Kyle Lockhart

Kyle Lockhart was an engineer who worked on experimental, top secret projects at Sugar Grove in 2077.

Background
His crowning achievement was the EX-72 PULSAR, attempting to develop tactical electromagnetic pulse (EMP) weapons for use by agents in disabling or destroying turrets, robots, and other electronic security systems. Although the project called for extensive testing and analysis, progress was slow. A test cycle required the analysts to fire the weapon, break down the robot, analyze the damage, reset and recalibrate, then wait for a new robot. Even with a fabricator on-site, they could only perform four tests in a day, at best. This peak capacity was discovered on October 4, 2077. As a talented engineer, Lockhart soon managed to create a workaround — he could set up the fabrication pod to assemble a robot, pipe the fabricator's steam release into a hydraulic actuator to trigger the weapon, and then have the fabricator disassemble the robot and save off the results. The whole cycle took about eight minutes. Lockhart took the next week off for a well-earned vacation, leaving the testing on automatic.

This lack of discipline quickly started to affect Sugar Grove operations, especially since Lockhart neglected to inform his colleagues about the experiment. By October 9, auxiliary generators had to be brought online. By October 11, the routine started to consume runaway amounts of storage and forced the facility to tap into the Monongah power grid after the tests burned out eight generators. The tap siphoned enough power to cause brownouts. By the October 13, the routine consumed all available space, forcing a secondary tape drive to be brought online; and a third and fourth. It capped out at 58 which was all the available storage in the facility.

Lockhart returned to work on October 18, to a mound of garbage data filling up the drives and no way to sift through it all. General Thomas McAllen, responsible for oversight at the facility, had also taken notice of the impact Lockhart's test had on the facility and threatened to sack him for interfering with a facility crucial to the war effort. Lockhart was given a week to provide a report and an explanation for the incident. In his own words, the automated test routine has eaten all the data storage on the base, enough power to run Watoga for a year, and more raw materials than the 81st Armored. And he had to dig a golden needle out of it in less than a week.

He realized the futility of the work by October 21, with less than four days to go to his deadline. The test data was fragmented across the mainframe and the system couldn't handle the volume, leaving him with no means to access the data, much less analyze it. His only hopes lay with the SIPHON holotapes, but ever since the project was taken out from under his jurisdiction, he was not on the list of people permitted to access the holotapes. The strict controls instituted after repeated misuse also made "borrowing" it impossible.

Appearances
Kyle Lockhart is mentioned only