Chapter 1: Crash Landing

I thought this chapter woudl end up short but it didn't. Don't hope all chapters to hit 3000 words though, because they won't. Enjoy, please review.

Having left the wild dangers of deep space, I had allowed the ship's auto-pilot to cruise me gently through this galaxy to my destination. I smiled, thinking of all those who would be working away under my boss' greedy gaze, while I finally could be away on my long awaited vacation! Ha-haa! As I closed my eyes and leant back in my beloved Pilot's Seat, I smiled, thinking of the three years I had worked so hard to save up for this interstellar vacation. I soon began to doze off to a gentle rumbling noise...

...

...

I got up suddenly, irritated, as the rumbling grew louder to an almost deafening volume.

"Dolphin!" I called out to my beloved ship. "Stop that racket immediately!"

The monitor informed me that this noise was not due to an internal cause. Annoyed and confused, I looked around. And what I saw scared me to near-death. I only had time to widen my eyes as I took in the meteorite heading straight towards me before . . .

I was speeding towards a nearby planet, random pieces of my ship burning up and hanging by a thread. My thoughts flashed to my wife and children back on planet Hocotate. I can't die here . . . I thought as, under the dark night sky, the ground came closer and closer . . .

I awoke with a start. I was ... alive? I realised I was on the floor, surrounded by a short grass. Around me, huge towers of what appeared to be wood obscured the horizon. Pleasant morning sunshine met my eyes through gaps in the barricade. I turned around. "Ack!" I exclaimed, actually leaping back in shock. There, right in front of me lay my spaceship, my beloved Dolphin. And yet, it was not a pleasant site. It was shattered, many parts were missing. Smoke issued forth from the interior and spark flew from the hull. Moreover, it had collided head first into the ground, scattering bits of the fuselage all around me. My pride and joy, my custom built rocket, the Dolphin, had been ripped to shreds so cruelly.

I came to my senses as a beam of sunlight struck the rocket and reflected into my eyes. I decided to run some diagnostics. It seemed my space suit and m body were intact, but at this point, I had no hope of escaping this planet – records had informed me this solar system was uninhabited by advanced life forms and at this stage, my Dolphin was even missing its engine. Due to this, I could not even lift myself into a stable zone in the upper atmosphere to avoid nocturnal hazards. I soon remembered my survival handbook on my first day of being a deliveryman and set off to explore the surroundings. If I was lucky, maybe I could find more than just pieces of the fuselage.

I was walking through a short grass, although huge roots and strange plants stood in my path here and there. Nonetheless, in the clearing in front of the Dolphin, I found a strange blackened object in the ground. It resembled an onion from my own planet, but significantly larger than me! I approached it, curiosity and hunger encouraging me. As I touched the object, it suddenly sprung up out of the ground, sending me rolling through the dirt away from it. Legs had protruded from it – three of them, I noticed – and it now stood up. The black had become red and a flower of white petals protruded from the top. Even as I stood admiring this, a seed shot out of the top, the flower spinning as it did so. The seed landed next to the huge three legged thing, which I dubbed the Onion, due to the aforementioned similarities. As I watched the seed with humble curiosity, a leaf began to push up from the soil! How intriguing ... with a little hesitation, I moved towards it to pluck it out of the crowd, wondering if whatever it was was edible . . .

I knew many things already. I knew I was a pikmin. I knew I was a red pikmin. The Seedship had long since gone into hibernation as we pikmin are a dying race. Now some hope has been found, surely, for the Seedship has birthed me, giving me this knowledge. All around me, the soil was full of nutrients. I sapped them quickly, growing faster than any plant on this planet. As I grew stronger, I developed my leaf atop my stem and pushed both above the ground. Quite suddenly, I felt something close around my stem. I felt an instinctive fear, imagining s predator would rip off my stem and eat it. However, what I felt instead was a powerful pull. The tug pulled my whole body out of the ground, and I landed on my feet. I flexed the three digits I had on each hand and foot, moving about my limbs gently. My eyes opened for the first time on my bulbous head and I looked past my pointing nose towards the one who plucked me. There, I saw a strange creature. It was taller than me by its head, but its stem was shorter than mine so our total heights were similar. Wait ... stem? Was it a pikmin like me? No, it wasn't red except for its feet and that light at the end of its stem. It also had hair o its head and near its eyes, which were thinner than mine. Its nose was large and bulbous and the whole head was a pale colour and different from the creamy body. And there was that strange bubble surrounding its head . . . Still, even if it wasn't a normal pikmin, this was surely the reason why the Seedship birthed me. I decided it wasn't quite a pikmin but-

I suddenly realised it was examining me with intense curiosity and realised I must be doing the same. I made my decision. This would be my Leader. I moved towards it and realised here that it had a mouth as well as strange appendages one each side of its head as well. My instincts told me these were 'ears' for hearing, and exceptionally small ones, but I was not aware that I had any 'ears'.

It moved. I followed. It turned around and saw I had followed him. It moved again. I followed again. I looked at it curiously and it ... I do not know what to call it. The corners of its mouth turned upwards. It seemed like a friendly gesture to me so I returned it with a friendly look. He began to move again.

He led me to a pellet flower. As we got close, I ran over and began attacking the green stem with my leaf while holding onto it with my hands. It eventually broke and the red pellet fell to the floor next to me, the white petals falling away. I returned to the Leader who seemed to be thinking very hard. After a time, he picked me up by my stem and through me through the air to the pellet. As i climbed, I enjoyed the thrill of height. If only I could fly! But it was soon over and I fell to the floor. Seeing I was near the pellet, I thought I understood. The Leader must want me to carry it. I lifted it with my hands and my incredible strength was put to work. I pulled the pellet, navigating my way back to the nearby Seedship. When I reached the beam of light underneath, it absorbed the red pellet. The flower spun around and spat out two more seeds, as I knew it would.

The Leader, who had returned now, seemed to be incredibly surprised. Fascinated, he plucked the other two pikmin. I saw them examining it as I had done. I turned my attention to my surroundings. I saw many trees, flowers and much else besides. There were still many pellet flowers around us. To one side, there was a huge metal monstrosity embedded into the ground. On the other, the path was blocked by cliffs and a brown barrier. Suddenly, I heard a whistle like sound, and rushed over to the Leader. When I arrived, he whistled differently, dismissing us. We walked away and became idle, our leaves glowing a dim red, our bodies turning pale. I conferred with the other two my choice to name it the Leader and why. They quickly agreed, apparently having come to similar decisions. I was about to ask them something else, but another whistle called us to the leader and I quickly forgot.

For quite a while, the Leader seemed to be experimenting with us, whistling different commands and seemingly learning them. Just as I began to grow bored, he explored the stumps around the monstrosity and found another pellet, this one mysteriously on the ground. It instructed us to carry it using its newly learnt commands. The other two eagerly rushed over and began to carry it and I found that there was no longer any room for me stand and help carry it. I was disappointed as I had wanted to help the Leader, but he soon eagerly ran, causing me to follow. It found another pellet flower and threw me at it. I landed on top of it and, from here, I was able to strike the vital point under the flower head and collapse the flower. I ran back to the Leader, pleased with my success, and it threw me at the pellet to carry it, appearing pleased itself also.

It plucked the four new pikmin seeds and we quickly spread our knowledge to the newcomers as the Leader led us to a ledge. It began to throw us at the pellets on the ledge. I ran forward, eager to be in the air again. Two pikmin destroyed the flower, taking the small pellet, and I grabbed the larger one ... and I was unable to lift it! I was angry with myself for being unable to serve the Leader and I lifted with all my might and still I could not lift it! The two pikmin who had been plucked after me soon grabbed on as well, however.

"Calm down," said the first gently.

"We're all a team y'know," said the other ecstatically. Nonetheless, it was not until the five of us all worked together that we were able to carry it back to the Seedship. But in reward to us, five seeds were produced this time.

Next, the Leader took us all. It seemed it could not find any more pellets, and nor could we, but he led us to the brown barrier and we pushed it. Together, the fourteen of us pushed it out of the way, also forming a bridge between a ramp and the higher ground on the left as we did so. We became idle, and some pikmin started playing. I looked towards the Leader and found it looked astounded by our performance. Pleasure flowed through me. It called us to him again and proceeded. We saw another metal monstrosity, this one a hemisphere with pumping cylinders on top. The Leader looked excited by it, and an idea began to form in my head.

He wanted us to lift it, but it was too heavy, so he gave up and took us up the ramp and over the wooden barricade, now bridging the gap. We discovered here two more ordinary pellets and another large pellet. Two pikmin were each instructed to carry a small pellet and the other ten of us worked together to carry the large pellet. After more plucking, we numbered twenty-five! Even as the light was waning, now coming from above the first metal monstrosity, the Leader seemed to be thinking. I used the opportunity to explain my idea to the other pikmin.

"You know that huge metal thing? I bet its the Leader's Seedship. He looked really excited when he was that other metal thing and the first one looks broken so . . ." I broke off, letting the others decide what they thought, feeling a little shy now. Instantly, the two who had been plucked after me agreed with me. Others were a bit more hesitant. Some said it didn't look like our Seedship, so it couldn't be one while others thought I might be on to something. While they were arguing, the Leader called us once more. He took us to the pumping metal thing and instructed us to carry it, but he seemed to be trying to indicate something else, a direction perhaps. With all of us, we were able to lift it but as we headed towards the Seedship, we became uncertain of where to take it. One pikmin remembered my idea and spoke up.

"Maybe we should take it to the Metal Seedship," he said excitedly. A general agreement was reached and so, instead of turning towards our Seedship, we continued to the Metal Seedship. Suddenly, as we stood in front of it, a beam of light came out from it. The strange thing we were carrying was pulled to the top of the Seedship. We watched curiously and I noticed the Leader looked worried. As I considered how to cheer it up, I realised that the Metal Seedship was stuttering. I looked towards it, and somehow it forced itself to turn upside down. I realised that it had now turned itself the right way up as the Leader seemed to have burst into celebration. I felt like celebrating too and I noticed that all the other pikmin felt the same as me, all welling up with joy. The Leader dismissed us by the Seedship as he headed towards his own. Seeing night was falling and instinctively fearing its dangers, we entered the Seedship by climbing up the legs. The Leader was absorbed into its by a beam of light, like the pellets are into ours. As darkness truly fell, I felt the Seedship taking off as I heard a deep rumbling nearby. Taking a peek outside, I saw the ground getting smaller and the Metal Seedship leading us into the sky. I returned inside where, after talking with my fellows about the day's events, soon went to sleep to restore my strength for the next day!

Ship's Log.

Captain's Diary, Day 1 since crash landing.

Today, I was hit by a meteorite while on my way to my vacation. For some reason, I had felt that this vacation might turn into a grand adventure, but I had dismissed this as foolishness. And yet, here I am. I am stranded on an uninhabited alien planet. But somehow, I encountered an Onion – a strange life form resembling Hocotate's onions – which produced pikmin – further strange life forms resembling Hocotate's Pikpik brand red carrots. I found myself able to command them with whistles. I expect more experimentation would lead me to learn more complex commands.

Nonetheless, these creatures are humanoids with incredible strength. By gathering pellets (I have yet to analyse a sample to find out what they are made of), and sending them to the Onion, I can gain more pikmin seeds to pluck. These pikmin can use their leaves to break down the flowers to gather yet more pellets. They are indeed incredible creatures. By working together, they were able to move a huge box-like obstacle, moving it to a location where it could be used as a bridge! Then, with twenty-five of them, I was able to bring back my beloved engine, which was fortunately near the landing area! I wonder if the pikmin could destroy that stone wall that I saw today . . .

It appears I can dismiss them, which causes them to become idle and also call them back to me. I can throw them about and command them to take back objects to the Onion. It appears I can also specify to take things back to the Dolphin. Most intriguingly, when I came into orbit to stay safe of nocturnal predators, the Onion followed me! Maybe with these pikmin, my survival is possible.

I have lost another twenty-nine components of my ship. I must find them in order to escape this planet alive! However, it appears that this planet's air contains around twenty percent oxygen, which is toxic to me. It also contains negligible Hocygen for my respiration. Without the means to produce this, I am left to rely on my life support system which can only last me twenty-nine more days. In order to find more ship parts, I am leaving behind the Impact Site that I explored today to visit another location I see in the forest ahead of me. This is my only hope at the moment, so I am naming it the Forest of Hope.

As I gaze upon this pearly white moon, I am thinking of my family back home. They may well be gazing onto our red moon, maybe even thinking of me right now ... They must be thinking I'm on vacation. My wife's probably mad at me for not calling her.

I must persevere!

I have discovered some other things in the planet's biology. To gather pikmin I must gather pellets which are found on flowers i have named Pellet Posies. Furthermore, different pellets have been observed. I have given them size categories which allude to the number of pikmin required to carry them. Category one pellets produce two pikmin, while category five pellets produce five. It appears I can gather twice the minimum number of pikmin on each pellet. I must efficiently use this knowledge in order to gather my remaining parts!

--Olimar

Boring or what? Still, it's day one of pikmin one :p This story will cover all of Olimar's thirty days on the planet with some extra stuff. It will end with one of the three possible endings of pikmin 1. I wonder whcih one . . . :p

Again, please review if you read it . . .

Also:
1: I know according to the manual or something, Olimar was just going to make a cup of tea then got hit then blacked out but meh.
2: I put in line breaks on word, but they disappear when I upload it, so i have to put them in again. Does anyone know why or a way around this?