The War Within

 is a cinematic quest released in. This questline explores the origin of the Twin Queens, Teshin, and the truth behind the Zariman Ten-Zero incident.

Walkthrough
''WARNING: The walkthrough ahead contains significant spoilers to Warframe's lore. It is recommended to play through the quest first.''

The player must have a Mastery Rank of at least 5, complete The Second Dream quest and have completed the Sedna Junction at Pluto in order to start this quest.

If the player has accomplished all the necessary prerequisites, a message from the Lotus will arrive in the player's inbox with the following content:

"Something has happened on Lua and my spies have become unresponsive. I need you to investigate immediately."

- The Lotus

The quest can then be activated in the Codex under the Quests section. A short cinematic will then play, showing the Twin Queens in their lair discussing Continuity. Back on the Orbiter, the Lotus worryingly asks about the Operator's state due to high Somatic output. After the Operator reassures the Lotus of their condition, they are asked to deploy a Warframe to Lua to investigate the missing spies.

Investigate the Reservoir on Lua: Zeipel, Lua
Landing on Lua, the Lotus narrates how they are now in the place where Margulis tried to save the Tenno, stating that all Tenno were born there. As the Operator tries to clarify whether they were truly born there, the Lotus relates that they were the only things saved from the Zariman as the Orokin tried to rectify their mistake. Detecting an unusual signature within the vicinity, the Lotus asks the Tenno to investigate.

Deeper in the facility, the Tenno will encounter a shadowy being that can seemingly teleport, with the Operator reporting that they think the intruder is Teshin. Confused as to Teshin's presence, the Lotus asks the Tenno to track him down, seeing as how he is heading towards the reservoir.

Through a transmission, Teshin asks the Tenno, whom he refers to as a "child", to leave as the matter at hand doesn't concern them. Annoyed at Teshin's behavior, the Operator asks what he is doing. When the Tenno finally catches up to Teshin, they see him in the reservoir performing an unknown task, and hearing a female voice asking Teshin to bring something to them. Asking as to the identity of the female voice, Teshin reveals it to be "the queens", which the Operator immediately recognizes as the Grineer's Twin Queens. Teshin draws his sword to the Warframe's neck when the Tenno gets too close, warning them that they are not as safe behind the Warframes as they think, and that Teshin will fight them if they attempt to follow him. He then casts a decoy Specter of himself as he escapes, while the place begins to fill with Corrupted.

The Operator asks the Lotus to track Teshin, who replies that Teshin's Specters are masking his signature. The Lotus, having once thought the Grineer Queens as just a myth propagated by Grineer Command, asks the Operator if Teshin should do this alone. With the Operator still annoyed at Teshin's condescending behavior towards them, the Operator states that they will not be told what to do by Teshin, and asks the Lotus to track Teshin down once they've dealt with the Specters.

Players at this point must pursue one of Teshin's Specters, which appear as a violet energy decoy of him, and then take him down. Unlike most Capture targets, Teshin's Specter will fight back if threatened, engaging the player in melee combat. Once Teshin's Specter has been successfully taken down, players must then quickly capture it via a Capture Target prompt, since unlike regular Targets those specters will stand back up. After the player accomplishes this, the Lotus will ask the Tenno to extract, having locked on to Teshin's route.

Track Teshin: Carpo, Jupiter
Heading to a Corpus Gas City on Jupiter where the Lotus has tracked Teshin's signal, the Lotus muses on the tactical advantage they can gain against the Grineer if they can locate the Twin Queens. The Operator then wonders why Teshin doesn't want the Tenno's help if he's tracking down the Queens, making the Lotus muse about Teshin's prideful personality.

Once the Tenno catch up to Teshin's location, it is revealed that they are tracking yet another of Teshin's Specters, and the Lotus asks the Tenno to capture it so they can use it to track Teshin. As with the previous mission, players must disable and then Capture the Teshin Specter before it can escape. Players can then extract once they have accomplished the mission.

Pursue Teshin into the Asteroid Field: Naga, Sedna
The Lotus tracks down Teshin's next location to a supposedly uninhabited asteroid field that deep scans reveal to have a 'security matrix', making the Lotus believe that someone is hiding something. The Lotus then asks the Tenno to prepare their Archwings for the mission.

Inserting near an unusual asteroid structure, the Lotus briefs that the Tenno must disable the security matrix surrounding it before they can head inside to investigate. The Lotus asks Ordis as to whether their approach is right, to which Ordis points out the various traps and dangers outside of the shipping corridor the Tenno are in, and are thus advised to stick to their route.

Inside the asteroid base, Ordis points to the presence of a Grineer transport ship passing through the various laser scanners within their route. In this section, players must avoid the red laser scanners within the corridor by keeping the moving transport between themselves and the red laser scanners as they pass. There are two sets of lasers that players must clear safely before they reach the end of the corridor, terminating into a transport hangar, where the player will encounter Kuva Grineer for the first time.

Upon reaching the hangar players are automatically detached from their Archwings to transition into standard ground combat, where they are then tasked with disabling the security matrix by activating a console. When the console is activated, players must then defend the console from Grineer attack for 2 minutes until the shutdown is complete - players will fail the mission if the console is destroyed. Once the console is deactivated, players must then kill all remaining Grineer within the hangar to continue with the mission.

Transitioning into Archwing once more, the Operator expresses their surprise at the asteroid base that lies beyond the hangar, with the Lotus presuming it to be the Queen's Fortress. The Operator notes the Fomorian engines attached to the fortress, and realizes that the base is mobile, explaining why they've never been able to find it. The Lotus asks the Tenno to return to their ship and wait for Teshin to contact them, but the Tenno sees this as an opportunity to discover what's inside, fearing that they'll lose their chance if the fortress moves again. Despite the Lotus' pleas over a degrading transmission, and warnings of increased Transference distortions, the Tenno heads deeper into the Fortress.

At this point, players are asked via a prompt whether they want to continue into the Fortress or not, warning them that mission access will be restricted once they proceed, meaning that players will be unable to abort the mission or change equipment from that point onward. Quest will be in Solo mode from that point as well.

Kuva Fortress
Proceeding inside the Fortress, the Operator tries to contact the Lotus, only to discover that they no longer have contact with her, and thus must proceed without her. The Fortress features various scanners that will trigger defenses when a Tenno is detected; players can choose to either avoid the scanners by stealth, or simply run through the level as fast as possible.

Deeper into the Fortress, players will come upon a large cavernous room with an large elevator whose access is locked. In order to activate the elevator, players must find three Elevator Keys mounted on consoles throughout the cavern, and then carry them to the main console in the center of the room to be installed. Only when all three Elevator Keys are installed will the main elevator open, granting access to the bottom levels.

On the level below, the Tenno finally find the Queen's throne room, where they are then confronted by Teshin, telling them that they have ruined them both, as Kuva Guardians and the Twin Queens themselves descend on the room. The Queens reveal Teshin's true name as Teshin Dax, a Dax soldier from the old Orokin Era, who is unable to disobey the Queen's orders. Disappointed at how Teshin brought the Warframe instead of the Operator themselves, the Queens nonetheless manage to restrain the Tenno with Teshin's help, allowing them to implant a drill-like cyst into the Warframe's head that begins to scramble and overload the Operator's Somatic Link to sever their connection with the Warframe, an act called a Transference Surge. Unable to shut down the Link from the Orbiter and prevent the Surge, the Operator is rendered unconscious.

The Purge Precept
The Operator wake up outside of their Transference chamber to the sound of a distraught Ordis. The Operator asks Ordis to reestablish Transference with their Warframe, unfortunately Ordis states he is unable to do so, asking the Operator to reestablish the link with their Void energies. At this point, players must use their Void powers on the Somatic Link receptacle on top of the Transference chamber by firing a Void Beam at it, activated via the fire key.

After failing to restart Transference, Ordis suddenly initiates his Purge Precept, as he begins to shoot at the Operator using their Sentinel's default guns with the objective of killing them, stating their inability to command the Warframes as the reason. The player must now escape to the front of the Orbiter, avoiding both the Sentinel's attacks, and steam vents that periodically damage and block and player from progressing.

The Mountain Pass: Earth
Managing to escape to the front of their landing craft, the Operator now find themselves stranded on top of a snowy mountain on Earth. Players must navigate the snow-covered path and avoid getting blown off by the wind as they make their way to a cave at the end of the path.

Within the cave, the Operator finds a corpse by a fireplace, where they are then confronted by Teshin once more. After a brief altercation where the Operator fails to land a punch on Teshin, the latter locks the Operator inside the cave by closing an old automated door. As Teshin's voice explains the nature of Margulis' "lie" as to what she did to the Tenno, the Operator comes across a massive Ayatan Sculpture encased in icy stalactite. Players must use their Void Beam to destroy the ice, before shooting the front of the Sculpture with the beam, setting off a reaction that sees the Operator fall to the abyss below.

The Ravenous Golden Maw
After waking up from their fall, and remembering bits of their past narrated by the Queens, the Operator comes across a chamber with the floor covered in bones and skeletons, with a creature - an Orokin Maw - visibly moving underground that Teshin warns the Operator of.

The objective of this particular section is to cross the chamber safely to the other side without being devoured by the Orokin Maw, who will erupt from the ground and consume the Operator if the player stays too long within the floor of bones. In order to cross the chamber, players must sprint and jump to safe areas, visible as large, solid rocks, before the creature can reach them. The Orokin Maw itself will move around the bone floor in a semi-predictable manner, and thus players must time their runs to when the creature is furthest from their position. Alternatively, there are side paths in the chamber that allow for safe passage to the rocks.

After crossing the chamber, the Operator unlocks another of their memories of their time aboard the Zariman, and along with it the ability to perform Void Blast, a powerful conic blast that can be fired by the Operator to the front, and which they can use to destroy the broken rock wall blocking their way further down the cave. After another memory narrated by the Queens regarding the Operator's original father, the Operator will unlock another ability called Void Dash, a short-range teleport allowing them to cross large distances quickly, and which the player can use to cross the gap by that part of the corridor going forward. Both abilities use up energy, visible as a symbol on the player's crosshair; the brightness of the symbol determines the energy level, with the crosshair become dimmer the more energy is used until it is depleted, and brightening as the energy recharges.

Players will come across yet another bone chamber, this time with two Orokin Maws, thus necessitating the use of their newly acquired powers to cross the chamber. After another narrated memory, the Operator will unlock Void Mode, a short-term invisibility power that remains active as long as the appropriate key is held. As with the other Void powers, Void Mode consumes energy while active.

Another bone chamber will present itself to the player soon after, which will require players to use Void Mode in conjunction with their other powers to cross.

At the end of the path another memory is narrated by the Queens, however players are now given a choice between three replies in how to respond:


 * [White] I held out hope
 * ...that we would be rescued. So I avoided the bloodshed.
 * [Neutral] They had lost their minds
 * ...I didn't blame them. We built a makeshift prison.
 * [Black] They were nothing but animals
 * ...so I hunted them.

The Operator will now unlock the ability to perform Transference, allowing them to physically possess and take control of an eligible target, as Teshin explains that they have now unlocked their full power. In the next and final bone chamber, players are tasked with using Transference against an Orokin Maw, which can be done by stunning the Maw with Void Blast, and then using Transference while targeted. Once players have control of the Maw, they can use the Maw's ability to burrow and attack to cross the the chamber to the mountain exit.

Outside, players must navigate their way through the mountain side before coming across an old Orokin facility called a Yuvan Theater, which Teshin explains is where eligible young and exotic people are traded and bartered for the Orokin to use in the ritual known as Continuity. Teshin then reveals that the Queens' goal is to take over the Operator's mind and body.

Another memory is narrated by the Queens, and another dialogue choice is offered:


 * [White] I hated it
 * [Neutral] I controlled it
 * [Black] I embraced it

The entire sequence in the mountain pass is revealed to be a mental scenario taking place in the moments before the Queen's Transference Surge completes, as the Operator manages to break free from the Transference Surge this time, Waking up in the Orbiter once more, the Operator finds that they have retained the new powers they have unlocked, including their Void Beam no longer having a restriction. Wanting to get their Warframe back, and with Ordis telling them that the Fortress has moved once again, the Operator performs a Transference with player input to teleport themselves to their Warframe.

With the Warframe and Operator now together within the Queen's chambers, the Queen order their Kuva Guardians to attack the Tenno. The Kuva Guardians are immune to Warframe attacks, and Warframe powers are nullified inside the chamber, along with the player being unable to use their Primary and Secondary weapons, or any Gear. In order to fight the Guardians, the Tenno must utilize their Operator's void powers to destroy them by stepping out of their Warframe using their Transference ability. Each Kuva Guardian can be killed via the following steps:


 * The Kuva Guardian must first be stunned with a Void Blast.
 * Once the Kuva Guardian is kneeling on the ground with an orange glow around them, players must Void Dash through the Guardian to disarm them of their staves.
 * Finally, once the Kuva Guardian starts to use their Twin Rogga pistols, players can now deal damage to them using Void Beam or Warframe.

The Operator can take damage, but cannot be killed; if the Operator's health is depleted, they are immediately returned to the Warframe, and can be re-summoned afterwards. Each Operator's death depletes Warframe's total health though, so it's still possible to fail this way.

On killing the first Kuva Guardian, Teshin will point out the weakness to the Queen's systems: the large, red braids hanging around their throne. Killing each set of Kuva Guardians will make the braids vulnerable to attack, indicated by their glyphs glowing red, and thus allowing them to be destroyed with the Operator's Void Beams.

After the player destroys the braids, the Elder Queen will order Teshin to attack the Tenno. Unlike the Kuva Guardians, Teshin is capable of restraining the Operator via his Orvius glaive weapon, rendering the Operator helpless. However, Teshin is vulnerable to the Warframe's melee attacks.

Once the player has defeated Teshin, the Queen will try to attack the Tenno with a beam weapon. For this part, players only have to wait for the Queen to drop her shield to fire the beam weapon, and then use Void Dash against the Queen. With the Queen's Kuva Scepter in hand, another dialogue choice will be given to the player, which will affect the cutscene that follows:


 * [White] Let her rot
 * [Neutral] I will do it
 * [Black] Kill her

Regardless of which choice the player makes, they regain contact with the Lotus, and are then ordered to extraction while fighting off any Grineer still present.

Upon their return to the ship, Ordis asks the player if they can still use Transference, prompting the player to perform Transference to switch to using their Operator. A short argument erupts between the Lotus and the Operator over Margulis' actions with the Tenno, before Ordis interrupts with reports of an active Old War beacon. Players can initiate investigating the beacon by activating the Orbiter's navigation console.

Return to The Mountain Pass: Earth
The player once again returns to the same mountain pass they were in earlier. While the route is identical to the previous Mountain Pass mission, this time there are obstacles to the player's path that has to be removed using the player's powers - Void Blast for destroying ice walls, and Void Beam for opening Orokin doors by shooting a barrel with glowing lines beside the doors.

On reaching the large Ayatan Sculpture seen previously, players can activate it once again by shooting it with a Void Beam. Once activated, a series of platforms will float and be lit up as the player traverses them via Void Dash, until they reach a door at the top of the chamber. From there, the Operator meets with Teshin outside, as they talk about the Kuva Scepter they acquired from the Queens, and how best to use it. The final dialogue choice for players will appear:

You owe me.
 * [White] Destroy
 * You mad at me, kiddo? Did you forget?
 * [Neutral] Control
 * Just remember kiddo, you're nothing without me.
 * [Black] Consume
 * Hey, kiddo, what took you so long?

Aftermath
After completing the quest, Teshin will send an inbox message, asking for forgiveness for his actions. The message also comes with four rewards for completing the quest:


 * Broken Scepter
 * Orvius Blueprint
 * Riven Mod
 * Grineer Queens Glyph.

Completing the quest will unlock the Kuva Fortress location on the Star Chart, as well as permanently unlocking the ability to use the Operator in combat.

Trivia

 * The Lotus already hints to The War Within during her final conversation with the Tenno at the end of The Second Dream.
 * Orbiter is free of any previously placed decoration during the Quest.