back to the Communication Tower where O'Neal, Bella and Winter held off Xenomorphs while Reid restored the uplink.

Battle with the Raven[]

After they restored the uplink, the Raven appeared and the Marines opened fire on it, but none of their weapons were effective against the Raven's armor. The Raven pursued Bella and Reid and O'Neal told them to go to Operations where Winter and O'Neal would rendezvous with them. On Winter and O'Neal's way to Operations they were attacked by Xenomorphs, but managed to hold them off, finding Bella and Reid inside a garage. The group was attacked by Lurkers inside the garage, which they killed. The Raven also arrived at the garage and attempted to break through one of the garage doors with no success. The group also realized that O'Neal was missing and that his tracker was moving with the Raven.

Bella and Winter decided to rescue O'Neal, but Reid argued that if they're going after O'Neal they could all die, but Winter stop them from keep arguing before they exiting the garage and search for O'Neal. Raven appeared once again and attack the Marines, as they escaped through the wreckage and ran into more waves of Xenomorphs which they're all killed. They're reached the gate which is opened by O'Neal who's still alive. As they regroup with O'Neal, Winter quickly got in the Power Loader and using the machine to fight the Raven, which ultimately killed it.

Trivia[]

Winter is the playable character in the 2013 video game Aliens: Colonial Marines.
Winter is actually holding a M41A Pulse Rifle in the picture above, instead of a M41A Pulse Rifle MK2, something which is not possible in the game (although Hudson's Pulse Rifle is a M41A and can be used by Winter, his is customized with various cosmetic additions, which are not on the Pulse Rifle being used by Winter in the photo). The M41A is distinguishable from the MK2 due to its lack of visible iron sights or accessory rails on the sides and carrying handle of the weapon. Also the M41A's ammo counter appears to have been either turned off or set to a low brightness setting.