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Brains and ambition are admirable attributes. However, when mixed with insatiable greed and a deep lust for power, the result can be lethal. The Baroness is that result. Incredibly self-involved and lacking in empathy, the Baroness has all the primary qualifications of a world-class oil company executive or corporate raider. The Baroness is a highly intelligent and ambitious individual, and often enjoys pitting Destro, her companion, against
Cobra Commander even as they all plot the overthrow of the United States and the conquest of the world. Coldly cynical yet hopelessly romantic, calculating but naïve, brutally blunt and prone to beating around the bush at times, the Baroness is a mass of contradictions.
The Baroness is the spoiled offspring of European aristocrats who made sure that she and her brother, Eugen, had the best of everything in life. During the time of the Southeast Asian conflict, Eugen had abandoned his aristocratic lifestyle. Using his power and influence, he delivered medical supplies and other needed items into the war-torn region. On one tragic occasion, Eugen's sister, Anastasia, accompanied him on what would result in a deal gone bad. Eugen was fatally wounded just as another soldier burst in and apprehended the saboteurs. Anastasia, who had been in another room, believed that the soldier had destroyed both her brother and his supposedly peaceful contacts. This sent her on a course of revenge that would graduate her from student radicalism into international terrorism and finally into Cobra. She wormed her way into the confidences of both Cobra Commander and Destro, rising to the rank of Cobra's top intelligence agent. Nominally designated the Director of Intelligence for Cobra Command, her duties actually cover a much wider range of loathsome activities.
It is believed that Baroness received her training in espionage and sabotage at an exclusive training facility run by a former Warsaw Pact intelligence agency. Although she is officially the head of all Cobra intelligence operations, she also has old ties and loyalties to Destro, who has his own business and interests outside of Cobra. The Baroness denies that this is an ethical conflict. To her, this cannot be since she has no ethics to speak of. The Baroness is a world-class expert in cryptography, psychological warfare, and bio-chemical skin-irritants. She is a qualified H.I.S.S. tank operator. The Baroness
consistently places third in the annual Cobra combat pistol championship, but this is no mean feat considering that Destro always places second. In her arrogance, she believes that her failure to secure the gold medal is due to political favoritism rather than the quality of her marksmanship.
The Baroness has never made a move that has not been calculated to achieve one primary goal–her own self interest. The formation of the Crimson Strike Team exemplifies this behavior. In alliance with Tomax and Xamot, she formed an elite squad of
Vipers loyal only to its founders. Financial incentives provided by the Crimson Twins coupled with the powerful brainwashing of the Baroness have created two lethal squads of Crimson infantry troopers, one squad led by Tomax and the other by his brother Xamot. By all outward appearances, the Cobra Vipers are all that is desired by Cobra Commander: powerful, lethal, greedy, and loyal to the Cobra cause of dominating the world. Yet the Baroness has utilized her almost siren-like hypnotic techniques to train the Vipers to obey only herself and if it meets her needs, the Crimson Twins. The Crimson Strike Team provides the lethal means to achieve her desired maniacal ends.
More recently, the Baroness' allegiance seems to have shifted markedly toward Destro, but it remains to be seen if this is simply a scam.
The Baroness was severely burned during a Cobra night attack operation and has had extensive plastic surgery.
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