Monsters Thunder In The Sky

Year 850

In Orbit of the Planet

Class-Coded; HY-K41

CCS-Battlecruiser Transcendent Faith

Fleetmaster Xal'Jadamee tilted his head curiously at the human world which was displayed beneath him. The planet was an average-sized satellite of a rather small sun, tucked away in the furthest corner of space that the Covenant had theorised to be all of human space. It was a rather handsome looking planet - a garden world if there ever was to be a definition for one.- and the only thing that preoccupied Xal'Jadamee's thoughts was that it was a shame that it belonged to humans; their presence would forever taint its beauty, and the only way to free it of such filth was to glass it altogether.

But Xal was curious, however, on why this human planet had no defences around it. Beyond that, he was also curious as to why this planet had not been hastily reinforced by the many human warships that the primitive heretics liked to throw at Covenant flotillas. Xal had been fighting the humans for a very long time, and he understood his adversaries in a very intrinsic level. For them to leave a garden world like this undefended was unheard of! Unless of course they had finally decided to lay down their arms and allow the Covenant Empire to wash over them with cleansing fire.

But there was no use supporting vain hopes. Xal is a Shipmaster of the Covenant Navy, and as a Shipmaster he had no desire to let his emotions lead him astray. As such, he ordered his bridge crew to perform scans of the planet, to perhaps discover some anomaly on the planet that explained why the humans had chosen to abandoned it. As a Sangheili Shipmaster, Xal was expected to put all due precedence in seeing if there were any Forerunner artifacts on the planet that required procurement before the cleansing of the planet.

The results of the scans were both astonishing and problematic. To the utter shock and surprise of all aboard his bridge crew, it turned out the entire planet itself was one massive Forerunner artifact. This shocked and enraged Xal and the other Sangheili, who could not believe that the humans would be so brazen as to colonize one of the Forerunner's very own artifacts! But then, another astonishing report came from his sensor operator - the humans living on the Forerunner World were too primitive to be the humans they had been fighting; in other words, these humans had yet to achieve a space-flight level of technology.

The implications to these findings were terrifying for Xal, but he knew better than to dwell too long on anything which may lead him astray to the Great Journey. So instead of doing so, he contacted his superior in the Fleet of Ardent Prayer, and awaited further orders. You can understand his shock and surprise when the Prophet of Truth himself contacted him in his ship. With respect to the traditions of the Covenant, Xal had bowed his head and respectfully proclaimed the Hierarchs name in the face of all his crew, and awaited his orders - and my were they particularly troubling orders.

The Prophet of Truth declared the entire planet a holy artifact and that Xal, as the Sangheili commander who discovered it, has since been charged with the eradication of the human population living within the planet - without causing damage to the artifact itself - and then the procurement of whatever holy relics lie within the planetoid artifact. Xal, awed by the sudden responsibility and the gravity of his task, humbly informed the Hierarch that he did not have the manpower or the firepower of achieving such a goal.

The Prophet of Truth waved away his concerns and informed him that he would be temporarily promoted to the rank of Fleetmaster, and a portion of the Fleet of Ardent Prayer would be reassigned to him in order to aid in his holy mission of riding a Forerunner artifact from the hands of the filthy vermin which had occupied it. Xal had been humbled and shocked by the sudden commandment and promotion, but had dutifully bowed his head, proudly proclaiming that 'It shall be done' to the Prophet.

Now, however, all he could do was stare at the pristine garden world, sullied by the hands of the humans, and wondered how he would first go about conquering this planet. It had been many years since the Sangheili had been tasked with the taking of a planet completely - over the years since the start of the war, Sangheili ground operations had only been conducted to merely deny the humans assets to evacuate and to procure Forerunner artifacts on the planet before its summary glassing.

The chance of having his name be added to his family's great hall of poems of his grand crusade to cleanse an entire planet from the hands of humans through sheer martial prowess filled Xal with a particularly fervent excitement to get operations underway. Even if the support fleet from the Fleet of Ardent Prayer had yet to arrive.

"Shi-Fleetmaster Xal," his second-in-command, Ultra Jal'Horamee, appeared beside him, his head bowed respectfully. The Ultra was a relatively new addition to his crew, having replaced another well-seasoned Sangheili Sailor after his death at the hands of those blasted human coil guns. "The survey team has sent in their report to us. From what we can gather, this location here is currently the strongest power out of all of the other nations that occupy this world. And among them, these nations here present the greatest threat to them."

Fleetmaster Xal tilted his head as he eyed the peninsula being displayed on his holoprojection. He zoomed in on the image, and he could a post-industrial civilization currently on the cusp of obtaining true flight technology. Their military and their armaments would be pitiful protection against his Sangheili advanced weaponry, and Xal fully expected that manpower issue taken aside, technologically speaking this war would be very little issue for him and his task force.

"Were they able to ascertain why these humans are so feared among their counterparts?" Xal asked, eyeing the continent keenly. While he had full faith in the abilities of his Sangheili, many a Sangheili Shipmasters and Fleetmasters had died or been branded due to their incompetence to recognise the inherent marital capabilities of their heretical enemy. Xal would not allow pride to cloud his judgement.

"From interrogation of capture humans, we understand that this nation - the Marleyan Empire, as they are known - have usage of a weapon known as Titans. This weapons have given them an edge against the other nations of their world, however, they are not focusing on conquering any of them yet because of their attention on this island here." The Ultra pointed to this location. "Apparently, it is occupied by some outcast clan of theirs whom they hate with a fervent passion."

"Heretics would act as heretics, dividing themselves like common animals," Xal said disdainfully. The Ultra nodded his head in agreement. "No matter, I have no interest in dealing with human outcasts. Our mission is to capture this planet through battle and battle alone. Attacking the most powerful nation on this planet and conquering it will strike fear into the hearts of all the human leaders which reside there. With any luck, they shall all lower their weapons and allow themselves to be purged quietly. If not, this peninsula will provide the perfect staging ground for further invasions throughout the planet."

"Of course, Fleetmaster. Are we to await the rest of the Fleet to arrive before we descend into orbit?" The Ultra asked. That would be a prudent option, however, Xal was worried about these so called Titans that these Marleyans had. If they were perhaps another word for their demons, than Xal did not want to risk and wait detection by these primitives - no matter how unlikely - and allowing their demons time to prepare against his invasion. Beyond that, Xal admitted that it would be good to gain much needed intelligence on their enemy so that they could plan out their attacks more accurately.

"No, prepare a small probing force to test the defences of these humans. Send them to these...Marleyans," Xal felt like spitting after speaking a human word. "Have this force prepare a beach head for the the main invasion force and we shall conquer this territory first."

The Ultra bowed his head. "It shall be done Fleetmaster." And with that, he disappeared back into the bowels of the ship. Leaving Xal to stare at the map with growing fervor. He will have this planet, by the blood of his ancestors, he would have this whole planet.

0o0o0o

Year 850

The Marleyan Empire - proud, powerful, and domineering over their allies. After the Great Titan War, the Marleyan's had risen to become the dominant superpower of all of the world, what with their control over Titan powers and their monopoly on the Eldian population to exploit their Titan technology. The Marleyans were without equals - or so they thought.

In truth, the Marleyans had been losing power steadily as the years yawned on. Their technological prowess had dwindled in their over reliance of Titan powers, and as such all the other nations were able to increase their technological capabilities and now stand a match against the Marleyans in sheer military strength. Such a thing was a worrisome fact for the Marleyan Empire, who were now still struggling to maintain their expansionist goals of conquering the areas nearby their mainland.

In fact, it was because of this sudden leveling out of military power, that the Marleyan Empire was now focusing its efforts on Paradis Island - to not only eradicate the rogue Eldian population there but also acquire the rich resources that the island had to potentially stave off the Empire's need for raw resources before the Empire was ready to take on another technologically advanced nation.

If it could be helped, the Marleyan Empire would rather have the entire Eldian population on Paradis Island be exterminated, and then they could peacefully occupy the island and feed mainland Marley for a few years before dwindling resources demanded expansion. It hardly a sustainable mindset, but it was the mindset which drove Marley to success over the years, and it was a mindset that was hard to put aside.

As such, most of the Marley army was put on hold or standby as the Marley Empire activated their operation to insert three specially selected Warriors into the Walled city to destabilize the region and exterminate the Eldian population within. But those were ideas that were unbecoming of them, however. As the Marleyans had grown complacent in their strength and certain that the powers would not attack them during the period of their operations on Paradis Island, so too did their military readiness grew slack.

That was why they caught completely unawares when a terrifying force attacked their port town, Andale. It was a small port city, whose sole commerce was fish, and it did not have that significant of a military presence. Primarily because the location provided no tactical value whatsoever as no enemy ships would be able to traverse through the gauntlet of their fleets and coastal batteries to occupy the town through a naval invasion - water, they would soon learn, was barely an obstacle for their enemy.

Panic swept through the high command of the Marleyan military. The soldiers were terrified, convinced that it had been the Eldian devils from Paradis Island who had caught wind of their plans and decided to attack Marley for their transgressions. Fearing the worst, Marley sent two divisions - forty thousand men in total - to Andale to secure the port town and drive out the Eldian menace.

Four days later, however, and the Marley high command had lost all contact with the two divisions. They were shocked and horrified, fearing that maybe the Eldians had unleashed their 'Rumbling' and had utterly obliterated the Marleyan reinforcements they had sent out to recapture to the town.

Knowing that being picky would earn them nothing, Marley sent out their Beast Titan and their Cart Titan to Andale to recapture the town alongside four divisions - eighty-thousand men. In command of the army was Theo MacGrath, a rather accomplished army general in the Marleyan military. Zake and MacGrath had planned out their operations to retake Andale meticulously, understanding what needed to be done if the worst was indeed true and the Rumbling had been initiated.

Whatever they could have planned for, however, was most definitely incapable of handling the worst, because it was not Titans they were facing, but demons from the sky. When the four division arrived in the outskirts of Andale, they were blown apart by fast flying planes that cut through the sky and dropped bombs on their position. When MacGrath realised they were sitting ducks, he ordered his army to disembark from their trucks and move into the urban centers on foot. There they met creatures far worse than anything they could have imagined.

Large bipedal reptiles, and small stout creatures, littered the streets of Andale, executing any Marleyan civilians they could find. The army was stunned and horrified by the creatures, and were too late to respond when the creatures came around and began to decimate their number. In under one night, the eighty-thousand strong army was reduced to twenty-five thousand. The Cart TItan, who had immediately transformed to do battle against these monsters had been instantly evaporates from handheld cannons which the stout creatures carried on them.

MacGrath, realising that his army would be torn to smithereens if he stayed here, quickly ordered his forces to retreat. And retreat they did, while at the same time being chased down by the creatures from the sky. All of Marley had then been notified of the creatures that they were facing - and knew that they were neither man nor titan, but Monsters that Thundered in the Sky.

A/N: This is not to be taken as a story at all. I had written this as more of a one shot and an exercise in thought. I've been having some pretty strong writers block and I just can't write anything coherent. So I wrote this to get the creativity juice flowing, but halfway through I just ran out of steam. Still this is a pretty good story idea, I mean, there are a lot of ideas that you could create with this crossover story and it would be pretty entertaining.

So I leave this here and allow anyone to adopt it should they choose to - however, no matter how many times I say that nobody seemed interested in adopting my story ideas. Oh well, the invitation remains open regardless. Now with that being said, cheerio folks!