Kelly-087

"Kelly's the fastest Spartan."

- Kurt-051

Petty Officer Second Class Kelly-087 is one of the few remaining SPARTAN-II super soldiers. She is well-known due to close friendships with Joshua-029, Samuel-034, Linda-058, Frederic-104, and John-117. She was temporarily missing, but was later reunited with the remaining SPARTAN-II soldiers (barring John-117) on Onyx. Currently, she, along with the other surviving SPARTAN-IIs and several SPARTAN-IIIs, are trapped in a Micro Dyson Sphere. She is one of John's closest friends, and is renowned for her incredible speed, even without her MJOLNIR armor.

Personality and Description
Kelly is notoriously fast, even by Spartan standards. 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. 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. 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. She was abducted from her home and 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 Sam-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 didn´t 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.

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

After her Spartan augmentation procedures at the ONI Medical Facility station, 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 participated in the Spartans' first mission to Eridanus II. She, along with John, Fred, Sam and Linda boarded the Laden and infiltrated Eridanus Secundus. 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.

Kelly also participated in an ONI-led operation which required a squad of Spartans (consisting of Solomon-069, Arthur-079, Fred-104, John-117 and herself) to infiltrate Covenant-controlled space via Booster Frames and recover a stolen package from a Covenant fleet. 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 departs. 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.

"It's a shame to leave this place...there are so few left..."

- Kelly after the battle of Jericho VII

"There will be other places to fight for."

"Will there?"

- Kelly

In 2535, Kelly was present at Jericho VII. She was designated as Blue-Two and was at John's team during a mission to kill 1,000 Grunts to avenge the 105th Drop Jet Platoon. However, after three days of hard fighting, they were forced to retreat. They later watched the planet getting glassed by the Covenant.

In 2552, Kelly was sent to Sigma Octanus IV during the Battle of Sigma Octanus IV. She was designated to Blue-Two, which was 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 and docked with the and returned to Reach.

Reach
She was briefly aboard the in preparation for the Spartans' mission to capture a Covenant Prophet. Unfortunately, the Covenant found Reach first. During the Battle of Reach, she was designated as Red-Two, part of Fred's team (Red Team). Their mission was 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 plasma fire. 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 her 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 vessel. 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 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 was completely collapsed. Dr. Halsey noted that it was amazing Kelly was still alive despite these two fatal conditions. "That the woman was still on her feet, let alone fighting, was tantamount to an act of God."

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 found some Forerunner caves. The five Spartans and Dr. Halsey then discovered the Forerunner Crystal artifact. It sent a spike of radiation that allowed the Covenant to triangulate on the Spartans position and a gravity lift immediately appeared. 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 Fuel Rod Gun 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. It took some time for her to heal and while she was sedated, Dr. Halsey brought her aboard the private vessel of the Rebel Governor Jacob Jiles, the Beatrice (a retired stealth ship, without anyone's knowledge or permission), which entered Slipspace heading for Onyx.

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

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

On November 3, Halsey and Kelly eventually make it to Onyx (crashing the Chiroptera Beatrice that they had commandeered to get there), while reuniting with her old teacher SCPO Mendez and eventually some of the remaining SPARTAN-II and SPARTAN-III soldiers. Kelly, as the fastest Spartan, was bait for the Onyx Sentinels. After the arrival of Will-043, Linda-058, and Frederic-104, the Spartans went on the offensive and destroyed a Sentinel Factory. They then teleported to the Core Room.

At this point, a Covenant Army under the command of Fleet Master Voro Nar 'Mantakree arrived. The Spartans held off the army, but 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 and Will-043 were killed to save her. Kelly then retreated through a Slipspace portal alongside Dr Halsey, Fred, Linda, and the rest of the surviving SPARTAN-IIIs. Kurt stayed behind and detonated two FENRIS nuclear warheads to stop the massive Covenant Army. Kelly is then trapped with her fellow Spartans in a Micro Dyson Sphere. She and the others are currently trying to revive Team Katana and trying to find a way out of the Shield World inside Onyx.

Trivia

 * At one point in the Halo Encyclopedia Kelly is refered to as Kelly-058 (even though it's Linda's service number) however this is incorrect because she is always refered to in cannon Kelly-087.