Darren Leone: Difference between revisions

'''Captain Darren Leone''' is a former [[UNSC Navy]] officer and former acting [[captain]] of the downed military cargo tender, the {{UNSCship|Dark Was the Night}}.<ref name="BS">''[[Halo: Fractures]]'', ''[[Breaking Strain]]''</ref> He became captain and [[commanding officer]] after a Covenant attack killed many among the command crew and forced the ship to ground itself on the [[Outer Colony]], [[Losing Hand]]. After a crisis on the planet that almost brought his crew into conflict with its colonists, he decided to settle down long-term and give up his service in the [[UNSC]].<ref name="BS"/>

After graduating from a naval academy, Darren eventually found himself serving as the helmsman of the {{UNSCship|Dark Was the Night}}. He had been marking off the months until his last tour would be over when the [[Human-Covenant War]] began. The war meant that he did not retire as he had planned, but instead went on to be part of many battles during the decades-long struggle. At some point, he came close to being killed by a [[Type-1 energy sword]] wielded by a [[Sangheili]]. At the tail end of the war, the ''Dark Was the Night'' was part of a chain of vessels responsible for taking the [[Spartan-III]] super-soldier, [[Kevin-A282]], back to [[Earth]]. The last transmission from command received by the ship stated that [[Reach]] had [[Fall of Reach|fallen]]. The ''Dark Was the Night'' then came under fire from the [[Covenant]] and was forced to make an emergency [[slipspace]] jump. Kevin saved Darren's life at that time by hauling him to safety when an airlock was blown open during the violence. Although the ship got away, it sustained catastrophic damage, and it wasn't long before a death spiral of critical malfunctions, including the loss of [[Rosarita|its A.I]], put the lives of everyone onboard in danger. Darren took control of piloting the vessel and managed to crash-land it on the [[Outer Colony]] world of [[Losing Hand]]. Impressively, he avoided putting it in the ocean or flattening it against a chain of mountains. The ship touched down on a landing strip, but in the process the wind farm providing a nearby township with power was destroyed. The cargo tender's long-range communication capability and its drives were irreparably broken amidst all of this. The ''Dark Was the Night'''s command crew had been gutted in the wake of the attack and subsequent struggles, leaving Darren to take over as captain. One of his first decisions was to make [[First Lieutenant]] [[Maher]] his [[executive officer]]. He also gradually slackened the rules as far as disciplinary matters were concerned, given the crew's situation. To make up for the loss of the colony's source of power, Darren worked out a deal with the colonists whereby the cargo tender's power core, powered through solar energy, could provide heat and light to the town in exchange for a steady supply of food for his crew. In addition, when the UNSC personnel put a drone satellite into orbit, Darren agreed to allow the civilians unfettered access to it. A month after their landing on the planet, Kevin wandered off on his own and when Darren sent people to find him, they were unable to.<ref name="BS"/>

At dawn Captain Leone and Sergeant Robertson set out along the coast in a Warthog to a place that Kevin had last been sighted. When Robertson suggested noted that a lot in the crew saw the Spartan as a deserter, Darren told him to stow any talk like that. They found a shelter built from driftwood and old tarps at a hollow in some cliffs high above the ground, but Kevin was seemingly nowhere to be found. However, he was suddenly standing at their Warthog when they turned around to return to it. They asked him what he was doing out here, to which he replied, "Keeping watch". Robertson antagonized him by accusing him of being a burnout and Darren was forced to yell at Kevin to stand down when it looked as if he might hurt the sergeant. He diffused the situation by sharing why they had sought him out--the Covenant corvette. Kevin was as perplexed as anyone, but he declined the request to come back to town and perhaps inspire courage among the frightened. He cautioned that such an environment would not be optimal for him to be in and that his presence could cause people to get hurt. As they drove back to their ship, Robertson let his captain know he was not only angry at the Spartan but disappointed in Leone as well for not trying harder to force him to follow orders. Darren stated that Kevin was only any good to them if he chose to help. Before they could make it back a call came from Lt. [[Maher]] alerting them that the {{Class|DAV|light corvette}} had increased its acceleration and would be there that night. Turning into the cargo bay of the cargo tender, they were met by Lieutenant [[Maher]], who informed them that the satellite drone had gone dark, possibly because it had entered shutdown mode to weather the solar flares. [[Corporal]] [[Douglas (corporal)|Douglas]] came sprinting into the bay with news that over twenty colonists, many of them armed, were on their way to where the ''Dark Was the Night'' was grounded. Against the judgment of Robertson, Darren decided to go and try to talk to them alone. He soon determined that more were a ''lot'' more than twenty angry people approaching. At the head of the crowd, unsurprisingly, was Ryan Larsson. One older woman in the crowd, [[Babs]], demanded to know why the cannons on the ship were obviously not up and running. Darren finally had no choice but to concede that the weapons had never worked during the entire time they had been there. At this news, Ryan showed signs of denial, since the weaponry on the ''Dark Was the Night'' had been thought to be the only chance against the imminent Covenant aggression. Darren pleaded for everyone to return home before anything spun out of control and in anger, Ryan smacked him across the face with the butt of his [[shotgun]]. As he fell to the ground, UNSC [[UNSC Marine Corps|marine]]s spilled out onto the field with guns raised. Captain Leone shouted for them to stand down and made yet another appeal to unity before being hit in the face once again. Before anything further could happen, however, the shotgun was shattered by the impact of an armor-piercing [[14.5×114mm]] round discharged from an [[SRS99 series|SR99 sniper rifle]] a quarter of a mile away. The sniper, none other than Kevin-A282, jogged toward Darren and Ryan. Ryan looked to his fellow colonists for further support and attempted to incite them even further, but his words fell on deaf ears. His sister, Aoife, begged him to see reason and stated that they could't afford to fight each other, which Darren voiced agreement with. But just then, the clouds above grew bright and parted as the ship they had feared made its presence known.<ref name="BS"/>

Darren's first instinct was to rush to join a skirmish line that was forming among the marines, but Kevin put a hand on his shoulder to stop him. [[The Lookout|The ship]] landed and everyone watched as [[Yar 'Dosaan|a single]] [[Sangheili]], emerged and was followed by [[Slight List| a Huragok]]. Darren found himself having to explain what a [[Huragok]] was to Aoife as to their surprise, a human also exited the vessel. [[Kyle Stallock|He]] asked who was in charge and both Darren and the Larsson siblings walked forward. Darren introduced himself, the siblings, and Kevin to the man in UNSC battle armor, all the while utterly confused as to what was going on. The man, major [[Kyle Stallock]], gladly briefed everyone concerning the [[Great Schism|recent events]] that had led to the end of the Covenant and the war. Over the next two weeks, the ''Dark Was the Night'' was gutted of anything useful so it could be split between the nearby town and the crew of the corvette, named ''[[The Lookout]]''. The cargo tender was to become a permanent source of power for the colony. As for Darren, even though most of his crew had agreed to leave aboard ''The Lookout'' and even some colonists, he decided to remain on Losing Hand. He justified this choice to Aoife by saying that he had originally signed up to protect people and that Losing Hand needed people to protect it, at least until things quieted down. He also joked to her that he would need a badge, given Ryan's frequent accusations that he had been attempting to act as a sheriff of sorts.<ref name="BS"/>