Kaeto Aditus

Dossier
Armed with a broad range of explosives-based weaponry and a head full of demolitions knowledge, Kaeto Aditus serves aboard the CSV Caesetia as RIFT’s resident grenadier and demolitions expert. Proficient in crowd control and area denial tactics, Kaeto specializes in using his arsenal to rob the enemy of their freedom of movement, as well as destroy any enemy cover that may be used against him and his allies. When needed, he can also act as a demolitions expert and EOD technician, destroying obstacles and assisting in both the construction and/or disarmament of various types of explosive devices.

Early Life, 2149 - 2156
Born as both the eldest and tallest of four siblings - with him as the only son - Kaeto’s ingrained desire to act as a protector for those who cannot fend for themselves has been a part of him from before he could even walk. His early years were filled with incidents of him protecting both his friends and his younger sisters from schoolyard bullies, which, despite the admiration he received from his parents, more often than not resulted in disciplinary action. Though Kaeto always looked up towards his Special Forces Officer mother, Vinea, as his main role model, his love for explosives came from his father, Maxun. The elderly turian worked in construction as a demolitionist, and ever since he had invited a young Kaeto to watch the razing of a derelict shopping mall, Kaeto had been enthralled by the idea of making a living out of making things explode. From that day onwards, Kaeto decided that it was the life he wanted to live, and that he was going to do everything in his power to make that dream a reality. While his parents had the occasional concern that they had unknowingly raised some kind of anarchist sleeper agent, they were nevertheless more than happy to support their only son in his ambitions.

Academically, Kaeto was the very definition of a model student. A keen and attentive learner, he excelled in just about every subject available to him, and was frequently cited by both his peers and his teachers as a prime example of turian excellency. Throughout his entire school life, his academic prowess, coupled with his outgoing personality, led him to have quite a substantial number of friends and admirers alike, though he often forgoed a large number of these relationships so he could focus solely on his studies; something that he would come to regret in his later years. This would prove to be the reason why he frequently goes to elaborate lengths to befriend people - as if he hopes that making friends now will somehow make up for the ones he missed out on before.

Relay 314 Incident & Teenage Years, 2157 - 2169
In 2157, the human Systems Alliance, in response to the Relay 314 Incident, declared war on the Turian Hierarchy. Only eight at the time, Kaeto had no choice but to stay at home under the care of his father while his mother was deployed to serve on the frontlines. The memory of exactly how he felt in the moment he learnt she was never coming home would stay with him for decades to come. He wanted to cry, to curl into a ball and pretend it was all some kind of cruel joke, but he didn’t. Instead, he realised he had to be stronger than ever before. If not for himself, then for his family. He was the rock that kept them grounded - he was their protector. They needed him at that moment more than they ever had before. He chose to grieve in silence while he helped his family in any way he could, be it through consoling tearful sisters or aiding his father in arranging funeral processions. While he may have done right by his family in helping them, it had come at a cost; with no one to properly talk to about his mother’s death, he never got a chance to mourn properly, and because of this still has difficulty addressing the topic decades later.

Kaeto’s adamancy for explosives continued well into his teenage years, and was only amplified when he and the rest of the Aditus family began their compulsory civilian defence training - a series of Hierarchy-backed courses that covered everything from basic weapons handling to, most notably, the creation of improvised explosive devices. It was during the course of this training that Kaeto was singled out by the instructor as a potential candidate for the Hierarchy’s Bombardment & EOD program, which all but guaranteed him a slot in the academy training for what he’d been wanting nearly his entire life. As one could imagine, with such a monumental incentive offered to him it didn’t take much convincing to persuade him to enrol in boot-camp when he finally came of age.

Having always been a naturally impulsive person, Kaeto had been so excited to finally be on the path to his dream career that he didn’t even bother to read between the lines. Which was precisely why it was such a major shock to his system when he was finally shuttled offworld to Palaven, only to learn that his training program was to be a joint effort between the Turian Hierarchy and the Systems Alliance. Up until that moment he had never really considered exactly how he felt about humans, especially after what he and his family had to go through all those years ago. But now that he was facing the prospect of having to spend an entire year training alongside them, he was struggling to determine exactly how he should feel. At first he ignored them; not out of spite, but purely because he had no idea how or if he should even interact with them in the first place. For the first few months of his training, he opted to hang around with his own kind, and leave the humans to their own devices. He soon fell into a pattern not unlike his school years, wherein his skills on the field and his approachable nature led to him forming friendships with quite a substantial number of people. Unfortunately, it was around about this time that he began to fall in with the wrong crowd.

While he hadn’t realised it at the time, he had started to become close friends with a small group of what could only have been described as turian supremacists. The signs of their prejudice had been subtle at first; a huff of annoyance as a human walked by or a downright refusal to acknowledge their presence, for example. But what started as something minor and relatively obscure quickly began to snowball into downright hatred, and before he even knew it he was being asked to become a formal member of their little clique. He was completely torn; he wanted nothing more than to please everybody and become their closest companion, but at the same time, these were clearly very bad people. Even though the human race was responsible for the pain he and his family went through all those years ago, he felt no hatred towards them. The ones training alongside him had no involvement in the war at all and were likely just as young as he was when it happened. He couldn’t in good conscience hold them even the slightest bit responsible for something that they hadn’t done. But in that moment, where they had all but cornered him in a secluded part of the academy and were waiting on his response with eager stares, he couldn’t stop himself from accepting - and he hated himself for it.

He had hoped that nothing further would come from his acceptance and that it was simply a status thing that he would have to deal with for the rest of his training. And for a while, this seemed the case. It was only until they briefed him into their ‘initiation process’ did he realise that wasn’t going to happen. If he wanted to be completely accepted into their ranks, all he had to do was help them jump the most under-performing human on the course. If he refused, they would beat him instead. Suffice to say, he wasn’t exactly enthused by the idea. Though he was far from weak, there were a lot more of them then there were of him. Still, what they were asking of him was downright unacceptable, and he promised himself that he was going to make sure they knew it. He took no pleasure in reporting their actions to their superiors and getting them dismissed from the Academy. The visit to the medbay that followed afterwards was by no means enjoyable, but he didn’t care. In his eyes, he had done the right thing.

It was in that medbay visit where he met Calaea, a young and bubbly turian medic-in-training stationed at the academy around the same time as his training. The two hit it off immediately, and it wasn’t long until what started as a relationship between a carer and her patient quickly blossomed into something more. Though his progress at the Academy was hindered by his medbay visit, and the fact their relationship had to be kept quiet on account of potential fraternization charges, the two nevertheless managed to enjoy a happy and healthy romance all the way through to their respective graduations.

Kaeto and Calaea spent the next few years enjoying their lives together on the Citadel, sharing an apartment together and continuing their mandatory service together. While Calaea had continued her career in medicine at the Huerta Memorial Hospital, Kaeto instead followed in his father’s footsteps and found himself working in construction as a demolitionist. Life on the Citadel was expensive however, and Kaeto ended up having to work a wide variety of jobs on the side; alongside basic entry-level work like janitorial duties and waiting, his distinctive accent also brought him more than a few voice-over jobs, and he even found relative success as a semi-professional singer. And while he’d likely never admit it, he even dabbled in modelling from time to time. This trend continued until 2169, where at the age of 20 he decided to re-enlist with the Hierarchy to pursue a career in military service.

Hierarchy Service, Reaper War & Adoption of Pana, 2170 - Present
Kaeto’s proficiency for demolitions and his spotless academic record granted him a spot on the Hierarchy’s 103rd Anti Piracy & Intergalactic Trafficking Division, a task force made specifically to combat the problem of batarian and vorcha piracy and slave trade within Council Space. While for the most part the work in this field was rather mundane, the few moments where Kaeto had an opportunity to show off his abilities caught the attention of his superiors, and he quickly found himself rising through the ranks. A few years and a few promotions later he was transferred to the 19th Special Operations Legion, a highly distinguished and recognized unit within the Hierarchy that partook in various missions across the galaxy, ranging anywhere from peacekeeping to data retrieval and counter-terrorist operations. Unfortunately, the demands of his new work and attempting to keep up a long-distance relationship drove a wedge between Kaeto and Calaea, and the two eventually made the decision to part ways. Seeing as how up until that point Calaea had been the only person in his life he could consider as more than just a friend, the breakup ended up hitting him rather hard; while he was obviously sad that it had come to an end, he was more so angry with himself for once again prioritizing his work over maintaining healthy relationships. Initially he channeled his anger into something productive, opting to try and distract himself from his emotions by losing himself in his work, until one day, he had an epiphany. He realized that he could either continue to brood about the past, or he could learn from his mistakes and move on, and try to use the experience as a way to shape himself into a better person. It was with this realization that he decided to reconnect with his family, whom he had frequently neglected to contact ever since his graduation from the academy. He continued to regularly stay in contact with them over the course of the next few years, up until they went dark near the beginning of the Reaper war.

Aside from a training exercise gone awry in which a breaching charge detonated incorrectly and severed a portion of his mandible, the rest of Kaeto’s military service passed by without incident until 2183, with the resurgence of the Geth. During this time, Kaeto and his unit were routinely deployed to various colonies across Council Space to assist in the defense of possible Geth attacks. However, no such attacks ever occurred. It was only when he was allowed a brief period of shore leave on the Citadel when his skills were finally put to the test, during the First Battle of the Citadel. Despite the chaos and the immense danger he was in, he managed to rendezvous with both his squad and the station’s local C-Sec chapter and assist them in the evacuation of civilians, even going as far as to let a wounded asari take his seat on the evac shuttle he was supposed to board, just so he could stay behind and help further.

Kaeto spent the next few years back on the Citadel, putting aside his active service role and assisting in the clearing of debris left in the wake of Saren’s attack. This continued for the next few years until the beginning of the Reaper war in 2186, when he was reassigned back to his old legion and rapidly deployed to Palaven to assist with the civilian evacuation effort. He and his unit had been assigned with ensuring the protection of evacuees in the city of Heltarus - one of the smaller cities on Palaven that fortunately hadn’t been hit as hard as the planet’s capital, Cipritine. But while the damage there was nowhere near as bad at the capital, the Reapers had nevertheless left it a smouldering and scattered pile of what it once was. Entire city blocks had been reduced to nothing but rubble, and the dust and smoke that hung in the air was so thick that his team were forced to wear filtration masks. By this point he’d been in active service with the Hierarchy for over fifteen years, but not once had he ever seen death and destruction as severe and widespread as what he saw that day. Which was exactly why it was so unbelievable to find a survivor amongst the ruins. She had been the only one they recovered that day. A turian child, female, and no older than four years old. They would have missed her completely had Kaeto not heard her crying. She’d manage to survive the Reaper bombardment but was trapped beneath the rubble of the office building she and her parents had been hiding in, only managing to avoid being crushed to death by being lucky enough to be caught in an air pocket. Kaeto had pulled her soot-covered form out from the rubble and let her take his air filter, offering her what remained of his water flask and trying to calm her with lullabies as he carried her back to his legion’s FOB. When the time came to hand her over to his superiors for evacuation, however, she lost it; she cried, punched, kicked, clawed, and screamed like the Reapers themselves were trying to take her away. No matter what they tried, she just wouldn’t let go of him.

It took a lot of convincing, but Kaeto eventually calmed the girl enough to persuade her to go with his superiors and evacuate in exchange for him keeping in contact with her as often as he could. She reluctantly agreed, and over the course of the next few weeks Kaeto spent whatever time he had that wasn’t spent on the frontlines communicating with her through vidcalls, occasionally being clued in on details about her background through the child services looking over her. This was hard to do at first; with things as bad as it was, the vast majority of his time had to be devoted to fighting Reaper forces. It was only when he was slashed across the chest by a banshee - an encounter he survived thanks only to the attentiveness of his squad - did he have to spend the next several weeks in recovery that he finally had the time to converse with her.

Kaeto stayed in contact with the girl throughout the various physical and mental health assessments she had to endure, eventually learning her name - Pana Vilaptis. Efforts were made to locate her next of kin, but unfortunately nothing came of it; her parents couldn’t be located and it was assumed they had been killed during either the initial Reaper bombardment or the building collapse Pana had been found in. She had no siblings to speak of, and whatever extended family she had were killed during the first stages of the war.

Usually this would mean that she would be sent to a foster home and put up for adoption, but the psychiatrist who had assessed Pana during her mental health evaluations had taken note of her attachment to Kaeto, and suggested he put his name forth to adopt her instead. It didn’t take him very long to say yes. Whether it was because Pana was just a child, or that she somehow reminded him of his younger sisters, he had no idea. All he knew was that her safety was now his number one priority, and that he was going to do absolutely everything in his power to keep her free from harm. He knew it was going to be rather difficult raising a child in the middle of the most devastating war the galaxy had ever seen, but in his eyes it was worth it. He wanted to protect her, and the best way for him to do that, he figured, was if she became part of his family. Luckily when the time came for Pana to be put up for adoption, Kaeto, due mostly to his connection with Pana, was deemed as a suitable foster parent for her, and she was promptly taken into his care.

It was months before Pana fully recovered and was back to being the happy and healthy child she had been before the invasion, but by that point the crucible had been a complete and utter loss. What hope Kaeto had that he would be able to keep Pana safe and win the war all but crumbled into dust, and for the briefest of moments a dark, twisted part of him pondered signing himself up for frontline infantry purely to get his inevitable death out the way early. It was only when he was contacted by a turian General by the name of Caltaneus did he begin to reconsider. From the way the message he was sent was worded, he was being asked to sign on for some kind of last-resort suicide mission that offered only a mere chance to ensure the survival of the galaxy at large.

But a chance could have been all that was needed. He accepted the offer without a second thought, but only on one condition; Pana went with him. This may have been a galactic effort, but as far as he was concerned, she was the only thing that mattered to him now.

And he was damn well sure that he was going to fight for her life, or die trying.