Bird of a Cage [BoW 4]

Chapter 1

Alarms sounded as the ship rocked in the air. The Dmar were attacking. Taidra's hands flew across the consoles, trying to herd everyone to safety. Trying to track the intruders before they could kill the people he protected. Lights and sirens flashed around him as the AI struggled to keep up with the flow of data rushing about it. If a computer could panic, it was panicking. Taidra was moderately better.

"Taidra!" Ryraso's voice ripped through the small room. "Talk to me! What's going on?" The healer's commlink was full of gunfire in the background. Taidra had him as a priority link because of the teenagers under his care. It was also hard to hear him with the alarms.

"You need to switch them off if you want them to survive."

[Can't]

"You can," Taidra coaxed, typing away at the system to get it to give him some quiet. He knew the ship was going down. There was no way to save it at this point. Too many Dmar had broken through. The best thing he could do was reduce the amount of damage. That required the A.I to listen to him despite all the flags demanding that turning off the alarms was not a good thing to do.

There was a low whine from the A.I. Taidra could almost feel the vibrate along his spine. His implant that let him communicate with the A.I was embedded in the back of his neck. A few seconds later, the room fell silent, though the echo of the alarms rang in Taidra's ears. Ryraso's location appeared on the screen in front of him, the A.I calculating Ryraso's best route at escaping without being caught by his pursuers.

Ryraso's pursers. This was his fault. The Winglord had led the assault intending to capture Ryraso. Taidra gritted his teeth; half attempted to yell insults at the healer. He knew something was off between Ryraso and Winglord Tai'ray. As much as he valued Ryraso as a friend, Taidra should have done something to make the man some clean before it ended up destroying the last piece warship at their disposal. It was too late now. He hadn't proved a dangerous connect, and now it was all over. It wasn't going to stop him getting Eyeri off the ship safely, however.

"We got fighting on decks 1,2, 7 and 8. 5 and 6 are completely no go. Decks 3 and 4 are still safe at the moment but won't be for long so I'd suggest getting your ass off the ship." The Winglord and his men's locations flickered onto the screen as he spoke, some heading in Ryraso's direction. "K'nairi are heading your way, no longer just for Aw'endo so be careful!" Don't fuck this up more than you already have, Taidra thought bitterly as he watched the ships stats go down. It was getting to the hard decision time now. Staying any longer in the office would risk him going down with the ship. Leaving risked the men on the ship failing to escape in time. It was his life or theirs. This was going to be the end of him. Taidra could feel it.

"Where's Inai?" Ryraso asked, ordering his apprentice to open the engineering hatch in his next sentence.

A low hum of the twins' deep tones murmured in the background. Relived flooded through Taidra. Someone had sent reinforcements to protect the teenagers and Ryraso. Even better by getting them out, Taidra would be helping his cousins survive too.

[The High Priest is on deck 2] The computer tugged at him, showing where Inai was. Swords clashing as he fought with Loror. Taidra's curled his fingers. Just when had he arrived?