Now more than two millennia old, Ancient Boras continues to serve the Knights of Altair.

Brother Boras is a Venerable Dreadnought of the Knights of Altair. Borus was captain of the 8th Company for 274 years during the 40th Millennium, winning renown for deeds that would be the envy of any chapter master.

He fell nearly ripped in half during a battle against a Greater Daemon of Nurgle and was interned inside a Mars Pattern Mark V Dreadnought.

The Knights of Altair possess an undisclosed number of dreadnoughts that are awakened from their slumbers on a regular cycle—so the chapter has a contingent of dreadnoughts operational at any given time. It appears that Boras was awakened in late 735.M41 and assigned to the chapter’s 4th Company under the command of Captain Nevarre.

The weaponry of most dreadnoughts is permanently attached to the arms of each walking tomb, but over the centuries Boras has made it quite clear that being entombed has cost him none of his tactical acumen. Before any combat action, he insists upon a tactical briefing—and then he dictates to his attending Techmarines the weapons array with which he will be equipped.

This is decidedly a non-Codex practice, but no one in the chapter has yet dared challenge Boras’ demands.

The military feats of Boras fill 1,219 pages of the great Tome of Heroes that rests in the chapter’s fortress-monastery, but a few highlights include:

Ancient Boras fires at a rebel position as Imperial forces attempt to suppress civil disorder on Tyneth.

Relief of Eunomia (479.M39)—WAAAGH! Grimork besieges the walled capital of Eunomia and, after a year-long battle, is close to overwhelming the defenses. But before the orks can launch their final assault, the Knights’ 8th Company arrives. A drop pod assault lands in the midst of the ork horde, and the first to touch soil is the company champion, Brother-Sergeant Boras, who cuts his way through the horde to strike down Grimork in short order. The leaderless ork horde is quickly annihilated.

The Salvation of Aegina IX (499.M39)—A sizable Chaos warband invades the manufactorum world of Aegina IX. Fifty regiments of PDF slow the Traitors’ onslaught, but several hive cities are reduced to ruins in the fierce fighting.

Answering frantic pleas for assistance, three companies of the Knights of Altair and 17 Imperial Guard regiments from Belliose III arrive to bolster the defenses. The newly appointed captain of the 4th Company, Captain Boras, takes command of Imperial defenses upon his arrival. He plans an armored counterattack that quickly shatters the Chaos forces, although two more years of fierce fighting follows before every Traitor is dead. The planet requires nearly a century to bring its industrial capacity back to pre-war levels.

Rebellion on Liberatrix (517.M39)—A sorcerer of the Ruinous Powers uses a powerful spell to tear a hole in the Materium, creating a link to the Warp directly under the capital city of Liberatrix. The city is consumed by madness in a single night, and the city becomes a ruin of dread where horrific daemons dwell in the underhive.

Years of warfare ensue as the PDF attempts to contain the daemonic invasion—until a battle barge of the Knights of Altair arrives. A lone Imperial assassin slips into the city and manages to reach the inner sanctum of the sorcerer and activate a homing device. With a squad of Terminators from the chapter’s First Company, Captain Boras teleports into the sanctum and does battle with a Greater Daemon of Nurgle.

All his accompanying Terminators are killed, but Boras manages to face down the daemon and plunge his thrice-annointed power sword through the creature’s heart. As the daemonic beast fades from Real Space, it foretells his day of return when he will put the Brother Captain “in a tomb.”

With the Greater Daemon’s destruction, the remaining daemonic infestation fades away, leaving a handful of cultists to face the full wrath of the Imperium.

Defense of Prokne (601.M39)—Captain Boras leads two companies to the world of Cremona to stop a burgeoning ork WAAAGH! Recognizing that he cannot allow his Knights to be dragged into a war of attrition, Boras uses hit-and-run tactics to distract the ork warlords—while his most seasoned warriors organize the citizenry in building an extensive line of fortifications.

The tacticae of the PDF predict the fortifications cannot possibly hold more than five days, but once completed, the PDF retreats into the trenches and allows the orks to attack. Greenskin casualties quickly mount and, after six days of non-stop fighting—a situation that leaves the defenders close to physical collapse—the ork force is broken, and the Imperium begins a long campaign of cleansing the planet.

Tomb of Boras (773.M39)—True to its word, the Greater Daemon of Nurgle returns to Real Space and invades Liberatrix a second time at the head of a plague army.

The Knights of Altair strive mightily to save the planet, but it is hopeless. The world’s population, dying of pestilence and rising again as mindless undead warriors, exponentially expands the enemy’s forces. Exterminatus is ordered by the Inquisition.

As the Knights withdraw, the Greater Daemon strikes at the evacuation site with a horde of rotting corpses, and Boras attempts to hold back the attack while his men withdraw.

The fighting withdrawal of Boras is an exemplary example of military genius and righteous fury, but the brave captain finally is struck down by acidic vomit spewed from the mouth of the Greater Daemon. The vomit dissolves the space marine’s armor and ravages the warrior’s flesh beneath, but the captain’s bodyguard drag his dissolving body to the last Thunderhawk to depart the planet.

Apothecaries manage to neutralize the acids eating away at Boras’ flesh, but the damage is done. Barely able to communicate through his half-dissolved throat, he begs for the honor to continue fighting for his chapter.

True to the Greater Daemon’s prophesy, Boras is entombed into the sarcophagus of a Dreadnought. Brother Captain Boras is no more; Ancient Boras fights on.

Scouring of Nausika (578.M39)—A colony of Eldar Exodites is found on the world of Nausika, a mineral-poor and unexceptional planet that’s long been ignored by the Imperium. Yet Imperial authorities demand the planet be surrendered to the Emperor, and when the arrogant xenos refuse, the 3rd Company of the Knights of Altair is given the honor of bringing the Emperor’s Wrath to the xenos.

The subsequent battle is fierce but short, and Ancient Boras personally takes the head of the eldar warlock that commands the xeno forces.

(That Imperial authorities offered the xenos an opportunity to leave peacefully was later the subject of an extensive investigation by the Inquisition. As no individual acknowledged having provided official authority for this offer, the Inquisition executed 500 members of the Administratum to ensure the guilty party received justice.)

Gap of Tyneth (394.M40)—The war on Gryphia goes poorly as traitorous rebels overrun much of the planet. Key to the war is the gap of Tyneth, a 100-meter-wide valley that divides an otherwise impenetrable mountain range.

A large rebel army attacks the gap, but Ancient Boras—equipped with twin-linked heavy bolters—stands astride the gap. With Techmarines continually reloading his weapons, he expends 50,000 rounds against the attackers, leaving the dead piled 20 bodies high and 50 deep.

The loss of life breaks the rebel morale, and the rebellion is soon crushed.

Battle of the Ancients (119.M40)—Equipped with a Meltagun and Seismic Hammer, Ancient Boras challenges two Traitor Dreadnoughts on the Warp- cursed world of Cybele. One dreadnought is laid low by a strike of Boras’ Seismic Hammer, while a blood-crazed Helbrute is brought the Emperor’s Justice when Boras fires his Meltagun in its face at point-blank range.

Slumber of Boras (409.M40)—After a grueling and extensive tour of duty, Boras begins to show signs of psychological degradation, and the Techmarines insist on a lengthy period of hibernation before permanent cerebral damage is sustained. Boras slumbers in the Knight’s Fortress-Monastery Chapel until 735.M41.

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