(Thurs, 12 January, 3049)

On that mid-October day, ochre and saffron-colored leaves bedeck the rolling, spartan grounds; fall’s bowing grace to winter’s imminent arrival. A stiff, chill breeze rocks caps, ruffles dresses. Plumes of guest-whispered expectations fill the cold dawn. Officers stand ramrod straight, in bright white and red; wives and consorts in plumages of the rainbow make a brilliant backdrop.

The assemblage forms a crescent around a twelve-meter-tall metal rod that stands tall and proud. Upon its brow, a banner snaps in the wind: a black silhouette of a Hatamoto-Chi wreathed in red energy bolts, set against a golden field. The edges of the banner mesh with the leaf-covered hills that flow to the east.

As the rays of the sun breach the distant mountains, the officer glides to the banner pole. All eyes laser-lock to the Gunji-no-Kanrei as he faces the attendees, a golden-sheathed shovel held in hand as gracefully as a katana.

“My honored guests,” Theodore Kurita begins, his voice a tight-mastered modulation of decorum tinged with passion. “At one time the best and brightest of our MechWarriors met each other across a field of mastery. A training ground unlike any in the Inner Sphere to turn students into masters. During the Fourth Succession Wars and subsequent troubles the Dragon in his wisdom mandated the end of that program.”

He pauses, Dragon-eyes peering into the souls of all assembled. Taking their measure, reflecting their pride.

“Yet now, as a new decade approaches, the Dragon knows it is time for a new day. A time for a new spirit of the weapon master to imbue our Pillar of Iron with the strength of the Dragon’s claws. I dedicate this new ground to house a reborn Kensai Kami program. May the strength of our resolve flow to the MechWarriors who man the walls that protect the Draconis Combine.”

I shall never forget…with a strike as clean as any blade cut, loam turns to start a new day.

Autumn, shovel bites earth

Stone, Dragon spirit returns

Iron, strength and wisdom renew

—Shintaro Maku, Combine Press