Kurt Ambrose

Template:SPARTAN Infobox

"Die? Didn't you know? Spartans never die."

— Kurt's final words, to Voro Nar 'Mantakree as he detonates two FENRIS Nuclear Warheads and destroys Onyx.

Kurt Ambrose (UNSCMID: 045888947) was a Spartan-II supersoldier. One of the leaders of the Spartan team, he was close to many of the other Spartans, before he went missing during a mission in 2531. He was actually recruited by Colonel James Ackerson to spearhead the Spartan-III program . The surname Ambrose is not his true surname; rather Colonel Ackerson gave it to him prior to his abduction, due to the fact that he could not remember his real surname.

Personality and Description

Kurt was unusually sociable for a Spartan. Where the rest of his teammates were closely guarded and private,unless around other Spartans, Kurt spent a considerable amount of time making friends. This made some of his fellow Spartans uneasy, as they were not comfortable with a leader who was so easily distracted. Still, Kurt was an extremely proficient leader. After his indoctrination into the Spartan-III program, his leadership qualities became even more pronounced.

Kurt had an uncanny ability to "feel" traps, before walking into them. When something was wrong, Kurt would often get a bad feeling. When John and Kurt were originally on separate teams, John often lost as a result of Kurt's "feelings". His teammates grew to view this as an asset, trusting Kurt's instincts and common sense.

Kurt was among the best of the SPARTAN-IIs, right next to Spartan-117 in skill and superiority. Kurt and Fred are the only SPARTANs to make the rank of an Officer, Lieutenant Commander Kurt by "courtesy" of Col. Ackerson.

Biography

Early Childhood

When he was marked as physically and mentally superior by Dr. Catherine Halsey in 2517 she had him abducted and sent to Reach to begin Spartan training. As with the other candidates to become Spartans, he was replaced with a flash clone that would appear to die of natural causes, just like all the other future Spartans replacements.

Early Career

During training, he often was selected to lead Green Team in field exercises, in which he won almost every course. He graduated with the rest of the Spartans in 2525 after augmentation. After the death of Sam-034 during the Battle of Chi Ceti, Kurt replaced Sam on Blue Team under John-117's leadership and command. At first, his fellow teammates were uneasy and apprehensive with the transition, but after a mission to Camp New Hope where Kurt saved the rest of the Spartans from being captured by the URF General Howard Graves, they quickly bonded.a

Disappearance

Soon after, Kurt disappeared during an extravehicular mission to Station Delphi to investigate a ruptured Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine when his T-PACK failed and malfunctioned. He was listed as MIA and presumed dead. However he had actually been abducted by Colonel James Ackerson and sent to Onyx to train the Spartan-IIIs. To do this, he was given a new second name and an officer's commission, as Lieutenant (Jr. Grade) Kurt Ambrose. Over time, he was promoted for his successful efforts in training the new Spartans, eventually reaching the rank of Lieutenant Commander.

Onyx

At the outbreak of hostilities in Zone-67 in Onyx, Kurt regroups with Tom-B292 and Lucy-B091, the last remaining Spartans of Beta Company, and selects the SPI armor used by the Spartan-IIIs instead of his near-invincible Mark IV (which he has upgraded) armor as he tells Lucy that he is one of them now, a Spartan III teammate. Later on during his stay on Onyx he is reunited with Dr. Halsey and Kelly. Dr. Halsey along with the help of the ONI AI Endless Summer are able to send a message through slipspace by using Cortana's original UNSC broadcast. She asks Lord Hood to send Spartans to Onyx in order to acquire possible Forerunner technology. Upon learning of this transmission, the Spartans on Earth, Fred, William and Linda infiltrate and capture a covenant vessel, the Bloodied Spirit, which they travel in to Onyx where they met Kurt. Kurt then leads the Spartans on a mission into the newly uncovered Forerunner city on Onyx to locate the technology Dr. Halsey has been talking about. The mission was abruptly made complicated due to the Covenant locating Onyx and learning of the humans' mission. Kurt and his team still managed to learn large amounts of information pertaining to Onyx, at the same time managed to destroy a Sentinel production factory and locate the missing Team Katana. However instead of escaping Kurt led his team towards the Core Room where he realized the true purpose of Onyx as a shield world. He died in the Core Room Antechamber of the Forerunner construct of Onyx, saving the lives of the rest of Blue Team by opting to stay outside the rift and fight off the Covenant by detonating two FENRIS nuclear warheads. However, he commissions Fred as an officer before sending them to the shield world in order to give the remaining Spartans a leader.

File:Spartans-never-die.jpg

Kurt in his final moments.

Death

Kurt was mortally wounded in combat with a Hunter. He used biofoam to hold himself together, but the biofoam was melted by a Needler-wielding Unggoy.

Before detonating the two FENRIS nuclear warheads, Kurt marks the Spartan casualties as MIA - keeping with the policy of never declaring any Spartan KIA - and then does likewise for himself, adding Lieutenant Commander Kurt Ambrose to the list next to SPARTAN-051, Kurt. During this time, he sees all of his former Spartan-III's that were under his command give him the Spartan "Okay" signal, as well as Sam, Li, Grace, Will, and the rest of his fallen friends. Finally, right before detonating the warheads, he tells the Elite Fleet Master who confronted him: "Die? Didn't you know?...Spartans never die." The detonation of the two warheads causes a chain reaction, that destroys the crust of the planet, which had been covering a giant sphere made up of Sentinels, who fire their lasers into space destroying the Covenant ships but without hitting the UNSC Dusk. Meanwhile the surviving Spartans are shielded in the rift. It is believed that this rift is actually "condensed" slip space, within the small inner chamber of the planet, created by the Forerunners as a part of the Forerunners plan to fight the Flood. The Spartans in the rift never actually left it, but just stayed in it like in cryo-tubes.

Legacy

Kurt, according to John, originally made him uneasy. He did this by taking a lot of time to know his teammates on a more personal level. Other Spartan-IIs did not care for "friends." He died in the end as a brilliant commander, and noble hero who continued to know his Spartan-IIIs and Spartan-IIs as comrades and friends. Kurt's love for his soldiers, that was not shared by John, combined with his higher rank could be used to argue that he was a better classical Spartan than John. Conversely, however, it could also be argued that Kurt's emotional investment to those under his command clouds his tactical judgement in combat situations; thus although he has a superior instincts for sniffing out ambushes and was well liked by those he worked with, his lack emotional restraint may render his tactical judgement inferior to John 117, an issue John noted of Fred 104 in First Strike. Evidence of this can be seen in Ghost of Onyx; when Kurt chooses to wear SPI armor like his Spartan-IIIs rather than the superior MJOLNIR armor - he even noted himself - 'MJOLNIR armor was superior in every way to the SPI suit. Wearing it, Kurt would be able to protect his SPARTAN-IIIs better, destroy these drones more efficiently, but after decades of drilling into the Spartans the importance of working together, of being a family, the MJOLNIR armor would symbolically isolate him from them.'(Page 140-141 GoO). Thus Kurt let his emotional attatchment to the SPARTAN-IIIs overide what he knew was the better tactical choice with grave consequences (Kurt was mortally wounded at the end of GoO in his SPI armor); there's no indication that wearing the MJOLNIR armor would impair the SPARTAN-IIIs combat prowess in any way - Kurt just did not want to "isolate" himself from his spartans. Another moment can be seen in the battle in the core room when the first wave of 200 Grunts charge at the Spartans, a distraction engineered by Fleet Master Voro so his elites could set up shield generators for protection; Kurt took the bait and ordered all the Spartans to wipe out the Grunts, while the elites teleported in and set up. Kurt realises his mistake afterwards as his sees close to 100 elites and 3 hunter pairs in defensive position; a tactical error that John 117 would not have made - the 200 grunts could have been taken care of by the Spartan-IIIs alone whilst the Spartan-IIs with all their combat experience, would scan the edges of the room for reinforcements. A few minutes later, Kurts decision to don SPI armor would come back to haunt him; lacking the protection, enhanced speed, strength, reaction times offered by MJOLNIR armor, and after seeing Holly being vaporised, Kurt "without thinking, rushed forward before the Hunters could finish his prone teammates." Again, Kurt let his emotions cloud his judgement. There are several further instances throughout GoO, but these are the most noteworthy. There is no doubt Kurt was an extremely capable spartan, incredibley self-sacrificing and noble, well-liked; however it must be remembered that Dr Halsey, perhaps the greatest mind that humanity has, and creator of the Spartan-IIs, along witht Cortana, the most sophisticated AI in the UNSC, both agree that John-117 was the best spartan of Spartan-IIs, better than Kelly, Linda, Fred, or even Kurt. Significantly, John is not the fastest, strongest, smartest or best in sniping, tracking, stealth or any category; John-117 is the best because he holds every quality in equal measure - eg he may be slower than Kelly but a better marksmen; similarly, Linda may be a better shot but John may be faster etc. - essentially John is the ideal spartan, equally adept in all areas but epitome of none, a aspect no other Spartan to date has shown ie Spartans shown are usually better than John in one area (eg Kelly is the fastest in reflexes and speed) but less in another (perhaps as a result of her incredible speed, Kelly has a tendency to be more hasty/hot-headed than John, John having better tactical judgement, perhaps the best tactical judgement of all the Spartans - which would fit perfectly with his role as leader). John is also remarked as being the bravest and possibly the "luckiest" of the group

Trivia

• The name Ambrose comes from the late Latin or Greek name Ambrosius, which was derived from the Greek name Αμβρόσιος (Αmbrosios) meaning "immortal" which could reference the fact that Spartans are never marked as KIA, in an attempt to uphold the belief that spartans never die.
• He kept a self-winding antique mechanical watch.
• Kurt is the only known SPARTAN-II to wear S.P.I armor.
• Next to John and Fred, Kurt is probably one of the more well known leaders of the SPARTAN-II program.
• He is the highest-ranking Spartan-II in the history of the Halo universe, surpassing even Frederic-104 and John-117.
• Kurt, Fred, and John are said to be the "Commanders of the Spartans" leading them, always, into battle in some way, shape, or form.
• His last words "Die? Didn't you know... Spartans never die." Is an obvious reference to the fact that Spartans are never listed KIA (due to UNSC protocols to not decrease civilian moral.) These words have become famous in the Halo community.
• Kurt's last name Ambrose was actually given to him by Colonel Ackerson of the UNSC Army, Kurt had forgotten his real last name.
• Kurt-051 was the only Spartan-II that did not have any Energy Shields in Halo: Ghosts of Onyx, and did not bother to use the Jackal Arm Shields when he used the S.P.I Armour like the Spartan-IIIs did.
• Kurt Ambrose was the only Spartan-II to work with Mendez.