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- "My short time with the men at Assyma Station had rekindled my belief in simple, human decency. My encounter with those things made me doubt once again."
- ―Ligachev (from Predator: Cold War)
Lieutenant Valentina Ligachev[1] was a command post leader for the Russian Army. Ligachev fought Predators with NYPD's own Detective John Schaefer in a winter-ravaged Siberia. They subsequently tracked down a damaged Predator ship that crashed at the Siberian oil pumping station, Assyma.
Biography[]
Conflict in Siberia[]
In the deep wastelands of Siberia, a Predator ship falls from the sky, emanating radiation near a pipeline pumping station. The station's small Russian garrison led by Ligachev investigate the source. However, they were brutally slaughtered by a Predator, leaving Ligachev the only survivor. She was bought back to the Kremlin, where her higher-up, General Ponomarenko demanded that she be sent back to Siberia.
Ligachev and her men discovering the remnants of Assyma.
By the time Ligachev and her new squad of men, including by her ambitious subordinate, Yashin, arrived at the station, they encounter a squad sent out by General Homer Philips and led by Detective John Schaefer. They subsequently detained the Americans. Ligachev was devastated to see the strung up corpses of her comrades within the interior of Assyma. At the pumping station, a rift eruptted amongst Ligacheva's men when the Lieutenant refused to assault the downed Predator ship; she was eventually removed of command by her superiors in Moscow and replaced Yashin, with Ligachev to remain at the station.
Taking an interest in Schaefer's past encounter with the Yautja, she began questioning him while the rest of his team are detained. After the American prisoners make an attempt at escaping their captors, but are re-apprehended by when their high-tech equipment begins failing in the extreme Siberian cold, Ligachev ultimately elected to go to the Predator ship alone and destroy it as revenge for her massacred soldiers, with Schaefer accompanying her.
Ligachev kills a Predator.
They found the vessel lying in a deep ravine, but were attacked before they could reach it by Yashin and the other Russians, who now have orders to preserve the crash site so that it can be stripped of useful technology. The firefight is interrupted by a Predator, which quickly slaughters Yashin and his men. Scahefer was overpowered by the Predator, but Ligachev saved him by opening fire point-blank on the creature, killing it.
Continuing on, the pair located the crashed ship and headed inside, planning to destroy it with a C4 charge. Before they could set the bomb they were attacked by more Predators, killing two before being forced back outside, where they were apprehended by Philips and the Americans, who have once again escaped their captors at the pumping station. Philips ordered Schaefer and Ligacheva killed when they refused to cooperate, whilst allowing the remaining Predator to escape back to its ship. However, they were saved by Rasche, who arrived with a much bigger force of Russians.
Ligachev was prevented from destroying the ship by her superiors, but when the now-repaired vessel began to lift off, she kicked the bomb into the open hatch, destroying the craft shortly before it could reach orbit. Though she is faced with dishonourable discharge and imprisonment for her actions, Schaefer suggested that the entire incident would be best buried. Schaefer subsequently suggested that she would make a great member of the NYPD.
Hunting in Belize[]
Personality[]
Ligachev held a strong companionship with the people at Assyma and as a result was greatly irritated by Schaefer's callous attitude towards his regard for them, and human life in general. However, she soon took a liking to Schaefer and formed a newfound comradery with him.
She had a strong sense of loyalty, shown with her camraderie towards her coworkers and loyalty to the Russian army. It was the refusal to avenge her comrades' deaths that shook Ligachev's loyalty to the army, with her even reflecting after defeating the Predators that Schaefer had taught her defiance.
Trivia[]
- Ligachev was the first female protagonist in the Predator comics line.
- In the comic's novelization, Ligachev's name was slightly altered to Ligacheva.
- Ligachev would make a return appearance in the series Predator: Hunters III, roughly 30 years after her debut in Cold War. Her first name, Valentina, was also revealed in this series.
Appearances[]
- Predator: Cold War/novel
- Predator: Dark River (appears in flashback)
- Predator: Hunters III
Gallery[]
