The Red Campaign: The Story of Destiny 2 by: Abrihet_Zhi

With the Destiny 2 reveal behind us, those of us in the lore community have begun to look more closely at what lies ahead for our Guardians. Lore junkies like myself have been digging deep into the reveal footage to learn more about what we can expect from the next game in Bungie’s wildly popular space magic franchise, taking special interest in the narrative of Destiny 2. While no one can know for sure what will be happen during the main campaign, that definitely hasn’t stopped many of us from trying to figure it out; the entire Destiny community has been busy dissecting the footage and the interviews with the developers to learn more about what Bungie has in store for us come September. Dozens of speculation videos, articles, and podcasts have been cropping up the wake of the reveal and more are sure to follow while we await the release of the beta later this summer.

The question at the heart if this speculation is “How will we get our powers back?” The answer to that question will likely be the foundation for the narrative in Destiny 2. After all, our Guardians’ quest for vengeance would be short-lived if we remained powerless. And make no mistake, that’s what this will be. Having been defeated and humiliated by the Cabal, humanity’s defenders will be looking to settle the score. We were attacked on our homeworld and lost many of those we had sworn to protect along with our last City, the single oasis of hope in a hostile system. So even if nothing else is certain, we can comfortably assume that Destiny 2 will definitely revolve around our quest for vengeance.

At first glance, that may seem like all we can assume from the information we’ve been given. Destiny 2 will focus on our Guardians’ fight against the Cabal in an epic quest for revenge. It seems like a straightforward enough premise, but if we’ve learned anything from three years of grimoire, Bungie likes to keep its secrets and maintain an aura of mystery around many of the factions vying for power in the Destiny universe. For example, we still have no idea who the Stranger really is, what really happened to the Queen of the Reef, or what the Speaker’s motivations really are. Chances are this tendency towards mystery and misdirection will not be changing any time soon.

Still, if we look hard enough, and allow for Bungie’s opaque narrative, we can see hints of the major events that are bound to take place in Destiny 2. There are not a lot of details to go by, but the information we do have on Destiny’s story gives us a basic idea of some of the most important moments that take place during the Red War. Signposts down our road back to Earth, if you will.

Powerless

According to the developers at Bungie, the basic premise of Destiny 2 centers on what happens when our Guardians, the superheroes of Sol, meet their kryptonite in the form of a massive shield that severs our connection to the Traveler’s Light. The feeling of powerlessness that follows is something completely foreign to our Guardians.

Having been reborn with incredible power and near immortality, Guardians have shaped the destiny (pun intended) of humanity after the Collapse. Without this power, humanity would have succumbed to the Fallen long ago, leaving little more than bones littering the wastelands of our former world. Thanks to the Traveler’s intervention, however, we are so much more. We’ve survived the Collapse and have used our Light to literally topple gods. Atheon, Crota, Oryx, Aksis; the Vanguard has faced and defeated horrifying threats to humanity by the grace of our unquenchable Light. To suddenly have that power taken from us must be jarring to say the least, forcing all Guardians to adapt to a new reality. One in which we are not nearly as untouchable as we once thought.

This new reality also raises the stakes for which we fight much higher. Staggering and weakened, we flee the remains of the last City to try to survive and fight another day. Retreat must be difficult for a force used to literally rising from the ashes, but the Cabal onslaught leaves us with no other choice. Whether we have our Ghosts with us from the start of Destiny 2 or not, knowing that we are fighting for the survival of our entire species places a heavy burden upon our weakened Guardian’s shoulders. From the destruction we see in the first mission, it's evident humanity has suffered heavy losses and without our Light, we’re also fighting our extinction.

Fight for the Light

Thankfully, though we may have no idea how we pull it off, we do eventually get our Light back. During the reveal, Commander Zavala is shown having a conversation with our Guardian about the return of their Light. Zavala states that the return of the player’s power will serve as a beacon of hope for other Guardians. We might not be familiar with every form this power will take yet, but it’s satisfying to know we’ll be using it to vaporize Cabal soon enough. Bungie has confirmed that the Striker and Golden Gun subclasses will be making a return along with the new Sentinel, Dawnblade, and Arcstrider subclasses. Each character class will also have a new ability slot, expanding our current arsenal of powers while hopefully doing away with some of the ‘cheese’ (RIP self-res).

Returning to our narrative focus, we’re told that our Vanguard mentors deal with the loss of our powers in different ways and those reactions seem to be plot devices that will take our Guardians to new destinations in our solar system. Earth remains one of the primary destinations in Destiny 2, but we will also visit the moons of Io and Titan and the planetoid Nessus in our quest to defeat the Red Legion. The members of the Vanguard have traveled to these places ahead of us and it’s through finding them that we will come to know these new locations.

It also stands to reason we will grow stronger with each mentor we reunite with. Recovering Commander Zavala, Cayde-6, and Ikora Rey will help us reassemble the scattered forces of the Light in order to regroup and organize. We will hopefully also have the assistance of Lord Saladin, Lord Shaxx, and at least a few other NPCs in our fight. Without them, our hope of mounting a successful counterattack on the elite forces of Dominus Ghaul’s Red Legion would be slim.

There is even hope of greater forces, if you pay close attention to Zavala’s lines during the reveal. We may even get to participate in a few space battles if we’re lucky. In a clip of Commander Zavala on Titan, the Commander is shown asking if a fleet is combat ready. This could be a makeshift fleet composed of those Guardians who survived the Cabal attack, but it could also be a larger force that includes the Dead Orbit fleet. We already know that Arach Jalaal worked with Commander Zavala before (during the Outbound Signal mission on Oryx’s derelict Dreadnaught) and it’s entirely possible that Dead Orbit is lending its fleet’s power to our cause again.

Hopefully this fleet confronts Ghaul’s own, letting us take part in starship battles. I’m pretty sure I’m not the only Guardian out there that would love to do some deep space dogfighting and blow some Cabal warships apart. It may be wishful thinking, but here’s hoping Bungie indulges us with just that.

Down with the Empire

Though we face staggering losses, the fight to recover our Light and reunite our forces has an inevitable end; we will strike back against the Red Legion. Dominus Ghaul’s forces have taken all we hold dear and there is no way we’re going to hang back and lick our wounds for very long. No matter how we’ve been brought low, Guardians rise again. It’s what we do. The question is how?

Regaining our powers makes us a greater threat, but without the Traveler, humanity may still lose. Unfortunately, the chances of the shield Ghaul erected coming down before the end of the game seem slim. This shield was erected by the invading Cabal’s Red Legion, the elite military force Mark Noseworthy describes as the Cabal equivalent of the U.S. Navy’s SEALs. It’s likely to be heavily defended and its destruction will probably be something we achieve later in the game when we try to retake Earth.

But how will we be able to retake our home with decimated forces from an occupying army that makes the Fallen look like little more than multi-limbed bandits? The answer may lie in our antagonist.

The developers describe the antagonist of Destiny 2, Dominus Ghaul, as a charismatic enemy. Ghaul believes he is owed the Light because of everything he has been through. But what exactly has he been through and how forthcoming will Bungie be concerning the his motivations? If Destiny 1 is any indication, the answer may be disappointing, but hopefully their new focus on story will give us some much needed insight into Ghaul’s motivations. The Grimoire has mentioned that the Cabal are fleeing something and this threat may be the motivating force behind the push to capture the Traveler’s Light. This begs the question; could the Darkness be encroaching on Cabal space?

We may not get to learn the answer, but even if the Darkness is threatening the Cabal, it is difficult to believe we’re going to be able to find common ground with an enemy that has slaughtered thousands of our civilians. Though Ghaul is described not as a psychopath, but as an adversary with depth and may possibly even be framed as a sympathetic figure, we may only use this information to take him down.

Any information could signal potential weakness. Could there be tensions within the Cabal hierarchy we are going to be able to exploit to achieve victory? Is there a possibility that the Red Legion’s move to take the Traveler is not sanctioned by the Empire? If Ghaul has gone rogue and taken something so powerful for his own, it may be that he has more to worry about than a rag tag bunch of decimated Guardians trying to mount a counterattack. This potential distraction could prove priceless for our heroes.

The theories are endless, but its likely that the Cabal themselves may hold the key to their downfall. Perhaps their mission on Nessus to try to capture the Modular Mind, Protheon, in the Inverted Spire strike will grant us some greater insight into their machinations. No matter what it is they plan, though, we can be confident our forces will find out. The Vanguard has defeated the forces that have risen against us through cunning as much as with our might. The fight against the Red Legion will likely be no exception.

C’mon Big Guy

Another huge question we hope to see resolved through the Destiny 2 narrative revolves around the source of our powers, the silent Traveler. It’s been the ‘elephant in the sky’ since the start and we’d be sorely disappointed if we don’t learn more about it in Destiny 2. The shielding apparatus the Cabal set up can’t be good for it, though without knowing anything about the Traveler, we can’t be certain what effects, if any, being shielded will have upon it. We could hope that being caged might force it to finally awaken, but it's doubtful. In the first mission, Amanda Holliday is seen looking to the dormant construct, willing it to do something to help us during the assault. Sadly, from what we know of the outcome of that assault, it seems like it answered once again with silence.

Still, though the Traveler may not have be able to assist us directly, it may be that it will still be able to assist us in some way. Considering it’s Light is what drives us, it may be that its link to our Guardians, however tenuous, is the seed of hope that allows us to remain alive. We have to wonder how we are even moving if we are cut off from the Light. Since we are told we are weakened and see our Guardians staggered, struggling to even walk, how then do we go from that to harnessing new powers like the Arcstrider, Sentinel, and Dawnblade?

The answer may be that disruption of our Light is not complete or we would likely fall lifeless to the ground. We must still have some connection to the Traveler, though that connection may be in peril if the Cabal intend to do more than just shield us from its Light.

There are images of an exploding star or planetoid in the reveal footage, followed closely by Cabal warships. Does this mean the Cabal intend to take the Traveler from Sol? If their Empire is in danger, will the Cabal be satisfied with shielding us from it’s Light or do they plan to use the shield they have constructed to move the Traveler and deliver the ultimate spoil of war to their Emperor? Ghaul believes the Traveler chose wrong in picking humanity and he may think he can force it to choose correctly by forcibly relocating it to Cabal space.

The idea may seem far-fetched, but with the forces of the Red Legion at his disposal and the Guardians rendered powerless, Ghaul may attempt just that.

Homecoming

The opening mission in Destiny 2 is named Homecoming, a title that may not merely be an ironic choice, but also a foreshadowing of our eventual return to Earth. If the entire campaign focuses on defeating the Cabal and saving the human race from extinction, we can only hope that means that by the end of the story we will reclaim the Earth. This time in its entirety.

Some of the most current Grimoire entries mention the Fallen Houses having retreated from their usual strongholds. We can only assume this was done in anticipation of the Cabal onslaught, though how they were warned and we were not is a serious question. Nonetheless, with the Fallen suddenly gone and the Hive having been dealt a massive blow with the defeat of two of the members of their pantheon, we may finally be able to secure our homeworld again for the first time in hundreds of years. We just have to deal with the massive militaristic giants that destroy planets and moons first.

It’s a colossal undertaking, but it would be fitting if Destiny 2’s campaign ended with a win after opening with such a staggering loss. Though we know our Tower was ruined and our City was left a mess of rubble and flames, we stake a claim in the European Dead Zone and can only hope that our tenacity will lead to new cities and renewed hope for humanity. The Cabal will then learn that even without the ability to return from the dead, humanity has a knack for standing up again when it gets knocked down. With the benefit of the Traveler’s Light, we can only hope we’ll get to knock the Cabal down and hopefully out of our system for good.