Operation: Hollow Storm
From Gears of War
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- "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!"
- — Richard Prescott (before the Assault on Landown)
Operation: Hollow Storm was a two day long[7] massive military counterattack, which aimed to kill the Locust that survived the Lightmass Offensive. It would be a Pyrrhic victory for the COG, 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 too Landown City. However, the most devestating 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 Locust Civil War and the destruction of Nexus; the flooding killed untold amounts of Locust Soldiers.
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[edit] 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 Derricks, Centaur Tanks, cargo trucks, Armadillo APCs 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 threaten by the Rift Worm, The COG had to send all able bodied men ranging from Stranded conscripts, fresh recruits, battle hardened Pendulum War veterans, pardoned ex-convicts from the "Slab" and Gears infected with the Rust Lung diseased[6].
[edit] Assault on Landown
After fighting off another Locust raid into deep sectors of Jacinto, Chairman Richard Prescott gave one last motivational speech before he send out the Coalitions finest (and only) soldiers on either a suicidal run or the greatest achievement in Human 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 the Locust home front could commence. The main convoy began there attack on Landown while other gears (Echo-9) met no resistances. After encountering heavy resistances 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 lineup and begin the countdown to send the Grindlifts[8]. 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.[9]
[edit] The Inner Hollows
After digging their way though, the Gears found themselves unable to communicate with High Command on the surface. While Delta squad was regrouping and dodging Grind lifts digging past them several other squads including Alpha-7, Echo-2, Echo-5, Alpha-1,and Sigma-One were moving into the hollows and engaging heavy resistance. Alpha-1 were able to proceeded and destroy the Seeders while other Gears hit Locust hard points. After briefly reestablishing communications link with the surface the Gears began to advance deeper into the Hollows. Echo-Nine landed in insides the Hollows but did not meet any enemy forces for 30 minutes before being ambushed and engaged in a hours long fire fight before all of them either killed or captured[6]. Delta Squad, one of the few squads making progress, was able to destroy a Locust staging ground and located a Locust forward base and eliminated all Locust forces in the base, turned a Locust patrol into a Turkey shoot 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 Rift Worm. The Riftworm was killed by Delta Squad who cut its arteries from the inside. While High Command sent squads to secured the Ilima sinkhole, Delta was reassigned on a recon mission. Thou after one day of fighting inside the Hollows hundreds of Gears were captured by the Locusts and many were either "processed" or executed[10][6]
[edit] 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 Locust, who appeared to be winning. Coalition troops located slave quarters of captured Gears and Stranded, kept in incarceration by the Locust for unknown reasons. 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.[11] Marcus and Dom were able to punch a hole into the Locust hold of the city and able to enter the sinkhole. They were also able to hijack a Brumak and destroyed all Locust Forces in the area to allow a Lightmass bomb to enter the Hollows. But the Brumak went lambent and destroyed the Lightmass bomb. Delta having to go to plan two, decided to destroy the Lambent Brumak and sink the last city the COG controlled in order to possibly win the war.
[edit] Aftermath
The COG was able to evacuate 70% of the remaining civilians and Gears from Jacinto and 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 one of the Islands.[5].
[edit] References
- ↑ Gears of War:Hollow Issue 7
- ↑ Gears of War:Jacinto's Remnant pp1
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Gears of War:Jacinto's Remnant intro
- ↑ Gears of War 2
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Gears of War:Jacinto's Remnant
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 Gears of War:Harper's Story
- ↑ Gears of War 2 Collectible
- ↑ Gears of War 2 and Harper's Story show Derricks sending Grindlifts in different areas
- ↑ Gears of War 2 act 2
- ↑ Gears of War:The Quickening
- ↑ Gears of War 2 act 4
In Game:
- Gears of War 2 (All Acts)
