Battle of Manassas

The Battle of Manassas, also referred to as the Siege of Manassas-Reach was an engagement that took place from the 18th to the 21st of August, 2552. It was a particularly decisive Covenant victory.
==Battle==
===Covenant Assault===
On the 18th of August, vessels deployed from the newly-arrived Fleet of Particular Justice deployed Jiralhanae-led raiding parties to several major cities across Reach, notably New Alexandria and Manassas. The forces deployed to Manassas were welcomed by the UNSC's garrison of the city, consisting of the weakened L Company and several military police units. Alongside this, the heavily-armed police force of the city offered resistance but was quickly defeated during direct confrontations by the vastly superior Covenant forces. UNSC reinforcements arrived later in the day in the form of a company of marines from the now-destroyed UNSC Savannah, and the Hillsborough-class destroyer Alfa Romeo. 
Shortly after the arrival of the Alfa Romeo, Fireteam India arrived, deployed from the UNSC Ivory Coast, to assist in the evacuation of a number of high-profile individuals from the city, and on the 19th of August Theo-783 crash-landed near the city following his ship being damaged after his return from Operation: ULTIMA, though he would not join the engagement until the following day.
===Evacuations at Manassas Spaceport===
Evacuation efforts were initially met with success as thousands of civilians were evacuated in rapid succession at Manassas Spaceport. L Company and it's newly-arrived reinforcements, alongside the remainder of the Manassas Police Force, were able to hold several sectors around the spaceport as part of a line of defenses against Covenant attacks. Anti-Aircraft batteries annihilated a large amount of Covenant aircraft and prevented them from directly deploying forces to the spaceport, necessitating an assault on the perimeter established by L Company. The resultant engagements across the city were bloody but decisive, with the Covenant managing to destroy all but the inner line of L Company's defenses. It was at this point that the CPV-class heavy destroyers Solemn Isolation and Periodic Desolation arrived and orbitally bombarded the spaceport, obliterating most of L Company and all of Fireteam Uniform. The Alfa Romeo was destroyed by a Plasma Lance fired by the Periodic Desolation. Fireteam India withdrew with the last surviving civilian transport and most of the survivors of the bombings with the exception of Victoria Theodorides, a member of the fireteam that was knocked unconscious during the bombardment and left behind. Eddie Salim and the team from the Savannah were cut off from the spaceport during the bombing and left stranded in the Misriah Building, while Theo-783, who had arrived in the city only an hour prior, was unable to communicate with UNSC forces due to the jammers set up in the city by the Covenant, leaving him cut off from the survivors from the spaceport.
===Survivors===
By roughly 2100 hours on the 20th, UNSC forces in the city now consisted of one Spartan-II, one ODST, four Marines and two Police Officers. Covenant search teams, believing that there were far more survivors than there actually was, were deployed all over the city to find and destroy any pockets of resistance. Marine survivors within the Misriah Building were ambushed by Jiralhanae Stalkers and slaughtered, with only Eddie Salim managing to survive and escape onto the empty streets below. Several jammers had been deactivated by this point by Theo-783, and he was able to get a shaky-yet-secure connection with the surviving ODST Victoria Theodorides and the two remaining Police Officers, and all four of them rendezvoused at the destroyed spaceport, where they also met up with Eddie Salim, who was taking refuge there. 
All UNSC survivors in the city were now united, however they still had not secured a way out of the city. After a brief planning session, it was decided that the only possible way out of the city would be to reach the Manassas Space Elevator, which was yet to be destroyed, and secure a civilian yacht. Shortly after they had decided their course of action, Covenant search teams began to scour the ruins of the spaceport, forcing them to covertly exit the destroyed facility and travel along the city streets.
===Battle at the Eureka Building===
The team reached the Eureka Building by 2332 Hours. Said building had a direct, safer connection to the Space Elevator via a walkway that connected directly to the commercial area of the elevator's base. However, a Covenant search team that was monitoring the building detected them and the Covenant launched several phantoms filled with ground forces to annihilate the survivors. After a brief engagement, the waves of phantoms were driven off, though the remaining two police officers were killed in the process. With a brief respite from the attacks, the remaining three survivors advanced across the walkway where they were accidentally fired upon by a group of armed civilians, believing them to be the Covenant due to the sheer terror of the situation. The firefight came quickly came to an end when Theo-783 disarmed the civilians, however the Covenant were alerted by the noise and were quickly closing in on their location. Now running out of time, the three survivors and their newly-acquired civilian allies attempted to cross the remainder of the walkway before the Covenant could stop them, however the Periodic Desolation began glassing the city before they could, annihilating the space elevator and much of the walkway. The group was forced to retreat back across the walkway and into the Eureka Building, which was now full of Covenant.
The ODST, Spartan and Marine cleared the floor they had entered after a short and bloody firefight, and they withdrew to the ground floor via the elevator system. Upon reaching the ground floor, the team was assaulted by a swarm of Yanme'e who brutally slaughtered the civilian survivors but were unable to injure or kill the others. A Covenant strike team had arrived outside on the street in ground vehicles but were ambushed and killed by the humans. The three captured a Type-46 Spectre and used it to escape from the vicinity of the Eureka building, which the Covenant had begun to deploy forces to en mass.
===Escape from the City===
Now needing to formulate a new plan, it was deduced that the most likely place in the city, aside from the now-destroyed Space Elevator, where they could commandeer a vessel would be the Misriah Building, which Theo believed still housed a number of Pelicans. In order to safely get out of the city in such an aircraft, however, they would need the skies to be clear of hostiles, meaning they would need to re-activate the Anti-Aircraft Defense Grid that had been deactivated by the Covenant. Theo-783 opted to go alone, sending Victoria Theodorides and Eddie Salim to proceed to the Misriah Building using the relatively safe maintenance walkways underneath the city's streets.
The Spartan proceeded to the city's defense hub, which was located within the UNSC-owned building known as simply the "Army Building". In addition, the Army Building was, by this time, the hub of the Covenant's search teams and was heavily fortified and garrisoned. After arriving at the building and clearing out the forces that was protecting the building's perimeter, Theo fought his way to the upper floors where he managed to reactivate the Anti Aircraft Grid and commandeer a Banshee which he used to fight his way back to the Misriah Building whilst the AA Grid mopped up the Covenant's aerial forces. Meanwhile, the ODST and the Marine had reached the Misriah Building but were quickly pinned down by a number of Jackal snipers. The arrival of Theo-783 allowed them to push onwards, however, and as the sun rose across the city the three fought their way up the many exterior garden plateaus, walkways and landing pads, utilising jetpacks. Eventually, at 0800 hours the team managed to reach the building's cargo pad where they commandeered a pelican and escaped the city.
The escape of the last survivors, Theo-783, Victoria Theodorides and Eddie Salim signified the end of the battle as the rest of the city was subsequently glassed in the following days.
==Aftermath==
Manassas was a crippling defeat to the UNSC's efforts to defend the planet. With the loss of one of the largest cities on the planet in only a matter of three days and the destruction of the Alfa Romeo, the UNSC Army was hard-pressed to find suitable replacements for L Company and the others who were killed at Manassas. The city was totally destroyed following the battle alongside other cities such as New Alexandria. UNSC Search and Rescue operations did not locate any substantial pockets of survivors, indicating that Theo-783, Victoria Theodorides and Eddie Salim were the only survivors left in the city by the morning of the 21st.
==Participants==
===UNSC===
====Military Units====
*UNSC Marine Corps
** L Company
**Fireteam India
**Fireteam Uniform
**S-1 Company
====Airborne Assets====
*UNSC Alfa Romeo