Red War

"Your journey ends... here."

- Dominus Ghaul

The Red War is an ongoing conflict in the Solar System fought between the Guardians of the Last City and the Cabal Red Legion, led by the Cabal Emperor, Dominus Ghaul.

After years of fighting against the forces of the Darkness and emerging victorious, the Guardians found themselves outmatched when the Cabal Red Legion launched a surprise attack on the Last City itself, destroying the Tower and sealing away the Traveler's Light. With their powers and arsenals lost and their home destroyed, the Guardians retreated to the European Dead Zone to recover and plan a counterattack in order to save their home and legacy from Ghaul.

Central Powers of the War

 * Cabal
 * Red Legion


 * The Last City
 * Guardians


 * Vex


 * Hive


 * Fallen
 * SIVA


 * Taken

Prelude
The threat of the Red War began years ago during the final segments of the Taken War after the Skyburners Legion failed in their mission to assume control of the Hive Dreadnaught and find a way to defeat the Guardians. With their leadership dead, the remaining Cabal forces attempted to send a distress signal to the Cabal Emperor, informing him of their recent and crushing defeats at the Guardians hands.

Though the Guardians intercepted the Cabal forces, they were nonetheless successful in sending the message to its recipient. In addition to this, many officials in the Last City feared an attack as a result to all their successes, as a New Monarchy agent explained that with so many officers, field commanders and Primuses dead or on the run, the Cabal Empire would have no choice but to respond.

Surprise attack
"BATTLE STATIONS!"

- Zavala

During a time of quiet, the Vanguard discovered that all of their outer defenses, satellites and outposts went dark and in the cover of a storm, the Cabal Red Legion approached the outer territories of the Last City unnoticed. At the time, the Vanguard were having a meeting, when Zavala quickly noticed the approaching warships, forming a Defender bubble to defend the Vanguard. In one swift attack, the Red Legion severely devastated the Tower, but the Vanguard leadership survived and aided in the fight against the Red Legion troops. As the Legion's fleet assaulted the City, a mysterious massive aircraft latched onto the Traveler. During the chaos, the Speaker disappeared, leaving the City and its Guardians questioning his whereabouts.

The Guardians attempted to disorganize the enemy by disabling the Cabal command ship and though they succeeded in infiltrating the ship and in destroying the Shield generators, no reinforcements could make it and they were cornered by Dominus Ghaul himself. There the Cabal Emperor activated the Light-restraining device upon the Traveler, encasing it in a force field. This cut the Guardians off from the Traveler's Light, effectively crippling them. Ghaul savagely beat the weakened Guardian, even sending them off of his command ship along with their Ghost, plummeting to the devastated city below. Barely surviving the fall, the Guardian linked up with others, and with little choice, they evacuated the Last City.

Despite Ghaul's success in attacking the City, the Guardians refused to give up the fight, and after setting up a camp in the European Dead Zone, they sought out to gain new powers and began developing a counterattack against the Red Legion.

Red Legion occupation
"I am Ghaul, and your Light... is mine."

- Dominus Ghaul

As Ghaul began to occupy the Last City, he also established a massive ship outside of the sun, which projected a mysterious beam of light directly into it. Additionally on Nessus, Ghaul sent his Red Legion forces in order to occupy the planetoid and begin drilling into the Vex ruins that lied there. The Red Legion's drilling operations awakened the Vex and Protheon, Modular Mind.

In addition to Nessus, Ghaul sent another portion of his forces to Titan, initiating a three-way conflict with the Hive and the Guardians.

Return of SIVA
Somehow, a nest of Fallen reactivated SIVA and took shelter within a crashed spaceship, becoming corrupted by it once more.

Remnant of the Taken
An unknown remnant faction of Taken continued to operate within the European Dead Zone.

List of appearances

 * Destiny 2