Chapter 9:
Deadly Embrace
(cont...)

Connor walked the ruined passageways of the Black Hammer. The DropShip laying on her side like some titan’s discarded toy, he was forced to use bulkheads for a floor and at times had to lift himself up into the next passage by means of light fixtures and pipes. In several places, he detoured through maintenance crawlspaces, the main passage smashed and impassable. His footsteps echoed hollowly, and the walls when he touched them felt cold. Dead.

He found the space he sought, the one for which he had pulled his lance out of their path to Durghan. His commando’s original briefing room. Perhaps it hadn’t been in their best interest to detour so far out to see the ship for themselves. The possibility of salvage left by the Jaguars had been remote at best. And in fact, the brief battle waged against the patrol which had staked out the crashed vessel had cost them more than any salvage taken from their ruined ’Mechs.

But more than equipment salvage had drawn him back to the Black Hammer. Sinclair had come for one thing in specific. A talisman? No, the MechWarrior shook his head to the unvoiced question. Not exactly. A rallying point for his warriors, who were tired and fraying. A symbol.

A reminder.

The planning table remained bolted to the floor, now actually a wall. The chairs were piled in a tangle. Sinclair pulled them apart, setting them outside the door as he worked his way down to the wall that had held the Star League ensign. It was still there, rumpled and creased but intact. The silver Cameron star, its one tine spearing to the right, set against a black field. The colors under with the task force -- the Damocles Command -- fought.

Sinclair cut it free with the knife he’d brought along, then folded the ensign carefully and shoved it inside his cooling vest.

"Let’s all remember why we are here," he asked of the empty room.

* * *

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