The Zanuka Project was a Corpus endeavor led by Alad V. The main goal was to graft Warframe abilities to Corpus proxies to serve as bargaining chips during business negotiations with the Grineer. The actions that Alad took to achieve this project would earn the ire of the Grineer, the Tenno and even his fellow Corpus, ultimately bringing Corpus-Grineer tensions to a head and sparking Operación: El dilema de Gradivus.
The Beginning of the Project[]
Much of the Zanuka Project's progress was started when Alad V discovered a cache of sleeping Tenno near Sedna, which not even Lotus knew about. As the project went underway, General Sargas Ruk discovered Alad's trespassing and demanded that he hand over the cache to the Grineer, as it was unearthed in Grineer territory. Rather than complying with Ruk's demands, Alad strengthened the defensive forces stationed on Marte in order to flank the Grineer forces. Furious by Alad's defiance, Ruk then demanded that the Corpus hand over all their territory to the Grineer or else face severe consequences.
The commotion managed to get Lotus' attention, but she refused to sway the Tenno towards either side. Instead she left the Tenno with two options; support the Grineer in order to rescue their fellow Tenno at the cost of the Grineer gaining more territory, or support the Corpus and drive the Grineer away from Mars, sacrificing their fellow Tenno in the process. The following skirmishes would be collectively called Operación: El dilema de Gradivus, being named after the first location to be contested.
After several engagements, the Corpus' Board of Directors decided to stop bankrolling Alad, on the grounds that the dilemma was putting a severe strain on their resources. With no resources to continue defending, Alad was forced to pull out and give the Grineer victory. The Board also cut their funding of the Zanuka Project as well, forcing Alad to continue the project without their financial assistance.
Post-Dilemma[]
A pesar de la falta de fondos, Alad aún pudo avanzar en su proyecto, tras haber trasladado sus instalaciones de investigación a Júpiter. En este punto, el Tenno se dio cuenta de que había un Warframe (Valkyr) recién descubierto en su poder que estaba siendo utilizado para el proyecto. Mientras tanto, el ex colega de Alad, Frohd Bek, también estaba rastreando a Alad en respuesta a la enorme deuda que le debía a la Junta como resultado del Dilema, aunque Bek también temía que su posición se pusiera en peligro si el Proyecto Zanuka tuviera éxito. Para contrarrestar las búsquedas de Bek, Alad desvió a los Infestados a sus naves, abrumándolos en el proceso.
Frohd Bek presented a deal to the Tenno; clear the Infested from his ships, and he would give them Alad's location. Although Lotus showed distrust to Bek she reluctantly agreed to his stipulations, fearing that more Tenno would be killed if Alad was allowed to continue. The ensuing manhunt cleared out the Infested and revealed Alad's base of operations in Themisto. By that time Alad was able to construct a working Zanuka prototype, but despite this the Tenno were able to defeat him and rescue the remaining Tenno in his clutches.
Aftermath of the Project[]
Although Alad was stopped, the Warframe he had in his possession had been extensively modified, leaving her physically and mentally scarred. Due to the lack of funding and resources the project's progress ground to a halt, but Alad was able to counteract this by developing Cazador Zanuka; downgraded Zanuka proxies that were easier to mass-produce.
Determined to see his project succeed, Alad would send these proxies to subdue and abduct Tenno during their operations in order to continue his project.
Behind the Scenes[]
The Zanuka Project was revealed during Livestream 16, with Digital Extremes stating that they would like to add Warframe creation to the lore of the game (as most Warframes were produced during the Orokin era, making Valkyr a "recent" development). The Project also introduced the game's second assassin in the form of the Cazador Zanuka, who would track down Tenno who sided with the Grineer during Invasiones.
Véase también[]
- Alad V, the head of the project.
- General Sargas Ruk
- Invasiones, the mission type that was introduced along with this project.
- Valkyr, the Warframe associated with this project.
- Zanuka, the project's namesake proxy.
- Cazador Zanuka, the mass-production equivalent.