From Gears of War

Previous: Pendulum Wars Concurrent: Locust Civil War The Locust-Human War Clockwise from top left: Emergence Day, The Lightmass Offensive, The Sinking of Tollen, and Operation Hollow Storm. Conflict: World War Date: A.E 0-current Place: Sera - mainly Jacinto Plateau Outcome: Conflict ongoing Combatants Coalition of Ordered Governments Tyrus† Pelles† Ostri Republic† South Islands†[1] Lesser Islands[2] Gorasnaya†[3] Gorasnaya Protectorates[4] Stranded (formed one year after E-Day[5] The Locust Horde Commanders Coalition High Command Chairman Richard Prescott, previously Deputy Chairman Chief of Defense Colonel Victor Hoffman, previously Director of Special Forces Chairman Dalyell† Premier Deschenko† Chief of Defense, General Jolyon Iver† General Salaman†[6] Professor Adam Fenix† Commander Alisder Fyne Lt.Col James Amstin Queen Myrrah General RAAM † High Priest Skorge † Strength COG Army COG Navy Stranded Militias Locust Horde Casualties 99% of the Human race killed since E-Day[7] Heavy Unknown losses from the Lightmass bombing and Jacinto flooding the Hollow

"We could have cooperated with the groundwalkers for our mutual salvation, but they are humans and they only understand dominance and ownership. All that we have left is a war to the death. For all their so-called intelligence, humans are blind to the threat right before their eyes. We never stood a chance of enlisting their aid, so now we fight alone. And we will stand on their corpses to do so."

— Queen Myrrah on the Locust justification of the genocide of the human race in ordered to defeat the Lambent Locust

The Locust-Human War (also called the Locust War^[8]) was a planet wide conflict between the Serans and Locust races raging between both the surface of Sera and the Hollows. The War began on Emergence Day when the Locust Horde emerged from the depths of Sera and eliminated most of humanity. For 15 years of the war, Sera's top and remaining scientists were unable to find the Casus belli for the war until Operation Hollow Storm when the COG discover the Lambent Locust and the Locust Civil War^[9][10]. The surviving humans continue to struggle for survival 15 years after the attack.

Contents 1 Emergence Day and the first 5 years 2 The Battle of Ephyra 3 The Lightmass Offensive 4 The Locust counterattacks 5 Operation Hollow Storm and the Locust Civil War 6 Jacinto's Remnant 7 References

[edit] Emergence Day and the first 5 years

The Locust Horde launched a planet wide invasion of the surface on what would become known as E-Day. Almost every human population centre was attacked, and the Horde managed to either destroy or occupy most human cities, killing a quarter of the human race in the process. For the next year, COG nations under Chairman Dalyell were either unable or unwilling to unite in a effort to defeat the Locust Horde, with ordinary military tactics unable to repel the Locust, as they could emerge any where at any time. When Dalyell died suddenly of a heart attack^[11], Richard Prescott was elected Chairman in his place. He made one last attempt to unite all the COG nations to launch a counterattack at the heart of the Locust incursion, which was located in southern Tyrus. Despite the need for unity, only the South Islands were willing to contribute to Prescott's plan, with all of the other COG nations only concerned for their own survival^[12].

With Ostri, Jannermont and Andius all falling to the Locust, Prescott decided a denial strategy was the only option left for humanity. He enacted the Fortification Act and issued a three day warning, telling all remaining governments to retreat to the safe haven of Jacinto Plateau, the only part of the planet the Locust could not dig through, before using orbital lasers and chemical weapons to deprive their foe any spoils of victory. Although aware that most of the remaining human population would not be able to make it, Prescott knew any delay would only allow the Locust time to react to the COGs plans. Over ninety percent of Sera was destroyed to drive back the Locust temporarily and to deny them all urban, military, and manufacturing centers, leaving the planet forever scarred and what's left of the human population homeless^[13][14].

Despite this almost apocalyptic effort, the Locust survived and soon began to assault COG strongholds on the Plateau. Four years after the Hammer of Dawn counterattack, the Locust breached the Plateau during the Winter of Sorrow. This resulted in the city of Landown falling to the Locust, as the COG failed to protect its supply vessels and to send more Gears to protect the city, which was only a days drive away from Jacinto City. The city would be a Locust fortress for ten years until Operation: Hollow Storm.

[edit] The Battle of Ephyra

10 years after E-Day, the Locust began a massive assault on Ephyra, the capital of both the COG and the nation of Tyrus. They found a way to dig around the rocks of the Plateau, allowing Emergence Holes to appear across the city and bypassing the COG defences at the city limits. The Locust forces pushed the Gears all the way back to East Barricade Academy, which was across the river from the main part of the city. Here the remaining COG forces made a last stand effort that was nearly successful However, Marcus Fenix received a distress call from his father; leading him to abandon his post, taking the targeting laser with him, in an attempt to save his father. This action was carried out at the cost of his fellow Gears and ultimately causing Ephyra to fall. The COG relocated the capital to Jacinto City, at the heart of the Plateau, and the only major human city not to have fallen to the Locust onslaught.

[edit] The Lightmass Offensive

Seemingly defeated in every major land engagement, the Coalition's only hope was Col.Hoffman's operation: the Lightmass Offensive. The plan was to end the war for once and for all. They hoped the Lightmass Bomb would wipe out all the Locust in the Hollows. The operation began with Col.Hoffman pardoning all the prisoners at the Slab except for Fenix, hoping to bolster the shrinking COG army. At the same time Alpha Squad and Sgt. Kennel's squad were trying to deploy the resonator, while the Lightmass bomb was placed on a train heading for a Imulsion sinkhole^[15].

But the plan soon hit a roadblock when Alpha was ambushed and took heavy losses. Delta Squad was sent to aid Alpha Squad to retrieve the resonator. They took heavy casualties and lost a King Raven. Delta Squad was then able to get data from East Barricade and able to downloaded it into the Lightmass bomb. They detonated the Lightmass bomb, killing millions of Locust soldiers, and destroying the Outer Hollows.^[16]

[edit] The Locust counterattacks

The Locust Horde survived and came back more powerful than ever^[17]. The Lightmass Bomb awakened a Riftworm, one of the Locust deities, which the Horde used to sink small military outpost and cities around Jacinto Plateau. At the same time, Locust forces began attacking COG control zones, forcing them to abandon North Gate Agricultural Depot^[18]. Drones soon began killing off Gear Squads in the Pirnah Badlands. which forced Coalition High Command to send in Delta-One on a Search and Rescue Mission^[19] This only led to more losses. But in the aftermath of the Lightmass Offensive, COG forces did let their guard down and try to recuperate. These actions and the suddenness of the Locust attack at North Gate lead to the Siege of Jacinto City and a new phase of the Locust-Human War.

[edit] Operation Hollow Storm and the Locust Civil War

The resurgent Locust soon began sinking cities, with Tollen and Montevado both falling to this new threat. Realising that even Jacinto was not safe, Col.Hoffman and Chairman Richard Prescott planned a counterattack into the Inner Hollows to attack the Locust in their Homes. The plan called for a massive Assault on Landown, which had been under Locust control for 10 years. The soil in Landown was soft enough for Grindlifts to dig through, which would allow Gears to enter the Inner Hollows. The Assault on Landown resulted in heavy causalities for both the COG and Locust Horde, but COG forces were able to hold the city and launch the Grindlifts. During the course of the Operation, the city of Ilima was sunk by the Riftworm, which was subsequently killed by Delta Squad. COG forces also discovered that the Locust had started taking prisoners and toturing them on Beast Barges.

After the Battle of Ilima, Detla Squad was sent on a Mission to New Hope Research Facility, to recover data on a Locust stronghold. After retrieving the data and re-entering the Hollows through Mount Kadar, Delta reached Nexus, the Locust capital. Once they were in the heart of the city, they set off JACKs beacon which allowed a second wave of Grindlifts to deploy into the siege of the city. During the battle, the COG discovered the existence of Locust work camps and the Horde’s motivation for the destruction of humanity, they were in a civil war with their Lambent counterparts and were moving to the surface in order to survive. Their plan was to sink Jacinto City to flood The Hollow and kill the Lambent Horde after escaping the Hollows themselves. Realising that by altering the timing of Jacinto’s sinking, the COG could destroy the majority of Locust Horde, they began evacuating Jacinto and preparing for its final stand.

Towards the end of the Operation and the near falling of Jacinto city, another Lightmass bomb was sent via King Raven into the Hollow. After it was knocked out of commission by a Brumak, which subsequently became Lambent, Delta Squad used the Hammer of Dawn to kill it, using the massive explosion that follow to detonate the bomb, causing Jacinto to sink and sending millions of tonnes of seawater flooding into the Hollow, drowning the Horde and hopefully wiping them out for good. But the Locust Queen was able to escape the flooding and a message left by Adam Fenix indicates that another threat to humanity survived the flooding.

[edit] Jacinto's Remnant

In the aftermath of the sinking of Jacinto, the COG army and its citizens headed for the frozen wasteland of Port Farrall, whilst dealing with the last of the Locust.^[20]. After a few weeks camping in the ruined city, the COG decided it was too inhospitable and began looking for a new place to rebuild humanity. They chose the island of Vectes as it housed a former COG naval base and was on the other side of a marine trench that the Locust could not dig under. They also discovered the islands main town, Pelruan, had a surviving population 3,000 citizens that were still friendly towards the COG. In the following weeks the Gears were forced to fight hostile Stranded pirates who began raiding the area for supplies. One particular encounter lead to 4,000 more survivors from the former UIR nation of Gorasnaya joining the COG and taking refuge on Vectes.

As weeks passed and the COG began to strengthen the island town into a new stronghold it began to appear that the Locust Horde had truly been dealt a fatal blow and that the 15 year long war may finally be at an end. However, as the COG were dealing with the minor conflict of the Stranded Insurgency, a new threat emerged from the Hollows as the Lambent began to invade the surface.^[21]

[edit] References

1. ↑ Gears of War:Jacinto's Remnant
2. ↑ Gears of War:Aspho Fields
3. ↑ Gears of War:Jacinto's Remnant
4. ↑ Gears of War:Jacinto's Remnant
5. ↑ Gears of War:Jacinto's Remnant
6. ↑ Gears of War:Jacinto's Remnant pg 52
7. ↑ Gears of War:Jacinto's Remnant pg 214
8. ↑ "Pendulum Wars were a bitch, But they were nothin' like this LOCUST WAR 'COUGH' no time for livin' now." Barrick, Gears of War: Hollow, Issue One
9. ↑ Gears of War:Aspho Fields during a conversation with Baird and Col.Hoffman
10. ↑ Gears of War:Sourcebook Dom dialogue on the Locust Horde
11. ↑ Gears of War:Jacinto's Remnant pg 53
12. ↑ Gears of War:Jacinto's Remnant pg 54
13. ↑ Gears of War:Destroyed Beauty
14. ↑ Gears of War:Jacinto's Remnant
15. ↑ Gears of War:PC
16. ↑ Gears of War 1
17. ↑ Gears of War 2
18. ↑ Gears of War:Aspho Fields
19. ↑ Gears of War:Hollow.
20. ↑ Gears of War:Jacinto's Remnant
21. ↑ Gears of War: Anvil Gate

Battles of Locust-Human War
A.E.O		Emergence Day
A.E.1		Fall of Ostri · Battle of Jannermont · Battle of Andius · Ambush on Voslov Bridge ·Hammer of Dawn counterattack
A.E.5		Fall of Landown
A.E.10		Battle of Ephyra
A.E.14		Lightmass Offensive · Ambush at Sovereigns Boulevard · Evacuation of North Gate · Jilane Massacre · Mission to the Pirnah Badlands · Sinking of Tollen and Montevado · Mission to Tollen · Battle for Fucked · Mission to Montevado · Second Battle of Jilane · Siege of Jacinto
A.E.15		Siege of Jacinto · Operation Hollow Storm · Assault on Landown · Battle of Ilima · Mission to New Hope Research Facility · Siege of Nexus · First Mission to Merrenat Naval Base · Skirmish south of Port Farrall · Second Mission to Merrenat Naval Base
Unamed battles		Battle outside of Jacinto · Unidentified M.O.U.T. battle · Battle near Jacinto