Ever since hearing about the Starfleet Marine Corps from his father, Chris Maxfield had wanted to join. He also dreamed of soaring through the stars in a spacecraft of his own, so he chose the best of both worlds and trained as an aerospace pilot. His heartfelt dedication to perfecting his skills put him in good standing with his instructors and also placed him in the 95th percentile of his class, allowing him to graduate in 2361 with the coveted “Honors” rating and the automatic promotion to First Lieutenant that came with it.

As adjutant to Colonel Nathaniel Rice of the 10th Aerospace Wing, Chris developed his interest in creating new and innovative tactical simulations. This culminated in his own running of a live-fire exercise with the entire wing facing numerous simulated opponents and, eventually, dogfighting one another in a new style of the game “Foxes and Hounds.” This earned him the second ribbon on his chest: The Starfleet Medal of Commendation.

Rumor has it that this was when Chris began wearing his ribbons (at this time, a full row of three) to every formal occasion, claiming that he “forgot to take the ribbon off after the Colonel awarded it.” His superiors, although a bit concerned at first, allowed this minor irregularity to pass as it was not exactly AGAINST the regulations to show off all your brass either. A month after starting the practice, all of his squadron mates had taken to the idea. The result, as far as anyone could see, was an even more improved morale among the twelve pilots. Colonel Rice, although he approved of this very much, did no more than make a note of the new dress standard in his log, as he felt another commendation medal might over-inflate the young lieutenant’s ego.

Upon being transferred to Starbase 74 in 2362, Maxfield was given his first command position: That of leading a flight of four fighters in the Wing’s First Squadron. It was in this sector, near the DMZ, that a pocket of rogue Cardassian forces, still trying to continue hostilities with the Federation, began attacking merchant shipping in the area. The U.S.S. Kyushu was called in to assist, supported by the 74th Aerospace Wing from the starbase. Maxfield and his flight, while on patrol about half a light year away from Starbase 74, came upon a distress call from a Bajoran freighter. Chris led his flight into the heart of the attack and held off the Cardassian warship long enough for the Kyushu to arrive and offer asylum to the Bajoran vessel. The Cardassians, knowing they were easily outmatched by a New Orleans class cruiser, withdrew immediately. This action resulted in Maxfield being awarded the Starfleet Marine Award for Conspicuous Gallantry and promoted to Marine Captain.

Captain Denver, impressed with the capabilities of the F-301 fighter/bombers flown by Maxfield’s unit, requested two squadrons of the small craft to be placed on his ship. He also requested the presence of Christopher Maxfield to command one of the squadrons. Chris was transferred the following day. The Corps made the arrangements to provide twenty F-301s (A squadron of 12 and a squadron of 8) to the Kyushu.

The Kyushu had already been given its new mission orders when Captain Denver made his unusual request. He felt that the presence of additional strike craft like fighters would help to put a damper on pirate activity in the Orion sector. For the most part, this was true. They still had a few fights with some of the rowdier bands, but the number of pirates per cubic light year began diminishing rapidly. Then, in 2365, one of the more murderous pirate groups, the Alpha Strikers, acquired some biological weapons and announced their plans to use the devices if their demands for plunder we not met. A week before this broadcast from the Strikers, Maxfield had received a fateful transmission from his long-time girlfriend Carolyn Maynard telling him that their nine-year relationship was over. (Some Marine pilots who were there at the time profess that the ship itself was shaken by Carolyn’s message.)

Whatever the effect on the ship’s crew, Chris himself was devastated and, after helping Kyushu’s security teams clean up a particularly bloody spectacle inside one of the Strikers’ more recent plunders, must have mentally snapped.

He ordered his squadron, named the Black Hawks, to perform double patrol shifts and to increase their sphere of coverage so much that two of the fighters were nearly lost for running out of fuel on the return leg. On the fourth day of these exhausting patrols, Maxfield’s own flight stumbled upon the ragtag Alpha Striker fleet. They were in position to mount an assault upon the planet New Palos. Captain Denver ordered the fighters home to refuel, rearm, and assist in the inevitable fight that would take place. Maxfield, gripped more strongly than ever before by his passions, ignored the Captain’s repeated orders and began a suicidal, single-handed assault on the enemy ships. This only prompted the pirates to release their bio warheads at the planet. With the knowledge that the Kyushu was on her way to eliminate the pirate vessels, Maxfield pursued the fleeing missiles and destroyed all of them just before they could release their toxins into New Palos’ atmosphere. Captain Denver, who was just about ready to order a full court-martial for Maxfield, suddenly realized that he’d become a full-blown hero. To make matters more complicated, the Orion Colonial Confederation decided to commit themselves to an unprecedented and irrevocable act: Initiating Christopher Maxfield into their highly revered Order of the Hunter. As he was foreign to the Colonies, Maxfield was only allowed into the lowest circle, but even so, he’d been given the equivalent of a knighthood and Starfleet would be very hard pressed to award Maxfield a matching accolade.

After a brief review board hearing (not even a full Captain’s Mast) concerning Chris’ insubordinate actions, Captain Denver decided that a brief censure was necessary to show that discipline had to be maintained even in the face of extreme heroism. (As established over eighty years ago by the Kirk Precedent) Basically, Maxfield was given a gentle slap on the wrist, which he probably didn’t even feel when General Franklin Beauregard of Fleet Marine HQ pinned his second Starfleet Marine Award and a Marine Starfleet Marine Corps Commendation on the aviator’s chest and then First Hunter Morgan Ronok formally initiated him into the Order of the Hunter.

The year 2367 began with the infamous Battle of Wolf 359. It was the greatest tragedy Maxfield had to face since the departure of Carolyn and only four members of the Black Hawk squadron survived the catastrophe. They, like the other Federation ships and fighters, used every resource imaginable to bring the Borg cube to a halt, but to little end. The cube did, in fact, take considerable damage, but not enough to prevent it from destroying all but one of the forty ships sent in to eliminate it. Maxfield himself sustained a serious leg injury from a console explosion inside his cockpit, but he was still able to organize a search and rescue effort to save as many as possible from the wreckage and then pilot his ship back to the nearest starbase. For these actions, Maxfield received a Marine Regimental Commendation and his long-awaited promotion to Major. The surviving members of his unit all received a Divisional Commendation as well.

Maxfield then spent three months recovering on Earth at his family’s home in York. After this, he was given two relatively uneventful assignments, though he was given added responsibility in both. First, in 2367, he commanded the two squadrons of the 472nd Marine Aerospace Group based on the Caitian homeworld.

Seeing that he was capable of handling such a command, the Starfleet Marine Corps decided to see if a mere Major was capable of commanding an entire Wing. In 2368, Starbase 27 had just had four squadrons of various fighters delivered to it and Maxfield was placed in overall command of these ships. He served well in this capacity, though he felt the administrative details a little bit too much work. Suddenly, the Dominion War began and it was at this point that Maxfield felt he should start to learn the finer points of ground force tactics and deployments. He went back to The Starfleet Academy Marine Campus at Sandhurst to earn an entire second degree in Ground Forces Operations and Shipboard Security.

After receiving his second Honors diploma from the Academy in 2370, he was immediately given command of a brand new Strike Group, the 676th, which the members nicknamed the Golden Tigers. This unit was assigned to the Ambassador Class Cruiser U.S.S. Agincourt. The Tigers performed admirably, much to the delight of the ship’s captain, N’ran Th’ersa.

Once more, however, Maxfield’s passionate side overcame his common sense. In 2371, a well-respected ambassador from Altair III was to attend a Federation Council meeting on Earth. Maxfield, for some reason, had suspicions about the man’s character and, against the wishes of Captain Th’ersa, began having his Marines discreetly investigate the ambassador. When Th’ersa caught wind of what was going on, Maxfield felt he had no choice but to force the Ambassador’s hand. He faked a message from the Maquis and sent it through the subspace relay network. It turned out that the ambassador WAS a Maquis agent and, by either genius or just dumb luck, the “puppet” Maxfield’s communications officer had created fed the ambassador enough signals to have him divulge much about his real plans and intentions. This allowed Maxfield to recover stolen explosives and illegal hand weapons from hidden compartments in the ambassador’s baggage.

Captain Th’ersa was very glad that Maxfield had been able to catch a Maquis agent before he could wreak havoc on the ship, but, again, she felt his ways of going about it to be questionable. After an admonishment to keep ones superiors in the loop, Maxfield was awarded with his second Marine Commendation and promoted to Lieutenant Colonel.

Three years later, after managing to redeem himself in his captain’s eyes and make many friends among her cosmopolitan crew, Lt. Colonel Maxfield and the 676th MSG reached the end of their four-year assignment to the Agincourt. The Starfleet Marine Corps promoted Maxfield to full Colonel and awarded him his first Good Conduct Medal. After that, Major General James Gardner ordered Maxfield to take command of Marine Operations in the Triangle using the old and decrepit Starbase Inchon as their main base and the recently-reactivated 86th MSG as his headquarters unit.

The 86th Marine Strike Group, based on Starbase Inchon, was used primarily as an intelligence gathering unit until more personnel were transferred in to do actual field work. At the time of the base's reactivation, the SFMC had undergone a period of extensive growth and personnel were shuttled to his command quickly. A very effective administrator now, Maxfield was surprised and very delighted to find reactivated Starfleet Marine Colonel Thomas Gorman, who had only recently retired as head of the Fedaration Special Security Division, assigned to him as executive officer. He was even more surprised to find himself promoted to Brigadier General when the size of his command swelled to over two thousand Marines and miscellaneous Starfleet personnel. SFMC Command had decided that Inchon was to have a new mission: That of training mixed units to work out in frontier regions like the Triangle.

That mission was dead aborning, however, as the Federation's most deadly adversary, the Borg, began its third invasion attempt in 2375. The course of the invading vessel intersected directly with Starbase Inchon and Maxfield decided to seed the outer system with Warp Field generators which would trap the Borg ship and, hopefully, send it into another dimension. The plan worked, but too well. The warp field generators were not able to be shut down before Starbase Inchon itself was swallowed by the singularity that they created.