Kobras Aquairre
Kobras Aquairre was a merciless and terrifying Rogue Trader and Inquisitor Lord.[1a]
History
These two positions, gave Aquairre extraordinary power within the Imperium and he developed a well-deserved reputation as a butcher of worlds. In 101.M41 his fleet entered the depths of the Koronus Expanse after being tasked with rooting out Xenos and those who fled the Emperor's judgment there. Aquairre would never return to the Imperium again, but he couriered reports of his actions back to the Calixis Sector's Port Wander. These reports form the the basis of much of what is known by the Imperium about the Koronus Expanse to this day. However it is believed that Aquairre reported far less than what he found to his masters. Even now, dead and ravaged worlds marked by his banner are still being rediscovered within the Koronus Expanse.[1a]
His reports, though, would eventually stop reaching Port Wander. After more than a decade without receiving them, the Space Station declared Aquairre to be dead in 151.M41. This was met with rejoicing from some and lamentation from others. Rumors also abounded as to how Aquairre died, with some claiming his ships were destroyed by a fleet of pale-hulled Xenos craft. Others claim an unexpected Warp Storm spelled his end, but no facts or proof were presented either way. In the wake of Aquairre's passing, however, many other Rogue Traders were drawn to the Koronus Expanse to seek their fortune. The truth of Aquairre's final fate was reveal in 201.M41, when the damaged Frigate Elementis Vulpa returned to Port Wander. It had been a part of Aquairre's fleet and the crew claimed that he had ordered his ships into the Expanse's Rifts of Hecaton. They had done so with the expectation of meeting their deaths within the Rifts, and vanished afterwords. All except the crew of the Elementis Vulpa, which refused to follow the Inquisitor's fleet. The Frigate's crew instead disobeyed Aquairre's final order and returned to Port Wander. Upon hearing this, rumors abound in the Space Station of the Rifts' dead suns and lifeless darkness. Aquairre is thought to have sacrificed his fleet willingly, in order to stop some terrifying threat to all Human life. The Elementis Vulpa and her crew meanwhile subsequently disappeared and some say they were taken by the Ordo Xenos.[1a]
In 742.M41, however, there are sightings of a vessel sporting Aquairre's livery, in the Koronus Expanse's Battle of Agusia. It is said, that the black-iron ship assisted the Rogue Trader fleet, during the Battle's worst fighting. These reports, though, are later dismissed by all the fleet's surviving Rogue Traders, as being “mere fantasy.”[1b]
It was later discovered that Aquairre's fleet had encountered the lost and corrupted Aeldari Craftworld Lu'Nasad in the Rifts. The Craftworld had destroyed his fleet, but Aquairre and a small team of men had managed to survive and land on the massive Aeldari ship. Aquairre used his psychic talents to engage in a battle of wills with the Craftworld's Infinity Circuit while his men were slain around him by the servants of Chaos. Although Aquairre failed, he did manage to transfer his soul into a spirit stone and survived in that form for over six centuries, retaining his sanity only through his devotion to the Emperor.[2]
Sources
- 1: Fantasy Flight Games: Rogue Trader: Epoch Koronus (Posted on 26/10/2009) (Last accessed on 9 August 2021)
- 2: Rogue Trader: Fallen Suns pg. 48
