Maxim Borusa

"Volkk me!"

- Stranivarite Underhive Low Gothic oath-insult, favored by Maxim Borusa

Maxim Borusa was one of the most colorful crewmen of the Dictator-class Cruiser Lord Solar Macharius during the Gothic War. Hailing from the lawless underhive of the biggest hive of the planet Stranivar, he first arrived on the Macharius as an expendable press-ganged slave-recruit, but, thanks to his ruthlessness and natural survivor instincts, he managed not only to survive, but ultimately reached the rank of Chief Petty Officer under direct service to the ship's most senior officers: Flag-Captain Leoten Semper and Flag-Lieutenant Hito Ulanti.

History
Maxim Borusa was born in the lawless underhive of Stranivar's biggest hive. A big, burly youth with the strength of an ox and the cunning of a tunnel rat, he became a choice recruit of one of the many gangs of the underhive, participating in many battles with rival gangs and honing both his combat and survival skills. As was the custom, he extensively tatooed his body to keep track of his many battles. He ultimately matured in one giant of a man, over two meters high, an impressive musculature, and an impressive ability to quickly assess a situation or person, and make the most out of it. During his life there, he took as lover a beautiful girl with a touch of the wyrd, who predicted he would become an officer on a starship, but Maxim laughed the prediction off.

At one point short before the start of the Gothic War, Borusa and his gang were caught up in an Adeptus Arbites cull, and slaughtered. Borusa survived but got caught, and was sent to the prison-moon of Lubiyanka where, soon after, the convicts were press-ganged into service in the Imperial Navy.

Borusa ended up on the Macharius, where, due to his impressive physical strength, he wassent to a work crew operating one of the massive Macrocannons studding the Macharius' flank. A thankless and dangerous job, life expectancy amongst the work crew was mesured in weeks, and for Borusa it seemed even less, for the man overseeing his crew's work was another Lubiyanka convict who hated him and worked him hardest of all.

But Borusa's luck would soon get better: during the battle with the Chaos Cruiser Contagion, the gun deck adjacent to the one he worked took a direct hit, sending a wave of fire burning trough his own deck. Acting on instinct, Borusa pulled two other convinct on top of him, using them as living shields. This allowed him to survive the blast almost unscathed, and, when he saw that the only other survivor of his crew was his overseer, he quickly grabbed a large engineer's wrench and bashed the other man's head in, leaving hime the sole living being on the whole gun deck.

Amongst the notoriously superstitious crewmen of the Imperial Navy, a lone survivor is a lucky talisman, and Maxim Borusa soon found himself 'bought' by another work crew, one of full-fledged crew members instead of press-ganged slaves, where the work was les hazardous and the abuse less. After a few months of work with his new crew, they were rounded up as troops to mount a boarding assault on the Bellerophon. Grabbing his trusted wench, Borusa joined his crew in the attack, pushed forward by their Petty Officer, a brutish man called Dobrzyn. Maxim fought with gusto, his pas experiences as underhive ganger serving him well in the cramped confines of a ship. When Dobrzyn got hit, he pulled him to safety, but stabbed him in the lung as he delivered him to the care of the shuttle crew, to ensure the brute would not survive and terrorize his work crew. He also grabbed the petty officer's rank sash and used it as a makeshift bandage. Later in the fight, he chanced upon a duel fought by two officers, and seeing the one from the Macharius get hit in the shoulder, he didn't hesitate: grabbing the renegade officer's sword arm to prevent him striking again, he quickly stabbed the man in the kidneys, before pulling the officer from his own ship to safety.

Quiclky assessing this new situation, Borusa identified himself to Hito Ulanti and dressed his wound, before hauling him up and carrying him back to the boarding shuttles. When a shocked Ulanti, seeing the rank sash/bandage around Borusa's arm, adressed him as "Petty Officer Borusa", Maxim wisely remained silent. And so, when a patched up Ulanti sought him up and assigned him as personal bodyguard, "Petty Officer" Maxim Borusa was given official recognition, along with access to the bridge and a private berth amongst the better quartered crew members, with everyone unaware that Borusa had ultimately promoted himself.

Life on the bridge was akin to paradise for the ex-underhiver: the workload consisted only of glowering at anyone who approached his patron officer and running the odd errand, while in his off-duty time, he could enjoy part of the luxuries reserved to few on a battleship: decent quarters, decent food and the occasional access to alcohol and female companionship. The only drawback was that to continue enjoying all this, he had to keep Hito Ulanti alive, which could prove to be difficult seeing how the hot-blooded young officer often volunteered for hazardous duty, like during the battle for Helia IV, when he led the search and destroy armsmen parties to repel the boarders sent out by the Virulence. But paradoxically, this attitude also made Borusa develop a profound respect for his patron. Unlike what he first believed, Ulanti was not some young blueblood fop playing at being officer, but a man with both the guts and the means to get his hands bloody and command from the very front.

Maxim Borusa's career would come to a peak during the evacuation of Belatis, ironically in an action not aboard the Macharius but on the planet itself. When Captain Semper was called upon to accompany Adeptus Munitiorum Adept Primus Ferdinand Hyuga to Medina, Belatis capital, and personally evacuate the planet's ruling elite, Ulanti ordered Borusa to accompany the Captain and do everything to keep him alive and in one piece. Borusa saw a golden opportunity in this mission: while going down to the surface of a world in full rebellion would be hazardous, he might be able to get recognition from the ship's most senior officer, and hence have some insurance to his continued enjoyment of his life in case some woe befell Ulanti.

Maxim would eventually get more than he bargained for during the mission: during the evacuation of the Belatisian palace, he saved Semper's life but pulling him out of the line of fire of and gunning down a group of Chaos Cultists intent on stopping them. Later, after their shuttle had crash-landed near Medina's Ecclesiarchy cathedral, Semper tasked Borusa with keeping an eye on Adept Hyuga. Borusa, who tought the Adept to be the lowest possible scum by his book, a coward hiding behind his rank and who cared not for any consequences his actions could have, took great delight in dragging him along to the barricades where Frateris Militia defended the cathedral, and even greter satisfaction in executing him when the Adept broke and fled at the first sight of the enemy. Seizing up a chainsword, Borusa cut a bloody swathe through the throng of attackers, his formidable strength and unending litany of coarse Stranivarite Low Gothic curses motivating and rallying the Frateris around him. Maxim's opinion of the 'high and mighty' of the Imperium of Man didn't improve during the battle, as he saw Belatis' rulers attempt every possible trick to avoid fighting, and performing poorly when they were forced to do so. In contrast, Semper and Borusa warmed to each other, Semper realising that for all his irrespectuous coarsness, Borusa was much more than a simpleton and cowardly hive thug; while Borusa could see how exceptional a man his Captain was, one that didn't shirk from danger, led from the front, and even more importantly, didn't sacrifice those under his command pointlessly.

So it was that, when the barricades were finally overrun by the cultists, Borusa risked everything to drag Semper to safety, and, when minutes later they were faced by the Chaos Champion leading the insurrection, he didn't hesitate to bodily interpose himself between Semper and the monster, blocking its sword arm and emptying an autogun point-blank in its guts. The unscathed Champion one-handedly threw Borusa in the nearest wall, but so doing left itself open, and was in turn impaled on Semper's Power Sword. Stunned and battered, but not badly hurt, Borusa then joined Semper in exterminating what remained of the enemy as Aquila shuttles from the Macharius arrived to rescue them.

Once back on the Macharius, Semper immediately promoted Borusa to the rank of Chief Petty Officer, with the praising words: "More men like him, and we might actually win this war!".

Personality
Maxim Borusa was a giant of a man, impressively strong, and hiding a keen mind behind his facade of dull underhive ganger scum. A survivor of many battles and treacheries in the lawless stretches of a Stranivarite underhive, his instincts and ability to quickly assess any situation and to survive and thrive in even the most challenging ones. Borusa only respected those that would not ask of others what they were unwilling to do themselves, and, once someone had earned his respect, he was fanatically loyal to them, not hesitating to put himself (and even others) i harm's way to protect them. There was also a darker side to his personality, for Borusa, kept grudges, and did not hesitate to get rid of someone he did not respect if the opportunity arose.

In day-to-day life, Borusa was a simple man, enjoying life's simplest pleasures. The big underhiver considered nice clothes, a personal berth, a woman on his lap or sharing a bottle of potent alcohol with his comerades as the height of luxury.