The town of Shirakawa was first attacked by Covenant forces coming down the highway through the mountain valley leading from their landing point in the city of Toyama in the north at 830 hours local time on October 23rd, 2552. The attack began with an air raid by several Banshee attack aircraft, which made strafing runs on the UNSC infantry positions, destroying all four Warthogs, destroying the evac Pelicans on the ground, and killing about 20 UNSC troops, although an UNSC soldier armed with an M41 missile launcher managed to shoot down one of the attacking Banshees. It was at about this time that Keiichi Ryukishi and Rena Sonozaki fled the village from the mountains west of town.