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The Chairman declared the assembly open. It occurred to Bartholomew that although he had on many occasions prepared documents that would be attached to the bill, he had only ever sat in the spectator's gallery once. Who would have thought his second time observing would be from an instrument storage room in the basement. Where the orchestra would have been placed on the stage was the chariman's seat and a rostrum had been installed. Personnel who would record the proceedings were sat in a row of seats near the wings of the stage.
Rygdea made his way up to the rostrum. He was slightly shocked at the sight of his clothing. He was certain that he would change on his way to the chamber, but Rygdea was still in his military uniform. That congresspeople who entered the assembly were to be in either full dress or clothing that conformed to standards was not an explicitly written policy, but nonetheless a regulation expected to be observed.
It was possible that the regulation didn't apply to Rygdea as an observer, but he felt he could see the discriminatory mentality of the assembly through the fact that non-congresspeople could wear anything. Although, Rygdea was probably wearing his blue military uniform for an entirely different reason. He would fight as a member of the Cavalry. It had to be a gesture of his determination.
“Before we continue on to the report, I would like everyone to watch this first.”
The screen at the very back of the stage came down.
“It may be slightly difficult to see, but it would otherwise be a security issue. I would ask for you to please bear with the lighting within the hall.”
From the outside, it appeared to be a report on the progression of the Gran Pulse resettlement project. Within the hall congresspeople could be heard exchanging whispers as if having no interest in what was to be projected
“This was created by the director of the former PSICOM, the deceased Lieutenant Colonel Yaag Rosch.”
In an instant, the chamber returned to silence. In that hushed silence, Colonel Rosch's voice began to play. And then footage from the inside of the energy plant. Next, the image changed to the sealed off Bodhum and the Hanged Edge.
“The Sanctum had planned to exterminate every last resident of Bodhum.”
Commotion spread throughout the hall. Colonel Rosch had clearly used “The Sanctum” as the sentence's subject. And as if for insurance, the words that continued were “The military that received these orders.”
“Stop this immediately! We can not have unauthorized footage be shown.”
The Chairman hastily turned towards the assembly guards and yelled. But, the guards did not make a single move. Rygdea had probably already taken preventative measures. The Chairman had the power to order the assembly guards to remove those deemed to be “disturbing the order of the assembly.” So, in order to prevent the worst case scenario of being thrown out, it was indispensable that the assembly guards be won over.
“Your Grace, Mr. Chairman, we have received your authorization, though?”
P186-187
While Rygdea hadn't stopped smiling at all, the Chairman's eyes were darting about in panic.
“I don't recall having authorized something like this...”
“The problematic and improvable points of the Gran Pulse resettlement project. A number of video clips are included as reference material.”
“There's nothing about resettlement project,“ came the heckles. Voices shouting “stop the video,” could be heard.
“Does this not suit your tastes? Then, how about this?”
With those words as the signal, the screen split into two. On one side, the footage recorded by Colonel Rosch's continued to play, and the other was tightly filled with rows of text. The rows of text began to roll at a speed akin to credits at the end of a movie.
“The communication logs between PSICOM and the Sanctum. Who issued what kind of order, shown right here as plain as day. Am I wrong?”
“Or am I,” continued Rygdea suggestively, then the rows of text came to a stop, and a different video appeared in its place. It zoomed into the decree from the Sanctum to PSICOM. There were several signatures which acted as authorization. Next to that, footage of PSICOM's “l'Cie hunt” began to play. Alongside played Colonel Rosch's unemphatic voice.
“Oh, yeah. Didn't I have some document with His Grace, Mr. Chairman's signature.”
The documents that were projected one after another were all ones which conformed to the official format.
“Oh, here we are. In regards with the Purge of Commercial City Palumpolum. Although it ended up not being implemented, the Chairman had already approved it in advance.”
The inside of the chamber was in an uproar. “They're all fabrications, none of this has any legal bearing,” shouted the congresspeople. That was something that Bartholomew too had feared the moment he laid eyes on the footage.
With the ID card's biometric authentication and identification code, the creator of the recording could be identified, so that alone had legal bearing. However, when it came to the copies of the communication logs and official documents, the methods of their acquisition and their validity came into question. If they were acquired through unauthorized means, they would lose their validity as evidence.
If it came to that, wouldn't Rygdea utilize his last resort? Would he resort to force to deprive the congresspeople of their authority...?
“Silence!”
The person to quell the uproar within the chamber was none other than the Chairman himself.
“Fabrications, as well as documents suspected of having been acquired fraudulently can not be authorized as evidence.”
Said the Chariman who finally regained his composure in a dignified manner.
“On what basis does His Grace, Mr. Chairman make his judgement? No, I'm not trying to ask you a question. Everyone knows the answer already. Or at least His Grace, Mr. Chairman and his dear congresspeople do, anyway.”
The commotion had started again, but perhaps they were relieved that the presented documents had no power as evidence as the protests from earlier could no longer be heard.
“Because this data is confidential information and is inside a fully loaded, private Sanctum server, right? And that the only means through which someone aside from a Sanctum associate can acquire them is via unauthorized access?”
P188-189
It was as if Rygdea had wanted the Chairman and the congress people to go ahead and assume that they were “fabrications” and “fraudulent” to begin with. If they had assumed such things, then it was little short of them verifying the origin of the documents. As well, Rygdea must have attempted to guide them that way because he had in fact acquired the documents through legitimate means.
“Do we remember the deceased Primarch, Cid Raines? He had once been my superior, and was the individual whom all of you gathered here conveniently had take the blame for everything...”
Numbers that filled the screen in a seemingly unrecognizable pattern were projected. What on earth did they represent? They had to be some sort of code, but you couldn't tell what it was with just that.
“This is Cid Raines's biometric identification code in numerical format. If you tried to input it into the appropriate terminal, you should easily be able to verify this, so there's no problem with this.”
It would be a big problem if the biometric identification code of someone living were to be disclosed to a number of people, but Raines was already deceased.
“Right before he died, he sent me this and the access key to Sanctum's private server. Although, I hadn't realized until after his death.”
“Unfortunately,” said Rygdea while shaking his head left and right, exaggeratedly. Though, his face just barely, for an instant appeared darkened.
If he had seen these internal documents before they stormed Edenhall, then Rygdea would probably have under no circumstances turned his gun on Raines. That is why Raines sent the code and key in such a way they would never make it to Rygdea in time.
“These documents were released by a whistleblower with the authority to access this confidential information. There are no problems in terms of legality with using them as evidence. Am I wrong?”
From Rygdea's ever calm face disappeared the smile, and his courteous tone turned into a grave one.
“It is because Rosch realized there was something wrong with how the Sanctum was doing things that he secretly left behind this recording. Even though Raines had been turned into a l'Cie by fal'Cie Barthandelus, he take full responsibility as a human. It is clear what they had wished for. It was a society where people lived by their own wills. If people aren't the tools of fal'Cie, then they most certainly are not the servants of folks who act like they're the privileged class. To carry on the wills they have left behind. That is the duty and responsibility of the entrusted.”
“Therefore,” Rygdea raised a hand into the air. The doors of the large hall opened all at once, and the Palumpolum Security Regiment came surging in. Looking closely, you could see that they weren't carrying arms. They had only been called out to take criminals into custody.
“I would have each and every one of you take your respective responsibilities. The responsibility for approving the Purge and conspiring to massacre the residents.”
The congresspeople stood up tumultuously. Those who tried to resist, the others who tried break free and run from the soldiers, and the ones who threatened with “Don't think you'll get away with this!” … they all looked utterly unsightly. A smile appeared on Rygdea's face and courteousness returned to his voice.
“Oh, yeah. There was one thing I forgot to mention. Every single detail of what's going on here is being broadcasted to all of Cocoon.
P190-191
Because the citizens have the right to know the state of their legislature.”
Seeing as how it was the concert hall, there would be equipment for broadcasting video in real time, and not just to this room.
The footage is probably being broadcasted from places like screens placed throughout the streets and the televisions of public institutions, to every single possible location nationwide.
Until now, the citizens knew nothing of the assembly. Or, simply had no interest. After all, the assembly had been a mere ornament, as all important decisions were made by fal'Cie Barthandelus. There were quite a few citizens who didn't even hold interest in the Sanctum's decisions.
It would be different now. Being indifferent would no longer be tolerated. That was what it meant for a society to be run by the will of man.
“All information must be conveyed promptly as well as accurately... I didn't have to go to the trouble of saying it. Chances are, you knew that better than I did.”
The congresspeople were detained and being marched out of the chamber. To say that they suddenly become quiet wouldn't be right, but as if conscious of the fact they were being watched by every citizen, they lessened their resistance.
As he promised, Rygdea wiped out all the old guard without spilling a single drop of blood. There is no doubt the citizens watching this footage would support the provisional government. It was an act of shifting political power through not force, but information.
“I'll keep my promise too.”
When he touched the wall with his hand, it was as Rygdea had said, the image had disappeared in an instant.
From now on, the days would start getting quite busy again. Before, he had tried to do work that he wouldn't feel ashamed showing to Hope in the future, but from now on that would change. He had to do work that not just Hope, but all of humanity in the future could be proud of.
“It looks like this going to be a lot of work.”
As he mumbled this with a smile, the founder of the Academy Research Institute quietly left the building.
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