The roster (GT's):

• breitzen
  
• DerekT07
  
• DiscipleN2k
  
• Kermit7
  
• FinalPOSTMORTEM
  
• ZeusTitan77

1. PRE RAID:

DiscipleN2k:
The stories I'd heard of the raid had me pretty intimidated. The suggestion to enter may be 26, but it sounded like we might need an extra level or two to survive. This is why, to be quite honest, I was a bit disappointed when I saw that I was the highest level on the team at just 27. I'd never played with any of you, but going on numbers alone, things didn't look too good. Thankfully, by the end of our first encounter, I could already tell that the numbers didn't mean squat. The guys might have had lower numbers next to their tags, but they all far surpassed me in skill. While I was intimidated to enter as a 27, Kermit charged in as a 25 and owned it. :)

Kermit
People used to talk about appointment television. The Raid is appointment gaming. And it's Destiny at its best, and that's interesting for me to say because I like story telling, and there is zero exposition. The Raid dumped us on Venus, and that's it. If there was going to be a story, we'd have to write it. We did write it, and it was an unforgettable experience.

2. THE SPIRE

Derek
From the very beginning I knew we were in for something unique. The first challenge of opening the gate did no justice to the difficulties our guardians would face within. We relatively easily conquered the gate, with the help of a random as we held our zones to open the gate. They watched as our fearless Fireteam headed in the gate.

3. THE TEMPLAR

Derek
The next phase of our quest made us a truly unique group. Without any guide to show us the way, we began the process of facing the Templar. We struggled as we encountered problems unlike any we had faced before. Our guardians fell time and time again, but we persevered. As the oracles began to take their toll on us, we developed into a well oiled machine. We made a critical mistake in our strategy, though. Somehow, none of us ever picked up on the cleansing mechanism of the relic. Despite this obstacle, we managed to conquer the Templar and his oracles. Our guardians took a break afterwards, sitting in a nice hot spring while we breathed sighs of relief.

4. GORGON’S MAZE

Postmortem
We found ourselves next in a large chamber, clearly too far of a drop for anyone to survive, yet with no obvious means to progress forward. I took a leap of faith, knowing we could not move on unless someone determined what way to go. My double-jump only took me halfway to the platform I was aiming at. I kept falling and falling expecting the inevitable kill-barrier to get me. When I finally came to a halt, I was standing in another hot spring, but this one darker and far less welcoming than the one we relaxing in earlier. I knew that we had found our next challenge, and so I called out to my Fireteam to make the leap.

Once we were all at the bottom, we began to ease forward, not knowing what was coming. A bright light ahead made us all stop, and the first Gorgon made its way around the corner. What came next was very much a series of trial-and-error, discovering first that the Gorgon’s could not be destroyed, then that they could so easily detect our Light, and finally, discovering a route through the labyrinth that - step by step - got us closer to our end goal. After nearly an hour of progressing slowly towards what we perceived to be our goal, it became clear that many of our team was having difficulty avoiding the deadly gaze of the Gorgons. We agreed upon a plan: I, the lone Hunter in our group, would scout ahead while the rest of the group stayed back, to discover where we would need to go. While doing this, breitzen discovered a back passage, behind where we had started. Assuming it might be a hidden way out, we backtracked and discovered that it was not an exit, but a long tunnel leading to a solitary chest. Opening the chest landed us Raid items and loot. I had attained the Shattered Vault Cloak, others weapons or ascendant materials.

Back to task at hand. With the whole team perched safely on a rock outcropping above the Gorgons, I crept towards the back passageway, and began to ease my way around the Vex minions. Slowly, I noticed that the tags of the whole Fireteam were coming back around into view, and as I rounded the corner, I realized that the goal we had been working towards for the past hour had been a deceptive path. The tunnel that I had hoped was to be our salvation was only a circular passage which led back to the labyrinth. I had been tricked.

Kermit thought to look in a back passage hidden from sight and right in the path of the patrolling Gorgons. During our next attempt, I once again delved forward and followed this passage down, until I was greeted by the entrance to the Vault of Glass. Having glimpsed our prize, I made my way back to assist the rest down, I stood in the doorway helping the rest of the team find the entrance. It was a great moment when the last of our members made it through, with my Hunter virtually rushing them through with waving hands and nervous glances over his shoulder to ensure we had truly made it. We had. The skills of a lone, stealthy Hunter had taken the spotlight for but a moment, and helped our team to move forward. But the worst was yet to come.

5. THE GATE

Derek
This is where our guardians' tale almost ended. As we tried to take down the gatekeepers, we struggled more than we ever had before, even in something as difficult as the earlier parts of the Vault. Without knowledge of cleansing, we faced truly impossible odds. Our endless deaths were too much for our hearts (and our need for sleep). Thus, we faced what the ancient heroes so often did not: true defeat.

Even as we reassembled with a new sixth guardian to attempt to tackle the Vault once more, our efforts were not enough. Our ability to continue was short-lived, and we were pushed out of the Vault again. Our only hope was to give it one last shot the next night, level up in the meantime, and pray that our sheer will to conquer would give us victory.

We once again required the assistance of another guardian to take a shot at Atheon. My friend, ZeusTitan77 (not of DBO) was kind enough to join us in battle. With knowledge of cleansing and a plan in place, we finally managed to slay the Gatekeeper in both past and future and return for our battle with Atheon. Suddenly, our team wiped without apparent cause. Fearing the worst, we openly hoped among ourselves that we had hit a checkpoint beyond the Gatekeeper, and we cheered as we realized that we had. Now the only thing left in our path was Atheon.

6. ATHEON

Derek
After a long series of battles, we knew we were running out of time. We decided to seek the advice of our own "oracles" (the Internet) to develop a better strategy to take Atheon down. Once we knew what we needed to do, it was only a matter of execution. I took on the role of being the relic holder, and I vanquished the enemies within the portals while the others took out the oracles. Once we returned, our guardians united at the center platform. I stood shielding my brethren as they threw everything they had at Atheon. We failed several times, with some of our attempts leaving him with only a sliver of health.

Postmortem
We had chipped down Atheon’s heath significantly, and our away team (consisting of Derek07 as Relic Holder, ZeusTitan77 and myself on Oracle duty) was transported to the past, where we grabbed the Relic, destroyed the Oracles, and made it back to the center platform to unleash our firepower on Atheon. But as I was unloading my ammunition, I saw that I was down to four shots in my sniper, with Primary and Heavy ammo both completely drained. With six seconds left, I ran back to the door and used a Heavy Ammo Synthesis, just in time to be transported to the future. As I switched to my Heavy machine gun to reload, I hurt the terrible sound of my Ghost alerting me that ZeusTitan77 had gone down. I was alone on Oracle duty on the other side of the Timegate, with no primary, four sniper rounds, and a machine gun in need of a lengthy reload. As the first Oracle hung over me for what felt like far too long, I reloaded and started unloading on the nonsensical ball of Vex light and logic, even as three more popped up. What followed was some of the most frantic and barely successful shooting of my entire time in Destiny. Halfway through, I needed to reload again, breitzen charged through the portal to my rescue, helping to take down two of the Oracles before returning with us to work on Atheon in the present.

WATCH IT HERE

breitzen
As we sprinted through the Timegate I leaped to the middle platform, Derek already there with the shield active. Then I hear my host announce that a Guardian had fallen. I had managed to save Postmortem from being lost in time but could not keep the Harpy’s from him in the present. With little fire power we took down Atheon’s health to but a sliver. And then I broke our rule. We had one rule: 6 seconds before Atheon would send half our team away we would scatter to our ready positions. I’m not sure who all was still shooting with me when the timer hit 6 seconds but I had run out of heavy and special ammo. With only my Legendary “Fair & Square” pulse rifle and grenades I did not give an inch. I don't know who put the final shot on Atheon, but with a terrible roar he fell and shattered on the ground into a million pieces.

7. THE RETURN

DiscipleN2k
When it was all said and done, I realized that I couldn't have hand-picked a better team. We struggled at nearly every stage, but even after facing the same challenge for what felt like the hundredth time, we were still able to laugh at our mistakes, refine our strategy, and stand back up for another attempt. No one got frustrated or angry when someone failed. You guys were always patient and willing offer up advice to help everyone improve. Eventually, we all found the roles that suited us best. There were no super-stars carrying the team and no weak links dragging us down. Just one team working together to take down Atheon and save the world...or the universe...or all of space-time. To be honest, I'm actually still kind of fuzzy on what we did, I just know that I got to be a part of the amazing team that got it done.

Thanks for spending twelve hours of your weekend with me. This was, by far, one of the best moments of my (very long) gaming life.

Derek
Finally, we returned to the Tower and had our celebratory dance party. We checked our our gear and donned our shaders (for those who had gotten them) and stood in a line to greet new arrivals in the Tower. After all our many deaths in the Vault, we allowed ourselves one more wipe as we took a unified dive off the Tower. We parted ways knowing that our tales would be given to the bards (thanks breitzen!).

Overall, I can't believe how great of an experience this has been. This was my first time playing with people from DBO, and it was awesome. I'd love to play with more of you guys and girls, even if maybe we take on something a little more casual. :) I couldn't have asked for a better team.

The Vault of Glass is the embodiment of what Bungie means when they say "Become Legend." Bungie wants you to have stories to have the bards sing after you come out of it. One could almost see our story fitting in with the legends of the Greek heroes. Atheon was our insurmountable obstacle, but if we wanted to be legend, we had to be just as good as Perceus, Theseus, or Hercules. We made our own names for the enemies of the Light to fear.

The Vault of Glass has been shattered.
Bravo has conquered.
Bravo has become legend.

Kermit
I wasn't sure if I'd ever make it through a Raid, but I was hopeful. I crow about how much I stink at video games all the time, but I secretly like to think I'm competent, at least against NPCs. My big fear going in was that I would obviously be the weakest link, and that link breaking was going to be the reason why we couldn't finish. It felt that way to me by the time we got to the Vault of Glass proper the first time. Enemies were level 28, and I was a lowly 25. It was difficult to kill anything. Minotaurs barely blinked at my fusion shots. (As an aside, my quest for level 26 before last weekend was hilarious in its failure--I needed one coin to get the Sunbreaker gauntlets as of Friday morning, and I got two coins on Sunday morning, after Xur had gone home. Argh!)

My team took 12 hours to finish the Raid, eight of which was on Saturday. Sunday night seemed particularly punishing, but we could still see progress. We'd last just a little longer before each reset. When we gave up on Sunday night, there were promises from many that they would level up before we met again on Monday night. Luckily for my team, I had a bad cold and missed work Monday, which meant I spent a good chunk of my day doing bounties (between coughing and sneezing), and was leveled up to 26 for our last shot at Atheon.

So after 12 hours, was it worth it? For me, yes. I don't how much I really contributed to figuring things out. I think each of us contributed ideas along the way. I grateful for my teammates for being patient with me, for the many revives (especially by breitzen, who always seemed to have my back, and have I mentioned how much I love Sunsinger?). There were network troubles, mic troubles, not to mention my frequent need to mute to keep from having a coughing fit in my friends' ears, and then forgetting I was on mute and not understanding it when they didn't react to my screams of terror later as I was being overwhelmed by Vex. Once when breitzen got kicked out, he somehow ended up dead on the landing platform far outside the doorway of the final chamber. Fortunately, I'd discovered during a brief solo visit on Monday that the door could be reopened merely by standing near it, and was able to pay back some favors and revive breitzen. Through it all, I was very proud of how our team carried themselves. Lesser men would have rage quitted or at least thrown their controllers against the wall. Postmortem showed fine leadership in Gorgon's Labyrinth. Disciple showed great skill defending the sync plates--often alone because the rest of the "home" team had died. Derek and Zeus, along with Postmortem, found ways get back through the gates with consistency. (I was terrified the few times I ended up on the "other side.") We all did our part, and that was THE thing.

During co-op nights, my goal was to make it hard enough so that most small talk HAD to take place in the lobby or before or after firefights. I hoped that the gameplay would require concentration and cooperation. It didn't always work. Many bungie.org folks can play Halo on Legendary in their sleep. Luke Smith is an evil genius who has awoken us from our slumbering our way through Bungie games. In many ways, the Raid has forced the issue with co-op play, and I couldn't be happier. Destiny has great names for things, but perhaps they should have called the Raid the Crucible. It broke us down, and formed us into the parts we needed to be. Like a Gate Lord, we were assembled into a functioning killing machine. I certainly wasn't the eye of this machine. I didn't see everything that went on. During that final successful run, I wasn't even one of the parts that shot at Atheon. I WAS the guy who killed the Harpies while everyone else shot at Atheon, and I'm okay with that. Indeed, I'm quite proud of it, truth be told. Well done, mates. Well done.

discovering first that the Gorgon’s could not be destroyed

Untrue :-)

You get a grimoire card for doing it actually.

(You also missed a second chest in the Maze).

discovering first that the Gorgon’s could not be destroyed

Untrue :-)

You get a grimoire card for doing it actually.

Clearly we needed better weapons then! lol. Can you actually kill all of them without being detected? That would be impressive!

(You also missed a second chest in the Maze).

We got it. Just didn't mention it ;)

discovering first that the Gorgon’s could not be destroyed

Untrue :-)

You get a grimoire card for doing it actually.

Clearly we needed better weapons then! lol. Can you actually kill all of them without being detected? That would be impressive!

No. When you are detected, you have about 10 seconds to kill it. Everybody has to just unload with heavy weapons. If you kill one, the others become stronger though, presumably to prevent you from just killing your way through the maze.

discovering first that the Gorgon’s could not be destroyed

Untrue :-)

You get a grimoire card for doing it actually.

(You also missed a second chest in the Maze).

We did this on our second Raid completion last night with a newly 26 clan member. Killing the Gorgons is hilarious--everyone jumping out at once and unloading. We managed to kill 2 Gorgons in a row.

- No text -

discovering first that the Gorgon’s could not be destroyed

Untrue :-)

You get a grimoire card for doing it actually.

Clearly we needed better weapons then! lol. Can you actually kill all of them without being detected? That would be impressive!

No. When you are detected, you have about 10 seconds to kill it. Everybody has to just unload with heavy weapons. If you kill one, the others become stronger though, presumably to prevent you from just killing your way through the maze.

I might be crazy but it seemed like my auto rifle (Atheon's Epilogue) did more damage when focused on the eye than my super or rockets.

discovering first that the Gorgon’s could not be destroyed

Untrue :-)

You get a grimoire card for doing it actually.

I heard about this shortly after beating the raid. Now I have a solid goal in mind for the next time I enter the Vault. :)