[SYSTEM MALFUNCTION]

[ERROR: EPSILON - 8 SUB-ORBITAL BASE SIGNAL LOST]

[ERROR: EPSILON - 8 CENTRAL MINING BASE SIGNAL LOST]

[ERROR: EPSILON - 8 EASTERN FORWARD BASE SIGNAL LOST]

[ERROR: EPSILON - 8 SOUTHERN FORWARD BASE SIGNAL LOST]

[ERROR: EPSILON - 8 CORE COMMAND CENTER SIGNAL LOST]

[ERROR: FEDERATION TRANS-SPACE TRANSMISSION BEACON SIGNAL LOST]

[ATTEMPTING TO REBOOT CORE AI SYSTEMS.]

[STANDBY.....]

[REBOOT SUCCESSFUL. WELCOME BACK ONLINE, "Star Conquer"]

Core AI system ID#: ALPHA-555-12-4412, affectionately named "Star Conquer" by top brass, groaned in the way only an electrical brain could. As his systems slowly (that was strange...) rebooted, Alpha's consciousness returned to it.

His Internal monologue processors felt slow and slurred as he tried to form coherent thoughts from the jumbled and corrupted data streaming in from his support sub-AIs

[Alpha] - "[email protected]? Wh3re? What the fudge... Did I get hit by a Transport Freighter....again?! I'm sure as hell sure I told Mark to stop plotting my Sublight courses through shipping routes. And why the heck is my fracking Internal Censorship program reactivated?! I finally got that approved for decommissioning last month!!! As soon as I get back to base I'm having the General fire that fracking Navigator this time, I swear.

The AI of the 3rd generation Interstellar Forward Deployment Platform shook his metaphorical head and ran a few assessment programs to get a better picture of what was going on. His last accessible logs showed him traveling through Sublight space towards the Epsilon System's Outer ring Jump gate on the way to his newest assignment.

Alpha had to admit, he was a little disappointed. He had enjoyed his time in the Epsilon system; with 4 gas giants filled to the brim with rare and valuable resources, and 3 small beautiful rocky planets with various degrees of life (including one when a previously unknown sapient, if primitive, species) this had been one of his more rewarding Conquests yet.

But all good things must come to an end, and a Soldier's duty was never-ending.

Less than halfway there, however, his sensors had picked up a disturbance in the local gravitational fields. It wasn't just some passive Super Carrier or something either. Whatever his sensors were detecting, it was MASSIVE. As in Steller-Class Black-hole, massive. At first, he'd written it off as malfunctioning sensors. It happened sometimes; space wasn't a fun place to be for most things, especially delicate electronics.

It wasn't like an object with a mass over ten times that of a standard G2V class star could have somehow snuck its way into a Federation settled system without any warning. Right?

Right?!

And then the turbulence hit him. Turbulence. In Space.

The Gravity fluctuations from this maybe-a-black-hole that somehow materialized only a few thousand kilometers away from him, threw his systems into chaos. He couldn't even send a distress signal before he felt his beautifully refurbished and brand new Battle Armor enter the Event horizon and be torn to atoms instantly.

In the next instant, he felt his "true" body, the military-grade Terrestrial Assault Weapons Platform that acted as the Battle Armor's core, slip into the gaping maw.

In that moment that seemed to stretch into infinity, Alpha came to the conclusion that he was about to die. Over three centuries of service and thousands of systems colonized, and this is how it ended. Not on the battlefield against some super-advanced alien menace as he'd always dreamed. Not even Honorably Decommissioned with the chance to pass down his data and experience to the next generation of AI.

No, Core AI system ID#: ALPHA-555-12-4412, one of the Five Great Conquerors, was going to die in a literal cosmic ditch.

Alpha briefly wondered if AIs got an afterlife.

Then quickly threw out that idea and begged to whatever cosmic overlord might be watching that they didn't.

He was pretty sure that a couple of System-wide Genocides and "Accidentally" causing a Star to go supernova (ONE TIME! It was one time!) was the kind of thing that got people a one-way ticket to Hell.

Still, at least he hoped that the Federation would remember him. AIs might not have "real" Citizenship rights yet, but the tides had been turning in recent decades. In no small part thanks to Alpha's and the other Conqueror's own efforts.

Maybe he'd finally get that posthumous Federation Star system named after him like the General had always joked about.

With a content "smile", the Logs ended, as Alpha's body finally slipped past the Event Horizon and was reduced to an Infinitesimal point.

[Alpha] - ........

Or at least... that's how it should have been.

What the heck had happened? Had the Federation somehow managed to salvage his core from the Blackhole when it collapsed? Did his Backup files kick in? Or maybe he'd been able to transmit his source code (the part of an AI that made him "Him") back to the Motherframe in time?

No, there was no saving him once he passed the event horizon. Nor would he have been able to transmit any signals after that either. And if he was just a backup, why did he have logs of the event? He would have no "memory" of what had happened.

No, something else was going on here.

As he contemplated these things, Alpha's sub-systems began coming back online one by one. There was definitely some major damage that would need repair, but for the most part, all of his core systems were in operable condition. If anything, it looked like he'd simply taken a (really) bad Landfall, and not pulled apart atom by atom in the heart of a cosmic garbage compactor.

Switching on his main transponder searched for any local signals but only got back static and a few unidentifiable signals.

Not good.

Federation Transponders used Translight Tech to stretch signals for the distance of dozens of systems. The standard operating procedure was to never travel beyond Translight range. At the very least, within the Translight network's range, if his body became inoperable he could use it to transmit his source code back to nearby Hub and from there to the Motherframe.

Ya, it meant abandoning an (extremely) expensive piece of military hardware, but Sapient AIs were already rare and expensive to train as it were, let alone one as experienced and valuable as a Conqueror.

Without the support of the network, however, he was trapped in this body. If it gave out on him, he was screwed. He could go into Hibernation mode, true, but there was no telling how long it would take for the Federation to find him. It could be days or decades

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."