Chapter 8
Wait, it gets worse!
"You alright?" Katja asked as Adrien climbed ashore, the corpses of the spiders floating downstream behind him in the soft tug of the current. He was sopping wet and cold, that much was clear; but at least he was alive, and the immediate threat was eliminated.
"Next time, you go!" Adrien pointed to Petrov.
"What took you so long, American?" Petrov mocked. He didn't add a sarcastic, "You're welcome," but the show he made of switching the safety of his gun back on made his point clear.
"Ok, enough," Katja tried to intervene. She didn't know exactly what had gotten into her usually easygoing officer, but Adrien seemed to really rub him the wrong way. Actually, the American rubbed her the wrong way too.
"What?!" Adrien demanded. The feeling was clearly mutual.
"Guys–" Katja began.
"I stopped for a donut, Petrov. That good enough for you?" Adrien snapped sarcastically.
"Wait, there's donuts?" Alexei asked in Russian.
That's when the marine began stripping off all his clothes, right in front of everyone. It stopped Petrov's retort in its tracks.
Katja nearly shook her head, but didn't want to give Adrien the satisfaction of reacting. She'd heard Americans were prudish about that sort of thing. Apparently, her squad had just been unlucky enough to find one that wasn't.
In moments, he was bare and threw his wet clothes at Alexei. "Dry these off over the fire, short stuff," he demanded.
"I am a well-respected scientist, not a servant," Alexei grumbled in Russian, but he complied.
Next, Adrien reached into his pack and pulled out two packets labeled 'emergency blanket' and tore them open with his teeth. These 'foil' thermal blankets would keep him warm, and so would the fire. Tying one around his waist like a towel, Adrien then draped the other over his shoulders, and stood in front of the fire.
Katja's eyes had been glued to his chest the moment his shirt came off, and it wasn't because of his physique. It was because of the two jagged scars running parallel to each other, from his left shoulder down across his chest, and ending on the right side of his waist.
He had tangled with something ferocious and somehow walked away.
Naturally, he noticed her looking. "Like what you see? You can try before you buy," Adrien gave her a proud, ridiculous grin, though his body and speech were shaky.
"Watch it, American!" Petrov warned.
She could handle this on her own. "Looks like something already had its way with you," Katja pointed to the scars. Adrien glanced down and sobered up.
"…Wife's cat did that," Adrien mumbled. "Don't like cats."
"How the hell do cats do that?" Katja asked incredulously. That was the first outright lie he had actually told; though he may have been just joking, too. "Does she own a tiger, or what?"
"It's a long story."
"We've got time," Katja offered.
"No, just the opposite. That gunfire will have alerted everything within at least a 10-mile radius to our presence. We need to move," Adrien stated, tugging his heated blanket a little closer.
"Ten stupid American miles means nothing to us! Use the metric system like a normal person! And anyway, your stupid American ass is the reason we can't move!" Zaitsev snapped.
"Enough! This is nobody's fault!" Katja cut in before this could escalate. "Adrien, thank you for going out there, and the rest of you did well covering his retreat."
Off to the side, she could hear Alexei echoing her in Russian for Yahontov, She continued, slowly and clearly.
"Now, we do need to move; but we can't do that just yet. Zaitsev, Preobrazhensky, help Alexei dry Adrien's clothes. We are all no stranger to doing that quickly and efficiently. Once we are in a position to go, we go."
Nobody argued with her. As a matter of fact, silence descended on the camp.
It was an hour before Adrien was out of hypothermic danger and his clothes were dry. Once he was dressed, they were on the move again.
This time she decided to walk with him, and stick Alexei with Petrov. She'd… make it up to Petrov later, somehow. Maybe she had a candy or snack bar left in her pack somewhere.
"I see why these men respect you so much. You're the glue that holds the unit together. Someone they can rally around and trust. You've earned your rank and then some," Adrien spoke first.
First truly polite thing he had said to her since their meeting. Maybe she could get him to open up even more. But she didn't feel like returning the compliment yet. He hadn't earned it.
"Thanks. Where'd you get the scars, Adrien? Like, really?" she asked directly. He stopped and turned to her. She held her fist up for the men to hold their position, specifically out of earshot.
"How else would I know about the alien hunters?" he asked back cryptically. The mind games were getting old, but this implication didn't leave much to the imagination. This seemed to imply the hunters weren't totally invisible when it came to Earth knowledge of the species, after all.
She signaled everyone to move again. "Can you tell me anything more about them?" Katja pressed.
Apparently, her influence failed. "Nothing more than you already know. The rest is trivial, and we need to keep sharp as well as quiet," Adrien stopped her. As per the usual, it wasn't a lie. He had divulged the important bits. Still, he seemed to be holding back a lot of information, and she couldn't beat it out of him like Alexei.
"Woah! No, no, no!" Adrien suddenly hissed. Katja looked over to see Preobrazhensky in the middle of undoing the buttons on his pants.
"What? I gotta take a leak," Preobrazhensky griped. "Don't worry, I'm keeping my back to Captain Mikhailov."
"Piss is a pheromone cocktail, and these things could be tracking us by smell. You leave that, you might as well be leaving breadcrumbs to our position," Adrien answered.
"So… what do you expect me to do?" Preobrazhensky posed.
"Either go in a bottle, or a body of water," Adrien instructed, all too seriously. "I can take you back to the river, if you want. That goes for everyone. I don't want to hear ten minutes from now that you need to go."
Preobrazhensky looked to her. She had to trust Adrien knew better, and it didn't seem like a flawed idea. So, she gave a nod to confirm she sided with Adrien on the matter. Preobrazhensky grumbled, but did button his pants up.
Adrien and Preobrazhensky then hastened to the river, briefly disappearing from view. It made Katja anxious; but she did know they were within shouting distance. The group had barely left the river behind.
Soon, the men returned, and everyone began to move again.
"Captain," Petrov called quietly, not much later.
She and Adrien turned. Petrov pointed off to the left. Whatever he was seeing, Katja couldn't see it; but she ordered through hand signals to move toward whatever caught Petrov's attention.
She suddenly saw it: human blood, splattered on a tree trunk. That was what Petrov was reporting. They closed in cautiously and quietly, but ultimately determined the area secure for the moment
With some digging in the snow and underbrush, they started to find bodies. Dagger 2-1 had been located.
"Start collecting tags," Katja requested grimly. The causes of death varied greatly, though one stood out to her. Stab wounds. Two parallel blades. They closely matched Adrien's scar in width. This just confirmed what he had told her.
"Katja," Adrien said. She turned to him, and he was leaning against a tree. He looked pale and nervous.
She was walking over to him when she took notice of a rapid 'clicking' noise. It almost sounded like bugs or birds, harmless, so she dismissed it.
"Yes?"
He just stared at her, as though trying to think of what to say. Instead, he flicked his eyes upward and held his finger to his lips.
It took Katja a minute to register; but then, horror washed over her. Something was up in the trees. Given that they hadn't been attacked yet, it could only be the trophy seekers. The other kind sounded more like animals.
She realized Adrien was trying not to broadcast their moves. If the hunters were advanced enough for space travel, it undoubtedly had other sophisticated tech to track and listen to them. Speech was out.
Katja brought her hands together in a brief and soft clap, and her men looked up. She quickly gave a hand signal to fall in.
The men gathered silently, and Katja pointed to Adrien and put her hand to her ear. The order was clear. Listen.
Adrien pinched two fingers together and slid them across his lips. No talking. The men, minus Alexei, nodded. The boy had no idea what was going on, and maybe that was for the best.
Katja held her palm out and made a pair of legs running with her fingers. We can make it if we run.
Adrien gave an imperceptible head shake. No, we can't.
Then it escalated into Katja and Adrien making hand signals at each other, back and forth. It got heated and borderline violent, each wanting the other to concede, to the point where her men lost track and stood there dumbly.
Alexei must've thought they were doing charades, because he stood between them with a ridiculous smile and began making his own hand signals, which made the two captains more irritable.
At last, Adrien slapped Alexei's hands – hard – and made a motion for them to all stop for a moment. Discreetly, he slid his hand down his rifle to the underbarrel M203 grenade launcher and tapped it as subtly as possible.
Katja finally nodded her approval.
Vai'dqouulth was up in a tree watching the humans below. It seemed they had found the group from last night and were collecting… something off the bodies. He could not tell what they were. He counted seven male warriors, including the singing one from last night. They seemed to be taking orders from the one with the fiery-hued battle braid.
He brought up his helmet's settings and began scrolling through them before he found the setting he was looking for. Normally, his kind saw in infrared, and the mask filtered it down so that they could actually make out the prey in the environment.
But it also had what was dubbed more or less a 'novelty' setting by his kind. He personally had rarely ever used it. The trichromatic spectrum setting allowed him to see the way humans did, and now he could see them collecting small metal plates held by a chain from all the bodies. What were those? And why did one human have such garishly-colored foot protection on?
That's when the leader was called over by the warrior Vai'dqouulth had seen last night. They started speaking without words. He stopped his 'intimidation' clicking. It was all Yautja did when hunting; a noise intended to frighten their prey into making a mistake. It was an unconscious move on his part, and he hadn't meant to do it. Reckless. He wasn't currently planning on killing them just yet; so all it might have done is alert them to his presence.
They were speaking in some form of sign language. His kind had that too, and he was aware Earth had several variations of it. This… this form was completely alien to him. At one point, one of the smallest males – an omega, if he had to guess – joined in, only to be slapped and pushed away. What in all the hells were they talking about?
Zooming in with his mask, he noticed this smaller male had something on him, clipped to his pack. Switching to a vision setting that allowed him to see through objects, he made out a… portable computer! What luck, he needed that for sure. It could repair his wrist gauntlet.
With an internal growl, he took note that the one male he needed to kill wasn't armed. Therefore, he couldn't kill him. Yet at least. He'd have to take the computer from him after everyone else was dead.
So absorbed in planning the acquisition of the computer, Vai'dqouulth almost overlooked that the warrior from last night was aiming a weapon at him. He jumped out of the way just as the human fired at him, an explosion blasting his tree perch apart.
The tip-off had been the clicking. Innocuous sounding, like a generic wildlife noise, everyone else overlooked it; but Adrien knew it. The sounds haunted him every night. It followed him and his men though Afghanistan. To let them know they were being hunted. A mockery, as his men died one by one.
Scanning the trees without lifting his head, Adrien found the distortion once more.
It was here.
"Katja," Adrien said as nonchalantly as he could.
"Yes?"
How to tell her without giving it away to the hunter? He decided on an eye flick to the treetops and a finger to his lips. By Katja's facial expression, she got it.
With a clap of her hands and an order, everyone was huddled around within seconds. She told them through hand signals to listen, and he told them to be quiet in the same manner.
Katja suggested running. Ha! Fat chance they'd make it. These things were much faster and much more nimble. That kicked off a heated exchange of hand signs. Then Alexei joined in, and that just pissed Adrien off. They weren't playing a game here!
Slapping Alexei's hands and ordering him away, Adrien requested they stop. He had a plan, and he tapped his grenade launcher to communicate that.
Katja finally gave her approval, and Adrien quickly brought the weapon up before the hunter figured out what they were doing. He fired and ran.
Meanwhile, Katja and her men peeled out of there as fast as they could the moment he brought his gun up.
As they ran, everyone fired over their shoulders blindly, hoping to hit the ghost that was hot on their heels.
Katja stole a glance, looking for any sign of this thing. Nothing. Just debris and smoke from all the gunfire.
That was when Alexei tripped and rolled down a large incline to the left. "Jekaterina!" he screamed in desperation.
Using the icy snow and her knee pad inserts, Katja slid down the hill as a sort of sled after the boy.
She reached him just as there was a massive 'thud' behind them. Katja turned and saw… 'it'. A humanoid form that she could see through. Were it not for the strange distortion, it would be completely invisible. She had no doubt this thing could be extremely silent to go with the invisibility. The hard landing meant it wanted her to know it was there.
The noise of metal grinding metal brought Katja from her thoughts as she saw an extension on one of the thing's arms. Blades. Wicked, long, blades.
Well, that was a problem.
Vai'dqouulth cursed himself for getting lost in planning. It had nearly cost him, at minimum, severe injury. Maybe worse. Now he was pursuing the unarmed weakling male in hopes of taking the computer from him.
The other warriors discharged their weapons recklessly and aimed, nowhere near his location that was far above the trees, easily keeping pace with them.
Paya must've been on his side, because the runt of the litter tripped and slid down the hillside, now isolated from the rest of the warriors.
Just as Vai'dqouulth jumped down from his tree, however, he noticed the lead human male with the battle braid was now between him and his goal. He seemed much smaller up close – no, even tinier than the unarmed one; perhaps a good third – and likely far more – less in body weight than the other humans in the group. Clearly, the human could make him out, even with cloaking.
As he approached, neither human made a move to attack. They seemed awestruck; probably by him. Most who had the rare opportunity to see a Yautja reacted similarly. Before they died.
Flexing his mandibles in anticipation, he lifted his blade and then stopped at a sudden revelation. The small one with the braid wasn't male. It was a female.
He cursed himself again for another careless mistake. He knew how to differentiate between the sexes with humans.
Vai'dqouulth continued to hesitate. Did he have up-to-date human doe hunting permissions? It was so rare to find a female warrior on this planet, too; more than likely it would be frowned upon if he killed one rather than let her spread her warrior bloodline.
Why lie to himself? The truth was, he was making excuses because the unarmed human he had killed in a fight with the bad blood had been female. This sight was dredging that up, making him feel dishonorable all over again.
His hesitation cost him greatly as kinetic projectiles began splashing off his armor, forcibly dropping his cloak.
"C'mon, you bastard!" Katja heard Yahontov yell as he fired his rifle off. The rounds connected and the invisibility the creature once had dropped away.
She had been so stunned by the sight of this thing, a rippling phantom that seemed the size of a small sedan, that she had briefly frozen up like a rookie – not out of fear, but shock. And when the creature's cloak fell and the full-sized, living alien was finally revealed to her in the light of day, she couldn't help but take it all in as she fumbled to level her rifle.
Even in the low temperature, it wore only a netted bodysuit and loincloth, along with a scant array of what looked to be metal armor – intimidating mask with orange war paint streaked across it, included – and/or weaponry.
It had a beige chest and stomach area, and inner thighs as well. But what was striking was the outside thighs and top of his arms. The beige faded into a dark grey color, with distinctive black stripes crossing through it. Beautiful, really; if it wasn't trying to kill her. She had to mentally chuckle as her brain wildly thought of Mishka and his grey-stripy pattern.
The rest of its features were exactly how Adrien had described them, though she was morbidly curious what was under the mask. The American had never described the face, and the helmet didn't hint as to what it might look like. Actually, the mask even looked like it could've been human-made.
Unexpectedly, an ear-splitting roar sounded from the beast. Katja was sure she felt blood leaking from her ears, but it did break her focus on the thing. She grabbed Alexei off the snow, letting off a few shots of her own as they retreated.
"Contact left! Contact left!" Preobrazhensky yelled, and suddenly a new threat, inky-black and huge and swift and skeletal, was cutting across the hill towards the skirmish. The hunter they'd been fighting turned as well, abruptly losing interest in the humans for the greater threat.
"Noooo," Alexei wailed next to her as she dragged him along, "a Bagiennik!"
Why he was babbling about a fairy-tale demon when real life monsters were right in front of them, Katja didn't know and didn't care. All she knew was that the new, grown-up version of the snakething from last night had found them, and it was closing fast.
She switched her aim away from the hunter and to the monster, aiming and firing at its bulbous head. She cursed herself for not quizzing Alexei more about its weak points, much as he'd claimed they were nearly invincible. Who knew if the head was a vital point or not?
Katja then realized the monster's trajectory, which had changed to intercept the hunter, would put Yahontov right in the middle of the two titans.
"Yahontov!" she screamed. "Fall back! Get the hell out of there!"
From the corner of her eye, she saw Adrien, who had seemingly noticed the same thing, start to race forward and aim his grenade launcher carefully at the monster.
Yahontov, for his part, had heard her call and was now aware of the precarious situation he was facing. He began scrambling laterally away from his position. Katja provided him covering fire, while bringing herself and Alexei around the beasts in a crescent arc to join her men atop the hill.
It seemed Yahontov was clear, and was just about to regroup with the others, when the monster ran past him and whipped its bony, absurdly long tail in his direction.
To Katja's horror, the tail impaled Yahontov right though the chest, bone and organs hanging off it.
He didn't even get a chance to scream.
Yahontov was lifted clear into the air with the tail, swung in a circle, then brought back to the earth headfirst. When he hit the ground, Katja saw his head twist in the opposite direction of his neck.
Not even breaking its stride, the monster tugged its tail free and leapt at the hunter. The two creatures began to clash.
By now, Katja and Alexei had arrived at the top of the hill. She stumbled over to Adrien, who was still tracking the aliens with his rifle.
"Kat!" the American shouted. "Let's go!" He fired a grenade to cover their escape. The round landed a bit short of the beasts, but the blast knocked them off kilter.
Katja didn't wait to see if either of the aliens had sustained any splash damage. "Pull back!" she yelled, and her remaining team took off into the woods.
They ran; in no particular direction, just away. Over logs, across patches of snow, under branches. It all blurred together.
Eventually, adrenaline wore off, and Katja felt her lungs beginning to burn, her legs muscles feeling strained and pained.
"Please," Alexei panted, stumbling over a small dip in the snowy dirt, "I have to stop."
"Hold," Katja called, and everyone staggered to a halt, breathing heavily. Alexei doubled over, trembling.
"Yahon-Yahontov," said Zaitsev, wiping at his forehead. "He–"
"He's dead," Katja said numbly. "Even if he somehow could've survived the stabbing, his… his neck broke when he hit the ground. I saw it myself. We'd never have gotten him back to our medics in time."
She felt hollow, as if some part of her had been carved away. It was bad enough finding Dagger 2-1, but this was her unit, her team. Yahontov's death seemed to be playing in her mind on repeat.
Turning to Adrien, she pushed his shoulder with a glare. "Why didn't you use your grenade launcher sooner? You were just standing there, aiming at it!"
"I didn't have a clear shot! These things have a large blast radius, you know. Did you want me to blow you up, too? Or, or…Yahontov?" he yelled back. "Look, I'm sorry you lost a man. It's tough. But his pain bought us time. Especially if those two freaks back there get bored of wrestling, and decide to continue pursuing us," Adrien stated.
That was so callous! "I–" Katja began to argue.
Throwing his hands in the air, Adrien said, "Can you just listen to me for a second please?"
"Yes!" she hissed, letting her rifle limply hang from its sling. She had forgotten she was still holding it in a white knuckled grip. Forcing down her remorse and pain, so she could concentrate on saving the rest of them, Katja said, "But we need to make an actual plan instead of just arguing! And we can't make a plan when we're not thinking clearly. Everyone, take a few breaths, and then we'll talk."
Her men recovered quickly from the run, breathing heavily and avoiding eye contact as they each struggled with Yahontov's fate in their own way.
Zaitsev leaned against a tree and held a hand over his eyes, while Preobrazhensky stared blankly ahead into the forest, cigarette in his fingers. Petrov, face hard, began to inspect his rifle. They were in shock, that much was clear.
Adrien drummed his fingers impatiently against his thigh, while Alexei sat in a ball, shaking.
"All right. Thoughts, everyone?" she said after a minute. If she learned one thing from Karik, it was to always listen to the people around you, even if you have the final say in the matter.
Preobrazhensky spoke first, in English. "We can't fight these things on our own. We have to get back to base." He flicked the cigarette away, then crushed it with his boot.
"Exactly my thoughts," Zaitsev agreed. "Before dark, and there are more of those..."
"Bagiennik," said Alexei with a shiver. He received stares from the others. "Sorry. That's what we call them, back in the lab."
"It's… he's naming those skeleton snake things after a… a pretend monster. A Russian fable," Katja muttered to Adrien, for context.
"Bogeyman?" asked the American in return.
She had never heard that word, and just shrugged.
"Yeah, fine, Bagiennik," said Zaitsev said hurriedly. "Point is, we woke one up, and it cost us a friend of mine. I'd hate to face more once night falls."
"Me, too," said Adrien. "Finally, you people are talking sense. Let's get a medic for my guy and get out of the ass-end of Siberia, already." He slung his rifle strap over his arm, clearly ready to move out.
"Wait," said Katja. "Petrov, what do you think?"
Rocking a full mag into his AK74SU, Petrov at first didn't reply. At last, he said, "The thing – the first one, the hunter. It was after the kid, specifically. Why?"
That gave even the impatient Adrien a pause.
Alexei gulped audibly a few times.
"He's unarmed. Maybe it wanted to go after the weakest link first?" Preobrazhensky suggested.
Adrien grunted. "No offense, but there's no way. 'Trophy Hunt' means the worthiest kill. Like you said, Alexei isn't even armed. It doesn't make sense that he'd bother with him. Uh, sorry, kid." He turned and gave Petrov a short, respectful nod. "Good catch, Lieutenant. If we encounter it again, we have a solid guess of knowing who it's going to target."
"Just wish we knew why," Katja mused, shaking her head. "Alexei, if there's anything else you're not telling us, now is the time to come clean."
"I swear, I have no idea what it would want with me," he babbled. "I didn't even know they existed until a few hours ago."
Coming to a decision, Katja said to the group, "Okay. Listen up. I know what just happened to Yahontov is hard to take. But I agree with the rest of you. We have to get back to base as soon as we can. After that, we can take a team, go back, and bring him back with us. Everyone in agreement?"
"Wait, I didn't get a say," Alexei protested, standing.
Katja tossed her head, moving a few strands of hair out of her eyes. It was escaping her braid again. "That's because you have barely helped us at all. Get going."
Scowling, Alexei brushed the dirt off his butt as he said, "I guess at least I don't have to translate anymore."
No. Even Alexei wouldn't go so low.
The Russians all froze. Katja's heart wrenched, then blazed.
Growling, Zaitsev grabbed Alexei's vest and began repeatedly punching him, holding nothing back and channeling all his anger into his fists.
Alexei began crying out, and finally Adrien and Petrov grabbed Zaitsev and dragged him off of the scientist.
"Jeez. What did he say?" asked Adrien, fighting to hold the struggling Zaitsev. With reluctance, Katja repeated it.
"Holy crap. Seriously? Zaitsev, my apologies. That little punk needs to be taught a lesson. Go for it, buddy." Without further hesitation, the American released Zaitsev; but Katja held up her hand, signaling that the scientist had had enough.
Zaitsev rubbed his knuckles, looking unhappy, but he didn't try to attack again.
On the ground, nose bleeding, Alexei was whimpering. Preobrazhensky yanked him to his feet and stared him down. "Don't you ever make a comment that disrespectful again. Hear me?"
Alexei nodded fearfully, having trouble standing on his own. She had no sympathy to give him.
"And stop making noise," Katja added. "Because next time, I'm leaving you to the hunter." She could feel tears threatening the corners of her eyes, but anger kept them from falling.
She was about to tell them to form up again when she heard her name. "Katja," Adrien called. He had backed away a few meters from the rest of the group.
She jogged over to him and waited. "We both know that if it wants Alexei, it's going to come back," he said.
Personally, Katja hoped that the things had either killed or wounded each other to the point they'd be unable to follow. Either way, the FOB wasn't too far away. "Yes, and?"
"I was hoping it would be focused on the serpents. That's generally their preferred species over us, historically speaking."
"What point are you trying to make?"
"We're going to have to contend with two types of aliens nipping at our heels, now."
Katja nodded. The odds were shifting more and more against them. And a roar from the woods reminded her it was still out there.
Vai'dqouulth was extremely enraged. And now wounded, as well. Had he not hesitated, he could've had the computer and been done with the matter.
Instead, he was up in a tree, pulling the tip of a hard meat's tail out of his leg. With a swift yank, the appendage came free, and he bellowed out a loud roar of pain. He also still had the human projectiles to remove yet.
Pulling from his medicomp, he used the tools and healing products relevant to the wound and creature.
While the blood clotted, Vai'dqouulth considered what to do next. He needed that computer. There was going to be no better option out here. The humans that had resided in this region were relatively free of technology. Simpler.
The warriors at the base were an option, but most of their equipment was destroyed. It was also more than likely infested at this point. So, a lot of risk for a 'maybe'. No, he was certain that computer was going to be the easiest and simplest solution to his predicament.
Only question remained, how to relieve the runt of it without dishonorably killing him? He clicked his mandibles together in thought. Nonlethal takedowns were not generally called for during a hunt. He'd usually just passed on the prey in such a scenario, but this prey had the technology he needed.
Then, it came to him. He'd lay nonlethal traps all around this land using natural materials.
He'd catch that smaller male and take what he needed. He had to, before the planet was lost. This time, the little doe would not distract him.
Hopping from the tree and stepping over the remains of the vanquished hard meat, Vai'dqouulth suddenly noticed the body of the fallen human from the small team that had retreated.
Remembering that somehow those metal tags were important to the escaped group, he reached down and took the set from the corpse's neck. Perhaps they would be useful, perhaps not; but he would rather have them on hand if needed.
Nobody, not even extraterrestrials, likes Petrov's shoes.
I know we 'may' be stretching lore a tad with Yautja being able to see in our spectrum, but in fairness, this is technically depicted in games featuring them as a vision option so players can see.
On the subject of the games, Katja is not in any way derived from the 2010 Alien Vs Predator game where a synthetic named Katya is featured. This character was found out pretty late in the writing process.
And some fun trivia I found - in the video game Battlefield 3, on the campaign level 'Rock and a Hard Place' there is an achievement called "What the hell *are* you?" and the achievement icon features a dogtag with Yautja language on it. To unlock it, you must take a dogtag from a Spetsnaz operator. The player is a marine ironically enough. So, I guess Vai'dqouulth would've gotten this achievement at the end of the chapter!