Our fireteam went out on a split mission on Mars together after our little party. It was fun, to say the least, but I didn't know that today marked the beginning of the end... and of something terrible.
You see, I was heading out with my team of 4: Ruby, Yang, Nora and me, when all of a sudden, Ghost said something pretty bad after we completed a patrol.
Ghost: That should be good for the Vangaurd. I'll send our results to-... wait, what?
Ruby heard him talk about it, and made the first words.
Ruby: What's wrong, Ghost?
Ghost: Something's wrong... no one's responded to our patrol completions. In fact, none of them have even been sent through.
He was right... something was wrong.
Me: That's peculiar... let's call it a day and make sure they're alright. It could just be them having communication troubles. Radio the rest of the teams.
He put the teams on the call.
Me: All Harem teams, radio check.
The first team responded. Salem, Blake, Weiss, and Ren.
Salem: Harem 2, we hear you.
Then the second. Roman, Neo, Cinder and Velvet.
Roman: Harem 3, radio check.
Then the final team: Jaune, Penny, Pyrrha and Sun.
Jaune: Harem 4. Loud and clear, Harem 1.
Me: How bout we call it a day today? Something peculiar happened and I want to make sure the Tower's alright... they haven't responded to any of our patrol beacons and they aren't going through.
All the team's got a little confused before they agreed to go home. I sent out my ghost to take my team to orbit.
Soon enough, we were all in our four ships in Mars orbit, then we all went hyperspeed to Earth.
Ghost: I'm not getting anything from the Tower at all... wait... oh no.
Me: Ghost? Talk to me.
Ghost: We have a very high amount of Cabal signatures at the Tower! The Tower is under attack!
Ruby: Oh no!!
I get a little worried, though we had a good bit of Gaurdians at the Tower. Why would the Cabal invade the tower?
Me: Tell all our ships to activate their shields and make sure our stuff doesn't get destroyed, okay?
Ghost: Right.
I hear the shield go up and watch the others go up too, then we arrive at the Tower... and like he said, it looked really bad from here... we landed in a hidden part of the Tower and got ready.
Me: Alright... this is gonna suck, everyone.
Jaune: You think? That's a lot of enemies out there...
Nora: Well... as long as I get to break some of their legs for trying to mess with us, I'll be fine.
Neo nods a little while spinning around her parasol. Roman made sure his Last Word was reloaded, I did the same with my own pistol. Salem also had her own Hand Cannon, Thorn. Everyone else was geared up and ready to fight, taking some worry off me.
Me: Alright. Ready then?
The fireteam nods and I smile, pulling out my Khvostov.
Me: Well, let's do it then!
All: Bonzai!!
We start walking around a burning hole near us and a door in front of us is destroyed by a couple of Legionaires.
Me: Drop them!
It wasn't long before they became Swiss cheese.
Me: Come on, we gotta go through the Hanger!
They nod and follow me, running through the halls we were in towards the Hanger, where we finally hear the Vangaurd for the first time.
Zavala: This is Commander Zavala! Civilians, report to evac ships! Gaurdians, rendezvous at the Plaza! Our city will not fall!
I nod as we keep running through, then we see Cayde against a few more cabal.
Ruby: Cayde!!
He turns around and smiles.
Cayde: Fireteam Harem! Thank god you guys are here.
One of the Cabal yell at him.
Cayde: Oh. Just a second.
He activated Golden Gun and destroys the three cabal in the room with him.
Cayde: Okay. Zavala's doing the hero thing in the plaza, like you guys should've heard earlier. For me though, I have a date with the guy behind this.
Yang: Make sure it's a short date, alright?
Cayde: You read my mind!
Me: Alright. Good luck, Cayde.
We nod as Cayde teleports away and I start running with my fireteam, where we find Shaxx with a bunch of civilians, who all cheer at the sight of us.
Shaxx: The Crucible's greatest champions have arrived! Where are you guys headed?
Me: We're headed to the plaza.
Blake: Any way that's a shortcut would be nice.
Shaxx: Well, I'll open the armory then. It should lead straight to the hanger, which leads to the Plaza.
He pulls open the armory door.
Me: Thank you... c'mon, Fireteam!
As we leave, the civilians cheer us on, giving me a morale boost as we run through the destruction that the Cabal left on their way here.
We get to the hanger in no time, where we find a massive ship.
Weiss: God... look at the size of that thing!
Cinder: Must be their command ship.
Me: Yep. C'mon! We gotta mo-
I turn the corner and see a 6 pronged... thing, on the Traveler.
Salem: What is that?!
Me: I don't know!
Blake: I don't like it... it doesn't look like good news.
I look at it, worry returning in my mind, but we still fought through the Hanger.
Ghost: There's no way this wasn't orchestrated as just an assault on the Tower... they must want the Traveler!!
Me: If so, that'll be a problem... c'mon!
I look around and find a hole in the wall that my team crawls through, as Cayde comes on the radio.
Cayde: Okay, so my Ghost keeps tagging these guys as "Red Legion." Ikora, what do you got?
Ikora responds.
Ikora: They're elite... ruthless! And rumor is they have never known defeat!
Ruby pops on the feed.
Ruby: Until today...
Zavala: What... Ruby?! Fireteam Harem, is that you?!
Me: In the flesh, Commander. We're almost to the Plaza as we speak!
Ikora: Thank god you're here at least... but I still don't know if it's enough! They're attacking the Traveler!
Zavala: The Traveler waits! We protect our people at any cost!
We arrive at the Plaza and get to Zavala, at the back by the gate.
Me: We're here!
Zavala: Good! Take down the Red Legion while the last Evac ships leave!
Harem: Right!
We all take defensive positions and attack the Cabal, not letting them anywhere near the gate. Soon enough, however, the ship fired missiles at us.
Jaune: Incoming!! Get close!
We gathered up as Jaune produced his bubble shield and generated his orbs while the missiles struck. Once they stopped, we kept our attack up until Ikora spoke on the radio again.
Ikora: Fireteam, Zavala, the last of the shuttles are away. But the Speaker never made it... I'm going to look for him.
Zavala: Understood. Harem, I've got the Plaza! Help Ikora with finding the Speaker!
Me: Understood! Harem, with me!
They nod and follow me to the North Tower... where we were greeted by a Nova Explosion.
Me: Holy shit!! Ikora?!
Ikora: The Speaker is gone!
She lands near us as a Thresher moved by the balcony. Salem decided to do something.
Salem: Red Legion...you shall burn in the fury of our kind!
She jumps up and sends her Corrupter Bomb at the Thresher, instantly destroying it in a fireball of Grimm darkness, chaotic Void and, of course, Fire.
Ikora: Holy... it still surprises me that you can manipulate the darkness like that, Salem.
Salem smiles at her as Ikora teleports away.
Me: Alright...
Holiday: Hey, Harem! You guys need a ride over there?!
Me: Perfect timing, Amanda! You've got enough dropships, right?
Holiday: Of course! Fight your way to the other side of the North Tower! I'll meet up with you guys over there!
I note that the gate was open and our team goes through it, though we're met with new Cabal soldiers with flame cannons. I shot one of their tanks and it caused an explosion that killed some of their own, and wounded me.
Me: Ouch! Okay, now what was I expecting to happen there?!
I sigh as I kept running through, making it to the balcony that was here. Soon enough, Holiday came around with a few dropships for us.
Holiday: Heard you needed a ride!
Me: Not a moment too soon!
We all hopped into the ships, 4 to each one, and took off, following Holiday into the fray.
Me: Can't believe this is happening...
Holiday: You're telling me! All I know is that our satellites go down, and then we have a massive cabal fleet attackin' the Tower!
Ruby: Well... I bet we can handle it!
Holiday: I can only hope... that thing, on the Traveler... I don't know what it is, but I'm going to drop all of you off on the command ship. Get their shields down so we can destroy it!
Me: You've got it.
It was a bumpy ride to the spot, but we eventually got dropped on one of the drop pod launchers.
Holiday: Good luck!
As she flew away, I got ready for conflict.
Me: Let's go... Jaune, why don't you take the lead?
He was a little surprised but nodded.
Jaune: Got it. On me.
We followed him up the launcher, finding some cabal that we instantly gunned down and a hologram of the ship.
Me: Perfect! Ghost, you can handle this, right?
Ghost: Yep! One moment.
I sent Ghost out to analyze the ship and download its schematics. The shield near our position dropped away as he finished.
Ghost: The shield generator is at the bottom of the ship.
Yang: Let's do this!
We rushed out to where the markers pointed us, which was through a hallway with a shielded Cabal.
Me: Void...
Blake: Got it!
She gunned it down within a few seconds with a void fusion rifle she had. Other Cabal got dropped again after a couple seconds. We passed through the next door and heard the Vanguard on the channel. It was extremely staticky and I could barely hear their words.
Zavala: Cayde, what's your status?!
Cayde: Uhh... a little low on ammo. Whole flaming pistol... burning out. Anyone hear from Ikora?
Zavala: Not since she went for the speaker. Form up! ... on me!!
Me: Shit! This is getting out of hand...
Neo's Ghost: We have to go, now!
We made it to an open area filled with cabal that we ran and gunned. Psions, Legionnaires, Phalanxes, Centurions, Incendiors, you name it. They were everywhere!
We made it to another door guarded by a bunch of elites.
Me: That has to be a way to the generator. Drop them!!
They didn't last five seconds. The door opened up and loads more cabal showed up that we gunned down. We went through the hall they came from and found a drop to what I'm thinking is the shield generator.
Me: Follow me!
I dropped down quickly, using my jump ability to cancel the fall. The team followed suit as we continued to the next door, with a room full of cabal. The room seemed more electrically charged though.
Me: The next one has to be the generator.
We continued to terminate the cabal in the room, making it to the generator.
Ghost: The turbines! Shoot and destroy them! The generator should be disabled after that!
Three groups split up to quickly demolish the three turbines in an instant.
Jaune: Got em! Zavala, the shield's down.
Nothing but static from the feed.
Ruby: Zavala?
A blast door opened above us that we jump and run through.
Blake: Holiday, we're going topside! Are you on this frequency?!
Nothing.
Salem: Amanda?!
We go through one last door and get a good view of what happened to the city, and that six legged thing on the Traveler had wrapped around the entire thing.
Me: How do we come back from this?
And then, a voice.
???: You don't.
It sounded grim and deep, and I turned around to see a cabal in white armor, without its helmet.
???: Welcome to a world without Light...
He raised his hand to the Traveler, where the thing around it activated and created an orange barrier around it... and then, it happened.
All of the light from us vanished. I heard the sound of my shield breaking from it and the beeping of my hud that told me that my shield was gone.
Ghost: G-Guardian... something's wrong...
I dropped to the ground as our Ghosts laid in front of us. I barely had any strength as I tried to protect him.
Me: What... Who are you?!
We were looking up at the cabal towering over us. I couldn't lift my weapon at all...
???: Do not look at me... creature!
I got kicked hard. I flew backwards on the platform, barely keeping hold of my Ghost. I saw my girls and boys getting the same treatment from other Cabal.
Me: Stop it... you hear me?! Stop it!
???: You are weak. Undisciplined. Cowering behind walls.
He continued to walk closer.
???: You are not brave. You have merely forgotten the fear of death.
I tried standing. He was expecting this it seemed.
???: Allow me to reacquaint you.
I got backhanded with the same strength as the kick. That time I lost my Ghost.
Me: No...
We were all together. Beaten, Bruised, injured... we all stood up weakly and faced the cabal.
???: Your kind never deserved the power you were given.
He walked closer and finally said a name.
Ghaul: I am Ghaul. And your light... is mine.
I look up at him.
Me: I have one thing to say, "Ghaul."
I look at my team and back at him.
Me: Fuck you... we will return, ready as ever to destroy you. You understand me?
He scoffed.
Ghaul: Insolent...
He grabbed one of us at random it seemed. It was Yang.
Me: Huh?
I heard the snap and the scream from her faster than I processed what happened. She had lost her arm and was tossed to the ground beneath us... where we joined her moments later.