McKennsy's Hammer was a trophy kept at the original Wedge Defense Force Academy on Zeta Cygni II. It was in the form of a large, heavy blockhead mallet made of silver and covered with decorative engraving.

Named for Cornelius McKennsy, a Salusian MechWarrior who was part of the original Royal Salusian Armed Forces contingent attached to the WDF. McKennsy donated the trophy to the Academy in 1993 "to foster a spirit of healthy competition and camaraderie between the WDF's Destroid and Veritech Fighter pilots, and to improve the standard of ground operations in both branches of the Service," as the dedication plaque puts it.

McKennsy's Hammer was awarded at the end of each academic year to the student - officer cadet or enlisted trainee - who finished the year with the highest cumulative score on the Destroid/Battloid Ground Combat Course. (Since the Destroid Combat School for enlisted personnel used the same course and ran on a schedule that brought the program to a close within a week or so of the officer cadets' academic year ending, this was easy enough to determine.) A somewhat smaller copy of the Hammer was awarded to the winning student each year, and the student's name was micro-etched into part of the decorative engraving on the "real" Hammer, which remained in the Commandant's office.

There was a long-standing tradition at the WDF Academy of upperclass cadets formally daring the freshman (or "plebe") class to steal McKennsy's Hammer from the Commandant's office before the end of their plebe year. Since the Hammer was in plain sight of office personnel and visitors throughout the day and kept in a secured vault when the office was closed, this was a significant challenge, and elaborate codes of conduct regarding what was and was not permissible in an attempt to steal it evolved over the years. For instance, any scheme that involved permanent damage to the office (apart from disabling the security systems) was strongly frowned upon by staff and students alike. Even doing harm to the security systems (as opposed to temporarily disabling, fooling, or eluding them) was considered gauche and left a minor black mark on a freshman class's history. Of course, getting caught in the act was the ultimate failure.

The last winner of McKennsy's Hammer was Corporal Emilia Sterling, a member of the 2288 graduating class from the WDF Tactical Corps Destroid Combat School for enlisted personnel. Thanks to the fall of the WDF in the autumn of that year, she never received an official copy of the Hammer.

The original McKennsy's Hammer disappeared in 2288. When the Zeta Cygni system was reoccupied in 2374, survey teams searched the ruins of the WDF Academy, but did not find it. It may have been removed for safekeeping by the Academy personnel when they decamped in advance of a feared GENOM assault force, looted by civilians fleeing the nearby city of Techtropolis, or stolen by one of the occasional pirates and space drifters who passed through the system during its decades of abandonment. No sign of it has ever been found.

There is no equivalent to McKennsy's Hammer in the student culture of the modern WDF Academy. The Alumni Association has declared its intent to locate or account for the original, and either restore it to its rightful place or replace it if it can be proven that the original no longer exists.

Old-timey Battletech/MechWarrior players may recognize the model for McKennsy's Hammer in one of the military decorations given to MechWarriors by the Lyran Commonwealth in the pre-Warrior Trilogy version of the game universe. Though the UF version has a completely different history and purpose, I had to tip my hat to one of the most distinctive of the many details that made 3025 MechWarrior the richest, most rewarding RPG universe in the business.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

>Old-timey Battletech/MechWarrior players may recognize
>the model for McKennsy's Hammer in one of the military decorations
>given to MechWarriors by the Lyran Commonwealth in the pre-Warrior
>Trilogy version of the game universe. Though the UF version has a
>completely different history and purpose, I had to tip my hat to one
>of the most distinctive of the many details that made 3025
>MechWarrior the richest, most rewarding RPG universe in the
>business.
>
>--G.
>-><-
>Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
>Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

*nods* Ran a MW3025 campaign for over 3 years- two seconds into this, it clicked. It's no Stanley Cup, but it's certainly a relic of the Golden Age. :)

>Old-timey Battletech/MechWarrior players may recognize
>the model for McKennsy's Hammer in one of the military decorations
>given to MechWarriors by the Lyran Commonwealth in the pre-Warrior
>Trilogy version of the game universe. Though the UF version has a
>completely different history and purpose, I had to tip my hat to one
>of the most distinctive of the many details that made 3025
>MechWarrior the richest, most rewarding RPG universe in the
>business.
>
>--G.
>-><-
>Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
>Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

:)

Aye.

On a related note, good to see that Spirit Missions never truly went out of style, even in the future...but it sounds like the current WDF Academy could use an injection of personality again...

>On a related note, good to see that Spirit Missions never truly went
>out of style, even in the future...but it sounds like the current WDF
>Academy could use an injection of personality again...

Oh, it's got personality. It's just that they don't want to replace McKennsy's Hammer if there's any chance of getting the original one back.

On the flip side, the old WDF Academy didn't have Release The Pig Day.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

LAST EDITED ON Mar-15-07 AT 10:14 PM (EDT)
 
>>On a related note, good to see that Spirit Missions never truly went
>>out of style, even in the future...but it sounds like the current WDF
>>Academy could use an injection of personality again...
>
>Oh, it's got personality. It's just that they don't want to replace
>McKennsy's Hammer if there's any chance of getting the original one
>back.
>
>On the flip side, the old WDF Academy didn't have Release The Pig Day.
>
>--G.
>-><-
>Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
>Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

Like you said about classic Battletech, those little details, esp when they ring true, are money.

We had a statue of Pegasus donated to the Zoo by the Italian gov't a ways back. The tradition holds that you were supposed to take your Ring Dance date there for a picture. If a maiden pure of heart and deed (okay through being polite, a virgin) ever touched Pegasus, he would come to life and fly away.

Pegasus is still there.

Our plebes (the 4-smokes) were required to keep the brass...undercarriage...on the Gen Robbie Risner statue nice an'shiny all the time too :)

Hey, if you're stuck at a military school with like 3200 other dudes and less than 6 hundred women, you'd get bored easily too.

Oh, wait. You guys did didn't you? I was stationed with a couple dudes from WPI's ROTC det...durrr...

I hope the WDF Academy has a better male/female ratio than that.

>Our plebes (the 4-smokes) were required to keep the
>brass...undercarriage...on the Gen Robbie Risner statue nice an'shiny
>all the time too :)

I'm sure General Risner appreciates that. (Heh, I just saw him on Dogfights the other day.)

>Hey, if you're stuck at a military school with like 3200 other dudes
>and less than 6 hundred women, you'd get bored easily too.
>
>Oh, wait. You guys did didn't you?

Actually, WPI's ratio when I was a student there was slightly worse (7:1). But it was offset somewhat by the fact that there was a junior college with a big nursing program a few blocks over.

>I hope the WDF Academy has a better male/female ratio than that.

It's pretty even - heck, some years the female cadets outnumber the male ones, once you factor out the members of species that aren't really either.

--G.
"Colonel? Do we count the hermaphrodite cadets as none or both?"
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

>It may have been removed for
>safekeeping by the Academy personnel when they decamped in advance of
>a feared GENOM assault force, looted by civilians fleeing the nearby
>city of Techtropolis, or stolen by one of the occasional pirates and
>space drifters who passed through the system during its decades of
>abandonment. No sign of it has ever been found.

you know, given the amount of trophies that are missing under mysterious circumstances... it wouldn't be far off to assume that maybe one of the many theories about their disappearances could be attributed to the master thieves that exist in UF right?

I mean, I seem to recall mentions of Carmen Sandiego, and a BPGD entry of Lupin the Third :D Ooo Oooh! Given the appearance of Kane's world and its protector. I don't suppose a certain feline cat burglar would be interested? Although given the lack of a cat motif.. probably not :)

_____________________________________________
A long long time ago, in a galaxy far far away. THERE IS ONLY WAR.
-kinda makes sense if you think about it.

My first thought was...

"Did anyone look in Thor's den?" :)

I've figured, by this point, that there must just be some massive vault out there, hidden on some long-forgotten planet, packed full of various trophies, tomes of secrets, and inventions that mortal beings were never meant to have. Many a treasure hunter and adventurer have spent their lives looking for it, only to come up empty-handed. But the tale of its existence continues, that one day it will be found and all of the universe's mysteries will be solved.

And, in the grand tradition, it will one day be found...by a blithering idiot whom fortune has smiled upon, but had no idea what he's stumbled across.

Warehouse 23?

--
You open one of the 1002 boxes on this floor and find... Mr. Fnord looking back at you.