Siege of Nexus

Previous	Assault on Mount Kadar
Concurrent	Operation: Hollow Storm
Next	Battle of the Royal Palace
Siege of Nexus
Conflict	Locust War Lambent War
Date	2nd Frost, 14 A.E.
Place	Mount Kadar, Tyrus Nexus, Inner Hollow
Outcome	COG Victory Nexus Highway prison camp liberated Delta-One successfully activates JACK's beacon Second wave of Operation: Hollow Storm begins Delta-One able to reach the Royal Palace Discovery of the Lambent War
Combatants
COG
Locust Horde
Lambent
Commanders
Chairman Richard Prescott Col. Victor Hoffman Lt. Anya Stroud Sgt. Marcus Fenix Sgt. Oscar Diaz Cpl. Dominic Santiago
Queen Myrrah Ketor Skorge
Imulsion
Forces
Thousands of Gears
Entirety of the Locust Horde
Untold masses of Lambent
Casualties
Light-Moderate Maria Santiago
Massive
Massive

The Siege of Nexus was the main battle of Operation: Hollow Storm and one of the most pivotal battles of the Locust War. With the Coalition of Ordered Governments given the true location of the Locust stronghold, they were finally able to invade and assault the Locust Horde capital of Nexus. The mission was a success due to the efforts of Delta-One investigating the New Hope Research Facility, traversing Mount Kadar, and navigating the Nexus Highway before activating JACK's beacon to signal the location of Nexus and signal the second wave of Operation: Hollow Storm. During the battle, it was discovered that the Locust were engaged in another war with their Imulsion-infected brethren known as the Lambent - who are trying to infect and kill any non-affected forms of life - forcing the Locust Horde out of the Hollow and onto the surface.

Prelude

Following the failure of locating the Locust stronghold during the Assault on the Inner Hollow, Chairman Richard Prescott declassified an intel file revealing a decommissioned COG outpost, the New Hope Research Facility that contained the information on the Locust stronghold. Delta-One was directed to the information which detailed the relocation of the facility's "subjects" to the underground caverns of Mount Kadar. Delta-One used a Centaur to travel to Mount Kadar.

Upon entering the underground caverns of Mount Kadar, Delta-One discovered a Stranded group led by Chaps, the former owner of the Aspho Gas Station. Upon interrogation, Delta-One learned that across the underground lake was the highway that led to Nexus, the Locust capital. Before departing, Cpl. Dominic Santiago asked Chaps about the information regarding his missing wife, Maria Santiago. Chaps revealed that she was possibly part of another Stranded group in the caves led by Stu, but the entire group was captured and taken to the labor camp next to the Locust Highway. Cpl. Dominic Santiago and Sgt. Marcus Fenix traveled to the highway to find Nexus.

After crossing the Mount Kadar underground lake, Delta-One discovered the Nexus Highway. Upon witnessing the Locust troops heading west, Sgt. Fenix surmised that they are heading toward Nexus. However, Cpl. Santiago reminded Fenix that the labor camp where Maria could be at was located at the highway near the dam. Sgt. Fenix reminded Cpl. Santiago that they needed to stick to the mission and could not jeopardize getting killed and failing to end the war. Cpl. Santiago reminded Sgt. Fenix of attempting to rescue his father during the Fall of Ephyra and how he was there for him. Sgt. Fenix remembered and agreed to help Santiago find his wife.

Order of Battle

Liberating the Prison Camp

"We've found some type of terminal that the Locust are apparently using to catalog human prisoners... the ones they're using for slave labor and god knows what else. We're going to keep searching for more terminals in the hopes that one will lead us to Maria. Delta out."

—Sgt. Marcus Fenix informing Control about their status in the Inner Hollow.

After navigating the dam, Delta-One discovered the labor camp at the foot of the dam. Delta-One neutralized the outside forces guarding the prison and located a prisoner database. Using JACK, Cpl. Santiago was able to find Maria's file, solidifying Chaps' intel and her location within the prison. Sgt. Fenix informed Control about their progress on finding Maria. Delta-One followed a Locust patrol on rounds inside the prison and checked for the correlating Locust terminals for Maria's cell block. After following the patrol, Delta-One was able to neutralize the patrol and locate Maria's cell block. Cpl. Santiago and Sgt. Fenix repelled a Locust attack while JACK searched for Maria's cell.

Eventually, JACK found Maria's cell and opened it for Dominic Santiago. Maria emerged from the cell in a vegetative state as a victim of processing. Santiago euthanized his wife by shooting her in the head. Sgt. Fenix allowed Santiago to grieve. Sgt. Fenix strategized about their next steps in the mission and suggested that they disguise themselves as Theron Guards and go unnoticed on the highway and Nexus. After Santiago managed to compose himself, Sgt. Fenix revealed his possible plans with Santiago, but wouldn't rule out going in on a full-scale assault to avenge Maria. Santiago agreed to the assault, wanting to destroy the Locust for what they did to his wife.

Traveling the Nexus Highway

Following Maria's euthanasia by Cpl. Santiago, he and Sgt. Fenix traversed the Nexus Highway. The first two sections of the highway were stretches of roads occupied by stationed Locust guards. The third section of the highway was a set of stairs joined by a drawbridge to cross the underground river. The fourth section of the highway was another Locust prison camp where the prisoners were tortured, dismembered, and killed to feed the Bloodmounts. The fifth section was a bridge occupied by a Locust squad and Brumak. After Delta-One neutralized the squad and Brumak, they were unable to cross the bridge and had to use the underpass.

Another prison was located in the underpass of the bridge and Delta-One discovered a lone prisoner inside, Franklin Tsoko who happened to be a friend of Cpl. Santiago. Tsoko was freed and allowed to fight with Delta-One all the way to Nexus. Delta-One and Franklin Tsoko fought through more squads of Locust and eventually came to the Highway Intersection outside Nexus. After fighting an onslaught of Locust squads, Delta-One prepared to invade Nexus with Tsoko refusing to go deeper into the Hollow with Sgt. Fenix and Cpl. Santiago. Delta-One continued inside the fortress and arrived at the Locust capital city of Nexus.

Infiltrating Nexus

"Baird here. There's that glyph for 'queen' and 'Imulsion' again... also see 'Nexus' on there again. These are some kind of plans that indicate an attack on the Locust... but not from above, from below. Sure as hell isn't us attacking from below, so who the hell are these plans referring to? Please tell me it's not worms. I'm so sick of worms."

—Baird on the Locust defense map

After battling the Hordes of Drones and Boomers, Delta-One was able to infiltrate the main city and battled across the outer walls of the city. After heavy firefights, Delta was able to deploy JACK's homing beacon which allowed the COG troops to deploy via the Grindlifts inside the Locust city which tested the defenses of the city since the city's defenses are on the lower levels.

Invasion of COG Forces

Delta-One fighting the Locust and Lambent in Nexus.

After easily advancing into the Locust capital, Delta-One and the rest of the Gears discovered that the Locust are embroiled in a civil war and it appeared that the Lambent are winning. The Lambent seemed to be taking hold of the city and captured one of it's outer towers. The Lambent are also in the process of capturing another one when Delta-One entered the city. Delta Squad did not meet as much resistance as they would otherwise have thanks to the Lambent forcing the Locust forces to divert their guards elsewhere to stem the tide of the Lambent Drones.