- "Let me get this shit straight, the regular Locust are fighting the glowing Locust. I thought they were all on the same side."
- —Cole after discovering the Lambent War
The Lambent War[1] was a civil war between the Locust Horde and the Imulsion-infected Lambent Locust. Several years after colonizing the Hollow, various Locust and indigenous animals were becoming infected by Lambency, an Imulsion-based fungal infection that mutated the host, controlled their behavior, and caused them to detonate upon death to spread the infection. By 7 B.E., the outbreak became an epidemic in the Hollow and fueled a war between the Locust and their Lambent brethren. The line was kept by Uzil Sraak, but over time the Locust lost more ground. In addition, Locust that weren't killed by the Lambent were infected, becoming Lambent themselves and increasing their numbers while taking from the Locust.
In 5 B.E., Queen Myrrah began considering emerging on the surface and colonizing Sera and waging a genocidal war against the humans. Professor Adam Fenix convinced her to postpone her attack and agreed to stay in the Hollow if he could produce a cure for Lambency that did not harm the Locust. When he was unable to, Myrrah continued with her plans. By several weeks before the end of the Pendulum Wars, Vold RAAM committed a coup against Uzil Sraak in order to convince Myrrah and the Locust Council to abandon the Hollow and begin the war against humans to take the surface. The initial attack was a success by destroying a quarter of the human race and initiating the Locust War.
By 14 A.E., the Locust planned to sink Jacinto City and flood the Hollow with the surrounding seawater in order to drown the Lambent. In the aftermath of this, they intended to take refuge on the surface and rebuild their society there. However, these plans are foiled when the COG dealt the Locust a crippling blow when they flooded the Hollow first, reducing the Locust Horde to the Savage Locust and the Queen's Guard. With the Horde effectively gone, the Lambent won the war and the Lambent Pandemic began soon afterward, taking the war's place.
History[]
Prelude[]
During the Pendulum War-era, the Locust Horde was created in the hopes to evolve the humans against the Imulsion-sickness known as Rustlung. This involved mutating the children infected with Rustlung with the DNA of the indigenous creatures of the Hollow and fertilizing their DNA with the embryonic stem-cells of Myrrah, a human child born with a genetic immunity to Imulsion and Rustlung. A rebellion led by Myrrah gave the Locust Horde independence and built their civilization under Mount Kadar known as Nexus.
Sometime later, around 17 B.E., the various creatures of the Hollow began mutating and becoming aggressive and hostile. Unknown at the time, Rustlung was the first stage in Lambency. Imulsion was a parasitic, fungal life-form that could overtime infect and possess the hosts after overexposure to Imulsion vapors, causing the host to become Lambent. Once Lambent, the host would become aggressive and attempt to infect or kill any unaffected lifeforms in proximity. The Lambent could mutate certain physical predatory traits in order to defend itself. Upon death, a Lambent would become volatile and self-destruct in order to spread the Imulsion.
The Lambent War[]
Beginning of the Lambent War[]
Over time, the Locust Drones and other creatures employed by the Locust Horde such as the Wretches became Lambent. An epidemic in the Inner Hollow began causing the Locust Drones and creatures to either become infected or killed by the Lambent. When it became clear that the Lambent aimed to occupy Nexus and infect or kill all living things in the Hollow including the Locust, the Lambent War began in 7 B.E. Now, the Queen of the Locust Horde, Myrrah organized her army to fight the Lambent and ordered a chief scientist named Ukkon to research the Lambent and find a cure.
Locust forces defending Nexus from the Lambent.
As the Lambent War continued, the Locust Horde continued to lose territory and people to the Lambent as they are either killed or infected, adding soldiers to the Lambent Army. Queen Myrrah began to fear the inevitable of becoming extinct by the Lambent. Initially, Queen Myrrah considered meeting with the humans of Sera and requesting assistance. However, due to their origins and nature, Queen Myrrah feared that the humans would not accept the Locust and attempt to either control or eradicate them. Queen Myrrah began to organize a potential colonization of the surface to evade the Lambent, but it would involve the genocide of the entire human race to do so.
Covert Alliance with Humans[]
In 4 B.E., Professor Adam Fenix found the Locust Horde after following the notes of his late-wife, Doctor Elain Fenix. Dr. Elain Fenix discovered the Locust Horde in 9 B.E. and recorded her findings, planning to reveal their existence to the public, but was executed by the Locust when she attempted to make contact. Professor Adam Fenix met with Queen Myrrah. She revealed both her conflict with the Lambent and her possible solution to invade the surface. Professor Fenix with the entire Coalition of Ordered Governments resources promised Queen Myrrah that he would cure the Lambency if it meant keeping her people underground.
Queen Myrrah allowed Professor Fenix to observe the samples researched by Ukkon and developed a professional relationship with open communications with Adam Fenix unknown to the rest of the Locust Horde. However, Professor Fenix was called upon by the Coalition to develop the Hammer of Dawn to end the Pendulum Wars. Also, Professor Fenix's research revealed that the Imulsion could easily evolve against any biological countermeasure and physical countermeasures such as radiation would also kill the Locust Horde due to their ancestry of Imulsion mutation. Professor Fenix suggested that sinking Jacinto City would flood the Hollow with seawater and kill everything below, but both Adam and Myrrah felt that the consequences would be too great for either of them.
In time, Professor Fenix could not find a safe cure or solution for Lambency and too much of his time was being spent on ending the Pendulum Wars. Due to his failure, Queen Myrrah began to revisit her plans to invade the surface.
Siege of the Gorgon Front[]
Assault on the Temple of the Trinity[]
The Locust War[]
Emergence Day[]
Six weeks after the end of the Pendulum Wars, the Locust Horde emerged in every major city across Sera in what would be known as Emergence Day which resulted in the slaughter of 25% of the human population in the first 26 hours. While the Locust attempted to colonize the surface to escape from the Lambent, some of the Lambent met with the Locust on the surface with them. During the first few months of the Locust War, the humans reported the sightings of Lambent Wretches, but most believed them to be rumors due to the outrageous nature of glowing and exploding Wretches full of Imulsion.
The Locust continued to fight in a two-way war between the humans and the Lambent. The Lambent would only occasionally emerge on the surface where they would attack the humans as well, but the Lambent and their conflict with the Locust remained mostly unknown to a majority of the humans.
Destruction of Halvo Bay[]
The reports of the Lambent Wretches became increasingly known during the Destruction of Halvo Bay, shortly after Emergence Day. The Lambent Wretches are seen during the Destruction of Old Town, the Evacuation of Seahorse Hills and the Destruction of Downtown Halvo Bay. Despite these sightings, many in the Coalition's army are not aware about their nature due to their rare appearances and odd nature.
Lightmass Offensive[]
In 14 A.E., the Coalition of Ordered Governments launched the Lightmass Offensive which involved the Gears being sent into the Outer Hollow to map the Locust tunnels by using the Sonic Resonator and inputting the mapping data into the Lightmass Bomb to destroy the Locust stronghold.
The operation involved the Gears being sent to the nearest access to the Outer Hollow which was the Lethia Imulsion Facility. Delta-One reported the sightings of the Lambent Wretches during the Mission to Lethia Imulsion Facility. The Lambent Wretches are involved in three-way battles during the mission between Delta-One and the Locust Horde from entering the facility to planting the Sonic Resonator in the Imulsion pumping station below.
After gaining the mapping data, the Lightmass Bomb was boarded onto the Tyro Pillar where Delta-One would input the data and allow both the train and bomb to fall into an Imulsion sinkhole and deliver the bomb. However, both Locust and Lambent forces boarded the Tyro Pillar and killed all Gears on board led by Uzil RAAM. The Lambent Wretches boarded several train cars and attempted to kill Delta-One as they traversed the Tyro Pillar. Delta-One was successful in delivering the data and deploying the Lightmass Bomb.
Spread of Lambency[]
However, due to the Lightmass Bomb, the various deposits of Imulsion are evaporated and spread the fumes both above and below the surface. On the surface of Sera, the Gears and civilians of Timgad became infected with a new wave of Rustlung while the Imulsion fumes below spread Lambency in the Hollow, pushing the Locust further out and becoming more desperate in their raids against Jacinto City in order to sink it. However, the Lightmass Bomb also awoke the gargantuan Riftworm which allowed the Locust to sink the cities of Tollen, Montevado and Ilima in order to weaken the Jacinto Plateau and finally flood the Inner Hollow.
Siege of Nexus[]
Following the sinking of the cities and the attacks on Jacinto City, the Coalition launched Operation: Hollow Storm which involved sending the Gears to take the fight in Nexus and destroy their stronghold. By 2nd Frost, 14 A.E., the Lambent are able to breach the defenses of the Locust Horde and ultimately invade Nexus and the Royal Palace, forcing the Locust to become more desperate than ever to escape from the surface. However, the Locust are stuck fighting the Gears during the Siege of Nexus.
During the Siege, it became clear to the Coalition that the Locust are fighting a third party. The Coalition discovered that the Lambent are waging a civil war against the Locust and the humans learned about the Locust Horde's motives for invading the surface in order to escape from the Lambent. The Coalition witnessed the various battles between the Locust and Lambent and partook in some of those three-way battles as well. The Coalition also came across the defensive plans by the Locust and discovered that they are planning to sink Jacinto to flood the Hollow and eradicate the Lambent, advised by Professor Adam Fenix.
End of the Lambent War[]
Queen Myrrah was met by Delta-One and revealed that Jacinto would be sunk by her army. With Delta-One unable to assassinate her as she fled on a Reaver, the Coalition ordered that Jacinto City should be sunk before the Locust could evacuate the Hollow, killing a majority of the Locust and Lambent. The Coalition intended on using a Lightmass Bomb to sink Jacinto, but a Brumak destroyed the King Raven carrying it. However, the Brumak became infected and transformed into a volatile Lambent Brumak, allowing the Coalition to destroy it by using the Hammer of Dawn and causing it to explode which caused Jacinto to finally sink and flood the Hollow.
The flooding was successful in destroying Nexus and killing the majority of Locust and Lambent. However, as Professor Fenix accounted for later on, but unknown to the Locust and humans, the flooding resulted in the Imulsion rising to the surface, causing surface organisms to become infected and starting an apocalyptic event known as the Lambent Pandemic.
The Lambent Pandemic[]
Post-Operation: Hollow Storm[]
Victory Day[]
Aftermath[]
References[]
| Lambent War | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 B.E. | Siege of the Gorgon Front · Skirmish in the South Hollow · Invasion of the Expansion Hollow · Assault on the Temple of the Trinity | ||
| 0 A.E. | Destruction of Old Town · Battle of the Museum of Military Glory · Battle of Elliott's Mansion · Destruction of Downtown Halvo Bay | ||
| 14 A.E. | Mission to Lethia Imulsion Facility · Battle on the Tyro Pillar · Siege of Nexus · Sinking of Jacinto City | ||