Crota's Assault

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Previous:	Rise of the Young Wolf
Next:	Wolf Rebellion
Crota's Assault
Fronts:	Cosmodrome, Earth Hellmouth, Moon Oversoul Throne
Outcome:	Crota, Son of Oryx's attempt to return to the material plane stopped Crota killed inside his Throne World Crota's champions are slain Spawn of Crota and Hidden Swarm left without leadership Omnigul attempt at rebuilding an army thwarted Hive invasion of Earth stopped Hive attempt at taking control of Rasputin thwarted Eris Morn returns to the City with invaluable intel about the Hive
Belligerents Humanity The Last City Vanguard Hive Spawn of Crota Blood of Oryx Hidden Swarm Vex Sol Divisive Precursors Fallen House of Devils House of Kings Commanders Vanguard: Commander Zavala Ikora Rey Eris Morn Spawn of Crota: Crota, Son of Oryx Omnigul, Will of Crota Sardon, Fist of Crota Heart of Crota Might of Crota Hand of Crota Ir Yût, the Deathsinger Sol Divisive: Undying Mind House of Kings: Craask, Kell of Kings Phyksin, King Baron Strength Thousands of Guardians Countless Hive Thousands of Vex platforms Hundreds of Fallen Casualties Unknown Crota, Son of Oryx Omnigul, Will of Crota Sardon, Fist of Crota Heart of Crota Might of Crota Hand of Crota Eyes of Crota Ir Yût, the Deathsinger Thousands of Hive Undying Mind Hundreds of Vex platforms Phyksin, King Baron Hundreds of Fallen Civilian casualties Unknown

Crota's Assault was a major conflict fought between Hive forces led by Crota, Son of Oryx, and the Guardians of the Last City. It was foreshadowed as far back when the Guardian first learned of the Hive were building an army in preparation to invade Earth and had seeded the planet for centuries with Seeder Ships. The Disciples of Crota led by Omnigul, Will of Crota would advance upon Earth for their master's return, in response Eris Morn would call upon the Guardians to bring an end to the threat. The conflict ended with the victory of the Last City and a permanent end to the World-Breaker. With the death of his son, Oryx, the Taken King would begin his arrival to Sol.

Events

Prelude

For many years, the Hive have laid in wait within Earth's moon Luna, slowly building up their army and constructing their fortress, the Hellmouth. The Hive Prince, Crota, led the Hive broods in the Sol System, preparing them for an invasion of Earth to overwhelm Humanity and destroy the Traveler. The Last City and its Guardian protectors never knew of Crota or the Hive until the Battle of Burning Lake, humanity's first clash with the Hive. Narrowly, the Last City prevailed against the Hive, which convinced the Factions of the Consensus to launch an assault upon Luna to retake the moon from the Hive. Lord Shaxx, the handler of the Crucible and a participant of the Battle vehemently voiced against the invasion, citing that the Last City barely won against the Hive and they needed to understand the Hive's powers, such as their Light-draining swords. Despite his objections, Zavala of the Vanguard proceeded with the preparations to launch the attack.

True to Shaxx's predictions, however, the Guardians were overwhelmed by the might of Crota's Spawn and of their dark powers, with thousands dying. Crota himself would appear and rout the remaining Guardians, personally slaying the legendary Titan Wei Ning. With the invasion lost, the Vanguard ordered a full retreat and the battle would be called the Great Disaster. Since then, the moon had been declared off-limits by the Vanguard with only the most experienced of Guardians allowed to venture to Luna. The only other party to remain on the moon would be the Fallen House of Exile, made up of the malcontents and renegades of other Fallen houses after their sparking defeat at Twilight Gap. They attempted to carve out a realm for themselves on the surface of the Moon, in spite of the heavy Hive presence, squatting near the ruins of old Moon bases from the Golden Age, and conduct raids against the Hive for any valuable relics.

Though the Hive won a grand victory, Crota's plans would be put on hold due to unexpected circumstances. Within the Ascendant Plane, two Knights - one of Oryx and one of Xivu Arath engaged in a duel in honor of their respective masters. The duel ended in a draw, but both flung themselves into the depths of an abyss, and so the Knight of Oryx failed to make his tribute to a champion of Crota. This setback cost Crota's champion a significant tribute at the necessary time and thus led to his defeat in a duel against a sergeant of the God of War. Having suffered a major loss of his temples and tributaries to feed his Worm, Crota judged it best to sleep upon his throne world and recover his debts while his soul remained tethered to an Ascendant crystal, giving him a quick means of return to the real universe once his strength was restored.

Eriana-3's Vengeance

Despite the Vanguard's order to retreat from the moon, some Guardians desired vengeance against the Hive for the slaughter of their fellow Guardians. One in particular, Eriana-3, personally sought revenge against Crota for killing Wei Ning and gathered a formidable team with the explicit goal of assassinating the Hive Prince himself. This team included Eriana's friend Eris Morn, the exiled Warlock and expert on the Hive, Toland, the Shattered, who possessed knowledge that could help them solve Crota's apparent immortality, the two Hunters Omar Agah and Sai Mota and the Titan Vell Tarlowe. With her team assembled, Eriana ventured to the Moon to take out Crota and his followers. However, as they journeyed through the darkness of the Hellmouth, Eriana found her team hunted down one by one by Crota's lieutenants, such as Sardon and Omnigul. Vell Tarlowe would find himself overwhelmed by a swarm of Thrall before being personally killed by Alak-Hul, the Darkblade. Toland attempted to forge a dialogue with Ir Yût, the Deathsinger. It is unclear how their exchange actually went, but it resulted in Toland being unsung from his biological form and banished to the Ascendant Plane as a spirit.

Eriana attempted to continue on with the mission, managing to reach the Oversoul Throne but like her comrades, she would meet her end at Crota's hand, leaving her vengeance unfulfilled. Eris Morn, however, remained the sole survivor of her wayward team and though she managed to evade the Hive within their own domain, she was changed forever from the experience, such as losing her Light and her own eyes. Though she would finally emerge from the Hellmouth, she became obsessed with gaining revenge on Crota and the Hive for the loss of her friends, leading the former Lightbearer to gather all the knowledge she could prepare the Guardians in the event Crota should prepare emerge once more.

Signs of Resurgence

Unopposed after their victory at Luna, the Hive continued to seed in secret beneath Old Russia for years, until Fallen from the House of Devils stirred them up at Skywatch much to the discovery of a newly-Risen Guardian. Eris Morn would continue to issue warnings about the Hive's resurgence, likely in preparation of Crota's return but her warnings to the Vanguard would often be dismissed as they often viewed her warnings as madness.

With word reaching the Speaker about the resurgence of Hive activity on Earth, a Vanguard scout was sent to investigate the fortified Hellmouth for answers; His trail lead him to the entrance of the Temple of Crota only to be killed by the Hive. His Ghost was held captive by Vurok, Eir Spawn who probed it of information for study; the Ghost would likewise gain glimpses of the Seeder Ships prepared for invasion before expiring. Coming to the Moon for the first time, the Guardian would trace the deceased scout's location, where they faced Vurok and recovered the dead Ghost. From probing its memories, they soon got confirmation that the Hive were indeed preparing a second invasion of Earth.

Upon further inspection of the dead Ghost's memories, the Guardian's Ghost uncovered the existence of The World's Grave, a vast archive chronicling everything that the Hive had known of Earth. Delving into the depths of the Hellmouth in search of insight into the enemy, the pair killed Kranox, the Graven and loot his key to the archive itself. Upon further investigation, the two would fully realize the scope of the Hive's plans of seeding the Earth for centuries in preparation for Crota's second coming. They would warn the City of the impending danger.

The Dark Below

Sometime after the Guardian destroyed the Black Heart, Eris Morn relayed word to Ikora Rey and The Hidden of Crota's consort and general, Omnigul, having been sighted leaving the Hellmouth for the first time in centuries. While the majority of the Vanguard had taken to ignore Eris's warnings, some Guardians including one who destroyed the Black Heart, listened and agreed to help her in thwarting the Hive's schemes. Firstly, Eris Morn had the Guardians target Crota's Swarm Princes and hunt down their leader, Sardon, Fist of Crota at the The Grottos beneath the Cosmodrome. They would also successfully thwart Omnigul of her plot to corrupt Rasputin's Warsat network into lowering their defenses and even control the Warmind itself.

To prevent Crota from returning to the material plane and leading his armies, Eris guided the Guardians back to the Moon where the chamber housing Crota's soul was located in midst of Omnigul's summoning ritual. Due to the Guardians disrupting the ritual, the crystal tethering Crota's soul in the Chamber of Night would be sent back to the Ascendant realm, banishing his shadowy presence from the physical world and thereby preventing his corporeal return. The loss of the ritual plus the deaths of their army's leaders led Crota's Hive to fall into disarray and granted Eris time to finish off the remaining leadership by killing Omnigul for good. Forming a strike team, the Guardians took the fight against Omnigul as she was raising a new army of Hive at Skywatch and brought a swift end to her schemes.

These victories led the Vanguard to reconsider their views of Eris, now taking her knowledge of the Hive seriously. Though the Vanguard viewed the banishment of Crota's soul and Omnigul's death as a sigh of relief, Eris Morn however, believed they had only delayed the inevitable. Unless Crota himself is slain, he will ultimately return to complete his conquest. Thus, Eris Morn organizes the Guardians to form a Raid team to breach into the deepest pit of the Hellmouth so they confront the Hope-Eater.

Crota's End

Guardians preparing to enter the Hellmouth.

After forming a Raid team, the Guardians followed Eris's guidance of entering the Hellmouth, venturing the dark corridors and evading the Hive before reaching the gates of Crota's domain. Entering into Crota's Ascendant Realm, the Guardians clashed with the Hive Prince's army of Ascendant Hive before confronting Ir Yût, the Deathsinger. Yet despite the Hive Wizard's magic, the Guardians silenced the Deathsinger before working to summon Crota himself.

Using Crota's Ascendant Crystal, the Guardians summoned the Hope-Eater within his personal domain and battled. However, though the Guardians put up a fight, it became clear that conventional means had no effect on Crota. In desperation, the Guaridans turned Crota's own Sword-Logic against him with the Cleavers of his fallen Blades, actually wounding him. The battle grew more heated as Crota attempted to use the full force of his Oversoul to destroy the Lightbearers but the Guardians persevered and using his own sword, slayed the Hive Prince once and more all.

Aftermath

The Last City regarding Crota's death as a celebration, as the Guardians finally avenged all those the Hive Prince had killed, and dealt the Hive their first real defeat in centuries. Eris Morn herself was pleased that Crota was killed, thanking the Guardians for helping her claim her vengeance, but she became concerned what ramifications Crota's death would bring and thus sought out more Hive knowledge to prepare.

The Hive in the Sol System would be left in disarray following Crota's death but holdouts of the Hive on Earth and Luna would remain that Guardian patrols would continue to handle. However, within his final moments, Crota called out across the stars and his call would be heard by his father Oryx, the God-King of the Hive. Learning of his son's death at the hands of the Guardians, Oryx was left infuriated leading the Taken King to travel aboard his Dreadnaught to the Sol System to avenge his son and wipe out the Light's last hope. The arrival of Crota's father would begin the Taken War that would engulf the system but once more thanks to Eris's guidance, the Guardians succeeded in beating back the Taken King before slaying Oryx within his Ascendant Plane, denying Oryx his vengeance, depriving the Hive of their God-King and saving the Sol System.

List of appearances

• Destiny
  • The Dark Below (First appearance)