Skyburners

Skyburners
Overview
Objectives:	Celestial Demolitions Reserve Shock Fleet
Deployed:	Vertigo, Mercury Phobos, Mars Dreadnaught, Saturn

"The second fleet will wait no longer. Commencement will begin on their arrival."

— Cryptarch translation of Skyburner chatter

The Skyburners are the "celestial demolitions" fleet of the Cabal legions on Mars.

Overview

They are mainly based around Phobos, seeing limited deployment on Mars. In the base game, they are only encountered during the final phase of the Cerberus Vae III and Dust Palace strikes.

History

Initially the Skyburners are fought sparingly in the base game, only found guarding high value Cabal Commanders. When Valus Ta'aurcTa'aurc dispatches the elite Ice Reapers to hunt down Rasputin, the Skyburners accompany them as well. The Valus himself even used Skyburner soldiers as his personal guard until his assassination. In both cases however the Skyburners suffer total casualties. The Skyburners play a larger role in The Taken King as they are first encountered on Phobos.

A Skyburner getting Taken

When Oryx began blighting the system, the Skyburners were the first Cabal units to encounter the Taken after noticing strange activity. Shortly after, huge numbers of Skyburners were taken and made to fight their comrades forcing Legion commander, Primus Ta'aun to order a mass evacuation.

Ta'aun then sent a report written by his intelligence officers on the ineffectiveness of conventional Cabal forces against the Guardians, and suggested that the technology aboard Oryx's Dreadnaught might be co-opted by the Cabal to nullify Guardian Ghost regeneration. He also delivered reports of the massive casualties suffered Dust Giants, Blind Legion, and Sand Eaters Legions on Mars. This prompted the Cabal Emperor himself to order Primus Ta'aun and his bond brothers to board the Dreadnaught and kill Oryx, the Taken King, by any means necessary.

Shortly after receiving those orders, Ta'aun commanded the defense of one of the Cabal frontlines on Mars alongside one of his bond brothers, Valus Tlu'urn. Together they went from bunker to bunker to motivate their soldiers and call artillery fire upon the advancing Vex. As they took cover behind a destroyed Interceptor and fired upon their foes, Tlu'urn questioned if Ta'aun intended to follow through on his orders, arguing it was madness and suicide. As he pulled his bond brother out of the line of fire of several Hobgoblins and back into cover, Ta'aun revealed to him that Ghaul himself had approved the order, shocking Tlu'urn. As a Minotaur breached their lines, Ta'aun unloaded his weapon onto it, screaming a war cry as he poured out his fears and concerns over the upcoming mission. As his legionnaires cheered the machine's destruction, Tlu'urn noted that they were only scouting legions and did not have the numbers for such a mission before suggesting that they mutiny. Although the prospect of doing so appealed to Ta'aun, he felt that refusing his duty would be worse than death and refused.

After the calamity of the Battle of Saturn, they crashed their warship, Dantalion Exodus VI, into the Dreadnaught's hull, and protracted a war of attrition deep behind enemy line against the Hive. By establishing a beachhead the Skyburners were able to move deeper into the Dreadnaught and soon learned that Oryx could only be reached through a portal called a Rupture. Led by Primus Ta'aun, he sent a team to the coordinates. As the Primus pushed near the portal entrance only to be assaulted by the Taken and be Taken himself.

While severely diminished, the Skyburners survived long enough to see Ghaul arrive in the system. What became of them is unknown, but they considered their survival "victory enough."

Appearance

They can be identified by their teal and red armor. Their most unique feature is the crest on their helmets. They also possess the unique Psion Burner units which feature red armor and a curved spike on their helmets.

Notable Members

The Skyburners

Leadership

• Primus Ta'aun (formerly)

Valus

• Valus Tlu'urn
• Valus Mau'ual
• Valus Tau'ugh
• Valus Gho'ourn

Bracus

• Bracus Thra'aurg
• Bracus Ma'aulh

Centurion

• Ve'ength

Lost to Taken

• Vro'ourn
• Bracus Horu'usk

Unique Forces

• Psion variants
  • Psion Burner

Trivia

• The Skyburners were Cabal Legion that abandoned the Vertigo crucible map as their logo's can be seen around the map.
• Before Oryx's arrival, it was rumored the Skyburners were to be part of a "second fleet" meant to attack Earth. However with the Taken War, this campaign was put on hold as they were redeployed to attack the Dreadnaught.
• The killcams spell the Legion's name as "Sky Burners" while the Grimoire cards and dialogue state the proper name as Skyburners. This could be a developer oversight.
• The Skyburners symbol is used for the first tier of The Inverted Spire Nightfall emblem in Destiny 2.

Gallery

• 

  Primus Ta'aun, Lost to Oryx

• 

  Valus Mau'ual, one of the Shield Brothers

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  Valus Tlu'urn, the other Shield Brother

• 

  Valus Tau'ugh, the Skyburner Champion

• 

  Valus Tau'ugh blasting off to space

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  A Skyburner Harvester

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  A Skyburner flag

• 

  Another Skyburner logo

• 

  Skyburner signal sent to the Red Legion and Cabal Emperor.

• 

  Concept art of the Skyburner base

• SinkentoFleetbase.gif

  Skyburner Fleetbase under Taken attack

• 

  Vertigo abandoned by the Skyburners

• 

  Primus Ta'aun, Commander of the Skyburners

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  A Skyburners Colossus.

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  A Skyburners Centurion.

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  A Skyburners Legionary.

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  A Skyburners Phalanx.

• 

  A Skyburners Psion.

List of appearances

• Destiny (First appearance)
  • The Taken King
  • Rise of Iron (Mentioned only)
• Destiny 2 (Mentioned only)