Skyburners

"The second fleet will wait no longer. Commencement will begin on their arrival."

- Cryptarch translation of Skyburner chatter

The Skyburners are the "celestial demolitions" fleet of the Cabal legions on Mars.

Overview
They are mainly based around Phobos, seeing limited deployment on Mars. In the base game, they are only encountered during the final phase of the Cerberus Vae III and Dust Palace strikes.

History
Initially the Skyburners are fought sparingly in the base game, only found guarding high value Cabal Commanders. When Valus Ta'aurcTa'aurc dispatches the elite Ice Reapers to hunt down Rasputin, the Skyburners accompany them as well. The Valus himself even used Skyburner soldiers as his personal guard until his assassination. In both cases however the Skyburners suffer total casualties. The Skyburners play a larger role in The Taken King as they are first encountered on Phobos.



When Oryx began blighting the system, the Skyburners were the first Cabal units to encounter the Taken after noticing strange activity. Shortly after, huge numbers of Skyburners were taken and made to fight their comrades forcing Legion commander, Primus Ta'aun to order a mass evacuation.

Later Primus Ta'aun and his bond brothers are ordered by the Cabal Emperor himself to board the Dreadnaught and kill Oryx, the Taken King, by any means necessary. They crashed their warship, Dantalion Exodus VI, into the Dreadnaught's hull, and protracted a war of attrition deep behind enemy line against the Hive.

While severely diminished, the Skyburners survived long enough to see Ghaul arrive in the system. What became of them is unknown, but they considered their survival "victory enough."

Appearance
They can be identified by their teal and red armor. Their most unique feature is the crest on their helmets. They also possess the unique Psion Burner units which feature red armor and a curved spike on their helmets.

Notable Members
Leadership
 * Primus Ta'aun (Lost to Taken)

Valus
 * Valus Tlu'urn
 * Valus Mau'ual
 * Valus Tau'ugh
 * Valus Gho'ourn

Bracus
 * Bracus Thra'aurg
 * Bracus Ma'aulh

Centurion
 * Ve'ength

Lost to Taken
 * Vro'ourn
 * Bracus Horu'usk

Unique Forces

 * Psion variants
 * Psion Burner

Trivia

 * The Skyburners were Cabal Legion that abandoned the Vertigo crucible map as their logo's can be seen around the map.
 * Before Oryx's arrival, it was rumored the Skyburners were to be part of a "second fleet" meant to attack Earth. However with the Taken War, this campaign was put on hold as they were redeployed to attack the Dreadnaught.
 * The killcams spell the Legion's name as "Sky Burners" while the Grimoire cards and dialogue state the proper name as Skyburners. This could be a developer oversight.
 * The Skyburners symbol is used for the first tier of The Inverted Spire Nightfall emblem in Destiny 2.

List of appearances

 * Destiny
 * The Taken King
 * Rise of Iron
 * Destiny 2