The murmur that swept through the Federal Grand Assembly carried the friction of unsheathed steel. Across the tiered galleries, four hundred delegates from four land-wide blocs shifted in their leather-backed seats, consulting encrypted slates and murmuring behind manicured hands.
“Order in the plenary chamber!” Chancellor Reginald Vance slammed the ivory gavel down. The dull crack rang through the vaulted acoustics, amplified by the brass diaphragms set into the dark wood dais. “Resolution 88 isn’t open for demagoguery. The Sovereign Chimera Order has launched coordinated incursions across three global sectors. If the Federation is to survive, our living assets must be centralized under standardized heavy-duty oversight. We can’t permit rogue practitioners to brew unstable concoctions in trench-side buckets.”
Judith Brandt adjusted her white-gold glasses, a thin, patronizing smile touching her lips. “Let’s speak plainly, Commander Vance. Your battlefield achievements have earned you temporary latitude from the Vanguard High Command, but heroism doesn’t confer beast-doctor expertise. You’re a field scout who stumbled onto a handful of high-aether mutants. ApexBio employs four thousand approved genomic master builders. We have mapped the mitochondrial pathways of seventy-two divine bloodlines. What you call ‘comparative sickness’ is merely the reckless manipulation of recessive genes. Without our stabilizing cryo-enzymes, your beasts will inevitably succumb to body-energy collapse.”
