Operation: Hollow Storm

Previous	Siege of Jacinto City
Next	Battle of Stromson Forest
Operation: Hollow Storm
Conflict	Locust War
Date	1st-2nd Frost, 14 A.E.
Place	Tyrus Jacinto City Landown Ilima Kadar Valley Inner Hollow Nexus
Outcome	Pyrrhic COG victory Heavy COG casualties Failed to stop Locust advance on Jacinto City Jacinto sunk Ilima sunk Failed to kill the Locust Queen Discovery of Human prisoners Discovery of the Lambent War Riftworm is killed Ketor Skorge is killed Inner Hollows flooded Nexus is destroyed Most of the Locust Horde drowns COG relocates to Port Farrall Surviving Locust degenerate into the Savage Locust and Queen's Guard
Combatants
Coalition of Ordered Governments
Locust Horde
Commanders
Chairman Richard Prescott Colonel Victor Hoffman Lieutenant Anya Stroud Sergeant Marcus Fenix
Queen Myrrah Ketor Skorge † Krav Gurst †
Strength
Thousands of Gears COG Army 26th Royal Tyran infantry 4th Infantry Division 7th Mangler Unit Alpha-One Alpha-Seven Delta-One Echo-Five Echo-Nine Gamma-Three Omega-One Sierra-One Sigma-One Tai's squad Assault Derrick convoys Rig Group 3 Rig Group 6 Assault Derricks Rig D11 Rig D14 Rig D28 Rig G53 Rig D77 Rig 314 Centaur Tanks Centaur Zero-Two Centaur Zero-Nine Centaur Two-Three Centaur Four-Nine Delta's Centaur King Ravens KR One-Eight KR Three-Six KR Four-One KR Five-Four One captured Brumak
"Ten Shit loads" of Locust troops and creatures in Landown and outskirts Unknown amount of Locust troops and creatures in the Inner Hollows. Drones Theron Guards Palace Guards Kantuses Boomers Butchers Flame Boomers Grinders Maulers Tickers Wretches Bloodmounts Reavers Seeders Nemacysts Corpsers Brumaks 1 Hydra † Torture Barges Locust Gunboats 1 Riftworm †
Casualties
Hundreds-Low Thousands killed in Landown area and in the Inner Hollows Hundreds captured or killed/executed Charlie-Nine Echo-Five Echo-Nine Sierra-One Sigma-One Tai's squad 30% of Jacinto's citizens killed in the evacuation Unknown number of King Ravens destroyed KR Four-One Unknown number of Centaur tanks destroyed Centaur Zero-Two Centaur Two-Three At least six Assault Derricks destroyed Rig D11 Rig D28 Rig G53 Rig D77 Unknown equipment loss 2 Captured Reavers Captured Brumak
Ketor Skorge Tens of thousands of Locust soldiers killed fighting on the surface and in the Inner Hollows Hundreds of Brumaks, Reavers and Corpsers 3 Beast Barges 1 Hydra 1 Riftworm Dozens of Locust hard points Locust staging ground Locust Forward base Millions-Billions killed in the flooding of the Inner Hollows

"Humans are no strangers to war. After all, we've been fighting for as long as we can remember. War is all we know. In the past, we fought for Imulsion. We fought for country. We fought for freedom. But all that changed after E-Day. For 15 years, we've been fighting for our very survival against inhuman, genocidal monsters. But it is a fight we cannot continue. Humanity faces extinction, unless we end this war now. We had hoped the Lightmass bombing would decimate the Locust Horde, but they survived… and have returned stronger than ever. They've brought with them a force that can sink entire cities. Even Jacinto, our last beacon of hope through all these dark days, is now at risk. Soon we'll have nothing left to defend, and that means we have only one option... attack. Gears, what I ask of you now is not an easy thing, but it is necessary. If we are to survive... if we are to live long enough to see the seasons pass, our children grow, and experience a time of peace that we have never known... we must now take this fight to the Locust. We will go to where they live and where they breed… and we will destroy them! This is the day we take the battle to the heart of the enemy! This is the day that we correct the course of human history! This is the day we ensure our survival as a species! Soldiers of the COG, my fellow Gears, go forth and bring back the hope of humanity!"

—Chairman Richard Prescott addressing Gears before Operation: Hollow Storm

Operation: Hollow Storm was a two day long massive military counterattack, which had directly aimed to kill the remaining Locust that survived the Lightmass Offensive. It would be a pyrrhic victory for the COG, though with thousands of Gears killed, captured or missing in the attack on the Hollows, and an unknown amount of vehicles and equipment lost during the trek to Landown City. However, the most devastating loss was the last COG stronghold Jacinto City, which was sunk in a last ditch attempt to destroy the Locust by flooding the Hollows. The events of the operation led to the discovery of the Lambent War and the destruction of Nexus. The flooding killed an untold amount of Locust soldiers and creatures, but some escaped.

Order of Battle

COG Preparations

In order for the Coalition to strike back at the Locust Horde it had to organize an army with very little time and barely any spare equipment. The COG managed to muster up hundreds of Assault Derricks, Centaur Tanks, cargo trucks, Armadillos, and King Ravens, while at the same time fighting off the Locust in the streets of Jacinto City itself. With time running out and Jacinto City threatened by the Riftworm, the COG had to send all able bodied men ranging from Stranded conscripts, fresh recruits, battle hardened Pendulum Wars veterans, pardoned ex-convicts from the "Slab" and Gears infected with the Rust Lung disease.

Assault on Landown

After fighting off another Locust raid into deep sectors of Jacinto, Chairman Richard Prescott gave one last motivational speech before he sent out the Coalitions finest (and only) soldiers on either a suicidal run or the greatest achievement in Seran history. After the COG troops met at the staging area they moved out to assault the city of Landown, where the ground could be penetrated with Grindlift platforms and from which an attack on the Locust home front could commence. The main convoy began their attack on Landown while other Gears (Echo-9) met no resistance. After encountering heavy resistance and taking numerous casualties from Locust air and ground forces and passing sinkholes the columns were able to reach Landown and succeeded in briefly taking the city. After a short but heavy fight Landown was liberated. The Rigs in the city and outside were able to line up and begin the countdown to send the Grindlifts. Shortly after, the Locust high priest Skorge led a counter-attack against the Coalition forces within the city. Luckily, Coalition troops were able to deploy the Grindlifts and thus able to begin Operation: Hollow Storm.

Gears engaging Grubs

The Inner Hollows

After digging their way through, the Gears found themselves unable to communicate with High Command on the surface. While Delta squad was regrouping and dodging Grindlifts digging past them, several other squads including Alpha-7, Echo-5, Alpha-1,and Sigma-One were moving into the hollows and engaging heavy resistance. Alpha-1 was able to proceed and destroy the Seeders while other Gears hit Locust hard points. After briefly reestablishing a communications link with the surface, the Gears began to advance deeper into the Hollows. Echo-Nine landed inside the Hollows but did not meet any enemy forces for thirty minutes, then were ambushed and engaged in an hours long firefight ending with all of them either killed or captured. Delta Squad, one of the few squads making progress, was able to destroy a Locust staging ground. They located a Locust forward base, eliminated all Locust forces in the base, eliminated a Locust patrol, and were able to save many Gears in the process. This advance was ended when the entire city of Ilima was brought down by the Locust Riftworm. The Riftworm was killed by Delta Squad, who severed its arteries from the inside. While High Command sent squads to secure the Ilima sinkhole, Delta was reassigned on a recon mission. After one day of fighting inside the Hollows, hundreds of Gears were captured by the Locust and many were either "processed" or executed.

The Second wave hitting the Nexus

The Second Wave and the Locust Civil War

After Delta Squad members Dominic Santiago and Marcus Fenix located the Locust home city of the Nexus, they used JACK to send out a homing beacon. This allowed COG reinforcements to safely dig into the city and avoid the Imulsion lakes. During the second assault on the Hollows the Coalition discovered that the Locust were in the midst of a civil war with their subspecies, the Lambent, who appeared to be winning. Coalition troops located slave quarters of captured Gears and Stranded, kept in incarceration by the Locust for unknown reasons. Delta Squad located the Locust Queen Myrrah, but she escaped on a Reaver while leaving her general Skorge to deal with them. Dom and Marcus drove him off and after chasing Delta Squad on his Hydra, the Hydra is destroyed and Skorge killed. After Locust forces began a massive assault on Jacinto and the Coalition in turn began the opening phase of the plan to sink the city itself, all remaining Gears in the Hollows pulled out.

Flooding the Hollow

Coming up with a plan to flood the Hollow and hopefully drown the Locust in their tunnels based on a message from Adam Fenix found in Nexus, Sergeant Marcus Fenix and Private Dominic Santiago were sent back into the Hollow underneath Jacinto City to clear an opening for a King Raven to drop a Lightmass Bomb into the cavern and sink Jacinto. Marcus and Dom punched a hole through the city and into the massive sinkhole the Locust forces were coming from. Killing a Brumak pilot, the two hijacked the Brumak and used it to punch through hundreds of Locust forces in the Hollow into a massive cavern beneath Jacinto City that was perfect to drop the bomb. Using the Brumak's weapons, Marcus and Dom destroy three columns and open a hole in the roof, allowing in three King Ravens. However, the Brumak mutates from massive exposure to Imulsion in the cavern and becomes a Lambent Brumak. While Marcus and Dom are extracted from the Brumak's back as it begins to mutate, the Brumak knocks the Raven with the Lightmass Bomb into the Imulsion, destroying the COG's method of sinking Jacinto. Realizing that the Lambent Brumak is powerful enough to act as the needed explosion if killed, Marcus drops the Hammer of Dawn on the Lambent Brumak, killing it. As the Lambent Brumak explodes, the surviving Ravens flee the cavern. The Lambent Brumak explodes, taking out the remaining support structures of Jacinto, causing the plateau to sink, allowing sea water to flood the Hollows, drowning most of the Locust Horde and the advancing Lambent army.

Battles of Operation: Hollow Storm

Day One

• Battle of Stromson Forest
• Assault on Landown
• Assault on the Inner Hollow
• Battle of Ilima
• Destruction of the Riftworm
• Mission to New Hope Research Facility

Day Two

• Assault on Mount Kadar
• Mission to Nexus
• Siege of Nexus
• Battle of the Royal Palace
• Assault on Jacinto City
• Sinking of Jacinto City

Aftermath

The COG was able to evacuate 70% of the remaining civilians and Gears from Jacinto and the Inner Hollows and moved to Port Farrall, an abandoned northern city. After this was found to be too inhospitable for the survivors of Jacinto, the camp was moved to the island of Vectes. The Operation failed to eliminate Lambent and Locust forces completely, although most of the Locust were killed. The surviving Locust were forced to live on the surface and most became the Savage Locust without the leadership of their Queen, though some continued following Myrrah as the Queen's Guard. An unfortunate side-effect of the flooding was Imulsion was pushed into the sea and the soil by the water and accelerated the Lambent Pandemic. However, the drowning of most of the Horde and their splitting into two factions allowed the COG time to recover before the Lambent arrived. With millions, if not billions, of Locust dead, it also severely weakened the remaining Locust's ability to continue the war.

Appearances

• The Quickening
• Harper's Story
• Gears of War 2 (First appearance)
• Dirty Little Secrets
• Gears of War 3 (Mentioned only)
• Aftermath (Mentioned only)
• Gears of War 4 (Mentioned only)
• Gears 5 (Mentioned only)