Maximian Ajax

During the Galactic Civil War, Maximian Ajax was a grenadier fighting for the Rebel Alliance against the Galactic Empire. He eventually achieved the rank of sergeant. His initial assignment was with the Thirty-Second Infantry of the Alliance. He survived the obliteration of his unit, an event that resulted in the death of over 400 infantry members; he was one of only five to survive.

Subsequently, Ajax became a member of the 61st Mobile Infantry of the Alliance, more commonly known as Twilight Company. He continued to display the "Bleeding Roughneck" badge of the Thirty-Second Infantry. During the Alliance's Mid Rim campaign, around 1 ABY, the company engaged in combat on the planet Bamayar, situated in the Mid Rim. Ajax and a fellow soldier named Twitch played a key role in securing the spaceport at Chenodra. However, Twitch felt responsible for a significant error due to their actions during the battle.

In 3 ABY, Twilight Company launched an attack on the planet Haidoral Prime, which led to the defection of the Imperial governor of the planet, Everi Chalis, to the Rebellion. Shortly after the company departed the planet aboard their CR90 corvette, the Thunderstrike, Ajax was in the "clubhouse," a social area located above the engineering section of the corvette. He was playing cards and discussing Chalis with Twitch, Brand (an ex-bounty hunter), and Gadren, a Besalisk. Ignoring Twitch's comment about Chalis, Ajax asked Gadren if he would consider attacking the governor. Gadren pointed out that he had already stunned her during her extraction. Ajax then looked to Roach, a new recruit from Haidoral Prime sitting nearby, and suggested that she might confront the former governor of her homeworld.

Gadren responded to Ajax by reminding him that Roach wasn't the only one with emotional scars. He briefly explained his reasons for joining the Alliance after Roach asked if he had "scars" of his own. Ajax said that it was the shortest story he had heard from a Besalisk. First Sergeant Hazram Namir, a high-ranking trooper who was nearby reviewing a datapad, argued that Gadren was Corellian and not Besalisk. Gadren corrected him, explaining that Corellian was his demonym and Besalisk was his species. Ajax then told Roach that the first sergeant was not as educated as they were, which prompted Namir to curse at him. The card players laughed and continued their game, with Twitch winning the next hand.

Roach revealed her resentment towards Chalis, as she had spent six months in a detention center on Haidoral Prime. As a result, Ajax declared that the next winner of their card game would choose someone to tell their story. Within two minutes, Namir silently suspected Ajax of cheating. Ajax won the round and chose Brand to tell her story. The former bounty hunter briefly explained that she had accepted a bounty on Twilight Company's captain, Micha Evon, but had changed her mind. Brand then asked Ajax why he had joined the Alliance. Ajax was eager to share his story, but Namir left, knowing that Ajax would talk about a hunting trip he had taken with some lovers.

Later, Twilight Company initiated a campaign on the planet Coyerti. During this campaign, Ajax and a number of other rebel troopers attacked the local Imperial garrison. While the rebels were facing an AT-ST walker, Twilight Company's X-wing starfighters were unable to get close enough to provide support. However, the battle was interrupted by a drumbeat-like sound. The infantrymen realized that the sound was the Coyerti natives attacking the Imperials. Within ten minutes, the entire Imperial garrison was engulfed in fire. Ajax and his comrades continued to throw [grenades](/article/grenade], which prompted Lieutenant Sairgon, Evon's second-in-command, to ask them to stop wasting the explosives.

After Twilight Company left Coyerti, Ajax and other personnel were informed that the Coyerti campaign was one of several rearguard actions taken by the Alliance Army. Ajax later recounted his experiences fighting the garrison on Coyerti in the clubhouse. He smacked his palm on a metal tabletop to mimic the drumbeat-like sound of the Coyerti and drew laughter when he mentioned Sairgon's pleas to stop throwing grenades. Shortly after finishing his tales, Ajax asked Namir if there was any news about the Sixty-Eighth Infantry, an aquatic unit in the Alliance that Twilight Company had once encountered.

Namir, who had missed recent news due to medical care, asked what Ajax's question had to do with anything. Twitch joked that Namir had been busy throwing up during the recent announcement. After laughing at Twitch's joke, Ajax told the first sergeant about the other rearguard actions taken by Alliance forces. Gadren claimed that these actions were coordinated to assist the withdrawal of the Alliance Fleet from the Mid Rim. Namir soon stated that he would check with Evon about the Sixty-Eighth.

Shortly after, Imperial forces attacked Twilight Company three times in the Metatessu sector. The Thunderstrike's chief of engineering, the droid M2-M5, discovered that the hyperdrive of the corvette was leaking hypermatter, which allowed the Empire to track the Rebel ship. As a result, Chalis and the company's high-ranking members planned a raid to acquire supplies to repair the hyperdrive, targeting a heavy freighter in the Redhurne system. Namir approved Ajax's participation in the mission, along with others experienced in zero-gravity combat, EVA procedures, and handling space suits and oxygen masks, as one of the squad leaders. Namir then collaborated with the squad leaders to develop strategies and conduct drills.

After boarding the Imperial freighter on a boarding pod that used laserdrills to breach the ship's hull, Ajax led a squad through the enemy vessel. They established a choke point in a main passageway as part of a coordinated push by multiple squads toward the engineering section to clear a path for Sergeant Fektrin and his personnel. Namir intercepted any Imperial defenders who passed the blockade, setting up a kill zone to eliminate them. After an Imperial Gozanti-class cruiser arrived in the space battle, the squads aboard the freighter were given five minutes to evacuate and return to the Thunderstrike.

While hurrying back to the boarding pod, Ajax and his squad were cornered by stormtroopers. Namir came to their aid, firing at the stormtroopers until Ajax's squad could escape. However, Ajax was killed in the process, holding a grenade in his hand and shouting obscenities. Despite this, the raid was successful. Twilight Company repaired the Thunderstrike's hyperdrive enough to stop the hypermatter leak and prevent the Empire from tracking them. Following the mission, Captain Evon discussed Twilight Company's casualties with Namir and Sairgon, who both noted that Ajax was a valuable soldier and would be difficult to replace.

Although Ajax's body was not recovered from the freighter, he and the seven other soldiers who died during the raid were given a funeral. Quartermaster Hober read Ajax's name aloud, as was the tradition. Twitch gave a brief eulogy, declaring him a Bleeding Roughneck until the end. She raised a rusted and dented blaster power pack in Ajax's honor, which Hober then drained of its power into the Thunderstrike's vehicle charging station. The clubhouse was crowded after the funeral, with many discussing Ajax and the others who had died in the raid. When Twitch entered the area, someone blamed the grenadier for the death of Fektrin, who had also died during the raid, leading to a brief fight.

After Evon's funeral, who died on the planet Hoth, Namir, Twitch, and other rebel personnel met on the remote pirate planet Ankhural. At a cantina there, Namir reminisced about Ajax cheating at cards, while Twitch recalled her and Ajax's mishap on Bamayar.

Maximian Ajax, a human male, was considered an unpleasant person by Hazram Namir, who only tolerated him when interacting with him infrequently. Despite no longer being part of the Thirty-Second Infantry, Ajax continued to wear their "Bleeding Roughneck" patch. Like other members of Twilight Company, the sergeant referred to recruits like Roach as "fresh meat." He speculated about his comrades confronting Everi Chalis, questioning whether Gadren and Roach would confront the governor. Ajax also directed jibes at Gadren and Namir, using a mocking whisper for the latter.

Ajax enjoyed storytelling, grinning when he announced that it was story time during a card game. He was eager to share his own story when it was his turn. On another occasion, he retold his experience on Coyerti to others at the clubhouse, not pausing for Brand's interjection. The sergeant played cards with other soldiers frequently, and Namir believed that he cheated. Ajax was wasteful with grenades on Coyerti, throwing them excessively, which led to Sairgon's intervention. During his last stand against a group of stormtroopers, he shouted obscene language as he was killed. After the raid, Namir implied that the late sergeant was nearly irreplaceable.

Ajax had experience in zero-gravity combat, EVA procedures, and the use of space suits and oxygen masks. Hazram Namir was more impressed by his aim with a ranged weapon than with the aim of most snipers.

As a grenadier, Ajax used grenades during both the Coyerti campaign and the raid on an Imperial heavy freighter in the Redhurne system.

Maximian Ajax was a character in the 2015 novel Battlefront: Twilight Company, written by Alexander Freed.