Act 2, City Hall, Bravo Squad
City of Kalona
The city of Kalona is where the Gears of War: E-Day hands-on starts. Danielle Partis wrote that August 25 campaign note, and it drops Bravo Squad into Act 2 for three intense nights after the Locust Horde reaches the surface. This is fourteen years before the original Gears of War. Marcus Fenix is a young soldier here, not the later sergeant players already know, and Dominic Santiago is already his partner. The Coalition and Xbox Game Studios frame the whole campaign as the origin of Emergence Day, and Kalona is the city that origin is walked through.
City Hall is the practical landmark. Captain Akila Grey takes deployment details and next of kin there. Dominic names his wife, Maria, and he asks about Ephyra. Lucas Reyes and Mags Carter are the new squad members, and neither of them shares a next of kin in that briefing. Once City Hall becomes a COG base, Colonel Trench runs the briefing with Kalona's mayor. The mayor stays unnamed in the write-up. That is the human map of the act: four Gears, two officers, one spouse, and a city official without a printed name.
Who stands in Bravo
Marcus carries the origin. The hands-on presents him as a soldier learning the surface war, not as a veteran quoting later campaigns. Dominic's line about Maria and Ephyra is the personal stake in the same scene. Maria is listed as family, next of kin, not as a Gear in the squad. Carlos Santiago is the fallen brother of Dom and Marcus. His story in this window is physical: the Collector's Edition replicas his COG tags, marked ES for the Embry Star after Aspho Fields, cast in zinc alloy. The tags are a prop on the collector's shelf, and they are also the reason his name belongs next to the squad.
Lucas Reyes and Mags Carter are new to the franchise in this briefing. The note gives neither a hometown, nor a weapon preference, nor a family for either of them. What it does print is the absence of a next of kin when Akila Grey asks. That absence is a character fact from the hands-on, and it is different for each of them only in the pronoun. Treating them as blank slates beyond that question would add fiction. Captain Grey's job in the scene is administrative and immediate: who is deploying, and who should be told if they do not come back. Colonel Trench arrives once the building has changed hands and the mayor is in the room.
Bravo Squad
·Marcus Fenix
·A young soldier in the origin story, fourteen years before the original game.
Bravo Squad
·Dominic Santiago
·Marcus's partner. He names his wife, Maria, as next of kin and asks about Ephyra.
Bravo Squad
·Lucas Reyes
·A new squad member. He does not share a next of kin in the briefing.
Bravo Squad
·Mags Carter
·A new squad member. She does not share a next of kin in the briefing.
Family
·Maria
·Dominic Santiago's wife, named as next of kin.
COG officer
·Captain Akila Grey
·Takes deployment details and next of kin at City Hall.
COG officer
·Colonel Trench
·Runs the briefing with Kalona's mayor after City Hall becomes a COG base.
Fallen brother
·Carlos Santiago
·Dom and Marcus's fallen brother. The Collector's Edition replicas his COG tags, marked ES for the Embry Star after Aspho Fields, in zinc alloy.
Locust the hands-on names in the city
The gameplay notes that sit beside the campaign hands-on name five Locust problems a Kalona fight has to solve. An Armored Wretch screams, and the scream disorients the player and limits actions until it is broken. Drones come in varieties, and elites use tougher tactics and loadouts, so a mixed Drone squad is the baseline infantry fight. A Seeder is more than a Nemacyst launcher this time. Closing in and taunting flips it and exposes a weak head. A Boomer soaks damage and holds space, and at low health a Lancer chainsaw can execute it. A Reaver can deploy Drones or leap to a wall and fire from above.
Those answers are fight plans, not damage numbers. Nothing in the notes prints a health pool, a stagger threshold, or a recommended distance in meters except the separate cover-cancel range, which belongs to player movement rather than to a creature. The city itself is the space those creatures use: streets, a hall that becomes a base, and vertical routes from the new jump and climb. Players who want the weapon changes that answer a Boomer or a sliding shotgun fight should read the weapon board. Players who want the 12-player wave version of a city under siege should read Horde Siege. Kalona on this page is the campaign city, Act 2, and the people in the briefing.
Rusher
·Armored Wretch
·A scream disorients the player and limits actions.
·Break the scream and regain control of the fight.
Squad infantry
·Drone
·Many varieties. Elites use tougher tactics and loadouts.
·Treat mixed Drone squads as the baseline Locust fight.
Mini-boss
·Seeder
·Returns as more than a Nemacyst launcher. Close in and taunt so it flips and exposes a weak head.
·Get close, taunt, then hit the exposed head.
Heavy
·Boomer
·Bigger, soaks damage, and holds space. At low health a Lancer chainsaw can execute it.
·Focus it down, then chainsaw the execution.
Transport and tank
·Reaver
·Can deploy Drones, or leap to a wall and fire from above.
·Kill it before the drop, or move when it takes the high wall.
What the three nights are for
The hands-on calls the stretch three intense nights, not a full act outline with mission titles. There is no printed list of chapter names, collectible counts, or optional conversations beyond the next-of-kin beat and the mayor briefing. The store copy describes the horror of Emergence Day as the Locust first erupt from below. That sentence is the tone brief. The practical brief is City Hall, the squad of four, and the Locust set above. Playing alone is supported. Bringing friends is also supported: the store page allows up to four players online in the campaign as well as in Horde Siege and Versus.
Kalona is not given a street map, a district list, or a travel time in the sources used here. What is fixed is the sequence of authority. Grey takes the names. Trench and the mayor take the room after the COG holds the hall. Marcus and Dom carry the history players already know, pushed fourteen years earlier. Lucas and Mags are the unknowns standing in the same line. If a later post names the mayor or prints Lucas's kit, that line can be added. Until then the briefing is the whole character sheet, and the Locust notes are the whole bestiary for the city pages.
Related pages
Sources
Kalona on this board is Act 2, the briefing at City Hall, and the five Locust problems the hands-on actually names.