Warning lights and the rising sound of the alarms creeped into Corporal Panther's dreams after only 3 hours of much needed rest. "Shit, Combat Alert Alpha?" He immediately jumped out of bed and began racing for his action station. "Attention all combat personnel. Please report to your action stations." Cpl. Panther ran to the cargo bay as per the orders given overhead. The speaker overhead warned, "All hands. This is the Captain. Prepare to abandon ship. Combat teams, repel boarders until Ops personnel are away. Good luck. Keyes out." Sargeant Johnson immediately began barking orders. He began putting units together, placing Panther in charge of one of the smaller units. He gave Cpl. Panther orders to lead a search and rescue before abandoning the Autumn. Someone had to do it, and Corporal Panther was always the first to volunteer for any assignment. It was a shit assignment and Panther knew it, but he still liked the chance to lead an outfit. The Cpl. pulled his troops away and left to save as many marines as he could. Sarge then left with his own unit as they got ready for their trip to Halo. Cpl. Panther aquired an assault rifle from the bay and began searching the Autumn for survivors and Covenant.

As he ran thru the tunnels and hallways, he met up with a handful of marines getting attacked by Covenant forces. The marines were surrounded. Suddenly, Master Chief SPARTAN 117 charged around the corner... nearly running into one of the elites. Corporal Panther dropped the Elite with three shots directly thru its unguarded stomach. The Cpl. then gestured for the Chief's assistance, but the Chief simply ran past the marines and the Covenant without battle or reassurance. "Fuck you too!" shouted Panther. He then charged two Elites with his assault rifle. Unfortunately, the first shot fired by the Elite's plasma rifle pierced Panther's weapon and reduced it to scrap metal. This didn't stop the Corporal however. He continued to charge, dodging multiple plasma rounds. As he got closer, the Elites got angrier... and began firing furiously. Both Elite's rifles suddenly overheated. Panther jumped at the first Elite, detached and engaged one of the Elite's plasma grenades, and shoved it into its mouth as it cursed in its native language. Panther then kicked the first Elite toward Elite #2. Both Covenant soldiers died in the terrible blue explosion. Panther and his unit continued to wipe out the rest of the surrounding Covenant in order to make way for the distressed marines.

As Cpl. Panther and his outfit worked their way thru the Autumn much in this same manner, he could hear the lifeboats being released. He realized if he was gonna get off this ship, he'd have to do it soon. Panther started making it towards the remaining lifeboats. As he approached, he could hear the sound of grenades and gunfire. "Sounds like the Master Chief has things under control", thought Panther. He led his team into one of the remaining lifeboats. Just as he was about to board himself, a Covenant energy blast shattered against the side of the lifeboat. The pod shook violently, then fell into the vastness of space. It rotated twice then exploded with a splattering of shrapnel. Cpl. Panther would have been able to hear the screams if his crew werren't already dead. He held on tightly to the frame of the hatch as the emergency door dropped into position closing out the image of his fallen commrades. Panther then heard a wimpering soldier in the corner behind him. The Corporal went back a few yards, yanked up the soldier, and asked, "What did the five fingers say to the face?" Then with a powerful backhand, he finished, "Slap!" Panther carried the soldier toward the last remaining lifeboat. As he neared, the entire wing behind him exploded and engulfed into flames. Cpl. Panther tossed the wimpering soldier near the lifeboat and he himself was immediatly trapped underneath a pile of burning metal. "Oh no...oh no!", cried the wimpering soldier. Cpl. Panther watched as the Master Chief picked up the soldier and pulled him into the lifepod. SPARTAN 117 nodded at Panther, then turned to Foehammer... "Punch It".

Cpl. Panther was left under the rubble to die, however, he had no intentions of going out that easily. He was finally able to pull himself free as a result of Keye's reckless flying of the Autumn. Panther knew Keyes planned to land the Autumn on Halo, but prefered not to take his chances riding in on the already heavily damaged ship. He looked out of the blast doors and realized he only had a few seconds before the Autumn would crash land. Panther sprinted down the hall, looking for any opportunity to escape. Within seconds, he came across a Covenant boarding ship that was docked to the Autumn. The Corporal almost hopped in with plans to grab the controls, but the ship broke free and blasted out into space before he reached the hatch. Now, with a surge of pure adrenaline, the Corporal found speed like he had never felt before. He ran as fast as a SPARTAN would normaly run. He had always been fast, but something about certain death quickened his steps. He had one destination in mind... "Hell's Waiting Room". The ODST or "Helljumpers" used individual pods to enter a planet's atmosphere. He hoped at least one of the pods still remained intact and unlaunched. Cpl. Panther turned the corner, found an undamaged pod, and strapped in. The launch sequence began almost immediately... he shot down from the Autumn. Then, in an instant, the pod broke apart and quickly released its chute. The Corporal launched out of the pod... and directly into a mass of deep water. In that second, right before he blacked out, he calculated that he must have gotten out of the Autumn just in the nick of time...