The cracks of thunder grew louder as we watched the several jagged streaks of lightning ripped across the murky cumulonimbus clouds, striking at an unseen object hidden from our view.
With each roar of thunder, the ground shook.
Only explanation for the volatile reaction triggered within the clouds was the entrance of a large ship into the atmosphere.
A crackling sound of someone clearing the throat over the broadcast system resounded across the square as all of our heads turned toward the speakers.
"Alert, all visitors, a Battle Carrier Class ship is entering the nearby atmosphere. Please be aware of the ensuing turbulence. Visitors are advised to seek shelter within the mall immediately. All hovercraft traffic in affected areas, including ours, will be stopped temporarily because of expected cross winds and wake turbulence on the ground," a female announcer said over the broadcast.
Great. Those darn battle carriers of theirs are mini city sized. Big enough to stir up hurricane speed winds for a short time.
The busy hovercraft highway in front of me turned into a quiet one when the last few hovercrafts sped past to escape the coming onslaught of the stirring gusts.
"We would like to reassure you that there is no need for panic. All departures are temporarily delayed."
The crowd didn't heed the part about a panic when everyone rushed forward to the mall for cover.
Frankly, from the way the structures of the mall were shaking from the trembling ground, I would much rather stand in the square and face the oncoming winds if I had my full suit on.
"Come along now, all of you don't want to be blown off into the skies," a patrol guard said to a few stragglers nearby, deliberately raising his voice to make me hear.
Time for me to make my way into the crowded mall to wait. I trudged back towards the entryway of the mall where they shuttered half the open archways with large metal barriers.
Squeezing through the others entering, I didn't trust the mall to hold up against the incoming impact waves of the entering Battle Carrier Class ship.
On the bright side, if the mall collapsed, the Eden Authorities didn't need to retrieve our bodies from the makeshift mass burial tomb of a mall.
I entered and meandered through the bodies of travellers who found it wise to crowd around the entrance in the mall and not to the back.
A holographic protection of the landing site appeared above us, showing the outside scenery below the projected arrival point of the Battle Carrier Class ship. I found a corner at the far end where three Perunians stood with their arms folded in frustration.
Better some entertainment than to look at the others.
Perunians are called the prettiest ones of the Great Swirl Council's member species. Actually the vainest as well. They loved preening themselves.
Slender in form with very sharp features, the pale skin Perunians only came with one boring palette of light to dark blonde hair with blue eyes of different shades.
Interestingly, the hot headed Thorians traced back to the icier Perunians, like how the Nuwans are related to my species.
Unlike the both of us, the relationship between the Thorians and Perunians ran hot and cold, like fire and ice. Sometimes they got along, sometimes they hated each other's guts.
Occasionally, small fights will break out between the two parties. In space, the Perunians won. On the planet, the Thorians won. The cosmos played a joke on us, producing these two clowns.
The Perunian home world of Prawia in the Axis system has two moons which blocked the planet from their orange dwarf star's radiation. Known to be cold and dark for the entire rotation of the orbiting planet, the Perunians evolved via a few genetic mutations to cope with the lack of light.
Hardy species, but they carried an almost icy charm with politeness. The luxury service sectors across the major planetary cities employed Perunians for the same charm and image perception by most Great Swirl Council member species.
Appearances didn't make them rise.
The Perunians carried a warlike amongst each other before spacefaring age, which resulted in them investing in research of improved ways to cause more damage to the other parties.
Perunian technology rose from primitive to advanced fairly quickly. They hardly bothered us, apart from their occasional space pirates, before they joined the Great Swirl Council.
Rogue Perunians lead a few of the largest space piracy syndicates and illicit arms dealing network, and even those space pirates proved hard to deal with, given that their syndicates also invested in spacefaring technology, including weapons.
I walked past the three Perunians and found a place to lean on, a polite distance from them. The three ignored me while staring at the holographic screen. If they lacked training in customer service, they coloured their language with interesting swears.
"Volosa, who in their right jingling balls is coming?" asked the first.
My cochlear implant cleared the background noise of chatter to focus on their conversation.
"Our grand space champion of the universe, Perkuna Ursa," the one named Volosa replied with a smirk on his face. "Bet there will be tax sucking displays of the Sovartech jets to show these snuffing Haoleans not to fuck around with us."
Nothing surprising about how the Perunians described their own allies with heavy resentment.
The mention of Perkuna Ursa made me uneasy.
I heard of the exploits of the aforementioned Perunian and his peculiar reputation as an outstanding fighter pilot in his youth during their initial resistance against the Great Swirl Council.
Only after a few wars and over tens of thousands of lives lost, the Perunians joined the Great Swirl Council under an armistice agreement.
Rumours among mercenaries in the quadrant ran rampant about his youngest son, Perkuna Zhiva, running off to the space pirates and becoming the head honcho of a major arms smuggling ring beyond the reaches of the Great Swirl Council's territories.
I only had a run in with Perunian space pirates once, a few cycles ago, around the Narakan sector. Outnumbered and outgunned, I ran with my war cruiser.
I recalled a particular Perunian pirate warship chasing me with finesse and great skill navigating around the debris cluster. And the pain it took to shake off the warship in the debris.
That made me suspect it was Zhiva himself, since his old man was a skilled pilot and highly connected in the political circles of the Perunian Union. The ship also looked suspiciously new, compared to the crankier patchwork space pirate ships.
Why would Perkuna Ursa come down personally? Was it a power vacuum to fill? The news reported the Inti delegate to Eden was on holiday in their home world and died during the destruction.
"Bloody power bid?"
"Or called up about his galactic scum kicking son," the third spoke. "WHAT THE—"
The mall shook violently as the descent of the Battle Carrier Class began on the holographic projection. Those watching the live projection of the descent could see the bottom anti-gravitational thrusters of a mini city sized ship peeking through the clouds.
An earth shattering roar rang out over the mall and a few screams followed while the unsecured shelves in stores fell, spilling the merchandise on the ground or into the frightened crowd. I copied the rest and sat down.
"Stupid farting thrusters are gonna blow my eardrums out," the first Perunian grumbled while looking up at the ceiling.
Then he turned back to his unfazed companions. "Go on."
"Didn't you hear Zhiva found an old Kamuy ship? You know the same one reported by the Inti?" The third one spoke in a hush tone as they gathered their heads together, confident that no one eavesdropped.
I listened more intently as my cochlear implant in the ear amplified their voices. The location of any old Kamuy ship held a great importance to me.
"How did you get such freaking good news?" Volosa asked
"Well, most of us have a distant relative of a distant relative who has a friend who is connected to the space pirate gangs. Those gangs fly into butthole cosmic crevices the rest of us won't go."
The shaking of the mall stopped as the projection showed a great floating-city-like ship partially under a cloud cover on screen with the flashing of lightning whipped across its structures.
"Attention all, the barriers will be lifted around the mall soon. Departures will still be delayed until the new flight paths from our Tower Controls are confirmed. We will announce the opening once the airflow readings normalised," the announcer said, making the elated crowd cheer loudly in the mall.
I side eyed the three Perunians and noticed the one named Volosa staring straight at me. The other two were too busy looked at their tablets.
"HEY YOU!" Volosa called out in the common galactic language.
I looked around. Four or five others stood around near me.
"YOU… the Deridian!"
Definitely me. The others are not Deridians.
Taken aback by being singled out, the optical implant in my eyes quickly searched for the fastest route out.