[i]Long read ahead[/i] If I wrote the story for Destiny, here is what it would look like... [b][u]The Story[/u][/b] In the present day, humans travel to Mars and discover the Traveler, terraforming the planet. This god bestows humanity with unprecedented advancements and innovation. Mercury was made into a garden world and great cities are built on Venus and Mars. Human lifespan triples. It was a Golden Age. Then the Darkness came, the Traveler's ancient enemy. In a matter of years, centuries of work had been undone. Every Warmind fell to the Darkness, except for one. Rasputin, the last Warmind, initiates a shyshock protocol, sacrificing most of humanity to save a few. These remaining few are kept under protection of the crippled Traveler, in the Last City. They are the predecessors of the Guardians. Now, after centuries of hiding, Guardians and their Ghosts are rising to push back the Darkness, before it can unleash its destruction once more. On Earth, you discover, in the shadow of an old colony ship, resides the shell of Rasputin. There, it is discovered that Rasputin survived the Darkness and is spreading to other planets, trying to reclaim what humanity lost. Hoping to find out more about the Darkness and Rasputin, you travel to the Moon, following the trail of a Guardian who has gone silent. Exploring some colony facilities you discover the Guardian was trying to learn more about the Hive, who have been seeding Earth. Pursuing multiple leads into the Temple of Crota and the Hellmouth, you find the Hive are raising an army to invade Earth. The Hive are found in possession of a shard of the Traveler, using dark magic to siphon Light from it. How they obtained the shard is uknown. But one thing is certain: The Hive plan to resurrect Crota and bring doom upon Earth and the Traveler. You receive a message from a Stranger, who warns you of an enemy far worse than you know thus far. Following a trail to broken coordinates on Venus, you head into the Ishar Collective's academy, and confront this new enemy: the Vex. The Stranger warns you that the Vex are so evil they despise other evil, and are rising throughout the solar system. Before fading away, the Stranger warns you that a side must be taken, even if it is the wrong one. [b]***This is where my story diverges from the game story***[/b] The Archive on Venus holds a treasure trove of information on the Vex. Once a research project headed by Dr. Shim of the Collective, the Fallen are also interested in breaking in to obtain its wealth of knowledge. At another colony research station, Ghost discovers that the Vex, while mechanical begins, are biological and operate as if a single mind. They are also spreading to other planets in the system. What do they want? On Mars the Cabal are ferociously protecting something hidden in the buried city of Freehold. While the Vex network builds in the planet's mantle, you race against time to discover what the Cabal have found. In the facility of Clovis Bray, an ancient, but advanced AI is still operational. It was once linked to the Warmind of Mars, but now Rasputin controls it. Scanning its contents, Ghost discovers something unbelievable: [b]Rasputin is the work of Dr. Shim and his team.[/b] After the Traveler arrived, it brought with it a disease: the Vex. They are a bio-mechanical plague that systematically wipes out all living life, with no malice or mercy. The Collapse was not only an end to the Golden Age, it was an end to reality itself. The Vex have the ability to lock themselves out of time. They can also simulate realities, and humanity is currently trapped in their experiment. Dr. Shim and his team once were as well (see the Vex grimoire). The Vex placed humanity in a simulation, an alternate reality, acting out a program to determine what actions they would take so that they could alter the timeline to their will. Dr. Shim discovered this, and created a counter virus: Rasputin. Rasputin was indeed designed to protect humanity, but also to control the Vex. If humanity ever has any hope of escaping this pseudo-reality, Rasputin must succeed. The only way the Vex would not learn humanity's future actions is if they were crippled from the inside. Your enemies are also races who are trapped in this alternate reality. That is why they all showed up after the Collapse began--just as the Vex did. They attack humanity out of survival. That's why the Fallen were interested in the Archive and why the Cabal in the AI on Mars--they knew Rasputin was the key. With help from the Awoken, you gain entrance to the Black Garden, where the heart of the Vex resides. You have no idea what will happen once the heart is stopped. After defeating the Sol Progeny, the heart dies, and you are found once again on Mars. Returning to Earth, you talk with the Speaker. He reveals that he is in fact a simulation of Dr. Shim. His secrecy was purposeful in that he couldn't risk jeopardizing the outcome he wanted. Furthermore he tells you there was no Golden Age. The Vex arrived as soon as the Traveler was discovered (thats why you see modern day cars and rocketships in the game). Everything you've seen is a simulation. Rasputin is the program being written to combat the virus that is the Vex. When it succeeds, the Traveler will awaken to finally destroy this plague that has followed it for eons. But in this simulation, how do you know what is real....and what is not? Is the Speaker telling the truth? These are the parting questions the stranger leaves you with...