Disclaimer: I don't own pikmin or its characters, though sure as heck I wish I did

Chapter 1: crash and burn

I set the ship to head towards the planet, as it did willingly. I knew that once I hit the atmosphere, I'd need to set a course for another planet in order to escape the planet. Minor thing, especially if my communication device was intact, since I could update my status at any time, which would give me infinite time if I updated at least every 30 days, which I'd probably update every week, if not every day.

I put on my suit and got ready to land. I knew that as soon as I hit the atmosphere it would be a bumpy ride, so I had to be ready for the worst. The ship hit the atmosphere, and then the navigation went out. Alarms blared as I desperately tried to slow my descent. I succeeded, but hit a tree, which damaged the ship. How, I couldn't figure out, but I'd check that later.

The ship jolted to a halt, and I jumped out. I checked my suit, and then my Koppad. The distress signal was coming from nearby, so I decided to head towards it. I didn't get far before my detectors went off, and my Koppad rang. I checked my Koppad to find the ship calling me, which was odd. I picked up.

"Something wrong?" I asked. The ship had an advanced A.I. I designed myself, which combined the mellow matter-of-fact personality of the S.S. Drake with the responsive personality of Hocotate Freight's ship, which was destroyed.

"Reboot has been successful, and I preformed a biometric analysis" it said, "this area is unlike any I have seen…and…there's something wrong…"

"Something wrong?" I asked

"I've pinpointed the location of the shuttle" it said "and I managed to trace its trajectory…it is on unstable ground…"

"What do you mean 'unstable ground'?" I asked.

"…I don't know…just be careful" it replied. Then, the transmission ended.

I sighed. What to do now? Well, for starters, it was time to head towards the signal! I walked towards the signal, watching my surroundings. It was weird; the place was unlike any I had seen. There were plants literally everywhere, but not a single sign of animal life…heck; it seemed the plants were barely surviving.

Then I got to the shuttle. The shuttle was badly damaged, definitely irreparable…thankfully, there was no sign of other life, so the captains must have made it out…unfortunately, there was no signals besides the distress signal, which meant they could be anywhere!

I took as much data from the shuttle as I could, and I shut off the distress signal. Something was definitely up with this…then I noticed a countdown, which meant it would explode! I quickly got out of the ship, but was caught just inside the blast radius as it self destructed, sending me flying.

The area was in flames now, I had to move now or I wouldn't get back to the ship in time. I scrambled to my feet and ran to the ship, only to find my path blocked. I ran down a different path, but it was also blocked. I turned, and found myself in a large crater, untouched by the fire.

The fire had blocked my only exit, and I knew that eventually it would get into the crater, so I had to think fast. That's when I saw them; 5 pikmin at the far end of the crater…all red. I couldn't believe my luck!

They looked at me, but didn't seem to immediately recognize me, so I whistled. That got their attention. Unfortunately, nothing but the onion was alive because of the fire, so I was stuck with only the 5 at the moment. Using their help, I cleared out the fire and got to the ship, and then I sent them back to their onion and took off, ending the day early. The shuttle was automatically set to self destruct, which meant something had sabotaged it, so I had to find out what.

I looked through the data, and found the ship log.

"Day 1. I don't recognize this part of the planet, perhaps it's one we haven't explored? There's no sign of intelligent life, not even pikmin. More exploration is necessary. –Olimar"

Huh, interesting…I kept looking

"Day 2. Our radars picked up something, but no one can figure out what it is. Olimar called it a day early after attempting to study the wildlife. He thinks there are signs of Hocotatian or Kopite life, but at a much larger scale. Once we get communications running, we can ask Alex. –Alph"

I quickly scrolled through, and found each captain had made a log up to day 4. Well, might as well read them all.

"Day 3. Communications are near completion, but Alphie says something keeps getting in the way. Meanwhile, there doesn't seem to be any edible food on the surface, and we're running low. If we don't figure this out soon, we might all be goners! –Brittany"

Bit of an exaggeration, I think. Well, there was one last log to look at.

"Day 4. I've picked up a strange signal on my Koppad, as have Alph and Olimar. Louie still refuses to share his data, and Brittany is too worried about food to check. Seems it's up to us to find out. –Charlie. Message incomplete"

Message incomplete? Before I could do another sweep, the ship interrupted my search.

"Incoming transmission" it said

"Pick up" I replied.

The main screen lit up, and I saw Alph's face. "Hello? Is this working?" he said. I could understand him because of my translator.

"I hear you loud and clear" I responded "everything ok?"

"Oh, thank goodness!" Alph said "umm, ok is a relative term…I'm kind of stuck"

"Stuck? Where?" I asked.

"I'm…not sure" he replied "all I know is its dark, and I'm trapped. My Koppad can't see through some interfering signal"

"I think I've got your signal, can you hold out another day?" I said

"I think so" he replied "please hurry!"

"Transmission ended"

I sighed and headed for bed. It would be a long day…

Hi again! Sorry about how incomplete this chapter seems, I just couldn't think straight and I wanted to keep going. Personally, I think this sets up the story pretty well. I promise, the next chapter will have better quality to it. Remember: I love criticism, reviews encourage me, and I'm open to input. Bye for now!