Ajax Belletores

Ajax Belletores is the current Chapter Master of the Battencian Heralds. Despite the Chapter’s over 2 millennia history, he is only the fourth Astartes to hold the title. A veteran of many of the Chapter’s most trying engagements, Ajax leads his brothers through the conflicts of the 42nd Millennium in hope of securing a brighter future for all humanity

History
Ajax Belletores was born in 302.M41 on the Hive World of Triton, in the ___ System in the Zylos subsector. He grew up in the lower hive, and, at a young age, he fell in with a hive gang, serving as a runner to make extra money for his family. As he was snooping around in the vents one day when he was 12, the young Ajax witnessed a chaotic ritual being performed by some members of a rival gang. He ran off, sneaking his way up the hive to find a trustworthy authority. When he made it to a lever high enough where he was sure no law enforcement would be in the gang’s pocket, he told the Arbites what he saw and caught the attention of an Inquisitor who was on the planet searching for Chaotic Corruption. After the Adetpa Arbites and Sororitas cleared out these cultists, the Inquisitor had Ajax brought before him and, with the permission of his parents, inducted the young boy into her Retinue. Ajax worked with this inquisitor for 3 years before, at the atypically old age of 15, left her employ and joined the Battencian Heralds.

Ajax started his training at a much older age than most Aspirants. Ajax was placed into a training platoon with other older Aspirants just starting their training. It is here Ajax first met Barus Stroikos, and the two became fast friends. After 18 months of training, he embarked upon his first trial. Ajax was taken back to his home planet of Triton and dropped off in the blasted wasteland between the planet’s Hives. He had to survive on his own for two months, collecting what water he could and fashioning crude tools to hunt and dig himself a shelter. His completion of this challenge boosted the Chapter’s opinion of him, as some fellow Neophytes had reservations about this newcomer appearing at an age by which some of them had spent a whole decade training.

Upon the completion of his first challenge, Ajax began the augmentation process, receiving the first geneseed organs. His body accepted the Organs without much difficulty, and his training got harder and harder. Ajax, like the rest of the Neophytes, adapted to this difficulty and thrived. Over the course of the next year, most of his organs were installed,on a rush schedule due to his advanced age. By the time he was almost 18, all but the Black Carapace were installed, and he embarked on his final test.

Ajax once more returned to Triton, and was put in the Underhive, with orders to cross it. Ajax did so in a month in a half, making use of an abandoned lift. The lift broke many times during the trip, and Ajax had to repeatedly leave and scavenge for supplies to repair it, and for resources he could eat and drink. Hive gangers and beasts alike attacked him during his trek, but they all failed to kill him. At the final lift back to the upper hive, he was confronted by over 20 heavily armed gangers, including the leader of one of the Underhive’s most notorious gangs. Ajax fought with superhuman skill, emptying every weapon he had carried with him, then picking up more from the gangers he slew, until finally he had killed all but the Gang leader, who foolishly tried to engage Ajax in melee. The Neophyte killed the ganger with his bare hands, easily disarming him of the chainsword he had used during his charge.

Upon his completion of his final trial, in 321.M41, Ajax and the Scouts who had served with him graduated and were inducted by Chapter Master Kyudor Albexus into the ranks of the Battencian Heralds Scouts Battalion. Barus Stroikos would be among those in his Scout Squadron. Their first experience would be fighting against Drukhari Raiders in fringes of the Zylos subsector. The Scouts became adept with both bolter and shotgun in these usually close quarters battles. They fought in several other campaigns including one against Orks in 336.M41 where Ajax and his Squad performed exemplary fighting the Greenskins, setting a trap that wiped out an entire Ork Mob. In 348.M41, Ajax’s squad was one of two Scout squads deployed in response to a distress signal, on the Agri world of Deluvia in the Thrake system, in the southern portion of the Zylos subsector.

The two Scout squads quickly found themselves in over their heads. The Agri World was under attack by a force of Iron Warriors. As skilled as the Scouts were, the full Astartes of the Iron Warriors were better armored and much more experienced. Their Sniper rifles were able to do a number on the Heretics, but in close combat they suffered. It was a hard fought battle. Ajax’s squad lost 3 men, and the other squad was reduced to only 3 surviving members. In light of their conduct in this engagement in those past engagements, the two squads were merged, and the new squad formally promoted to the title of full Battle Brothers. They were inducted as a Tactical Squad of the Fourth Company. One of Ajax’s new squadmates, inherited from the other Scout squad, was a younger Brother by the name of Trylixus Ceras.

Two years of relative peace passed for the new Astartes before a Warp Rift opened in the Zylos subsector, and the hell that was the Battencian Sieges began. The first major battle occurred on Triton, and Ajax was there. Imperial forces fortified Hive Antilles and fought an epic battle to defend it from the Heretics. Waves of cultists washed over the Imperial lines, failing to break the defenders, and as the Angels Tempestus fought the Thousand Sons to their right, Ajax and his Squad were in the thick of it fighting the Word Bearers once more. They held a trench against the Heretical tide, and the Word Bearers charged with a religious fervor, seeking to close in and fight the Battencians hand to hand. They eventually made it in, and fierce close combat ensued. The first five Word Bearers that came upon Ajax he killed with his bolter at point blank range, then he drew his combat blade and fought alongside his Brothers in melee combat, killing many more World Bearers before the attack was finally beaten off. Triton was defended, but the subsequent Loyalist counter attack failed and they were put on the back foot. The Traitors gained the upper hand at the battle of Leanas, where Ajax and his platoon fired with the ferocity of a force four times their number, stunning the Word Bearers, which proved crucial to the successful withdrawal of Imperial Forces.

The Heralds were forced to withdraw finally back to their home planet, which was placed under siege by the Word Bearers. Ajax and his brothers withstood the siege within the great Fortress Monastery, the thud of artillery becoming a constant companion for them all. When the Word Bearers attacked Holan, Fourth Company was among those who ran forth from the gates to repulse them, and Ajax and his squad mates fought in the city for months, clearing it street by street alongside their Brothers and the Imperial Guard. Just as they were called back, the Heretics’ final assault began.

The Fourth, weary from their battle in the city, took their stand on the walls with Third Company, situated to the right of the main breach where First and Eighth companies held the line. The fighting was not as ferocious for them, as the Heretics funneled more forces into the main fight against the 1st/8th, but it was still a hell of its own. Despite taking losses, the 3rd/4th force Held the wall, and Ajax distinguished himself by slaying a Word Bearers Sergeant and saving the life of his Sergeant, Trajod Gerus.

With the Word Bearers driven off Battencia, Ajax participated in the Scouring of Zylos, seeking to drive the Heretics out and cleanse their corruption from Zylos’ worlds. During the controversy with the Inquisition, Ajax held views on both sides, and after some conflict, began assisting in the efforts to save people, but acknowledged when there was real risk of corruption and populations did need cleansing.

After the Siege, Ajax continued to serve with honor in many smaller campaigns, fighting Orks, Drukhari, and the forces of Chaos all over the Sector, where ever they could be found. After the death of Trajod at the hands of a Tyranid splinter fleet in 496.M41, Ajax would be promoted to the rank of Sergeant, and given command of Fourth Company’s Third Tactical Squad, the unit he had served with for so long.

In 541.M41, Fourth company’s First Platoon, a squad of First Company, and several Scout Companies under the command of Kyudor Albexus deployed to a feudal city on the planet of Toutatis that was believed to house a Chaotic cult. A squad of the Scouts were native to this city, and when the Heralds fanned out to find the Heretics, it was them who first found the Cultists, actually old friends. One of the Scouts, Kaelestis Kyrit was about to kill one of the cultists when he hesitated. Captain Aaric Teliostus of Fourth Company came upon them with his Lieutenant and a Company Librarian, and the Captain demanded that Kaelestis do his duty to the Chapter and kill the Heretic. The Librarian was already reaching a hand out to stop the Scout when the cultist raised a knife and cut her own arm, the blood dripping down onto the summoning circle that had been prepared below and filling the room with Bloodletters. The Astartes put up a valiant fight, and when they began screaming into the vox for reinforcements, Third Tactical was among the first on the scene. Ajax threw himself into the room, knowing the danger very well. Thrashing about with his chainsword, he spun beneath blows that could take the head off of even an Astartes and killed several Daemons as he fought his way to his friend, Aaric, who had been leapt on during the initial surprise after they were summoned and savaged by one of the Daemons, whose head Ajax took off with an executioner’s chop. Despite the exemplary performance of Third Tactical and the other Fourth Company squads that arrived, Aaric was too badly wounded, and he died before the Apothecaries could get to him, not that their on site medical assistance could have done more than delay the inevitable with the state of his wounds. Ajax was deeply upset, and mourned Aaric’s loss greatly. In fact, had Barus and several of Kyudor’s Terminators not restrained him, it's quite likely Ajax would’ve succumbed to the Black Rage at this point, but he was able to calm down and regain his composure. After the death of Aaric Teliostus, Ajax Belletores was promoted to Captain of the Battencian Heralds’ Fourth Company.

By 999.M41, Barus Strokois and Trylixus Ceras were both no longer in fourth company, having been transferred to Third and Sixth companies respectively to replenish losses in their officer cadre. Ajax was still Captain of Fourth Company, but with over 400 years of experience he was the ranking officer in the Chapter, behind of course the Chapter Master. It was at this time that Kyudor Albexus called all of the Heralds back to Battencia, so that the chapter could respond as one to Lord Commander Dante’s call for aid in protecting Baal from Hive Fleet Leviathan. The following Battle would be described by Ajax later as the worst fighting he’d experienced since the Siege of Battencia. Ajax lead his company through 19 Tyranid attacks, each one larger and harder to kill than the last. As many Tyranids as they killed, more and more and more would simply keep coming. At the battle’s darkest hour, grim news was received. Kyudor Albexus, who had been Chapter Master for all of Ajax Belletores’ almost millennia in the Chapter, was mortally wounded slaying a Tyranid Hive Tyrant. Were it not for the heroics of First and Second Companies, the body may very well have been overrun and consumed by the voracious Tyranid hordes, but they broke the line and, even as the grizzled warriors openly wept, they carried their Chapter Master’s body back to Imperial lines.

That night, after the dust settled and the attacks had for a time let up, there was a makeshift ceremony with Lord Commander Dante himself in attendance where Ajax Belletores was sworn in as the Acting Chapter Master of the Battencian Heralds. He lead the Chapter through the rest of the Hellish battle, and through their counterattack once the Indomitus Crusade arrived. The chapter was mauled, but it had made it through the Devastation of Baal, and now the ranks of the Chapter were bolstered with new Primaris Marines. Sixth company, which was now under the command of Trylixus Ceras, its Captain also having been Killed in Action, and had lost half of its number in the battle, received most of this first wave.

As the Heralds returned home, a great ceremony was held where Kyudor Albexus was put to rest, and Ajax Belletores was offically sworn in as the new Chapter Master of the Battencian Heralds