Lambent

"That's what freaks me out more than anything. Grubs- you knew they could think. But these things- they're just animals. Or plants even, like the damn stalks. What's driving them? What do they want? They're not even eating us"

- Sgt. Drew Rossi on the Lambent The Lambent are major antagonists in the Gears of War franchise appearing as the main antagonists of ''Gears of War 3. ''The Lambent are a species of various mutated and infected lifeforms on Sera as a result of prolonged exposure to Imulsion. As a result, they form a diverse species of various infected and mutated parasitical lifeforms that wage a war of extermination on both humans and the Locust alike.

Discovery of Imulsion
Around a century before the outbreak of the Locust War and Emergence Day, the natural resource of Imulsion was discovered by human scientists. At the time it was viewed as a scientific curiosity rather than a new source of energy due to the fact that Imulsion was useless before the creation of the Lightmass Process. The process was capable of taking the Imulsion and refining it into an effective energy source while scientists refered to it as a parasite or some kind've unknown lifeform before the refining.

A few years later after the outbreak of the Pendulum Wars during the early parts of the war, COG officials and scientists such as Niles Samson had discovered Imulsion Miners infected with a form of poison from the Imulsion. They were taken to the New Hope Research Facility as a means of curing their Lambency for continued usage of Imulsion and were housed in the facility as a means of finding a cure for the Lambent infection. The miners, who were called Sires, were kept for testing as a means of finding a cure however, the Sires mutated and became more monsterous and feral and the project failed and the facility was decommissioned as a means of keeping the information secret from the general public until the year 15 A.E. during the Locust War.

Fighting the Locust Horde
Five years prior to Emergence Day, the Lambent made their way into the Hollows beneath the surface of Sera and began warring with the Locust Horde, a species of reptilian humanoids that lived beneath the surface of Sera and also originated from Imulsion. The two races however, couldn't coexist and instead began fighting each other in what would become the Locust Civil War. During the war, the Lambent were the wons who were victorious most of the time and the Locust were being driven to the point of extinction.

In an attempt to save her species, Queen Myrrah ended resulted to making a pact with human scientist Adam Phoenix who agreed to help build a weapon to wipe out the Lambent but, the Pendulum Wars broke out and he was forced to build a superweapon for the COG instead in an attempt to defeat the UIR, taking time away from combating the Lambent. By the time the Hammer of Dawn was completed, the Locust were ready to invade the surface and did so just six weaks after the war's end.

Lambent Wretches Findings
Fourteen years after Emergence Day during the Lightmass Offensive, Delta-One came into contact with the Lambent for the first time. During the offensive, Delta-One came across the Lethia Imulsion Facility