WARFRAME: Ghouls is a five-issue comic series that explores some of the events in an Ostron village leading up to the events of the game itself. More specifically, this series entails the tale of a lone Tenno and a blinded Ostron girl protecting an Orokin artifact from the Grineer force led by tactician Captain Vor.
A joint project between Digital Extremes and Top Cow Productions, the series is based on the idea of WARFRAME's creative director Steve Sinclair, written by Matt Hawkins and Ryan Cady with additional contributions from Cam Rogers and Ryan Mole, drawn by Studio Hive, and lettered by Troy Peteri; with contributions of cover designer Stjepan Šejić, Atilio Rojo and Kevin Glint. First announced on June 2017 on TennoCon 2017, the first issue was later released on October 2017 and began serializing itself.
Plot[]
The plot begins with a Grineer army unit led by Captain Vor raiding an Ostron village, intending to scavenge any Orokin artifacts left in the vicinity. Unable to find any, the raid unit deems the Ostrons rebelling against them and immediately executes them one by one, destroying their homes and settlement.
Following the ensuing genocide, an Excalibur Warframe arrives to fend off the Grineer raid and nearly forces them into retreat. Yet, despite the tide of battle turning, the Excalibur chooses to save an Ostron child from danger instead of continuing the fight.
After hiding and tending to the child, the Grineer soon return with their never-before-seen Ghouls to capture the Warframe – dead or alive. The Excalibur is eventually overwhelmed by the continuous onslaught of the Grineer army and their ghouls, prompting the Lotus to seek the assistance of a fellow Tenno for reinforcements, Mag.
Captain Vor had successfully captured Excalibur, paralyzed by the Ghoul blood, now unable to fight back. The captain interrogates the Tenno, asking what goals do they wish to achieve by protecting the Ostron Village – a question left unanswered by the mute soldier.
Captain Vor then forces himself into the Excalibur's memory space with an Ascaris gear, forcefully extracting their intelligence and learning of the Ostron girl's knowledge of an Orokin Vault but not before the Lotus interferes by forcefully turning the mute warrior "offline". Unable to glean any more intelligence, Captain Vor gathers his men to capture the Ostron girl.
Meanwhile, a Solaris United operative, Little Duck, runs into the blinded Ostron girl by chance and provided her with aid and succor. After the blinded girl told her everything that transpired, the operative offers her a ride to other Ostron Colonies for her safety. Unfortunately, before they could make their moves, Captain Vor and his soldiers had discovered them once more, the two attempted to fight back and escape the Grineer army, but it was an effort quickly proved futile against their overwhelming numbers. In the nick of time, a Warframe, Mag, arrived as a reinforcement and quickly turned the tide of the battle against the Grineer, prompting them to retreat. On top of that, in the midst of the chaos Little Duck manages to steal Vor's Orokin Key as the force retreats.
After the battle, the Lotus speaks with the Ostron child via a holographic transmission, referring to her as Mitsuki. Making clear that she intended to secure the Orokin Vault before the Grineer could, she requests the blinded girl to lead the Mag and Little Duck into the Orokin Vault herself.
The twice-defeated Captain Vor, having returned to their base camp with their soldiers, then prepares to make his third, desperate assault against the Lotus's force. He turns his attention to the inactive Excalibur, expressing his interest to turn the Warframe against the Tenno - by controlling it.
The Lotus's force consisting of Mag – a Warframe, Little Duck – a Solaris United operative, and Mitsuki – a blinded Ostron girl, continues their journey towards the Orokin Vault whom the latter of the group reveals that it was hidden within the caverns north of the village. They entered the cave, quickly clearing up the Grineer sentries inside, and eventually discovers the Orokin Vault. Utilizing Captain Vor's Orokin Key that Little Duck stole, they unlocked the Orokin Vault revealing a void gate within.
Having called in plenty of Grineer reinforcements, Captain Vor – following the loss of his key, quickly adapted his plan to let the Tenno open the vault on their behalf. After rallying his troops, he makes their advance towards the Orokin Vault.
Back to the Tenno's side, after passing through the threshold, they found themselves in what seemed to be a time-worn Orokin Tower overgrown with Infested tissue, an Orokin Derelict. Quick scans by the Lotus revealed that there is an Arogya Medica within the ship – An artifact the Lotus wants to keep away from the Grineer. Before she could explain herself, she was abruptly cut off before she could finish her transmission, discovering an Infested horde within as they charge towards the newcomers.
Trapped within an Infested vessel and unable to contact the Lotus, Mag and Little Duck defend themselves against the incoming horde while Mitsuki could only hide under the protection of the two soldiers. In concern for the girl, who was weakened by the Ghoul poison inflicted on her, Mag and Little Duck continues to look for Arogya Medica within the vessel whilst defending themselves.
The Solaris operative was eventually disarmed and overwhelmed by one of the swarm. With the help of Mitsuki, Little Duck manages to escape certain death, but the girl was not as fortunate, having sustained a fatal attack from one of the Infested. After fending off the horde assaulting them, they continued on their journey while carrying the dying child in hand, arriving at what seemed to be the Arogya Medica: a room with a peculiar Orokin pod.
In the meantime, the Grineer forces led by Captain Vor had already arrived at the very same Orokin gate. Much like Mag and her allies, they were immediately ambushed by the Infested the second they pass through the threshold. Things seem to get more dire as the Grineer's useless attempt to hack an Orokin console instead activated the Medica protocol throughout the ship, causing Neural Sentry drones to float across the vessel, implanting themselves onto the faces of Grineer and Infested alike and corrupting them in the process. Now, not only they have to deal with the Infested, they also have to deal with the drones as well as their corrupted allies.
Back to the Tenno's side, Mag, faintly seeing a vision of her awakening, puts Mitsuki into the pod and began interfacing with a console nearby. Activating the device, Mitsuki screamed in pain as a surge of electricity ran over her. As the device finishes, the Ostron girl gets back on her feet and takes off her blindfold, her eyes completely modified, looking at the Tenno and the Solaris operative as if she was never blind.
Mitsuki wakes up from the Medica pod confused, finding the ghoul poison gone from her vitals and her eyes healed – or more precisely, modified to the machine's vision of "perfection" (turning her eyes completely white and decorated with Orokin markings). Looking for more information, Little Duck then interfaced with the pod to inject the Orokin vessel's vast intel into Mitsuki's head, harming her mind in the process, but granting her access to the ship's vision and knowledge.
Mitsuki then tries to find out a way to escape the vessel. Though her mind wasn't built to handle the load, she had managed to scan her vicinity learning the presence of the Infested, Grineer and Corrupted fighting across the vessel, but also learning the full potential of the Arogya Medica and realized that Captain Vor cannot be afforded to obtain this artifact at all. At the same time, Captain Vor and his forces finally found their way into the Medica chamber, which Mag and her Solaris United ally greets warmly with firepower. Taking advantage of the ship control, Mitsuki enters into the pod once again and summons powerful electrifying arcs towards her enemies stunning most of their assailants, buying the Tenno force some time to escape as they make their way out.
On their way to exit the vessel, they had managed to recontact the Lotus and managed to free Excalibur from the Grineer. Crossing through the void gate, Lotus quickly advises Little Duck to dislodge the key used to power the void gate, but not before Captain Vor crosses the threshold shoots at the operative and the Tenno both, incapacitating them. Excalibur quickly comes into rescue and restrains the Grineer, holding him up by the back of his neck, giving Mag the opportunity to punt the Grineer general back into the Orokin vessel, for good.
The battle was over for the Tenno and their allies. The Lotus warriors, Mag and Excalibur, finally earned their rest and flies back off to their orbiter. The Solaris operative, Little Duck managed to obtain a minute data of the Orokin vessel from Mitsuki, enough to pay her monthly interest and all the injury she has sustained over the fight. The Ostron girl, Mitsuki was turned blind once again upon disconnection to the ship, though she found herself a new home at The Quills. Captain Vor, despite being stranded in the Orokin vessel alone and having to fight for his own life, betrayed one last sinister smile.
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