Wendigo: Screaming Hunter Of Love Grove
Wendigo was the name Milt McIlveen gave one of two Yautja that circled the storage hangars at the Weyland-Yutani research station Love Grove Base on LV-1529 in September 2692, in Tim Lebbon's Predator: Incursion, the opening novel of the Rage War trilogy. It was a human nickname from old myth, not a clan name, and Isa Palant and McIlveen called the hunter she even though neither of them could accurately tell the sex. The pair were prey rather than hunters. Wendigo's rants on Palant's receiver spoke of fire lizards, clan, loss, and a need for blood. Cloaked, she struck the hangar, then died when McMahon blasted her hand from a wrist control and put three bursts through the helmet.
Biography
Love Grove And The Nickname
Over the twelve days since the alien ship landed, and after the pair killed Connors and Sergeant Sharp, the Love Grove survivors saw two Yautja circling the storage hangars, standing in the storms, and passing back and forth as if lost. The big one they called Shamana, after a famous sportsman known for size, strength, speed, and dreadlocks. McIlveen named the mad one, the screamer, the one Palant knew would eventually come for them, Wendigo. His love of myth almost a thousand years old surprised her.
The hunters knew the survivors were there. Palant and McIlveen spent three days tweaking an old receiver until they found the Yautja frequency, then kept one of them by the speaker at all times. Palant rigged a datapad with a program she stopped short of calling a translation matrix. After a day of his own research McIlveen gave it that name. It seemed to recognize about sixty percent of what the Yautja said, even though they spoke very little.
Prey Not Hunter
The longer they listened, the clearer it became that these Yautja were not on a hunt. They were there because they were the prey. Partial translations from Wendigo scrolled as nightmare outlines rather than banter: hateful demons, fire lizards, a drive to find her own, and blood. Later lines spoke of clan, knowing loss, and hate. McIlveen thought she was insane. Palant wondered whether she was only firing herself up. Fire lizards kept returning in her speech. Shamana did not acknowledge them the same way. Palant took those lizards for whatever was chasing the pair.
Shamana answered a Wendigo scream with a call to be calm and prepare. Later he said it was not their fault, told them to leave him alone, and said to wait for now. Wendigo's next burst ran fire lizards took, me alone, need blood. Palant told McMahon the screamer was coming.
Hangar Attack
From a hunter's side the hangar was no trophy ground. Fire lizards had already taken what Wendigo named as her own, and the storm-hit station held soft prey and guns. Cloaked, she lifted a dead independent contractor into the air until McMahon tore the corpse with laser fire. A plasma burst from her side blew a hole where the hangar's front and side walls met. The ceiling slumped, rain drove through molten edges, and lights died as cables tore.
Wendigo roared long and loud with no hint of pain if she was hurt. An indie near Palant lost his head, the severed neck coming to rest against the researcher's boot. Rain blew across Wendigo's cloaked body until she glittered like star-specked space, eyes as piercing points of light over Palant. Palant whispered that she knew what Wendigo had said. Wendigo growled in sickening mimicry, "I... know... what...", and laser fire knocked her back. Her shoulder blaster missed Palant by inches, heat singeing hair and skin, and shredded the loader cab. She ran with a damaged cloak throwing sparks that scattered tiny images of her body behind her.
While the fight moved to the ruined corner, Shamana stood in an open doorway and watched Palant. She typed "I know" into the datapad, whispered translate, and held up the speaker. Shamana tilted his head, stepped aside, and melted into the storm instead of joining the hangar fight. Palant later told McIlveen that if she had not reached him, he would have joined in and taken the remaining independents.
Death
Wendigo ran into the open slower than before, trailing bright green blood that also sprayed from several points on her body. Two independents pumped laser blasts into her until she fell and squirmed. She wore something slick and red around her neck that Palant thought belonged inside someone, not outside, and she laughed a deep throaty sound. Palant shouted for McMahon to watch the hand, thinking of Yautja suicides. McMahon blasted the hand away from the arm. It skittered across the floor like a huge spider, claws curling into the palm. Remaining at a distance, McMahon fired three short bursts at the helmet. The helmet split and skittered away, and Wendigo twitched once as she died.
Shamana then smashed back through a ruined wall, slashed McMahon from shoulder to hip, and carried her into the storm for a trophy. McIlveen suggested revenge for Wendigo. He also said they were fools if they assumed they knew anything about the hunters. Wendigo never returned in Alien: Invasion or Alien vs. Predator: Armageddon. Palant never learned the real Yautja name behind the myth nickname.
Appearance And Weapons
The books give Wendigo no measured height and no clear face under the helmet. Palant and McIlveen could not accurately discern sex, yet both spoke of her as she. Cloaked in the hangar she showed as glittering outline and bright eyes before the cloak took damage and sparked. In the open she trailed green blood from several wounds and wore a slick red trophy around her neck.
Confirmed kit in the hangar fight was a cloak, a shoulder blaster that blew a hangar corner and later missed Palant by inches, a wrist control McMahon feared as a suicide device, and whatever blade took the indie head near Palant. The helmet split under McMahon's final bursts.
Similar Predators
Wendigo belongs with Rage War hunters who reached the Human Sphere as refugees, not with clan speakers on a throne. Shamana stood with her at Love Grove, urged calm, left the hangar after Palant's signal, then took McMahon and later died on his own wrist bomb when Akoko Halley's DevilDogs dropped a nano-burst into him. Hashori of the Widow Clan tortured Liliya on the Zeere Za in the same war, survived Macbeth, and left with Palant toward a homeworld pilgrimage. Yaquita of the Wounded Clan pulled the Drukathi name from a damaged Rage android and died when Xenomorphs stormed a cloaked ship at Macbeth.
Vagouti hunted on Earth with her mate and died in an Oregon rematch. Ca'toll ran a blooding hunt on LV-363 in Aliens vs. Predators: Rift War and left with three young bloods after her brother died. Wendigo's path ended in the Love Grove hangar in Predator: Incursion and never reached the ceasefire Palant later sealed with Kalakta.
Conclusion
Wendigo was the screaming Yautja McIlveen named from myth at Love Grove Base on LV-1529 in September 2692. Partial translation cast her as prey chased by fire lizards, not as a trophy hunter, with clan loss and a need for blood behind the rants. She struck the hangar cloaked, mimicked Palant's words, wore a red trophy at her neck, and died when McMahon split her helmet. Shamana took revenge for that death, and the later Rage War novels never brought Wendigo back.
Appearances
- Predator: Incursion (2015)
Tag Categories: Individual Predators | Predators From The Novels | Predator Lore
