- Exam Prompt:
- Serilda made her way down to the Engineering center of the Rune Knights’ headquarters, an area that she didn’t visit particularly often. Not out of a lack of interest, but rather because the Field Marshal was often so busy that she barely had time to leave her office for anything that wasn’t an emergency or a scheduled meeting of some kind. So it was with some surprise that the Knights that were present and at their work observed the white haired woman enter the space, most of them quickly picking up the pace of their work to look busy in front of the boss, despite the fact that none of them had really been slacking in the first place.
She had a project in mind that she and Mythal had been thinking about putting in place, and after talking a bit with Grappa and Jellisha there was one somewhat newer recruit to the Knights who had quite the affinity for technology and seemed the perfect fit for the job. Her pale blue eyes scanned the room until they rested on a young woman with similarly white hair and approached her. “Sergeant Forte?” she asked, looking to confirm the woman’s identity before continuing. Serilda gave her a small but pleasant smile and offered a firm hand for her to shake. “I’m Marshal Sinclair. Do you have a minute? I have a project I need a hand with, and the Generals tell me that you’re the one I should try talking to first.”
“The Director and I have been discussing the potential for trying to put together a private communication network for the Knights, something that functions like the iLac systems but can only be accessed by approved Rune Knights and operates off of our own home made gear. We would need it to be a system that cannot be traced or hacked by exterior sources -- something as heavily protected and fortified as possible, for the protection of the Knights that use it. Mostly, we see it being a field tool for the Spec Ops agents, but it could wind up seeing other uses too. If you come up with any other useful tools or applications for it, feel free to use your creativity in that regard, but mostly what we’re looking for is something secure for Knights to use to communicate with one another without being tapped or overheard. The phones themselves would also need to be as difficult as possible to use by anyone not assigned to them, just in case they fall into the wrong hands.”
Assuming Kyra was open to the task at hand, Serilda would nod her approval. “Whatever resources you need, just alert the quartermaster and I’ll make sure you get it. If you have any questions or want to run any ideas by us, you can come find either myself or Director Ragnos. Put together a small team if you need to help you out, but we’d appreciate it if we could keep the knowledge of the project as contained as possible for now so we can control who learns about it and how.”
KYRA FORTE
Word Count: 1538
Required Word Count: 1,000
Tagged: @Serilda Sinclair
Job Information: Exam Thread
Notes: -
Word Count: 1538
Required Word Count: 1,000
Tagged: @Serilda Sinclair
Job Information: Exam Thread
Notes: -
So engrossed was she in her current work that Kyra almost jumped out of her skin when she heard her name called by an unfamiliar voice. She wheeled around immediately to look at the owner of the voice and, for the briefest moment, she could've sworn she was looking in a mirror of the future or something as the face she met was damn near similar to her own; pearly-white hair, sapphire blue eyes and a similar expression to boot. It wasn't until the woman spoke to her again that she realised she wasn't imagining things. The woman introduced herself as Marshal Sinclair - the most superior of superiors. She was here? And talking to Kyra, a Sergeant who had literally been a a part of the Rune Knights for...her brain couldn't function to work out how long, but it was not very long at all.
Kyra saluted the Field Marshal, more out of panic than anything else as she didn't want to offend her. "Yes, Ma'am. I'm Sergeant Fort, Ma'am." she confirmed, somehow keeping her tone steady in spite of her slight shakiness. The Field Marshal then explained the situation; her and the Director (another superior she hadn't met yet) were looking to set up a method of private communication within the forces. It had to be secure and have limited access. Even as Marshal Sinclair was talking the wheels were turning in Kyra's head, and she very quickly shifted from that nervous, somewhat awkward girl into her usual, ever-thinking engineer. The visible difference would have been astonishing, as Kyra now looked the Field Marshal dead in the eyes as the more experienced woman finished explaining everything. "Yes, Ma'am, leave it to me." she replied simply before saluting again and turning back to her workbench. She had the perfect way of achieving what the Field Marshall and the Director were after, but it would take some small amount of work. Almost forgetting that Marshall Sinclair was still there (or assuming she'd left already), Kyra was already looking around for one particular person and, before long, she'd spotted him; the engineer who had helped her to test her new handcuff design a few weeks ago. They caught each others eyes and, without Kyra needing to say anything, he walked over to her.
"I assume you're requiring my assistance again?" he asked with a smile. Kyra smiled back and nodded in response. "We've got a big project. I need you to design some earpieces that can easily pick up the voice of the wearer. Perhaps something that -" she began before the engineer chuckled and interrupted. "Something that amplifies the wearer's voice. I can probably use a two-piece system, one for -" It was Kyra's turn to interrupt this time. "One for the ear as standard and one as a separate piece, perhaps as a speaker on the uniform." she finished for him, and both grinned. "And this is why you're my favourite." she added, causing him to blush slightly with embarrassment. He took it in his stride nonetheless. "I'll get cracking then." he replied simply before walking away. Kyra looked back at her own workbench for a moment, then looked at V-1 who was looking at her with its camera lens. "V-1...open up my files on The Database. Include blueprints and internal mapping and coding."
V-1 beeped twice.
"Files accessed Mistress. Will you be requiring physical copies?"
Kyra nodded and the drone beeped twice again. It didn't take long before the drone spat out a thick wad of paper, rolled up and tied with string. "Energy Levels running low Mistress. When you have the opportunity, I may require a new core." the drone said somewhat sadly, to which Kyra gently patted it. "No problem V-1. You're due a big upgrade soon anyway for all the work you've done. Rest up. I'll take care of things from here." she replied. V-1 beeped one more time, then the green light atop its shell turned red and a shutter covered its camera lens, as if it had gone to sleep. With a gentle sigh, Kyra turned her attention back to the task ahead of her.
"Okay so...I need to lock my own files, which means re-coding the system slightly..." she mumbled, before taking out her personally designed iLac and placing it on the workbench. Immediately it kicked into life and she quickly accessed what she needed; The Database - a kind of technological pocket dimension similar to those that magical Requip users had access to. The difference being that Kyra had built the whole thing from scratch and so had complete control over it.
She began editing the coding, locking her own files - her own requips, designs and project files - behind her own passcode. She then began setting up files for the superiors who she could remember off of the top of her head; Major General's Beaux, Suzuki and the twins Grappa and Jellisha, The Director (whose name she didn't know yet, so she simply named it 'Director') and finally Field Marshal Sinclair. She then created multiple profiles linked to those files, giving what she felt would be good starting access to things - with the Field Marshal and Director having full access to everything but Kyra's own personal file.
With that out of the way, it was now time to sort out the communications side of things. To communicate long distances required a set frequency. But the engineer wanted to make it more reliable than that; she wanted to make it so that every member of the Rune Knights had a slightly different, but equally secure frequency so that individual Knights could be given information as and when they needed it. To remove complexity, she set the system up so that a new frequency was opened as a new Profile was made, thus linking each frequency to a name rather than its code and making communication quick and easy. It took longer than she would have liked, but she was able to succeed in the coding side for the time being. She couldn't test it properly until the other engineer finished the earpieces and whatnot. But in the meantime she had another part of the project to do; access signatures.
The Field Marshal and the Director would both need to be able to access the database at any given time. They wouldn't necessarily need the same access that she had, since they likely wouldn't need to touch the code. They needed something similar to her watch; the ability to access the functions they had permissions for, such as adding new profiles, assigning them to a department, etc. The pearly-haired maiden immediately grabbed a piece of blueprint paper and lay it down on the workbench in front of her before setting herself to work. They didn't strictly need a watch like what she had. Hers was only as large as it was due to the need to access her Requips. They needed less physical access and thus required a smaller amount of energy to be stored. Simple bracelet-type things would work. She began sketching the design out, already imagining how it would work; essentially the bracelet would, when touched by the owner's fingerprints and accessed by a code - either numerical or simply a codeword - access The Database by means similar to Archive magics. The owners could then use that as a sort of semi-physical iLac to do what they needed to do, then shut it down by simply brushing their hand over their bracelet again. The Database would also shut down if the user was inactive for more than sixty seconds, but this could be adjusted where required. Now it was just a case of making them.
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Five Hours Later
Kyra and her fellow engineer stood in front of her workbench admiring their efforts; laid upon the bench were four bracelets, four earpieces and four sound lacrima chips - these were set to connect to one of each of the earpieces akin to a headset, but less weighty and easier to keep concealed. Considering how small the pieces were, it seemed like such a small amount for the time consumed in making them. But this was a huge development for both engineers. Now they just had to test them. Both took an earpiece and a sound chip and walked to opposite ends of the workshop. "Testing, testing! Can you hear me?" Kyra asked. She nearly jumped for joy when she heard the response back in her ear "Loud and clear Sergeant. Can you hear me?"
The girl cheered for joy, then realised she was live and immediately apologised to her colleague as she likely just deafened him. Both returned to the workbench and Kyra picked up one of the bracelets. Since she'd set the codes, she was able to access through the Field Marshal's bracelet, so she slipped it on and, after overruling the fingerprint requirement - that would need to be reset once these were given out - she was able to access everything that she'd set permissions for which, for the Field Marshal, was basically everything. The two engineers grinned at each other happily. Now they just had to show the Field Marshal.
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