Kurt Ambrose

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

— Kurt's last words.

Lieutenant Commander Kurt-051, born Kurt M. Trevelyan and later known as Kurt Ambrose, (UNSCMID: 045888947) was a SPARTAN-II supersoldier. The leader of Green Team, he was close to many of the other Spartans, before he went missing during a mission in 2531. Although the other Spartans were led to believe that Kurt had died, he was actually recruited by Colonel James Ackerson to spearhead the SPARTAN-III Program. "Ambrose" is not his true surname; rather Colonel Ackerson gave it to him after his abduction. Kurt actually could not remember his full name as a result of extensive mental conditioning involved in the SPARTAN-II program.

Personality and Description

Kurt was unusually sociable for a Spartan and considered the well being of his team mates more important than the whims of his commanding officers. While the rest of his teammates were closely guarded and private unless around other Spartans, Kurt spent a considerable amount of time making friends, such as with the drill instructors. This made some of his fellow Spartans uneasy, as they were not comfortable with a leader who was so easily distracted. Despite these perceptions, Kurt proved himself to be 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, and avoid walking into them. When something was wrong, Kurt would often get a bad feeling. When John-117 and Kurt were on separate teams during training, John often lost as a result of Kurt's "funny 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 John-117 in skill and superiority. Kurt, Frederic-104, Jorge-052 and Fhajad-084 are the only SPARTAN-IIs to become officers. Kurt was promoted to Lieutenant Commander, "courtesy" of Colonel Ackerson.

Biography

Early childhood

Kurt Trevelyan was born October 19, 2511 in Mira, eventually growing up in Kuiper on Circumstance. 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 his Spartan training under Chief Petty Officer Franklin Mendez. 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. Not much is known of Kurt's early training, except that he would often beat John's team in training.

During his training, Kurt quickly proved himself to be considered one of the program's top candidates. Both Dr. Halsey and Chief Mendez identified him as one of four emerging leaders within the Spartan-II group, along with Jerome-092, Frederic-104, and John-117. Chief Mendez expressed his belief the most strongly in Kurt as having the skills to lead the entire Spartan-II group, although Halsey disagreed, instead believing John would fulfill that role.

Kurt's leadership skills were correctly observed, as he later became one of the earliest known leaders of the Spartan-II's Green Team.

Early career

During training, he often was selected to lead Green Team in field exercises, of which he and his team won a fair number. 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 their minds were changed on a mission to Camp New Hope to recover nuclear warheads. There Kurt's "feelings" saved the rest of the Spartans from being captured by the rebel General Howard Graves. Graves' ingenious plan to use a gravity disruptor to fool their armor into thinking gravity had increased, therefore knocking them unconscious, then keeping them immobile with neural disruption collars had worked, and John, Kelly, Fred, and Linda were trapped in Graves' clutches. Kurt saved them with four Asteroidea anti-personnel mines, then removed their collars and got them out in a patchwork Warthog. Any mixed feelings John had previously vanished. John told Kurt never to hide his "feelings" again, and Kelly, better with words than John, welcomed the Spartan to the team.

Training the SPARTAN-IIIs

Soon after, Kurt disappeared during an extravehicular mission to Station Delphi to investigate a ruptured Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine when his T-PACK "malfunctioned", sending him spinning away into deep space. He was listed as MIA and presumed dead. However, Kurt was recovered by ONI, which had manufactured the whole mission to allow Colonel James Ackerson to recruit the SPARTAN with new orders to train the next generation of SPARTANs. He was given a new surname and an officer's commission, as Lieutenant, Junior Grade.

Kurt Ambrose was then sent to Onyx to train the SPARTAN-IIIs with CPO Mendez. While the SPARTAN-IIIs were initially intended as cannon fodder, Kurt and Mendez recognized that a number of the trainees were too skilled to be wasted on suicide missions, so they removed them from their respective companies, gave them MJOLNIR armor, and assigned them to other units. Over time, he was promoted for his successful efforts in training the new Spartans, eventually reaching the rank of Lieutenant Commander.

Death on Onyx

Main article: Battle of Onyx

At the outbreak of hostilities in Zone 67, Kurt regrouped with Tom-B292 and Lucy-B091, the last two remaining Spartans of Beta Company, and willfully used the SPI armor used by the SPARTAN-IIIs instead of his superior MJOLNIR armor as he told Lucy that he was one of them now, a SPARTAN III, once again displaying his utmost concern for the morale of his team. Later on during the battle for Onyx, he reunited with Dr. Halsey and Kelly. Dr. Halsey, along with the help of the ONI AI Endless Summer, was able to send a message through Slipspace by using Cortana's original broadcast from Installation 05. She asked Fleet Admiral Hood to send Spartans to Onyx in order to acquire possible Forerunner technology. The SPARTAN-IIs on Earth, Fred-104, Will-043, and Linda-058 infiltrated and captured a Covenant vessel, the Bloodied Spirit, which they took to Onyx where they met Kurt. Kurt then led the Spartans on a mission into the newly uncovered Forerunner city on Onyx to locate the technology Dr. Halsey had been looking for.

The mission was abruptly complicated due to the Covenant fleet led by Voro Nar 'Mantakree locating Onyx and learning of the humans' mission. Kurt and his team managed to acquire information pertaining to Onyx, managed to destroy a Sentinel production factory and locate the missing Spartans of 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, 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 commissioned Fred as an officer before sending them to the shield world in order to give the remaining Spartans a leader to follow.

Legacy

Kurt, according to John, originally made him uneasy. He did this by taking a lot of time to get to know his teammates on a more personal level. Other Spartan-IIs (besides Samuel-034) did not care for "friends" as much as he did. He died in the end as a brilliant commander in the eyes of those he had known, and as a noble hero who continued to know his SPARTAN-IIIs and SPARTAN-IIs as comrades and friends, John-117 included.

After the conclusion of the Human-Covenant War in 2553, his still-intact Spartan armor transponder was detected by the UNSC Glamorgan in the debris field that was formerly Onyx, leading to the rescue of remaining UNSC personnel in the Shield World. In honor of Kurt, Dr. Halsey, with Admiral Parangosky's approval, named the micro Dyson sphere "Trevelyan".

Trivia

• "Ambrose", the pseudonym assigned to Kurt by Ackerson, comes from the late Latin name Ambrosius, which was derived from the Greek name Αμβρόσιος (Αmbrosios) meaning "immortal"; this could reference the fact that SPARTANs are never marked as KIA in an attempt to uphold the belief that SPARTANs never die. This is ironic, as his last words were, "Die? Didn't you know? Spartans never die." From a real-world perspective, Kurt was likely named in honor of the now-deceased author Stephen Ambrose, the author of the historical biography Band of Brothers, which later adapted into an HBO miniseries. The name of the camp where Kurt trained the SPARTAN-IIIs, Camp Currahee, is a reference to Band of Brothers.
• Kurt and Fhajad-084 are the highest-ranking SPARTAN-IIs, both being lieutenant commanders.
• Kurt and Jorge-052 were the only SPARTAN-IIs known to have been involved in the SPARTAN-III program.
• "Kurt" is one of the name options for customized loadouts in Halo: Reach, along with the members of Noble Team and several SPARTAN-II's.

List of appearances

• Halo: Reach (Mentioned as a Loadout)
• Halo: Ghosts of Onyx (First appearance)
• Halo: Glasslands (Mentioned only)

Gallery

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  Kurt-051's candidate record, page 1/2.

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  Kurt-051's candidate record, page 2/2.

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  Kurt's drawing of the Battle of Agincourt, with comments by Dr. Halsey.