Was it a Pride Parade? That might explain the fanciful outfits.

I'm sure we were all naked and high ask kites snorting lines of "Alcolyte Flakes" off strippers at the "Fluffy Fallen" club (level 69) when Garry attacked the tower. That's why we lost all our "stuff".

A Warlock and Hunter are hanging out at the Tower under a shaded stand as they watch two striker Titans compete to see who can head butt the hardest. They have been watching for twenty minutes now and the Titans have evolved from simple head butting to diving off the second level catwalks and landing on the latter Titan's head. So far they've cracked open no less than 7 helmets. As they watch, the PA announces that the 12th annual 'We've Survived!' festival is only three days away and that all Guardians should be present in non-scary attire to entertain those who may attend and not scare the children. Warlock: *sigh, no one ever wants to high five me at parades or shake my hand at the bar... They're all too scared I'll incinerate them somehow. Hunter: Well... I mean, I don't think wearing the Sunbreaker Gauntlets all the time makes for many handshaking opportunities. You literally made your hands into that lava fluid stuff. You should just drop the Warlock attire and start wearing colorful cloaks. Even Saladin gets it. Warlocks are so dense when it comes to looking friendly. Warlock: It's called solar resonance. Does no one understand how these gauntlets work? I don't suddenly 'lose my hands' by turning them into lava. It just makes my hands glow... like a glow stick except with gloves.They come with other side benefits too. Hunter: Sure, and next you'll be telling me that Fusion Grenades are just Oranges that were grown on Mercury but weaponized during the Golden Age based on carvings in a goat skull you found on Venus. I'm going to practice handshakes with my normal hands with normal people. Unlike you. Although, I'm sure those Titans might wanna see who can hold your hand the longest. See ya. Hunter: *walks away Warlock: The Gauntlets are also great for lighting the cloaks of unsuspecting Hunters on fire.

Warlock: What!? What do you mean I cant wear my normal armor?? Zavala: Because your helmet will scare the children, your robes are tattered and your leather pants smell terrible if you havent noticed, your gauntlets are made out of thrallskin and theres interdimensional spikes comming out all over you! Now change! Cayde: I think he looks cool! Ikora: I think you need to have smell sensors installed because he reeks in that armor, but instead you went and installed taste sensors to drink alchohol and eat that spicy ramen. Cayde: Me and spicy ramen are inseparable, NO ONE is taking it away from me....

I'd also like them to explain why we are at the tower and why specifically we come from the hangar. Did we just arrive? Were we called to help defend the tower during the invasion or were we already called in for briefing on our next assignment before the invasion began?

Isn't that just the armor the people had on their guardians when playing the Inverted Spire Strike. The hunter armor on that concept is exactly that armor. And it was certainly NOT called "Parade Armor" (or it is an internal classification from the devs). It's also seen on every wallpaper, render art for each class. The guardians in the Strike etc used endgame gear and weapons and were level 20 already. In the gameplay we have seen armor does not get damaged from enemy fire. So such a feature does not exist which leads to the conclusion that it is not the exact same armor. So we can be very sure about the fact that the armor you get after the beginning of the Ghaul cutscene (when he kicks you over the ledge) is just a destroyed low level copy of the named armor (as seen on some screenshots) and LATER, my guess, the high level parade armor will be the available as the vanguard vendor armor again or so (after completing story, getting stronger, blah blah and stuff). That's exactly why Bungie didn't show any gameplay what happens after that scene except for a few short clips. And we have no menu shots to showcase the destroyed armor. I highly doubt that you actually start and keep that legendary gear when the crucible reveals always showcased guardians with basic looking gear (except for the IGN dev builds). You might start with the Vanguard version before the specific cutscene, but It wouldn't make any sense having you keeping the best gear (with good perks) and all you do is infusing the hell out of it. That would be counter productive to any loot system and the progression system visually showing how you get stronger over time (armor, guns) which is what Bungie tries to tell with the story. Rising up from zero to hero again. In short: You start totally maxed during the Homecoming mission because we just defeated the darkness and so on (short teaser for what a powerful guardian looks like, for new players). Ghaul comes, takes our light (level 1 again), destroyed the stuff we had (introduction of new toys), made us look like a fool and weak bastard (destroyed armor). And that's where the real game starts. Many games before used an introduction like that.

"Parade Armour"? How long do we have to farm to get that? 😜 That could be the first time my guardian has ever been in a full set of matching armour.

...I don't have enough vault space to unequip all my gear for a parade XD

No it is after we take back the tower and rebuild it

Bungie doesn't have to find a way to explain anything. Haven't you been listening to what Luke Smith said. Why did we lose our gear? Because... Reasons. Deal with it...

Knowing my characters, they'd be off in a raid, completely ignoring a parade.