I grab my Red Spectre from the wall of my quarters. My Ghost in it's Brave Shell flies over to my side and disappears. The transmat consumes me. Instantaneously I am in the Hall of Guardians. Everything here is decimated. As if another Guardian did this. My first thought is that the Concordat made an alliance with the Skyburners. Then I see Zavala rush out from beneath some debris. "Red Legion!" He shouts. "Do not let them take this Tower!" Any theory I had about the Skyburners is immediately gone. I've heard about the Red Legion. Quite a few times before. The Redjacks have seen their emblem burnt into Fallen settlements in the Reef. Without the Queen and Variks missing, the asteroid belt is in disarray. But an attack this large is unprecedented. Even for Cabal standards this is massive. A single Guardian toppled their command on Mars just to open a portal. This would have been a suicide mission without a whole fleet. But who's the commander of this Red Legion. Obviously they're a Dominus or they wouldn't be able to get this much firepower on their side. The hut that once belonged to Master Rahool is now in ashes. And across the way, the Eververse center is burning. Eris Morn comes from behind me. She murmurs something in Hive and she disappears. Executor Hideo is gone too. On the other hand, the Future War Cult is holding it's ground. Arach Jalaal is nowhere to be seen but my best guess is that he's probably having the DO fleet leave the system. A Huntress wearing a full Desolate Armor set jumps down next to me and pushes me to the ground, below the debris. "This is Arty!" She says into her mics, not talking to me. "Shadowshot, I am requesting immediate transmat and a ship outta this hell hole we used to call The Last Safe City on Earth!" I hear static and I know she does as well. A rocket from a Cabal Harvester slams down behind me. I being a Titan begin to summon my Hammer of Sol when the Huntress speaks to me again. "Stand back pretty boy." The Huntress says. I think her name is Arty. Oooooor? Oh snap. That might be Artemis. She was on Strenu's fireteam. And that means she knows a Twilight Gap veteran! "Zavala!" Arty yells at the Titan Commander. "Never send a Titan to do a Hunter's job!" With a radiant flash of purple void energy, she summons her bow and fires not 3, but 5 shots into the hull of the Red Legion harvester. Following this magnificent show of strength, I get up and open fire on Cabal in the Tower Plaza. That was a bad idea. Three Psion Flayers shoot at me. I toss a Thermite grenade then a fusion grenade. That was the moment I gained and lost all hope at once. Zavala's comms lit up. Amanda Holliday was on the line. These were her exact words: "Hey Zavala, I picked up that Guardian you never shut up about." I looked to the skies, distracted by the ship belonging to Amanda Holliday. It flew about elegantly for a bit. Then it entered the dog fight. Lord Shaxx jumped down from above me and sprinted in a shoulder charge to Zavala. "What did I miss old friend." Shaxx asks. He shoots all three of the Psion Flayers dead with his Grim Citizen. Right now, his Titan armor is covered in ash. "What is there to miss?" Zavala asks. "Everything is visible." "Right you are Zavala." Shaxx tells his fellow Titan. *BOOM!* Zavala's comms screeched. "This is Amanda Holliday, we didn't ma-" In the distance, Amanda's ship is blown apart and it's passengers are disintegrated in the explosion. [i]What?!? No! This can't be happening![/i] The world around me is already seeming to burn but this is much worse than burning. This means extinction. The extinction of Humanity itself. Shaxx gives the order to retreat. Commander Zavala is in too much shock to speak. Arty runs past me until she dematerializes into a transmat. The three of us left, Shaxx, Zavala, and I, all Titans walk towards the evacuation point. After about fifteen minutes of walking, a burst of yellow energy fills the air. I turn around quickly. I scream. Oh my Traveler, the pain! Nothing in my three years as a Guardian can even compare. I feel the Light dying inside me. I can't breathe. I see my past life, and how I died. And I feel the darkness. No, I feel the Darkness. The Light is gone, it's like it's dead. Only the Darkness remains. I felt it... everywhere. Then I felt nothing at all... End of CHAPTER 1