Decanus Aquila DeRhone Corneille

Orbitalis Decanus Dominus Aquila DeRhone Corneille

## Early Life

Born on the frozen world of Ergus to a peasant family, Corneille spent his childhood as a furnace worker in the small settlement of Rhone. Growing up oppressed by both his planet's environment and government, Corneille was inspired by tales of the wondrous Empire and the mighty knights who protect it - House Aquila. Early in his adulthood, around the age of 16, Corneille had hoped to leave Ergus and enlist within the Aquilan Legions, but was blocked by the tyrannical Ergusian government until the age of 20 when he earned freedom from his frozen home by killing a government bureaucrat.

## Service History

### Training and the Academy

*"I left the ice fields of Ergus for the lava fields of Diomikato... And I cannot say which is worse."*

- Decanus Aquila DeRhone Corneille

Diomikato was a different world - in more ways than one - from Ergus, a fact that Corneille learned soon after arriving on the planet's surface. It was not just the environment that he had to acclimate to - it was also the technology; Corneille's home-world of Ergus had a primitive infrastructure of early industrial mechanization and combustion engines, while Diomikato had access to modern postech. To succeed at his training and to compete with his fellow trainees, Corneille was forced to rapidly learn the ways of the Empire's superior technology - and succeed he did.

Beyond the technology gap, Corneille was also faced with distance from the native Diomikatans who often made fun of his Ergusian accent and his intolerance to their planet's heat. His own intolerance ended there, however, for he always would remain stoic when faced with the native xenophobia - a trait he attributed to a so-called "Ergusian spirit".

Corneille would officially join House Aquila as a legionnaire after graduating from basic training in the year 3172. Besides his rapid adaptation to imperial culture, Corneille's training remained mostly unremarkable - it was, however, his psychological profile that stood out to his instructors. Corneille De Rhone displayed a level of mental fortitude that would be perfectly described by his new house's motto "Fiercely and Faithfully", for that is what he proved himself to be - fierce and faithful. Corneille's bravery and tenacity - and his lack of a chosen MOS (Military Occupational Specialty) - would draw the attention of the Orbitalis, who sought to recruit him into their ODST program which he accepted.

In 3173, Corneille completed his ODST training after months of rigorous exercise, practice drops, and combat simulations to officially gain the title Orbitalis Legionnaire Aquila DeRhone Corneille. Immediately thereafter, he swore his Oath of Mortale Fide to the 13th Legion otherwise known as the Thunderbolt Legion - where he has since served for his entire military career.

### Pacification of Yanaratso

*"Reports said the landing zone was too hot for regular transports, so they sent us instead. They also said it was a simple uprising...it was not."*

- Decanus Aquila DeRhone Corneille

Corneille De Rhone saw his first deployment on the planet of Yanaratso in the year 3175. Five centuria were ordered to engage in an anti-insurgency operation after rebellious activity had been reported across multiple urban districts in the previous two months before Aquila's arrival - Corneille's own centuria dropped into the district of Upper Sinje. As Acheron Rho now knows, the reports that were coming from the planet had been misinterpreted by the media, and the Crux and Aquilan houses; Yanaratso was not facing a societal uprising, it was facing an outbreak of the so-called "zombie plague".

When Corneille exited his drop pod after a successful atmospheric penetration, he and the other legionnaires that dropped with him were not met with anarchy and violent protesters, but instead were met by quiet streets and a horde of vicious "zombies". Even though the truth of the events that had occurred on Yanaratso caught everyone off-guard, Corneille and the other surviving soldiers remained steadfast in their mission to pacify Yanaratso, which they completed after two months of fighting "zombies" in the planet's urban sprawl.

### War Against the Artificials

*"The day we dropped onto Diomikato, I realized that the Gates of Hell was a most fitting name."*

- Decanus Aquila DeRhone Corneille

WIP