[b]Episode 1[/b] The crucible is no place for games, or at least that's what Lord Shaxx says. I agree with him as well, guardian vs guardian. Luckily it doesn't actually kill us, only stuns and small explosives are used in normal crucible. The Iron Banner however is different, weapons shoot to kill an only the strongest win. Its the greatest challenge and all though we still are revived in the aftermath, its a test of strength, and our fire team would be the ones to conquer the Iron Banner. Our fire team consisted of two of each class. Toshiro and Crimson as Titans, Cat and Kieran Warlocks, and Noble and myself as Hunters. "You know what we get if we win?" Toshiro said leaning over the seat Kieran and I were sitting at. He held up his hands dramatically and fluttered them, "Iron banner weapons, forged by the iron lords themselves." He said enthusiastically while Cat and Crimson stood looking at him like he was crazy. I laughed at him, "I know buddy, Kieran has been reading up on the iron lords and their weapons, Kieran how about you tell him what you know?." I said looking to Kieran writing in his journal. Kieran looked up, "Well, if you insist," he said closing his journal and leaning in. "Gather round children gather round and let me tell you the tale of the Iron Lords" Kieran began as we all sat listening. "It began long ago, in times when there were many towers and many armies, each lord commanded their own, Lord Saladin was but a prodigy of Lord Radegast. It was a time of tension and soon all of the lords began fighting after the death of Gheleon. There was a traitor amongst them and each Iron Lord wanted to find who it was, but that wasn't the only thing they wanted. They wanted control. Control of the city, and all of the lords threw countless guardians at each other killing off one another slowly. All a plan manipulated by the greatest defender titan that ever lived. Jolder. He had manipulated all of the lords into destroying each other until all but Saladin and Jolder were left. They fought and Saladin won." "Saladin then created the Iron Banner in memory of the great warriors, and to the ones that win are to be granted the iron lords weapons. Littered with war and history. They each had their own weapon forever connected to the Iron Lords past. Timurs Lash, Gheleons Demise, Silimars Wrath, Skorris Revenge, Efrideets Spear, Purins Fire, Felwinters Lie, Jolders Hammer, and Radegasts Fury." Kieran said as we were all infatuated with his words. I had never seen the fireteam so astonished, and they won't realize how hard it will be when they enter the arena of the Iron Lords. *** "Kierans story has me pumped for the Iron Banner." Noble said as we walked over to Saladin's stand. There they were in all their glory and infamy, the weapons of the Iron Lords. "Are you entering the iron banner?" Saladin said looking at us while the fireteam admired the weapons on the wall behind him. "The best of the best will be entering and the final fight will be against me and my own fireteam of guardians." Saladin warned, I gave no interest in his heedings and I guaranteed ourselves to get high enough in the iron banner. I nodded and saladin pulled the contract up. I read one of the lines that said "The Iron Banner will not be responsible for permanently dead guardians, whoever is to kill a guardian PERMANENTLY will be executed on the spot." I began contemplating the decision. If one of my friends were to die in this tournament I would never forgive myself. "Sign the paper and let's get training Jellal." Crimson said putting his hand on my shoulder. I signed and we walked to the training station in the lowest part of the tower. For the entire week until our first match in the Iron Banner we trained, practicing our tactics and weapon practices. I wanted us to be unstoppable, and if possible keep any of us from dying once. We trained and with Crimsons Gjallarhorn and Nobles gunslinging abilities they acquired, we should be an unstoppable force to deal with. I knew our first match up already from the leaderboards set up in the tower. We were up again a team of 3 hunters and 3 warlocks, no titans would give them less of an edge but all 3 warlocks were sunsinger and the hunters gunslingers. They were a literal fire-team. They shouldn't be a problem considering we had a fool proof strategy. We would use all of our advantages at our deposal and extinguish their fire and win the match. *** It was the day of our first match, we all had our weapons ready and went to our side of the arena. All matches were to be played on Rusted Lands, we were alpha side. the Vanguards, Crucible Quartermasters, and Lord Saladin himself would over look each match from a building above the area. Lord Shaxx announced the whole thing as well and each match would have an objective and I didn't see a flag or relic for Control or salvage. "Clash, You have 10 minutes to eliminate the other team, kill to win, and remember, to kill another guardians ghost will land you a nice bullet to the brain by our experts." Shaxx said announcing our match. I looked around the place to see hidden snipers, they really don't play games here. There was a silence and then Shaxx began counting, "3, 2, 1," a loud buzzer was sounded and we began moving towards their area. We had our plan already set and everyone ran to their positions. Kieran already his on top of a box in cover to snipe one entrance while Toshiro and Crimson charged the other entrance with their auto rifles. Cat, Noble and I would lay back in wait in case of stragglers. Kieran sniped one of the warlocks dead and cat ran behind a crate in front of where he came out of. I then heard the gunshots from Crimson and Toshiros auto rifles and saw the warlock resurrect himself immediately shooting his fusion rifle at cats cover crate and throwing grenades. "Yo Jellal we need help all three hunters are here and are firing heavy rounds at us, Crimson and I can only hold this for so long and he has no rockets."Toshiro said transmitted from our ghosts coms. Noble looked at me and nodded and I nodded back. The hunter ran past our cover and towards the warlock occupied by Cats scout rifle fire. He pulled out a shotgun and before the warlock could fully turn around Noble slid and shot him in the chest killing him. He was about to run in when I remembered Toshiro only said Three hunters were attacking them, which meant two warlocks were lying in wait for Noble to cross. "NOBLE WAIT," I bellowed across to him as he walked through the door. He was immediately shot down by shotguns and fell lifeless onto the floor. I saw him fall and my heart sank and rage grew. The warlocks quickly hid back behind cover and sat in wait again. "Jellal! Crimsons hit! Only a flesh wound but we need that backup!" Toshiro said while countless shots were fired in the direction of the two titans. Cat ran over to aid the titans And Kieran ran down next to me and shook my helmet. "Jellal! Get your damn head in the game and let's kill those bastards for what they did." he said creating two fusion grenades. He the ran past the cover and into the room where the warlocks shot their shotguns and Kieran was shot multiple times, yet his grenades still made their mark. All of the warlocks had died including Kieran and the hunters were the only ones left I ran in and saw the hunters from their hiding spots behind cover and activated my solar light and brought on my golden gun. The hunters saw me and their guns began to raise but it was to late. I shot all three with my golden gun and watched them combust. We won, yet Shaxx hadn't announced our win. I looked back and saw both warlocks resurrect themselves and one shot me in the chest. I had little time to react and shot my pulse rifle into one warlocks chest killing him and fell to the ground. It was all a blur and I saw nothing but blackness. Was I dead? I felt the pain in my chest still so I couldn't be. I awoke a few seconds later to see our entire fireteam revived and alive. "Alpha team, Wins. All guardians are to return to their quarters and get some rest. You're going to need it." Shaxx announced as the other guardians were revived by their ghosts. We had won our very first match, but it went down rougher then I expected. Which means we need even more training within the week before our next match. If winning against them was hard, this wouldn't be as easy as I thought. I'll train myself and my team harder, I will not stand until we are known as the champions of the Iron Banner. *** Thanks for reading if you did :D I got a lot of inspiration from the fan fiction by CentauriAlpha, the link is to his first part of the series so you can check it out :D CentauriAlphas Iron Banner Lore https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/103939962/0/0 Champions of The Iron Banner Episode 2 https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/124474344/0/0 Episode 3 https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/124857722/0/0