Kelly-087

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"Kelly's the fastest Spartan."

- Kurt-051

Kelly-087 is a SPARTAN-II supersoldier of the UNSC Naval Special Warfare Command. She is renowned for her incredible speed, even without her MJOLNIR armor. As of 2553, she is one of the few active SPARTAN-IIs.

Personality and description
Kelly is notoriously fast, even by Spartan standards, making her easily the fastest human who ever lived. She is the fastest of all the other Spartans, capable of running at bursts of up to 62 KPH (38.502 MPH), has quicker reflexes than all other Spartans and is even capable of accomplishing normal tasks quickly and more precisely than her fellow Spartans. In order to keep her reflexes sharp, she exercises routinely with "twitch-response drills" and Zen "no-thought" practices. Before a mission, she had to slow herself down considerably to spar with another Spartan. She has demonstrated an incredible tolerance for pain, as she has been injured quite gravely on several occasions and managed to recover fully each time.

When she was younger, Kelly had her hair dyed blue and was taller than John. He eventually outgrew her and her hair color returned to its natural brown color. Kelly has a cynical sense of humor and often cracks jokes over her and her team's situation and mission. It has been noted that she has never quite learned how to properly conceal her emotions, and her body language tends to give them away. Her speed has led her to being termed the team's "Rabbit", acting as quick bait to draw enemies into traps laid by the other Spartans.

Early childhood
Kelly-087 was conscripted into the SPARTAN-II program at age six in 2517 when she was singled out as a physically and intellectually superior child by Dr. Catherine Halsey. During her abduction she eluded Retrieval team Gamma for six hours but eventually came forward when she thought the abduction was a game for her birthday. Her near-escape resulted in the implementation of new retrieval protocols to avoid further mistakes. After her abduction she was replaced with a flash clone. She was then sent to Reach to begin her training.

SPARTAN-II Program
On her first day of Spartan training, Kelly was teamed up with John-117 and Samuel-034 during a drill at Military Reservation 01478-B. Their team did poorly, because of the lack of teamwork, and finished in last place. They were not allowed to eat that night. The next day Kelly showed her true speed by running for a pulley lift, which she reached twice as quickly as John and Sam. They did not come first, but they did come in third. This was just the first of many times that her speed would be a key factor in strategies. The three of them became close friends that day. When the Spartans' heads were being shaved for the first time, Kelly disarmed the Master Sergeant barber of his clippers, requiring three aides to force her down and shave her head.

Kelly participated in numerous training missions with the Spartans from 2517 to 2525, including those in Emerald Cove, Chiron Test Station, and the Military Wilderness Training Preserve in the Highland Mountains.

After her Spartan augmentation procedures at an ONI medical facility over Reach, Kelly was close to death. She was the slowest to recover from the operations, and many of her fellow Spartans were afraid that she would not make it. She did, and her already amazing speed was even further augmented. John-117 noted that she was "...almost untouchable, no one could touch her if she didn't want them to."

Early career
"Kelly-087"

- John-117

Kelly participated in the Spartans' first mission to Eridanus Secundus. She, along with John, Fred, Sam and Linda, boarded the Laden and infiltrated the rebel asteroid base. They then captured Colonel Robert Watts, leader of the Eridanus rebels. In the same year, some time later, she witnessed the Covenant's might and lost her friend Sam during the Battle of Chi Ceti.

In 2535, Kelly was present at the Battle of Jericho VII. She was designated as Blue-Two on John's Blue Team during a mission to distract the Covenant while Red Team would plant a HAVOK tactical nuclear weapon to destroy a Covenant landing zone. However, after three days of hard fighting, they were forced to retreat as the planet was glassed.

Later, in 2544, Kelly also participated in an ONI-led operation which required a team of Spartans (consisting of Solomon-069, Arthur-079, Frederic-104, John-117 and herself) to assault a Covenant fleet using Booster Frames and recover a stolen package. The Covenant fleet was temporarily unable to enable their slipspace drive due to a stellar magnetic field, providing the Spartans some time to retrieve the package before the Covenant fleet departed. During the course of the operation, Arthur-079 and Solomon-069 were killed by the Covenant. The surviving Spartans then infiltrated the Covenant flagship and got separated as they made their way to the package which was revealed to be Dr. Catherine Elizabeth Halsey‎. The operation was successful with the Spartans escorting the "package" back to the ONI stealth ship that deployed them.

In 2552, Kelly was sent to Sigma Octanus IV during the Battle of Sigma Octanus IV. She was designated as Blue-Two, part of John's team, and carried a HAVOK Nuclear Warhead to the Covenant-held city of Côte d'Azur. Successful, her team boarded a Pelican, docked with the and returned to Reach.

Reach
She was briefly aboard the in preparation for Operation: RED FLAG; the Spartans' mission to capture a Covenant Prophet. Unfortunately, as the Autumn was preparing to leave, they were recalled to defend Reach as a massive Covenant fleet entered the system. Designated as Red-Two, Kelly was assigned to Fred's team, with the mission to defend the generators for the orbital MAC guns. As their Pelican, Bravo 001, descended to the surface of Reach, it was shot down by Seraphs. The Spartans were then forced to jump from the crashing Pelican, which led to several Spartans being killed and more injured on impact. Kelly was apparently injured in this fall though she made no indication of it.

They eventually rallied at ODG Facility A-331. After receiving a message from Vice Admiral Danforth Whitcomb, Fred assigned Kelly to Team Alpha, along with himself and Joshua-029. They piloted Banshee fliers to a Covenant landing zone where she threw a Fury Tactical Nuke into the gravity lift of a Covenant cruiser. Though they successfully destroyed the landing zone, Joshua was shot down and later marked as MIA.

She and Fred were then forced to retreat back to Team Delta's position after it appeared that all the Spartans of Team Beta were killed at the ODG Facility. They were then forced to land, contend with a pair of Hunters, and commandeer Wraith tanks in order to get to CASTLE Base where Team Delta was hidden. They met up with Vinh-030, Isaac-039, and William-043. The five Spartans were unable to enter the facility until Kelly thought to whisper Oly Oly Oxen Free into the speaker, which opened the door, and it turned out that Dr. Halsey was still in the facility.

Kelly's injuries turned out to be life-threatening; she had a fever and low blood pressure due to moderate bleeding in her liver, and one of her lungs had completely collapsed. Dr. Halsey noted that it was amazing Kelly was still alive, let alone still fighting, despite these two potentially fatal conditions.

The Covenant attacked immediately and Dr. Halsey was forced to activate Operation: WHITE GLOVE. In addition, she gave the Spartans new MJOLNIR parts which were being field-tested, but had not yet been certified. Kelly received an improvement to her neural induction circuits, giving her twitch response time a speed boost. The Spartans were then trapped beneath the base for several days until Fred came across the entrance to a Forerunner installation. After exploring the vast complex for some time, the five Spartans and Dr. Halsey discovered a Forerunner crystal at the center of a vast chamber.

The crystal sent a spike of radiation that allowed the Covenant to triangulate on the Spartans' position. The Covenant breached the underground complex, and used a gravity lift to send massive amounts of ground forces inside. The group was forced to retreat, but Vinh and Isaac disappeared after their satchel charges exploded. Kelly, Fred, Will and Dr. Halsey were then trapped in a cavern for several days until they were rescued by John-117, Anton-044, and Admiral Whitcomb. During the operation though, Kelly was hit by the assault cannons of two Hunters as she tried to protect Dr. Halsey. Once again, she was critically wounded. With burns on seventy two percent of her body, she required dermacortic steroids to recover.

Kelly was whisked aboard a Spirit and taken to the captured Ascendant Justice/Gettysburg. Some time after she was healed, Halsey sedated her and had Corporal Locklear carry her aboard the Beatrice; a retired stealth ship and the private vessel of the rebel Governor Jacob Jiles, without anyone's knowledge or permission. The Beatrice then entered slipspace, heading for Onyx.

Onyx
"Why are they so...twitchy?"

- Kelly, expressing her skepticism of the SPARTAN-IIIs' efficiency to Kurt-051

On November 3, Halsey and Kelly eventually made it to Onyx, where the Beatrice immediately came under attack by Onyx Sentinels. Kelly awoke from her sedation only moments before, and was forced to land the ship safely as Halsey passed out due to extreme acceleration caused by their entry maneuver. On the surface, Kelly and Halsey soon reunited with SCPO Mendez and some of the remaining SPARTAN-II and SPARTAN-III soldiers. Soon after, Kelly, as the fastest Spartan, served as bait for the Onyx Sentinels and with coordinated teamwork, they managed to destroy several of them.

After the arrival of Will-043, Linda-058, and Frederic-104, the humans used a Covenant dropship to enter a vast, excavated Forerunner city within Zone 67, and located Onyx's map room. They then destroyed a massive Sentinel manufacturing facility under orders of AI Endless Summer. After recovering Team Katana, whose members were in slipspace field pods, they teleported to Onyx's core room, soon followed by a Covenant army under the command of Fleet Master Voro Nar 'Mantakree.

The Spartans then held off the Covenant forces at a slipspace portal in the center of the core room. When Kelly killed a group of Elites in close quarters in an attempt to buy them more time, a Hunter pair took her by surprise, and Holly-G003 sacrificed her life to save her, soon followed by Will. Kurt then ordered Kelly, along with Dr. Halsey, Fred, Linda, and the rest of the surviving SPARTAN-IIIs, to enter the slipspace rift, while he stayed behind and detonated two FENRIS nuclear warheads to stop the massive Covenant army.

Shield world and recovery
"Damn, I've finally been outrun. Oh, the shame of it."

- Kelly, upon failing to catch a small Forerunner medical drone in the shield world.

Having passed through the slipspace rift, Kelly and the rest of the human survivors found themselves trapped in a massive Dyson sphere contained within a slipspace bubble of compressed space-time, formerly hidden inside the core of Onyx. She and the others then began trying to find a way to revive Team Katana to find a way out of the shield world.

After the survivors had explored the sphere for several days—over three months in normal space-time—they discovered a group of Huragok which helped them establish contact with the ONI ships outside the sphere and eventually bring the sphere back into normal space in February 2553. They were then recovered by the ONI team Kilo-Five and taken to a debriefing in HIGHCOM Facility Bravo-6 aboard the. Kelly, along with the rest of the surviving SPARTAN-IIs, were present in the Voi Memorial ceremony on March 3, 2553.

Trivia

 * In The Package, Kelly was voiced by Luci Christian, who also voiced a Marine in Prototype.
 * "Kelly" is one of the name options for customized loadouts in Halo: Reach, along with the members of Noble Team and several fellow SPARTAN-IIs.

List of appearances

 * Halo: Reach
 * Halo: The Fall of Reach
 * Halo: First Strike
 * Halo: Ghosts of Onyx
 * Halo: Evolutions - Essential Tales of the Halo Universe
 * Palace Hotel
 * Halo: Glasslands
 * Halo Legends
 * The Package
 * Halo: Fall of Reach
 * Boot Camp
 * Covenant