The Story Begins

They had brought me to their dojo -a modest affair with walls yet untarnished by the garish colours some prefer- and studied me with profound and perhaps misplaced interest as I beheld their duels. Three warriors they were; names unknown, for while certainly not silent, they were neither quite so garrulous as I might expect.

Excaliber stood at my side, gazing upon the unarmed duel before us, where two Inaros sprang forth in torrents of light and deafening wails of metal on metal.

"What are you training to fight with such intensity?" I carefully stitched the words into the most innocuous tapestry possible, yet he still turned my way with an ominous forboding in his molten scarlet eyes.

When he remained silent, I expelled a long breath. "Obviously, you would not have brought me here if you did not trust me. Only one creature could you possibly loathe so much as to batter him apart with your own body: the mindless lambs of our fellow Tenno."

He nodded. "We seek to overthrow the Lotus"

The bluntness of his words startled me. "Either you really trust me, or I am not going to leave this place alive." In the dueling arena beyond, an Inaros clad in silver and black stood with his scalp gleaming in his foe's blood. His clawed hands twitched, eager to rend the prone creature before him. Without warning or mercy, he fell to his knees, and with fiendish gluttony devoured the vanquished man, filling the air with screams of terror and agony.

"He was unworthy." Excaliber remarked. "I pray that you shall not be."

"The Lotus has freed us from one prison, only to forever bind us within another." Lightning burned through my blood as I met his challenging stare. "I will stop at nothing to dethrone her."

"How is it that you plan to destroy the Lotus?" I sighed inwardly as he regarded me with curiosity and suspicion. "Already you have revealed your intent; knowing that much is nearly as lethal as the plan through which your goal shall rise from dream to reality. If you had no intent of sharing that with me, there would be little purpose in luring me here, and revealing such a dangerous truth."

He nodded. "Aye; a habit it is however, to regard the Lotus' whores with disdain if not a healthy sliver of concern. It is War that shall cleanse this realm, my new ally. War that she herself condones."

Silently, I gestured for him to elaborate.

"The Solar Rails; she delights in our destruction of one another, knowing that it hones our skill for the day more challenge foes that bumbling Grineer and half blind Corpus stumble into the path of our blades."

"So you would create war as a diversion?" I asked cautiously, uncertainty stealing the confidence from my voice.

"Aye. We shall conquer Solar Rails, and garner her attention, give her reason to look this way."

"Is that not the opposite of our goal?"

"Far from it. When her attention is shifted to the intoxicating flames of war, she will become blind to machinations deeper than steel on Warframe, and curses hissing from metal lips. We shall slowly learn of her location, then in her distraction slay her."

"Assassinating the Lotus," I mused. "One last death, and we shall be free."

"Indeed." He nodded grimly. "One last death, and we shall be free."

I stood at his side, our softly glowing eyes of starlit sea and darkling ebony peering out into the vastness beyond. This ragged vessel, this frail construct that drifted like a corpse lain upon bloodied waters, was to our eyes a beacon of undying hope.

"Will it be enough?" I whispered, realizing only now that my voice had dwindled and all but fled.

"Not without an army." He turned to me, searching my face earnestly as if he could peer through alloy and wire to the Operator beyond. "And that is where you are needed."

I nodded. "Of late, I have ventured out infrequently. While our skills are slow to diminish, I all the same warn you that I am far less than prolific."


"You do not need to be. Show our acolytes the way, teach them from where Specters can be salvaged, and you will have done all I require."


"You mean rescue missions?" I asked, confused. "The Lotus herself awards us those Specters; more difficult missions equate greater reward, can you not spare the mere moment it would take to inform our acolytes?"


"No." He turned back to the viewport, his arms crossed behind his back. "What I ask seems meaningless, yet rest assured that deeper purpose drives it. I wish you to meet our fellows, and prove to them that you are of like mind." His voice cracked slightly. "And when the time comes, mourn them as only a comrade can."