The turrets were still unloading on the Synth Lord as Simon, Riseth, and Alistair teleported next to Shaxes, which hovered slightly above the ruined headquarters, shooting her missiles at the turrets and James while firing her plasma rifle at King, which circled her and dived down below to avoid the beams headed his way.

"Your supercharge has run its course, and you are badly outnumbered. Surrender, and we can talk," Alistair called out to Shaxes.

Alistair sensed a surge of bloodlust and knew immediately that despite the displayed intelligence, Shaxes would not be convinced to surrender just like that. Alistair let out a sigh before he and everyone else attacked her again in earnest. Shaxes raised her rifle and fired at Alistair, but this time, he just teleported away, avoiding the attack. Shaxes had her teleportation suppressed by everyone in the Ryser clan, which made it impossible for her to teleport into specific locations.

Alistair tried to teleport next to Shaxes but was disrupted and forced to use his flight skills to accelerate to close the rest of the distance. He raised his poleaxe, charging it with all the accumulated kinetic energy, empowering himself as Shaxes raised her arm as multiple layers of barriers appeared. Alistair shattered the barriers, hacking into the metallic arm of the Synth Lord, this time leaving a deep gash revealing an artificial analog of biological muscles made of strange green interwoven fiber tubes with energy coursing through them.

Riseth and Simon appeared next to them. Shaxes screamed, and a powerful bubble of force shot out of her, pushing Alistair, Riseth, and Simon back. Melissa and Juliana appeared below, and a tower of ice shot up, encasing Shaxes left side as gravity pressed down on her, holding her in place.

"Why would you want to die if we give you the option to surrender and talk?" Juliana asked with genuine concern, which gave Shaxes some pause.

"My realm is lost. My people are dead. I am a mere copy of the original. You Humans and Demons are Vognesh picking on the bones of what is left of my people, and I'd rather die than become another bone to be picked," Shaxes replied with venom in her voice, resigned to her fate.

"You have the chance to take charge of your life, but you'd rather try and kill us and wait for the system to clean house." Alistair interjected, "Also, you make it sound like you would have acted differently if presented with the same opportunities."

Alistair sensed a dangerous undercurrent in her tone, accompanied by the ominous whirring of machinery from within her body. "Fuck you. You self-righteous Human scum." She called out coldly. "You and your kin are a plague upon the multiverse. Eat shit and die,"

The whirring got louder, and Alistair's sense of danger skyrocketed. She was planning to blow herself up. "Oh no, you don't!"

Alistair and Riseth rushed in as fast as they could, Riseth plunging her daggers through the barrier and into the core of the immobilized Synth Lord. Alistair crashed through and delivered the final blow, beheading the machine. The whirring gradually petered out, and the magical buildup seeped out of the now-lifeless body of Shaxes. Chimes rang out, signaling the completion of the Trial. Alistair couldn't help but feel surprised as he realized he had leveled up three times despite the typically slower pace of advancement since reaching Grade 9.

"Well, that was a waste," Simon commented as they hovered in closer.

"Agreed. What was all that hostility about?" James chimed in, joining them with the decapitated machine head cradled in his hands.

The ice that had caught Shaxes reflected the setting sun's light as they looked at the Synth Lord's body.

"Sol mentioned most view humans as brutal and deceitful. My best guess is that this planet had some unpleasant human neighbors." Alistair suggested with a shrug.

"Terrific. Though I can't say I'm surprised." James retorted as he stowed the head in his storage and began excavating the body. Melissa flew up and dispelled the ice with a wave of her hand, allowing James to retrieve the body without issue.

"We should sabotage the generator in the Ithania headquarters for the next mission. As much as I appreciate the records associated with fighting a supercharged goddamn Gundam, I'd rather not risk our lives over it again." James added after storing Shaxes' body.

Everyone nodded in agreement. Shaxes had been dangerous, but she wasn't a particularly gifted fighter and was too hesitant to commit. Eventually, she was outmatched by their coordinated efforts. The risk of the Ithania leader not being held back by its Stuqit nature wasn't one worth taking. Especially since fighting the same opponents drastically reduced the records one could earn. Also, there have recently been rumors of the trial worlds growing in difficulty as previously unseen monsters appeared more and more. Alistair had noticed a slight increase in dangerous monsters within the Slayer world. He initially thought their growth stemmed from killing each other and gaining strength in the Slayer trial, but he wouldn't be shocked if the system raised the stakes by releasing stronger monsters to keep pace with the initiates' growth.

"Alright, everyone, let's collect everything worthwhile and move out. We are on a bit of a timer," Nessyra called out.

Everyone knew their role in the salvage operation and made their way back into the compound. Alistair's job was to eliminate any stragglers who had managed to avoid the battle and find any hidden caches. Alistair eventually found some access chute that led below the generator where Shaxes had been lying dormant. Most of the infrastructure was damaged as Shaxes escaped, but James insisted that he could salvage atleast the generator, which could potentially be used for their planned spacecraft. The Zephyr would be out of commission for the foreseeable future as James would be preoccupied with fulfilling his contractual obligations to Zekaria Corp., which had a much higher priority.

The next day, with Juliana's help, they teleported to the outskirts of the Ithania headquarters and successfully sabotaged the generator. This siphoned the magic out of the Ithania Synth Lord, leaving him drained. Much like Shaxes, Iarakir refused to cooperate and tried to blow himself up, forcing Alistair to kill him. To their surprise, while they had successfully defeated the factions, the Clan War Trial did not end, which allowed them to complete additional sub-objectives. The Automata still had some replicators hidden across the globe, and within outposts, they had not been destroyed yet and were still fighting each other. However, the loss of their command structure had led to a collapse of the organization as the required materials no longer reached their destination, and response time to attacks increased drastically as the overseers now had to coordinate without their Nexus leaders. They had essentially achieved enough objectives and would let the rest of the clan continue to accomplish a few more achievements for a better rating. Conquering the planet would be a step too far, as it would be tedium to find all the leftover forces, outposts, and nodes. They were quite content to let the other members of their clan use the planet as a training ground until the timer ran out.

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Known Objectives:

Destroy Automata Faction

[8/8]

Kill Automata Units [1'683'767/?] Destroy Automata Self-Replicators

[12/?]

Destroy Outposts [27/?] Destroy Logistic Nodes

[32/120]

Destroy Planetary Defense Grid Nodes

[41/41]

Successfully Completed Trials

[10]

Discover Hidden Locations

[24]

Alistair and Riseth spent the next day cultivating as they waited for the first large chunk of debris to reach the orbit above them. There had been other windows of opportunity where they could have flown across the globe in low orbit, but the back and forth was deemed a waste of time and resources when they could just wait to recover the desired debris in a more opportune location. There could also be hidden dangers even with the defense grid disabled, and the safety of the Artemis was the highest priority. The target debris had a somewhat extended orbital period and was among the parts they detected and planned to recover. They had done some research with documentation from the Study Dungeons sub-sections to determine the best window of opportunity to recover the desired parts. The less time they spend in orbit, the lower the chances of the Artemis getting its shields overwhelmed by the hazardous material in orbit.

While they had identified the parts as a ship, they did not have the proper optics to identify the nature of the craft before it had been destroyed. They would need to get closer first to get a better look at it. However, the surprisingly intact nature of the craft gave them high hopes of being able to recover useful parts from the craft. Riseth, Alistair, James, and his girlfriend Jessica boarded the Artemis as they prepared to intercept their quarry. Jessica would pilot the craft while James manned the Sensor & Comms station using the built-in sensors and optics to scout for valuable parts and warn of incoming threats like faster and more dangerous incoming debris. They would have roughly an hour in orbit before they would need to disengage as they drifted out of what they considered the safe zone.

Riseth joined Jessica in overlooking the start-up of the Artemis as she was still teaching her how to pilot the craft. The cockpit of the Artemis had undergone significant changes since Alistair had been inside it the last time; the Sensor & comms station, along with the weapon station, had been fully repaired and even extended to a holoprojector extremely similar to the one they had used during the clan meeting. It currently displayed the planet of the trial world, indicating larger forces, none of which were on their continent. They even added digital keyboards to their screen, as James did not wish to readjust to the Neshan equivalent, which was less practical in his eyes. Riseth reluctantly admitted that the keyboard was more efficient and began using it after mastering the English alphabet. While neither she nor Nessyra voiced any complaints, they both appreciated the boost to their [Mental] stat, which significantly enhanced their memory retention. Nessyra, especially, found the streamlined design to her liking, as it enabled her to work more efficiently.

As the Artemis came to life, Alistair noticed the slight smell of ozone as the reactor started up. He decided to stand for the start of the craft; it had built inertial dampeners and artificial gravity modules, which made for an extremely smooth ride. In the worst case, his kinetic affinity would allow him to stabilize himself. The inside walls of the cockpit were covered in holographic displays showing the outside of the Artemis as the shuttle lacked windows. He watched as the Artemis lifted off on display, the ground rapidly falling away. His stomach lurched slightly from the dissonance of the craft lifting up and the lack of physical sensation.

"We should reach the lower orbit in a few seconds. Our target should come into sensor range in roughly five minutes," James announced as he tapped away at his digital keyboard.

"Wouldn't it be quicker to use some Arcane method to direct your intent rather than having to type it out and wave your hands at the screens?" Alistair inquired.

"Probably, but I'm still figuring out arcane stuff, and there's a lot of potential for something to go wrong when directing a ship just with your thoughts. While I disagree with many things the Stuquit did, having to physically confirm orders is not one of them," James explained.

Alistair nodded; he understood the importance of confirming orders. Stray thoughts or external influences could cause a lot of damage, so sticking to typing on the console made sense. As they continued to ascend, he observed his brother zooming in on something displayed on the screen. One of the viewing screens on the wall magnified the distant object, revealing a sizable ship riddled with holes. The largest hole at its center was presumably the attack that had initially disabled it. Due to its rather low orbit, it had been spared from the worst damage of the Kessler syndrome, though it was still a wreck.

"I got a name. It is called the Deonida. Let's see if we can find something in the records we got from the Defense Grid logs," James said as the screen zoomed in on alien lettering that automatically translated through their skill.

After a short, tense pause, James found something in the logs. The image of the craft became clearer and more detailed as it got closer. Alistair and Riseth made their way to the hatch to fly the rest of the distance as James compiled what he found. Riseth turned ethereal as Alistair focused his senses as much as he could to potentially dodge any fast-moving debris. He saw the barriers of the Artemis flicker occasionally as a tiny fragment impacted its barrier. He would soon find out what kind of craft they were dealing with.