Gravius
Gravius was the Captain of the Salamanders Legion's 5th Company, during the Great Crusade and he took part in the Conquest of One-Five-Four Four with his friend, Captain Heka'tan.[1]
As the Horus Heresy unfolded, both Captains would take part in the war against the Traitor Legions on Isstvan V, but when the Dropsite Massacre began[2], Gravius was one of the few Salamanders to escape. In the Massacre's aftermath, he took command of a Salamanders warship, but it was shot down by the Traitors and crash landed on the fiery world Scoria. The impact caused the warship to be buried beneath Scoria's surface and Gravius and his forces played no further part in the Horus Heresy. They remained forgotten on Scoria for millennia and eventually the Captain's fellow Battle Brothers died, leaving him to keep watch as his body slowly withered away. Gravius was not alone though, as the crew of the warship colonized the area around the crash site and their descendants came to revere the Captain.[3a] Eventually though Gravius refused to leave his warship's command chair and in time the door leading to the bridge was sealed. This led Gravius to become a myth to the warship's colony, as one of the Fire Angels that watched over them.[3b]
In M41, Gravius was found alive by fellow Salamanders from the Chapter's 3rd Company, but the Captain was now in a horrifically withered and frail state. By that time Scoria was dying, as its numerous volcanoes would not stop erupting and were quickly tearing the world apart. Though the 3rd Company wished to take Gravius with them, before they left the doomed world, the Captain' power armour had long ago become fused to his command chair. With time running out, the 3rd Company tried to learn of the Legion's history from the Captain, but Gravius's mind had become addled and he remembered little from his vast lifespan.[3a] Eventually the Company's Apothecary, Fugis, was ordered to give Gravius the Emperor's Mercy and he then extracted the Captain's Gene-seed.[3c] The Company escaped Scoria with the crashed warship's surviving colonists, as well as the power armour of Gravius' fallen Battle Brothers.[3d] At the time of his death, Gravius was possibly the oldest living Space Marine in the Galaxy.[3c]
