Cabal Deserters

"Here's one for you. Cabal deserter. Mars. Ordinarily, I'd look the other way... but it's the Cabal who are paying me. Ha!"

- The Spider

The Cabal Deserters refers to Cabal who defected from their Legions, predominantly the Red Legion.

History
After the deaths of multiple Red Legion officers, a chunk of the army left the leaderless Legion and tried to carve out their own strongholds throughout the Solar System. The first few accounts were Cabal escapees for which The Spider issued bounties, along with those hiding within the Reef. Others have been noted to have been working with the Spider instead as his associates.

Later, some would go on to form the "Unbowed Legion" prior to the Solstice of Heroes event. These deserters managed to build a stronghold by the European Aerial Zone but were unfortunately cut down by the Guardians seeking to improve themselves. It has been observed that many deserters seem to be former Blood Guard as the "Unbowed Legion" had several majors of them. This fact alone shows insight into the crippling morale of the Red Legion's command structure as with Ghaul and the High Command gone, the Blood Guard have lost their primary purpose.

During Season of Opulence, Emperor Calus would task Guardians in ending a lead deserter in The Conflux on Nessus in order to obtain Imperials from him and his group of Deserters. Some deserters were also spotted in the strike on Bracus Zahn.

With the events of Season of the Chosen, it is known more Cabal have deserted. But, their specific names and numbers remain unknown outside of Ixel, the Far-Reaching who slew her own Valus and seized his forces of his most able soldiers after thinking him stubborn and weak. Ixel would later attempt entry to Empress Caiatl's Imperial Cabal and her War Council through a Rite of Proving, yet be slain in the process.

After Ignovun, Chosen of Caiatl's defeat in the Proving Grounds, Caiatl lost a lot of support, regardless of the honorable rite, and several Cabal dissidents defected, swelling the ranks of the deserters once more.

When the Guardian ventured to the Pyramid ship on Europa, a rogue Cabal force led by Valus Dralgur, the Exiled sought to pillage the vessel for any artifacts that could be used against Xivu Arath. The operation was not sanctioned by Empress Caiatl, allowing the Guardian to cut their way through the Cabal expedition without the worry of destabilizing their alliance with the Empire. Despite the Cabal's attempts to jam the Guardian's progress and even attempt to destroy the Darkness statue deep within the Pyramid, the Guardian was successful in communion with the statue, after killing Dralgur.

After Caiatl's unilateral emancipation of all Psions within the Empire, some Psions who had attained high rank under the old order were indignant at what they perceived to be their loss of status. During the events of The Witch Queen, a group of these rebellious Psions led by Qabix, Insurgent deserted from the Imperial Cabal, stole a Cabal frigate and somehow made contact with the Loyalists of Emperor Calus. With Loyalist funding, the rebel Psions reactivated an abandoned Cabal base on the recently-returned Mars and began transmitting psionic propaganda across the Solar System from it. Detectable only to other Psions, the transmission encouraged further defections from Caiatl to join Calus and the Pyramids for "salvation". Unwilling for Cabal soldiers to be seen attacking Psions, Empress Caiatl brought the matter to her ally, Commander Zavala of the Vanguard, who deployed The Guardian to assault the facility with air support from Amanda Holliday, stopping the transmission. The facility would soon be reinforced and restocked, requiring further incursions from the Vanguard. The team would eventually manage to decipher more of the transmission, making it clear to Caiatl that the rebel Yirix was creating it.

Over the years, several Cabal defectors tried to find glory and profit on their own as pirates. Many of these would become part of the crews of Fallen that long plagued the Solar System's space, or recruit the Eliksni to be part of their own companies. Several of these crews answered the call of Eramis, Kell of Darkness when she put out a bounty on artifacts of Darkness scattered across the system. They would enter into conflict with The Guardian, who fought with the backing of the Spider and the House of Light for control of these relics.

Notable Deserters

 * Bracus Gu'ulan, Shamed Legionary
 * Daazaz Dar, Unbowed Legion
 * Disgraced Bracus
 * Garut Gra'am
 * Gun'nar, Privateer
 * Imperial Deserter
 * Ixel, the Far-Reaching
 * Mouvurg, Unbowed Legion
 * Shayotet Partisan
 * Shogmar, Unbowed Legion
 * Tagh'al, Blademaster
 * Thagh'urn, Blademaster
 * Val'aug, the Brute
 * Valus Dralgur, the Exiled
 * Valus Dulurc

Unique forces

 * War Beast variants
 * Cutthroat War Beast
 * Outlaw War Beast
 * War Beast, Loyal to Alaaks
 * Psion variants
 * Engineer Psion
 * Psion Codewarden
 * Psion Commander
 * Psion Spotter
 * Legionary variants
 * Deserter Legionary
 * Outlaw Legionary
 * Phalanx variants
 * Cutthroat Phalanx
 * Isolated Phalanx
 * Outlaw Phalanx
 * Gladiator variants
 * Outlaw Gladiator
 * Incendior variants
 * Esteemed Incendior
 * Outlaw Incendior
 * Ruffian
 * Uprooted Incendior
 * Centurion variants
 * Cutthroat Centurion
 * Door Guard
 * Esteemed Centurion
 * Outlaw Centurion
 * Uprooted Centurion
 * Colossus variants
 * Esteemed Colossus
 * Outlaw Colossus
 * Uprooted Gladiator
 * Scorpius variants
 * Outlaw Scorpius

Technology

 * Harvester
 * Jammer
 * Drop pod
 * Thresher

Trivia

 * Despite being called deserters by some of the Scout Legions, the Broken Legion are in fact technically not deserters for they were ordered by Ghaul and the Red Legion to act as a trojan horse for the Reef.
 * The Deserter Pirates encountered during Season of Plunder are the first Cabal group to fight alongside the Fallen fought in game.
 * Notably, these Deserters do not have any Psions among their ranks.

List of appearances

 * Destiny 2
 * Warmind
 * Forsaken
 * Season of Opulence
 * Season of the Chosen
 * The Witch Queen
 * Season of Plunder