Horse #3 Dark Horse - Free comic book day 2009 Dark Horse Comics #1 Dark Horse Comics #2 Dark Horse Comics #3 Dark Horse Comics #4 Dark Horse Comics #5 Dark Horse Comics #11 Dark Horse Comics #12 Dark Horse Comics #13 Dark Horse Comics #15 Dark Horse Comics #16 Dark Horse Comics #17 Dark Horse Comics #18 Dark Horse Comics #19 Story summary Outbreak Outbreak starts 10 years after the events of Aliens. Ripley's fate is not revealed to the reader, but Hicks and Newt have been struggling with the aftermath of their encounter with the Xenomorphs. Newt is in a mental institution suffering horrible recurring nightmares, and when nothing seems to help her, the doctors decide to wipe her memory. The badly-scarred Hicks, facing constant fears from his fellow Marines that he is somehow contaminated by the Aliens, has never gotten over the annihilation of his squad, and so agrees to go on a mission to the alien homeworld to recover some eggs and to destroy one of the hives (the hive-destroying serves no purpose other than to satisfy Hicks' hatred). Hicks goes to visit Newt before he departs, only to learn about the planned memory-wipe. Hicks believes Newt to be the only thing that marks his existence and honors his squad's sacrifice, so he extracts her from the institution and smuggles her on board the ship flying to the homeworld. Said ship departs, but is trailed by another, crewed by corporate mercenaries intent on keeping the Aliens' secrets for their paymasters. Meanwhile, strange things are happening on Earth. A scientific corporation has acquired an alien queen, and begins harvesting eggs, intent on creating bio-weapons. A weird cult that believes the Aliens to be God's spiritual rebirth breaks in and its members voluntarily give themselves up for facehugging. They spread the Alien infection across the planet and Earth is soon overrun. While traveling to the home world, Newt falls in love with a Marine named Butler. Arriving in orbit the home world, their ship is boarded and taken over by the mercenaries, thanks to the assistance of the squad's traitorous leader, who promptly is executed by the mercenaries' amoral leader Massey. Newt is overlooked in this process, and hides in the ship's ventilation shafts. The squad is sent by the mercenaries towards the hive with the intent of having them infected with Alien facehuggers to allow for further