Fans of the original Gears of War trilogy can remember that satisfying feeling of watching the heroes triumphantly bring about the end of the Locusts and the Lambent via Adam Fenix's Imulsion-busting superweapon, thus concluding an intensely emotional campaign against the humanoid enemies who had been plaguing the people of Sera for decades.
Fans of the original series also probably remember thinking that it all seemed a bit too easy; the bow was neatly tied on the story, yet it felt incomplete. Fast-forward to the mid-2010s when Epic Games confirmed that fan's suspicions had been correct, and a new installment would be coming out in Gears of War 4 to kick-off the next chapter in the battle for dominance on the planet Sera. Although the second saga is not done yet, plenty of big things have already happened in the Swarm War. What are some of the defining moments in this conflict?
Spoiler Warning for those who have not yet played the newest Gears of War games.
10 Dr. Niles Samson Genetically Engineered the Locust to Resist Extermination
Much like how viewers of Game of Thrones were baffled by the decision to have women and children hide in a crypt while the main villain was walking around with the ability to reanimate corpses, Gears gamers were likely just as shocked by the COG's decision to neglect the crystalized bodies of the Locusts that very closely resembled cocoons.
As it turned out, the mad scientist behind the creation of all Locusts designed them with a nifty genetic trait ready to kick in just in case someone tried to exploit the Imulsion coursing through their veins. Thanks to Dr. Niles Samson, the Locust's bodies were naturally able to render said Imulsion into protective shells and continue to evolve into a more perfect state of being.
9 COG Became More Authoritarian After Anya Stroud's Death
Anya Stroud became more than just Marcus Fenix's wife after the events of the Locust War, going on to be chosen as the First Minister of the Coalition of Governments. She shouldered the responsibility of bringing unity back to a broken planet.
Anya led with dignity, fairness, and a progressive mind, but it all came to an end once she passed away. Following her death, the new leadership of the COG took a more authoritarian approach, declaring Martial Law to control the recovering populations and even violently suppressing protests like the bloody incident at Settlement 2.
8 JD Fenix Defected From the Military
James Dominic Fenix, son of Anya Stroud and Marcus Fenix, joined the COG military despite his father's wishes after graduating from school. He served for a number of years until his involvement in the aforementioned Settlement 2 protest massacre, where he ordered a squad of robotic DeeBees to fire on demonstrators.
Regretting his actions on that day, JD and his best friend Lt. Delmont Walker decided to join the Outsiders who operated free of COG control. The ramifications of this would ultimately bring him back into contact with his estranged father after the attack on Fort Umson where JD, Walker, and the granddaughter of Queen Myrrah, Kait Diaz, would begin their adventure together in the struggle against the Swarm.
7 Human Nomads Were Kidnapped & Mutated Into Enemy Soldiers
Once the Locust pods buried across the planet started to hatch, the newly evolved Scions immediately started banding together to regrow their strength. They established what became known as "Hives" around their burial sites and created the Snatchers, which were creatures designed to capture humans not under the protection of the heavily defended COG Settlements.
The Swarm would put the humans into pods of their own, where they would undergo transformation into footsoldiers to be used in the upcoming war against the COG. Eventually, even people living within great city walls were being kidnapped, further escalating tensions between the Government and the coalition of Outsiders living in the wild.
6 The Swarm Abducted Reyna Diaz in Order to Evolve
The Swarm were growing progressively formidable after emerging from their hibernation but were limited in how organized and cognitively developed they could be. Without a Queen in physical form to stabilize the Hivemind stemming from Myrrah's original cells, the Swarm was incapable of reaching its full potential.
Due to Myrrah's consciousness being preserved within that Hivemind, she was able to detect her daughter Reyna Diaz's existence, despite believing her to be long dead. The disembodied Queen Myrrah ordered a prominent leader of the Tollen Dam hive to conduct a raid on Fort Umson where the Diaz family was living as Outsiders. This was all done so they could kidnap Reyna and assimilate her into the Hivemind for Queen Myrrah's will to be reborn.
5 Colonel Hoffman Created the Hivebusters in Secret
Colonel Victor Hoffman is a legendary military figure dating back to the Pendulum Wars. In fact, based on the success of Operation: Hollow Storm during the Locust War, Hoffman conceived of the Hivebuster Offensive to combat the Swarm threat directly.
However, First Minister Jinn rejected the idea in favor of using the DeeBees to end the war, forcing Hoffman to go rogue and carry out his plan off-the-books. He and his covert team would use the Snatchers to infiltrate the Swarm Hives to bring them down from within using venom bombs to deal devastating blows to the enemy's numbers.
4 First Minister Jinn Intended to Connect Kait Back Into the Hivemind
The attack on Riftworm Village signaled to many people on Kait Diaz's connection to the Hivemind. Upon their return to the human stronghold of New Ephyra, First Minister Jinn approached Delta Squad with the intention of arresting Cpl. Diaz and finding a way to force her back into her connection with the Hivemind.
Though Jinn's plan was interrupted by a sudden Swarm attack on the city, it is thought-provoking conjecture to imagine what might have happened if she was allowed to carry out her plan. Her intention was to learn more about the enemy by using Kait as a direct connection to the enemy, but surely it could have only brought about greater destruction of the humans due to the two-way nature of the Hivemind.
3 The New Hammer of Dawn Was Built By the Union of Independent Republics
Back in the good old days when humans were just fighting each other, the Union of Independent Republics (UIR) and the Coalition of Governments (COG) were locked in an arms race to see who could establish global dominance over the planet and her natural resources. The endpoint of that race was the Hammer of Dawn.
Unfortunately for the modern-day COG, their superweapons were decommissioned after seeing how devastating they could be to the planet's surface. Fortunately for them, though, the UIR developed Hammers of Dawn of their own, giving the humans the plan B they needed should the time come to once again bring down full-scale destruction on their enemies.
2 The Kraken Became the Only Known Being Killed by JACK
One need look no further than the Kraken when asking why the COG would need to activate a Hammer of Dawn. This leviathan that was harnessed by the Swarm allowed Queen Reyna to launch her bold assault on the human stronghold.
Reyna and her forces even demonstrated their tactical adaptation by using the Kraken to destroy the homing beacons needed by the Hammer of Dawn to activate. In the end, though, the reliable robot JACK took the initiative and sacrificed itself by flying into the mouth of the Kraken and summoning the beam of the Hammer down to smite the destructive monster.
1 Mt. Kadar Laboratory Was Built By a Fringe COG Party
Dating all the way back to before the Locust War, fanatic supporters of Dr. Niles Samson sought to ensure his work would carry on outside of the Government's control. Their establishment of the Laboratory on Mt. Kadar would have rippling effects directly to the present-day central conflict, with Kait Diaz discovering the truth of her family's origin inside the lab.
It was here at this laboratory, that experiments could be conducted with Myrrah to genetically alter humans into superior beings. As history would have it, this would all backfire and Myrrah would assume control of those creations, establishing the Locust civilization of Nexus.