Pushing down the slight wave of panic, Alpha activated his optical scanners and tried to determine where he was.

Looking around it appeared that he was currently resting in a large 30-meter diameter crater. Several parts of his core were still glowing red, and small fires still burned on the outer edge of the crater. Well, that at least lent some credibility to his "botched Landfall" theory. But it didn't say much for where he was or why he was here.

With a though, the shiny, metallic Pill like object that was his core began to ripple and shift as the nanobots that made it up started to work their magic.

With the sound of rippling water and grinding metal, the outer shell of his core resolved away, revealing the skeletal frame of a standard Terrestrial Assault Weapons Platform. The Nanobot swarm shifted and covered the hyper-strength, Battleship-grade skeleton. Slowly, the shape of super-condensed alloy armor plating, Artificial Muscles, and weaponry started to form.

After only three minutes, the boxy, minimalist form of the TAWP rose up on its four, crab-like limbs. Dozens of sensor arrays and other devices whirled to life, as the Sub-AIs frantically collected environmental data and fed it back to Alpha.

Alpha had always preferred the TAWP. It was simple, agile, versatile, and intimidating. It also helped that the main cannon mounted on top was not only fun as all heck to fire, but could be changed to fire everything from high energy railslugs, to particle beams. While other Conquerors preferred more .... flashy forms, Alpha had liked the simple yet effective TAWP since he first came online.

Today, he was feeling Ion Cannon-y.

Now, the Weapons Platform jokingly nicknamed the "Crab Gun" by the uneducated made its way over the edge of the crater and pulled itself up and over.

Alpha scanned the area and saw that he had landed in what appeared to be a wild open plain. Far in the distance, a massive mountain range stretched from one the edge of the horizon to the other. Behind him, about the same distance away, if his distance finder was operating correctly, was a forest of massive trees.

After a moment's pause, Alpha decided to head towards the Mountains.

If he could get to a higher elevation, he could scan the sky and try to find out where he was based on the star charts. It was a slightly primitive method, but without access to the Translight Network, it was his best shot. At the very least, experience had shown mountains meant mineral deposits, and he was in desperate need of repairs.

Before he could start moving in that direction, however, a massive shadow swept over him. Turning his optical sensors in the direction of the shadow, Alpha was shocked to see what could only be described as a gargantuan, jet black Snake.

Its girth alone was as big as he was, and that was impressive considering he was the size of a small Elephant himself. Its length didn't even have to be considered. After the shock that a form of alien life had evolved such a recognizable and similar form (Alien life tended to be much more...exotic, than this) wore off, the next question in Alpha's data queue was how such a massive creature had gotten so close to him in the first place.

He had been constantly scanning the area in all directions and hadn't even seen it till he saw its shadow.

The Jet black snake looked down at Alpha, an obvious glint of curiosity and intelligence in its eyes as it stared at the strange metal object in front of it. It tilted its head and squinted its eyes, and its tongue flickered in and out in a traditional snake manner, as if not to sure what to make of Alpha.

Alpha, for his part, had learned to not underestimate the intelligence of Alien life; time and time again it had proven that sapience could evolve in the strangest of ways. Thus, recognizing the glint of intelligence, under Federation protocol for first contact Alpha began trying to communicate with the creature in front of it.

What followed was a chaotic mix of spoken words, flashing lights, Ultrasonic vibrations, and even biochemical signals all designed to try and hit that "sweet spot" that often resulted in some form of response in sapient life, and pointed him in the best direction for communication.

The giant snake wrinkled its brow ("Do snakes even have brows?" Alpha would question to himself, later) and hissed as it reared back from the chaos.

Not liking THAT response, Alpha stopped his "communication", but it seemed like the damage had already been done. The giant snake glared at the AI with obvious hostility and opened his mouth wide.

Instead of the bite, he was expecting, however, a flickering glow began to gather in the back of the creature's throat.

At that moment, one of Alpha's Sub-AIs blared out a warning.

[WARNING! HIGH LEVELS OF UNKNOWN ENERGY SIGNAL DETECTED. EVASIVE MANEUVERS ADVISED.] 

At the last moment, the TAWP displayed the agility it was famous for, and it shot backward, barely avoiding the spray of emerald green flames that turned the ground in front of it, into molten slag.

The Snake gave another loud hiss and aimed at the AI once more. Before the flickering lights could even begin, however, the main gun on TAWP flickered to life, charging in less than half a second and sent a beam of supercharged, ionized nitrogen plasma towards the creature. With one quick flick, the beam weapon cleanly sliced through the creature's neck, even cutting through several of the massive trees far into the distance.

The snake stared in wide-eyed horror as it watched its own head slowly slide from its body and crash to the ground.

The beam weapon had instantly cauterized the wound, leaving the body flailing about, unaware of what had even happened. The head simply stared, the metal monster forgotten, as its jaw opened and closed in shock, and the light slowly drained from its eyes.

When the beast, both head, and body, had stopped moving, Alpha moved forward and collected a tissue sample, as per Federation protocol for all unknown species, for later analysis.

His job done, Alpha turned back towards the mountains and went on his way. 

[Alpha] - "Huh. Neat. Giant, fire breathing snakes... Maybe this place ain't so bad after all."