Gidion Abrudas

Gidion Abrudas Kandrinus was the son and only child of Gaius Abrudas by his first wife, Teresa Kandros. He was killed alongside his mother in a head-on collision with a police pursuit vehicle in Cipritine, Palaven, at the age of eighteen. His father would later be assassinated on the orders of Astraea Mehrkuri during The Night of Martyrs. He was also the half-brother of Marcia Abrudas, who would later become Conjux Domina of Palaven upon her marriage to Primarch Fidellion Victus.

## Biography

### Childhood

Born into House Abrudas, Gidion Abrudas was the son of Gaius Abrudas and Teresa Kandros. His father was a career soldier while his mother was a sculptor. An only child, he was raised at the Abrudas family estate in Cipritine by both parents, although he was closest to his mother as his father was often away on duty. His mother was keen to expose to his Thracian heritage, in addition to his Carthaanean roots, specifically Thracian artistic and musical expression. He would also spend a lot of time with his paternal grandaunt, Maea Arterius. His multicultural background, in combination with his mother's love of art, moulded Gidion into quite the cultured young man.

### Military Career

Like his father before him, Gidion followed the ancient family tradition of entering the military. He entered Bootcamp on the day of his fifteenth birthday, as is required of all turian children. His aptitude scores were considered exemplary by his commanders, with Gideon scoring highest in the vehicle driving, tactical analysis and leadership categories. This made him an ideal candidate for the *Corpus Imperialis Vehiculum Armatus* (Imperial Tank Corps).

Upon graduating from Bootcamp at the age of sixteen, Gidion accepted his commission and was transferred to Castrum Caserta to undergo eighteen months of officer and vehicle training. By the age of seventeen, he was a fully qualified tank driver. At eighteen he graduated from officer training with the rank of Second Lieutenant. He was subsequently assigned to the Imperial Tank Corps as a commander of a C77 Tyrus infantry fighting vehicle.

Gidion saw action in the Imperial Tank Corps, albeit briefly. He and his crew participated in joint training exercises on Taetrus before being deployed to the volus colony of Boro. There he served in the Siege of Yila, helping to liberate the turians' volus allies from a lengthy pirate occupation. Gidion distinguished himself in this battle by shooting down an enemy A-61 Mantis Gunship, which was attempting to destroy a fuel depot that had been reclaimed by the turians.

### Death

#### Crash

Following the successful Siege of Yila, Gidion returned to Palaven on leave. His father was on duty at the time, so it was his mother who was there to greet him when he disembarked the troop transport docked at Cipirtine's spaceport. Teresa lovingly embraced her son and the pair discussed his previous assignment. Gidion showed his mother several pictures he had taken on his omnitool of his new tank, which had been nicknamed "Furia" and her crew. The pair then decided to go for lunch.

Teresa had driven to the spaceport in Gidion's skycar. Gidion offered to drive them to their chosen destination. Five minutes into their flight, an onboard traffic alert warned of a police pursuit taking place half a mile up the skylane. Gidion checked his speed and switched to manual control as a precaution. Upon seeing the flashing blue lights of the police interceptors up ahead, he pulled over and came to a stop to stay out of their way. He and his mother watched as the fleeing vehicle intentionally rammed into the side of one of the interceptors a few meters away from where they hovered motionlessly in the lay-by.

The damaged police vehicle then lost control and collided at high speed with Gidion's stationary car. Gidion and his mother were killed instantaneously. The police vehicle impacted his car with such violent ferocity that the front half of the car was crumpled inwards, reducing the passenger cabin's diameter to only five centimetres. The driver of the police interceptor was also killed.

#### Aftermath

Ambulances attended the scene but pronounced that all casualties involved in the crash had been dead at the scene. With much difficulty, the fire services successfully cut Gidion and Teresa's bodies free of their car. They were then taken to the Cipritine General Hospital in a mortuary transport, where their details were catalogued and their bodies were stored in the hospital's morgue. Spirit priests attended to them but could not immediately commence the sacred process of embalming, as their bodies were considered vital evidence to the police investigation into the incident.

Gidion's father, Gaius, who had been working at the defence ministry that day, was contacted by the Cipritine Military Police, who notified him of his wife and son's deaths. Gaius was immediately granted compassionate leave by his superior officer, Achaeus Corinthus, and rushed to be with his family. His cousin, Desolas Arterius II, accompanied him as moral support.

Upon seeing the bodies of his wife and son, Gaius collapsed into a fit of grief. He became enraged at the police force, accusing them of killing his family and of delaying their burial rites to tamper with key evidence. Desolas attempted to convince Gaius that the police needed to investigate the bodies to determine the cause of death. He offered to oversee these investigations personally; as a Council Spectre, he had the authority to intervene in police investigations if he deemed it necessary. Gaius eventually agreed, trusting Desolas to keep the police honest.

#### Inquest

The postmortem was overseen by Desolas. The medical officers in attendance for the joint procedure concluded that Gidion's cause of death had been a combination of a severing of the cervical spine and traumatic internal injuries. Both of his arms, legs and his pelvis were shattered by the impact. Like her son, Teresa's cause of death included traumatic internal injuries, most notably a traumatic brain injury. Her legs were also broken. It was concluded that the injuries they sustained were so severe that they would have been killed instantaneously.

Meanwhile, the vehicles involved in the fatal crash were seized by the police, as was footage recorded by nearby traffic cameras and vehicle dash cams. The onboard computers of Gidion's car and the police inceptor were datamined for speedometer readings, acceleration/deceleration data and mechanical operating status. The data confirmed that Gidion had not been speeding and had pulled over and slowed to a halt. The interceptor had been travelling at 193 clicks at the time of impact. It was also found that the inceptor's flight stabiliser had been damaged when it was rammed, before the fatal impact. Both vehicles were to be deemed mechanically sound before the pursuit began.

A legal inquest into Gidion and Teresa's death concluded that Gidion was not at fault for the incident, as data pulled from his car's onboard computer confirmed that he had correctly removed the vehicle from danger by pulling over and remaining stationary. The officer driving the interceptor that collided with him was also absolved as his flight stabiliser had been damaged after being rammed, making his vehicle impossible to control. He was also given insufficient time to react; the time between being rammed and colliding with Gidion was less than two seconds. Thus, the blame was passed to the criminal that the police had been pursuing in the first place.

Gaius attempted to appeal the decision and put the blame on the Cipritine Military Police but was denied by the coroner overseeing the inquest, based on the physical evidence previously presented. The coroner concluded that Gidion and Teresa had been unlawfully killed but that their deaths were unavoidable in the given circumstances. Gaius was distraught.

### Burial

After the conclusion of the inquest, Gidion and Teresa's bodies were finally released to Gaius. With Desolas' help, Gaius made arrangements for their bodies to be transported to Carthaan, the ancestral homeland of House Abrudas, via mortuary ship. He chose for the bodies to be embalmed on Carthaan rather than Palaven.

As a mark of respect, representatives from Gidion's former tank regiment acted as the honour guard for his funeral procession. This included the members of the tank crew that Gidion had commanded, who drove his tank *Furia* behind his body. Another eight Tyrus tanks from the same regiment fired an eight-gun salute to coincide with his body being carried through the sacred gates of the Tyran Necropolis. Gidion's tank crew were also permitted to lay their regiment's flag upon his body before he was finally interred in the Abrudas family vault.

Gidion was entombed beside his mother, in a separate sarcophagus situated to the left of her own. As is turian tradition, he was buried wearing a death mask depicting a crystalline likeness of his face and clasping a sword in both hands upon his chest. He wore the uniform of the Imperial Tank Corps.

While Gidion and Teresa's funeral procession was a public affair, only family members and close friends were permitted to attend their interment. These included his father, Gaius; his paternal grandmother, Sedia Abrudas; his paternal grandaunt, Maea Arterius; his paternal second-cousin, Desolas; Desolas' husband, Nihlus; and Gidion's tank crew.