Mars

Mars is the fourth planet in the Solar System. After the Collapse, the planet now serves as a base to the alien species known as the Cabal.

History
The Traveler's appearance on Mars brought rain to the red planet, and it was here that Humanity first encountered the being. Once, populating Mars had been but a dream for humanity, but with the arrival of the Traveler a thriving metropolis named Freehold came to dominate the skyline of the world, a bastion of human life in the red dunes. With the coming of the Darkness, nearly all of the city was "swept away" and the sand claimed what remained. The city now lies buried beneath the dunes of Mars, with only the peaks of its once-soaring skyscrapers poking out of the dust as evidence that they ever existed. At some point during the Collapse, the Worm god Xol, alongside the Ascendant Hive Nokris arrived on Mars with a detachment of Hive known as the Grasp of Nokris. To prevent the Hive from taking Mars, Rasputin froze himself alongside Nokris and Xol, sealing them away beneath the surface of Mars for centuries.

Destiny 1
Mars is now a scorched desert world, occupied by Cabal forces who control the Exclusion Zone. The Vex also have a presence on the planet, and engage in frequent skirmishes with the Cabal, with whom they are at odds. An indelible sign of the Cabal presence on Mars is the moon Phobos, which has had its orbit dramatically altered by Cabal planetary engineering; it now fills a significant part of the sky. Even more disturbing is the discovery of large "planet-cracking" munitions among the Cabal's already devastating arsenal.

Destiny 2
According to a scannable Vex Conflux on Nessus, the player's Ghost finds a transmission from the Vex indicating that the Red Legion have helped the Cabal seize more territory from the Vex. The message reads "Garden Gate gone, Bay lost, Bastion fallen."--the gate to the Black Garden is destroyed, Meridian Bay is lost to the Cabal and that Bastion has been destroyed after several attempts by the Cabal to take it. Much later, the ancient Warmind Rasputin, which remained dormant for centuries after the Collapse, awakened to fight the threat of the return of Xol and Nokris, with the assistance of the Young Wolf and Ana Bray.

Gameplay
Guardians can climb into the upper windows of Mars's skyline and venture into the depths below to discover what items and enemies may lie below the surface. Several Crucible arenas take place on Mars as well.

Regions

 * Black Garden
 * Eos Chasma
 * Hellas Basin
 * Meridian Bay