Dante-G188

Were you looking for Dante Kirtley, a lieutenant of the ?

"Sir, I think I got nicked."

- Dante's final words.

Dante-G188 was a member of SPARTAN-III Gamma Company. He was the demolitions expert of Team Saber, one of the leading teams in Gamma Company. It was said that he had "near magical abilities" when it came to explosives. He always knew when they would explode and when they would fail. He was killed during the Onyx Conflict.

Conscription
Dante was orphaned at a young age when the Covenant glassed his homeworld. Possessing the requisite genetic profile for the SPARTAN-III program, developed by Colonel James Ackerson, Dante came into the attention of the Office of Naval Intelligence and, while between the ages of four and six, was convinced by an ONI recruiter to join the program to avenge his family. Following the activation of Gamma Company in July 2544, Dante and the other SPARTAN-III candidates were trained in Camp Currahee on the classified planet Onyx by Senior Chief Petty Officer Franklin Mendez, Lieutenant Commander Kurt-051, and surviving Beta Company Spartan-IIIs Lucy-B091 and Tom-B292.

Onyx Conflict
On October 31, 2552, Dante and Team Saber were competing for top honors with Gamma Company's other teams near Zone 67 when they came under attack by Sentinels. Forced to halt their training exercise due to the attack, Dante and Team Saber successfully evaded the drones until regrouping with other UNSC forces at Camp Currahee. Soon after, they were joined by Dr. Halsey, Kelly-087 and SPARTAN-II Blue Team.

With their help, Team Saber destroyed a pair of Sentinels before retreating to Zone 67, which revealed to house an enormous Forerunner city. Entering a large, domed structure in the city, the Spartans discovered the map room of Onyx and the location of Team Katana, whose signal Olivia had picked up earlier before communications with them were lost. However, a Covenant fleet led by Fleet Master Voro Nar 'Mantakree arrived at Onyx, dispatching ground forces to pursue the Spartans.

With the Covenant closing in, Kurt ordered Dante to place C-12 shaped charges around the domed structure. When the Covenant breached the structure's interior, he and the others were ordered to fall back into the map room. After covering the group's rear, Dante and Lucy helped drag an injured Frederic-104 to safety. Dante was mortally wounded when his left side was grazed by a plasma bolt and a number of Needler rounds exploded on his chest, exposing his ribs. Dante fell behind as the group retreated, and caught up just when Kurt noticed his disappearance, limping and holding his side. After reporting that he thought he was "nicked," Dante then collapsed and died.

After Kurt looked at his body and discovered the extent of his injuries, the others wrapped Dante's body in a thermal blanket, and eventually took it to the shield world, where he was buried by the survivors of the battle who then held a funeral service to him and the other fallen Spartans.

List of appearances

 * Halo: Ghosts of Onyx
 * Halo: Glasslands