Imulsion is a highly volatile low-viscosity fluid that serves as the driving factor behind many events in the original Gears of War trilogy. This highly unstable fluid was used as a fuel source by the human population of Sera for a majority of its modern history, though it was not until towards the end of the Locust War that humanity became aware of its true nature: Imulsion is a living organism. A fungoid creature that exists naturally as a mycelium when undisturbed, but is capable of infecting and corrupting any living organism. This process destroys the mind and body of the infected host, transforming them into mindless drones that exist only to further spread the Imulsion parasite. This disease, born of Imulsion spores, was referred to as Lambency by the COG.
History[]
The substance known as Imulsion was considered more of a scientific curiosity than a practical resource following its discovery by an oil drill in the Serano Ocean. Scientists noted that it did have remarkable energy potential, however, and it didn’t take long before the renowned Dr. Helen Cooper created the Lightmass Process; a refining technique which allowed for imulsion to be “cleaned” of its impurities and altered into a viable fuel source, known as Lightmass.
(it should be noted here that Lightmass is separate from imulsion in the sense that, while technically still the same substance, Lightmass cannot spread the Lambent infection to new hosts, while raw unrefined imulsion can. It is unknown if Lightmass still produces the characteristic fumes of imulsion, but it can be assumed that it does not, as Dr. Adam Fenix noted multiple times that imulsion fumes serve as a vector for the infection in the same way spores would spread a fungus. This lack of fumes could have been what made it safe to use as fuel)
For a species facing something of an energy crisis in the long term, Imulsion was nothing less than a godsend: efficient, seemingly clean, and fairly abundant, much more so than traditional fuel sources such as petroleum. As Imulsion extraction and conversion began to pick up steam, a small percentage of nations with wells in their territory reaped huge rewards from its sale, while other less fortunate countries were denied the profits. Over time, Imulsion speculation on the financial markets of Sera ran rampant, and entire currencies became linked to its value. This eventually resulted in a large scale economic collapse on the planet when extremely low Imulsion prices crippled the financial sector, sending many nations gree falling into bankruptcy. This economic crisis sparked military actions across the planet, ending the so-called “Age of Silence” and ushering in a new era of war and destruction that would last for almost eighty years. This conflict, in time, would become known as the Pendulum Wars.
As the Pendulum Wars raged, imulsion miners from numerous derricks began to report in sick to work with a then-unknown disease which caused them to cough up bloody phlegm, and eventually resulted in death. Dr. Niles Samson, a noted geneticist, was brought in by the COG to study these cases. He discovered that the disease wasn’t a simple infection, but an immune response to the Imulsion fumes the men were forced to work around; the substance had begun to colonize the tissue of their lungs, growing more imulsion within their very own bodies.
Dr. Samson eventually lost his sanity and began experimenting with imulsion in an effort to create a new, hybridized species of human that could not only resist the Imulsion, but also survive any crisis which presented a significant threat to the species. The fruits of his labor would one day organize themselves into the Locust Horde.
The Locust lived exclusively underground for the first years of their existence, but a brutal war of their own soon forced them to consider colonizing the surface. Because of their history, the Locust were uniquely susceptible to Lambency, causing them to evolve into more complex and deadly forms over time. This, coupled with general attrition from having to fight back against the creatures constantly, eventually forced them invade the surface to escape the Lambent, triggering their genocidal war against humanity a mere seven weeks after the Coalition of Ordered Governments claimed victory in the Pendulum Wars. Both sides used Imulsion extensively through the course of the conflict, both as a fuel source and in their weapons of mass destruction. Particularly noteworthy devices used by the humans were the Lightmass Missile and the Lightmass Bomb, as well as the orbital weapons network known as the Hammer of Dawn, which utilized purified imulsion crystals to focus a beam of highly concentrated energy upon a single target, with devastating results.
In 14 A.E., the Lightmass Bomb was successfully deployed against the Locust Horde, killing millions within a large portion of the Outer Hollow by triggering the vast Imulsion deposits beneath the surface. However, this had the side effect of producing an aerosolized form of Imulsion, which when breathed in for extended periods of time created a resurgence of the disease first noted in imulsion miners, which the COG termed Rustlung. The disease rapidly spread among humanity's survivors, causing numerous fatal outbreaks. By 15 A.E., Imulsion had begun to enter the first phase of the penultimate stage in its life cycle, producing much more violent mutations among Locust lifeforms, which humanity above remained largely unaware of.
By 15 A.E., during Operation: Hollow Storm, it was discovered that the Locust had become desperate in their civil war with the Lambent, and that the Locust capital of Nexus was under siege. Facing the loss of the Inner Hollows, the Locust elected to sink the Jacinto Plateau, home to humanity's last refuge of Jacinto City, in a last-ditch effort to stop the Lambent as well as humanity. However, the COG quickly caught on to this plan and turned it to their own advantage, evacuating Jacinto City before the Locust arrived and triggering the massive Imulsion lakes beneath the city by deploying the Hammer of Dawn against a Lambent Brumak, effectively destroying the city and flooding the Hollows.
This destructive act killed most of the Locust Horde within the Hollows, but the Imulsion within was quickly carried to the surface by polluting Sera's oceans and landscapes, giving rise to new and more aggressive Lambent lifeforms. It had evolved fruiting bodies in the form of the Lambent Stalks, created siege creatures in the form of Lambent Leviathans, and mobile infection forms born exclusively from the imulsion itself, known as Polyps.
By 16 A.E., the Lambent began invading the surface, killing and infecting everything they came across, including humans. Eventually, heavily-exposed humans fell under the corruption of Imulsion, transforming into Formers; many Stranded who previously lived in Char and Mercy, both settlements known for imulsion refining, were such victims. By 17 A.E., Imulsion had reached a critical stage in its life cycle, and the Lambent Pandemic was on the verge of infecting all life on Sera.
Professor Adam Fenix discovered the Imulsion's parasitic nature very early, and had been working feverishly for almost twenty years to find a way to stop it. His research allowed him to create a device - the Imulsion Countermeasure Weapon - that targeted imulsion at the genetic level, killing it with targeted bursts of purifying radiation. Anything sufficiently infected by the parasite, which included the entire Locust population due to their ancestry, would be killed or utterly destroyed; rendered down to dust as the radiation devoured the infection within their bodies.
Adam tried to find a way to save the Locust as well as the humans, but the rapidity of imulsion’s evolution allowed him no time to refine the weapon. He was doubtful that any amount of tinkering would have saved them, however, as too little radiation wouldn’t affect the parasite, while too much risked killing all life on Sera. To test the weapon and ensure that it would target only the imulsion itself, the professor forcibly injected himself with the substance to study how the infection progressed first hand.
When Adam detonated the weapon, the imulsion began to die on a planetwide scale: pools of it began to boil and evaporate, or simply explode violently, leaving no trace of the substance itself, while all lambent lifeforms collectively collapsed into dust. Nearly all traces of Imulsion were wiped from the face of Sera, sadly including the Doctor himself. Lightmass Imulsion was not affected by the weapon, presumably due to its nullified state, as COG-UIR aircraft and ships continued to function properly even after the weapon was detonated.
However, the sudden global evaporation of all Imulsion would trigger a new energy crisis for the pitiful handful of humans who had survived the Locust War and following Lambent Pandemic. Over the next twenty-five years, a technological dark age would descend upon a human civilization that was attempting to rebuild itself after ninety six years of continuous warfare. Humans were forced to return to traditional and alternative energy sources in the hopes of restoring the Seran society that had existed during the Age of Silence. Though it made life more difficult for the survivors, the destruction of Imulsion ensured that humanity would continue to exist, and it gave the planet Sera itself a chance to finally recover.
Properties[]
Besides its nature as a valuable energy source when properly processed, Imulsion also possessed a fascinating mutagenic effect on living organisms. Direct exposure to Imulsion for any length of time could cause almost anything, save a pitiful few who were immune, to transform into a Lambent form; making them highly aggressive, bio-luminescent and highly explosive when killed. In extreme cases, Imulsion exposure could cause the subject to mutate uncontrollably, such as the Lambent Brumak.
On the death of a mutated subject that does not result in explosion, the Imulsion was seen to escape the host body and move on its own, presumably in search of a fresh host.
Prolonged exposure to Imulsion, particularly in an aerosol form, was known to cause health problems in humans, chiefly the respiratory disorder called RustLung; Gold Rush Era miners had a shorter life span than the average human and many became infected.
As refined Lightmass, Imulsion was credited as being far cleaner burning and more efficient than traditional gasoline. When utilized in a generator, burned Lightmass would emit a yellowish exhaust, though these fumes were not infectious.