Kurt-051 (Earth-8573)

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

- - Kurt-051's last words to Fleetmaster Voro Nar 'Mantakree

Lieutenant Commander Kurt-051 was a SPARTAN-II supersoldier of the UNSC Naval Special Warfare Command, where he served as the leader of Green Team. Described as a "naturally-born leader", he became close with all other SPARTAN-IIs before he disappeared in a mission in 2531. While he was declared to be killed in action, Kurt had been found by the Office of Naval Intelligence and recruited by Colonel James Ackerson under the alias of Kurt Ambrose to become the commanding officer of his SPARTAN-III Program.

Early life
Kurt-051 was born on October 19th, 2511 in Mira, Circumstance. When he was only six years old, in 2517, he was kidnapped by the Office of Naval Intelligence as a conscripted participant in the SPARTAN-II Program, headed by Dr. Catherine Halsey and Chief Petty Officer Franklin Mendez, on Reach. Like all others, he was trained by Mendez and the synthetic Déjà. He was one of the one hundred and two candidates to survive the program's deadly augmentation procedures, and rose up to become a SPARTAN-II.

During the SPARTAN-II training, Kurt proved himself above others, and one of the program's top candidates, with Halsey and Mendez deeming him one of the four emerging leaders of the program, at the side of Jerome-092, Fred-104, and John-117. Mendez believed that Kurt had the necessary skills to lead all of the SPARTAN-IIs, but Halsey disagreed, believing John was the best fit.

His leadership gained Kurt the position of leader of Green Team, often beating Blue Team, led by John-117, in exercises.

SPARTAN career
Having survived the SPARTAN-II Enhancement Program in 2525, Kurt was given a place in Blue Team, replacing Sam-034, who died during the Battle of Chi Ceti. His fellow teammates did not initially like his inclusion in the team, but as soon as they started a raid on Camp New Hope and reclaim nuclear weapons from Insurrectionists, they changed their minds. During the battle, Kurt's abilities saved Blue Team from being captured by General Howard Graves. The mixed feelings John previously held for Kurt were vanished soon after, telling Kurt to never hide his "feelings" from then again, and Kelly, who was better with words than John, welcomed Kurt into Blue Team.

SPARTAN-III Program
"I do get the feeling that Ackerson would gladly assign members of his own family to a suicide mission if he could find an appropriately high value target to send them against."

- - Kurt-051 to Chief Petty Officer Franklin Mendez Weeks later, Blue Team took part of an extravehicular mission to investigate suspicious activity at a space station. During the mission, Kurt moved towards a damaged Shaw-Fujikawa translight engine just as his thruster pack seemingly malfunctioned, which sent him away into deep space, not to be seen again. Listed as missing in action, Kurt was in fact recovered by the Office of Naval Intelligence, who manufactured the whole operation so that Colonel James Ackerson would recruit Kurt into serving in his then-newly devised SPARTAN-III Program. He was given a fake alias and gained an officer commission, becoming known as Lieutenant, Junior Grade Kurt Ambrose.

He was sent to Onyx to train the SPARTAN-IIIs, at the side of Chief Petty Officer Franklin Mendez. His efforts were largely succesful, and he reached the rank of  Lieutenant Commander in 2545. He developed deep, affectionate bounds with each company he trained, and thus became profoundly hurt following the annihilation of Alpha Company during Operation PROMETHEUS. He vowed to himself he would not allow future SPARTAN-III companies to suffer the same fate, which he reflected on a much more rigorous training that focused on teamwork for Beta Company. Ultimately, Beta Company was also completely wiped out during Operation TORPEDO against the Covenant.

Following the loss of Beta Company, Kurt was able to reassign Tom-B292 and Lucy-B091, two of its survivors, to help Mendez in the training of the new Gamma Company, something which he had to appeal for Vice Admiral Margaret Parangosky, who agreed with it despite the objections of Ackerson. The duo became Kurt's most trusted allies as the years went by, and while the SPARTAN-IIIs were devised to serve as mere cannon fodder to slow down the Covenant, both Kurt and Mendez deemed some trainees to be too invaluable for the war effort to be simply wasted on suicide missions, so they removed them from their companies before both were annihilated, gave them MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armor, and assigned them to special units, one of them being Noble Team.

Following the formation of Gamma Company, Kurt regarded them as the "finest SPARTANs ever", he added numerous illegal drugs to their augmentation procedures that would heightein their aggressive response to allow them to survive in the battlefield.

Battle of Onyx
On October 31st, 2552, during the Covenant's attack on Onyx, Kurt rushed to regroup with Tom and Lucy at Camp Currahee and donned the SPI armor, telling he was "one of them", displaying the greatest concern to his SPARTANs above his own personal security.

As the battle waged on, Kurt reunited with Dr. Halsey and Kelly-087 once they arrived on Onyx. Halsey was then able to send a message through slipspace by using the original broadcast sent by Cortana from Installation 05 as a conduit wave. Upon contacting Fleet Admiral Sir Terrence Hood, she asked him to send a team of SPARTANs to Onyx to acquire a possible piece of forerunner technology, and so he sent Fred-104, Will-043 and Linda-058. The trio was able to infiltrate a Covenant ship, which they flew to Onyx, meeting up with Kurt after decades of believing he was dead. He then led the SPARTANs on a mission to a newly uncovered forerunner city in search of the technology Halsey was searching for.

Their mission was further complicated with the apperance of a Covenant fleet led by Fleetmaster Voro Nar 'Mantakree, who learned of the humans' plan to find the forerunner city. Kurt and the SPARTANs were able to find a Cartographer in Onyx, discovering it was in fact an artificial structure. Halsey then ordered Kurt to push into the core of Onyx once she deduced the planet held something important to the forerunners. They escaped from Covenant soldiers the teleportation grid of Onyx, and were redirected to destroy a Sentinel manufacturing facility. When they destroyed it, they continued entering the shield world. When Dr. Halsey said the place held the forerunner technologies they were searching for, Kurt confronted her, berating at Halsey and saying she was not telling them the truth behind her "mission". Cornered, she revealed her plan: shelter all of the SPARTANs within the shield world, as she predicted the UNSC would lose the First Contact War. Caring little to the revelation, they continued to walk to the core room, retrieving useful technologies they found on their way: in the case they failed, the team would deploy a series of FENRIS nuclear warheads into the room to ensure the technology would not fall into the hands of the Covenant.

Last stand
Once they entered the lost city, Kurt and the other SPARTANs assumed defense positions to prevent the Covenant from breaching the room. Kurt, realizing that they would be overrun once countless of Covenant forces were translocating to the room, ordered everyone to enter the slipspace portal before it closed, while himself stood behind to detonate all the warheads. Kurt then commissioned Fred to Lieutenant, Junior Grade, before transporting them to the shield world, believing the SPARTANs would need a new leader. Lucy and Tom stood with Kurt, insisting on not leaving him behind. Because Kurt knew they would not leave him, he knocked both of them out and hefted them into the portal.

Death
Alone and mortally injured, Kurt repeated on his head the names of all other fallen SPARTANs, including himself. He was able to delay the Covenant soldiers from using the slipspace portal to go behind the survivors. Almost dying, he started to hallucinate about all the dead SPARTAN-IIs and SPARTAN-IIIs at his side. He was then approached by Voro Nar 'Mantakree, noting the "Demon" was dead. Laughing, Kurt replied "Die? Didn't you know? Spartans never die", before detoaring all FENRIS warheads, killing himself and the entire Covenant armada at the shield world, preventing them from retrieving the forerunner technologies.

Legacy
Kurt died as a brillant commander and a noble hero who gave his life to save others, and as someone who cared for the SPARTANs as people and not machines. After the end of the First Contact War, his name was placed in the Voi Memorial. In honor of his death, the Office of Naval Intelligence named the micro shield world as "ONI Research Facility Ambrose".

Personality
Unusually sociable for a SPARTAN-II, Kurt was someone who considered all of his teammates and friends as more important than himself. From his graduation as a SPARTAN-II to his death, Kurt spent a lot of his time making new friends and colleagues, including the drill instructors who worked with him in the SPARTAN-III Program. Some of his subordinates and colleagues were uneasy to this, believing that a leader who was so distracted could give them trouble. However, Kurt was more than capable of proving himself to be an incredible leader. During the SPARTAN-III Program, his leadership abilities, noted at age six, became more and more advanced, and he prided himself over being a teacher figure.

He had an "intuitive sense" during battle situations, and was capable of "feeling" danger before it could get on their way. His abilities and leadership were what allowed him to become one of the few SPARTAN-IIs to become officers in the UNSC Navy, a select "courtesy" he shares with only Fred-104, Fhajad-084, Musa-096, and Serin-019.