The overhead screen surged with names as the system sorted between future speakers, trying to determine who goes first.
Aiden pressed his own button, before he leaned over to ask Aldegar something. "By the way dad, how does the system decide when speakers are the same rank?"
Aldegar looked up at the screen, noticing his name is the one shown. "It favors Offense Corps, then Defense and Medical."
"The next speaker is," chimed the announcement system again. "Lieutenant Aldegar Silvius."
Aldegar stopped for a second, his time already ticking. The system gave each speaker a set amount of time, no matter the rank. You could stop early, or be given more, if everyone votes for it. After their speech, they would be on cooldown before being allowed to enter the queue again. Despite having no need for it, to emphasize his speech more, Aldegar stood.
"Ladies and gentlemen of the three Corps," Aldegar began, his voice calm and steady. He let the words settle in for a moment as he gazed around the room, almost to make sure everyone is listening.
"I do realize that having little to no information on such a dangerous topic, and one we insist is a huge threat, is something that might lower your opinion on us. However, you are to realize, the Oracle's main strength isn't the ability to have knowledge and strategies ready for every single scenario, it is instead the ability to adapt."
He stopped for a moment, his hands clasped behind his back, almost to let everyone ponder on his words. "The Oracle is not a single person, nor is the Oracle only us ranked officers. The Oracle is like a living organism, one we are only but a few cells of. The entirety of Ardenia, no, the entirety of Astarea places their trust on us. And this something that's more than evident, considering that the largest percentage of our privates and officers came from other nations, and moved to Ardenia to work with us."
His stance tightened and his voice became even more resolute. "The Oracle is comprised of some of the world's greatest researchers, greatest combatants and greatest strategists. Whatever is thrown at us, we will overcome, as long as we have trust in ourselves and our colleagues. And even more importantly, as long as the rest of the world has trust in us. This is why I always advocate for doing things by the book, because, when the people you are attempting to protect do not want your protection - it's a fool's game. There are no winners in that, other than those who want to overthrow us and rule with an iron fist."
Aldegar lowered his gaze to his receiver, and noticed his time is almost up. "With that, I close my opening case. Thank you."
"The next speaker is… Defense Corps third rank, Sondre Solheim."
"I would like to touch upon what Dr. Ishikawa and Carruso mentioned not too long ago," said Sondre. "The prospect of corruption spreading and infecting others."
"My worry boils down to two most important points." Sondre raised his hand in the air and pointed his index finger up. "Firstly, if corruption can actually spread, we need to take measures to make sure that privates don't get infected." He slowed, and his tone became somber. "They are much more vulnerable than us."
He now raised both his index and middle fingers. "Secondly, if the cause of corruption is malformed or otherwise tarnished Essence, can those without powers and Soul Marks be corrupted? Typically, high doses of Essence are lethal to those without powers or Soul Marks. Corrupted Essence might work differently. When it comes to privates, the solution should most likely be just to instruct them not to engage corrupted individuals on their own. And, as for the civilian populace, the Defense Corps could work together with local police in order to keep an eye out. Any captured individuals could be researched, if their corruption doesn't make them too big of a threat. I rest my case.
"The next speaker is… Medical Corps fourth rank, Arden Van den Akker."
"My main concern is possible healing methods." he said as he shuffled and tapped his fingers against the desk, almost to see if he had any healing idea. "We have previously attempted healing the rare few cases of corrupted Essence, I've read the logs, but since then, technology has advanced a lot. There has to be something we can try, right?" he said with a tone of worrisome hope in his voice.
"The next speaker is… Medical Corps sixth rank, Katsumi Miyajima."
"I- Although I'm not quite the greatest medical professional," said Katsumi with a shy, soft tone. "I am a good inventor. I've looked through the logs before the assembly began. Before Operation: Pier Strike, Miss Synnove found a sketch, although now debunked, of a machine called the Soul Separator?
She paused, gathering her thoughts, her gaze shifting over to where Synnove sat. "The main principle of that machine was inserting and removing Essence through the nape, where the Soul is thought to be located. I can't help but say that, even if that sketch was deceitful and created to keep us of the right track, every lie has a hint of truth. My first thought is that the rough idea is something similar to how the Overloader might work, that it adds Essence from an outside source into the Soul, forcing the Bound to be overdone."
Realizing her idea had gained some positive traction, her confidence grew a bit. Her voice raised up, and she spoke. "If that's how it works, reverse engineering it with some fine tuning could get us a machine that could remove the tarnished Essence. It might not be able to remove all the damages, but, it'd stop any new damage and allow us to administer at least some treatment, right?"
"The next speaker is… Head of the Medical Corps, Amelia Arroyo."
"Miss Miyajima, I have to raise the same point I did when we were discussing the plans discovered for the Soul Separator. In technicality, your theory makes perfect sense, and so did the Separator. But, after all, we are talking about a Soul. Souls are something which can hardly be described by science, because we can't explain it, nor can we define it - it permeates the entire body."
"The next speaker is… Defense Corps second rank, Severo Luzatto."
"Dr. Arroyo, I understand you are viewing this from the point of a medical professional, where human testing is disregarded as disgusting and inhumane. However, in the case of corrupted individuals, our attempts to save them can only result positive. There is no known cure, and, every recorded case resulted in death. I'm certain that, if someone still has enough humanity to consent to being researched on, they will be ready for it."
Severo stopped for a second, almost to think of a softer way to phrase his next words. "Corruption is a terminal disease with no known cure. Worst case scenario from research is that they die, which without a cure, they will do either way. What harm does it do them?"
"The next speaker is… Medical Corps second rank, Kohaku Ishikawa."
"Mr. Luzatto, you mustn't view humans as test subjects!" He said as he stood up explosively, his hands gripping the edge of the table. "It is true that they are corrupted without cure, but, our research could cause them even further misery! I hate to use this as an example, but you all remember the situation with former Captain, Ulrich Silvius and Cor Clausum. Meddling our fingers in matters beyond our comprehension is only going to cause issues!"
At the mere mention of Ulrich's name, every hair on Aldegar's body stood up, and a lump got stuck in his throat. He immediately reached for a water bottle, noticing his was empty, and proceeded to steal Monique's before completely downing it in one breath.
"The next speaker is… Offense Corps fifth rank, Amaro de la Cruz."
"I hate to be the one to mention this, but," Amaro hesitated, his brow furrowing with concern. "How can we guarantee safe capture and transportation of the corrupted individuals. Dr. Ishikawa and Mr. Solheim keep mentioning the corruption possibly being able to spread,"
He grabbed a stack of papers passed to him by an assistant, before quickly flipping through the pages. He shuffled the papers in his hand, allowing for a brief moment of thought. "According to the pre-assembly context lists we were given - Mr. Silvius mentioned the man called Benoit having physically distorted features and rapidly shifting and unpredictable behavior, going from lashing out at Lieutenant Silvius and cussing out Dr. Silva, to pleading for his sister's life. These corrupted fools seem like a nightmare to predict and keep, especially if you want to do medical procedures on them."
"The next speaker is… Defense Corps fourth rank, Vivianne Clarke."
"I share the same worry as Mr. Cruz. Taking into consideration Mr. Silvius witness report of the apparent changes due to corruption that the mercenary Benoit had, they seem highly unpredictable. Not to mention, he was able to communicate, had no excess limbs, was able to reason. If this is corruption, there is most certainly an even higher degree of corruption than he was at."
"The next speaker is… Offense Corps third rank, Monique Cosineau."
"Everyone here brings valid points, but, you forget our primary goal is safety for those who cannot protect themselves, especially against an unpredictable foe like this. I circle back to the words of Lieutenant Silvius - If the citizens do not want us to protect them, our main goal is unattainable. We need to keep doing what we do best, and for that, we can't take too big of a risk. Since this issue seems to be isolated within Ardenia, I suggest we dispatch ranked officers in the biggest Ardenian settlements, in case we need to have an emergency response."
"The next speaker is… Lieutenant Aldegar Silvius."
"You are most certainly right, Monique, but we also need to keep a low profile. If the word of not only corrupted people, but our struggle to combat the issue is widely known - the public will not only be outraged, but also panic. They'd begin impulsively buying supplies, preparing for the worst, anxiety would set in, prices would jump, businesses would close. It'd be chaos, which is exactly what our enemy wants. We need to be ready to defend, but, containment is preferred, to avoid public exposure."
"The next speaker is… Medical Corps seventh rank, Camellia Fiorella."
"I was not originally intending to include myself in this conversation, because, as the newest Oracle member, I don't have experience like the rest of you do. However, I wanted to touch upon what Miss Miyajima suggested."
She raised her hands in the air and pinched her hands up. "What if, instead of viewing corrupted Essence as a condition, we view it as a virus. An outside object, attacking the body." she said as she closed the gap between her two hands.
"In that case, instead of reverse engineering the Overloader to possibly heal already corrupted victims - we isolate a few examples of said corruption." she lowered one of her hands below her desk.
"With the isolated specimens, we could attempt to create a vaccine. Either by using weakened corrupted Essence to create a sort of immunity, or, even place it in a Petri dish with some human cells, until we create a batch that can combat it, and use it as a supplement."
"This could prevent people from getting corrupted at all, either by minimizing the effects of corruption to slight physical injury, or maybe even increase one's Bound just for a safety measure."
"The next speaker is… Offense Corps fourth rank, Khiara Al-Zaydan."
"I appreciate everyone's enthusiasm, but, we're theorizing as if the Cult of Feyr will give us enough time to create a cure or similar. Their main target is Dawnvale and us, there's no doubt in my mind. If we are truly viewing this as a contingency plan, their idea is most likely to create a large army of these individuals and release them all at once, somewhere far from here."
She stopped, her expression stern and serious compared to her usual joyful demeanor. "That way, they'd force a large-scale reaction out of us and leave us vulnerable. Most likely force us all out of the headquarters, and invade…"