Season of the Worthy
Things had been pretty busy the past year. The discovery of a mysterious pyramid on the moon, the resurgence of the Undying Mind, and the return of the legendary Saint-14 being the most recent events. Now, from the intel gathered by Commander Zavala and former gunslinger Ana Bray, a defunct Almighty was on its way to crash into Earth with nothing to stop it. Ana had suggested to both Zavala and her fellow guardians they work together with Rasputin to build up Earth's defenses using his arsenal. Surprisingly, Zavala had agreed and so for the past month all available guardians were tasked with powering up Rasputin's vast arsenal.
This unfortunately was short lived as guardians left and right were showing up less and less to complete their tasks despite the looming threat above their heads. Zavala had guessed this was due to the mounting stress that had been building up since the most recent raid to the Black Garden. He could see it in their faces, their eyes. Not the look of defeat but rather sheer exhaustion and maybe a hint of anxiety. To make matters worse, Rapsutin showed him what was coming to the solar system in his bunker on Io. The current state of morale of the guardian population would be detrimental in future defense operations. Something needed to be done to boost morale and quickly. But what?
Then suddenly the perfect idea struck him in the head like a sentinel shield hurtling towards an unsuspecting hunter: A class competition. How did he come up with this grand idea exactly? Well, after Lord Saladin ended the second Iron Banner tournament that Spring, Eva Levante arrived at the Tower a few days later to prepare for the annual Revelry Festival. Guardians had all but flocked to the old woman to share their stories and perhaps complain about their hardships during the Iron Lord's competition. One day, on his way back to his office to file some strike reports, he decided to pay her a visit. As he approached Eva's stand, he spied a rather famous guardian with her: The Young Wolf, Flux-13 and a good friend of his, Tonitrus-9, seemingly arguing about the recent tournament while the old woman stood by silently listening. As Zavala approached, he caught the tail end of a counter argument made by Tonitrus.
"...was a totally fair tactic," Tonitrus said coolly.
"Totally fair?" Flux asked, his voice rising. "Nova warping into a group of kinderguardians after locking down all the zones is totally fair?"
"That's how you play Iron Banner," Tonitrus pressed. "Besides, how was I supposed to know you would be matched with a bunch of newly risen hunters?"
Flux wasn't having any of that, "You know we've been getting them in droves lately. I had to show them how the whole thing worked. The least you could do is dial it back a bit, they didn't know any better!" He all but shouted.
"And you do?"
"What do you m-" Tonitrus cut him off.
"Oh, come on! Bubbling the heavy ammo just to fire a wardcliff? You obviously know better." Putting up his fingers in air quotations.
"By your logic it was totally fair," countered Flux.
"You turned it into a mayhem match," He shouted back. "After you fired off that payload everyone started popping their super!"
"And that's when you warped in! Seriously, why are you warlocks so...so...broken!?
"Oh, you little crayon e-"
"ENOUGH"
Visibly flinching at the sound of the baritone voice, both Exos immediately halted their debate and slowly turned to look at their commander.
"If you two are done bickering, I would very much like to talk to Ms. Levante," Zavala said.
The two guardians glanced at each other briefly before letting out a defeated sigh.
"Alright, I've got Task Force duty anyway. We'll continue this later Flux," Tonitrus said before disappearing into the ongoing crowd.
"Yeah, see you then," he called out.
As they went their separate ways, Zavala walked up to the booth. The elderly woman beamed as he approached.
"Ah, Zavala. How nice to see you again," Eva greeted.
Zavala smiled. There was just something about her that made even the most aloof person smile. "Likewise Eva," he greeted in return before continuing. "What was that all about?"
"Oh, they were just telling me about their Iron Banner experience this past week…" Eva said before frowning. "Though it seems to be a trend to talk about the negatives."
Zavala raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean," he asked.
"Well…" she started, racking her brain for information. "The most common thing guardians like to talk about are their weapons." Her face scrunched up slightly. "I'm not sure how it works but they say two reputable weapon foundries made changes to their most popular products… two rifles I think."
Zavala nodded. He'd caught wind of the recent rivalry between the Suros and Omolon foundries, with the changes they made on their exotic auto rifles. When guardians saw the advertisements, they were all too eager to test them out in the Crucible and by extension, the Iron Banner. If what Shaxx and Saladin told him was correct, then a lot of guardians were on that hype train.
Eva continued, "Then the class animosity started. I've had quite a few titans tell me that almost every hunter would do nothing but 'ape'. This of course would upset any hunter that happened to pass by and would start arguments in front of my stall. Needless to say, these exchanges would get very heated as you saw earlier."
Zavala blinked. This was worse than he thought. He didn't know things were this bad between the guardians. He just thought they were exhausted but apparently Eva wasn't done.
"And that's just one of many instances I've had the past few days. Titans, Warlocks, and Hunters alike arguing with each other about who's superior." She sighed in exasperation. "I don't discriminate, I love all my guardians, but I've had to break up so many near-violent arguments that I've lost count. It's like they want a class competition."
Zavala crossed his arms in thought. "I see, it does sound pretty bad…class competition huh…" he mumbled. Suddenly his eyes widened.
"Eva, as you've already witnessed, guardian morale is at an all-time low." His lips tugged into a small smile, "but I think I have the perfect idea for the Revelry this year. However, we're going to need a lot of help. More than just you and me," he said.
Eva gave him an inquisitive look, "Oh? What do you have in mind?
"Well…"
