A blinding tunnel of light that could scorch anyone's eyes a thousand times over was what greeted me on the other end of the rift, yet I could not look away.
The Cloud Runner's G-Diffusers were useless in counteracting the dimensional collapse that I had been pulled into. My console in front of me appeared to be stretching into infinity as I was swept into the dimensional maelstrom that I could feel was threatening to rip apart my very being on the molecular level. I was still able to feel and see everything around me, and I was even able to see myself in the Cloud Runner at least five or ten spaces ahead of me like a spacecraft traffic jam, collapsing back into me, and splitting off from me again in a rapid sequence that was just one of the few that was astronomical moments away from frying me on the inside out.
By the time I was physically able to begin screaming for my life, the tunnel of light had abruptly shattered and I became 'whole' again. I gripped my head and shut my eyes, feeling my head pounding like I was getting over a debilitating migraine. The sensation evaporated as quickly as it rushed me before I opened my eyes again, and what I saw outside my ship was unlike anything I had ever seen. The Cloud Runner was currently drifting through a hazy grey world occupied by massive floating mountains in the distance along with smaller floating islands that flew past me. The leftover terror from my trip through the tunnel of light gradually wore off, and a profound sense of confusion and mesmerisation overtook me as I drifted harmlessly through this new alien environment.
Towering ridged spires were poking out from many of these floating islands that passed me by, which were surrounded by fields of floating rocks and other debris—many of which harmlessly bumped against my ship. I could spot all kinds of exotic flora and fauna populating these floating islands, many of which were even glowing, but I was moving too fast to get a good look at any of it. Momentarily returning my attention to my console, I rediscovered that all of my systems were still fried. While I remained quite stunned and unwilling to move with all the unnerving activity happening all around me, I slowly extended out my arm to try and reengage my engines, but everything on my dash remained black with lifelessness. The only thing that could work independently without the ship's power was an installed magnetic compass, which was spinning back and forth wildly as it too could not comprehend what was going on around it.
While this was a massive problem, I was still too captivated by my otherworldly surroundings to fully grasp it as I leaned forward in my seat to gain a better view of the outside. I saw nothing but a dark void below the floating islands that dotted this spacious realm, which stirred up an intense feeling of acrophobia despite my ship still careening forward without power. I jumped in my seat when I both felt and heard an explosion occurring to the left of me, corresponding with a bright light that flashed across my cockpit. I looked out and saw humongous chunks of metal debris the size of houses crashing into a few of these floating islands in blazing flames, blowing a few of their mountainsides to bits.
Before I could trace the source of all that destruction, a green flash briefly lit up around my ship for a second, making me fall back into my seat. I sat still with my hands up against the walls, spooked out of my wits. Several more flashes of green streaked across the Cloud Runner moments before fizzling tendrils of green energy quickly encircled my ship. The nerve endings of my body began to tingle and I realised that maybe I wasn't going to be in this realm for much longer, and I truly didn't know if that was a good thing or not.
The Cloud Runner's haul began to rattle and groan as the green energy consumed it whole, making me see only green on all sides in every direction, creating an epileptic series of flashes that made me cover my eyes before abruptly ending alongside a loud ambient metallic burst. Where I had just appeared now evidently had gravity because I had immediately plunged into freefall. The pull-down was so great I would have flown up and hit the ceiling had I not been wearing my seatbelt.
I pushed my hands up against the ceiling, struggling to keep myself stable as the Cloud Runner's nose began to pull down towards the pull of gravity, and I saw that I was falling through what I thought was a thick white cloud of some kind. I was proven right just moments later as I broke through the cloud and saw solid ground rapidly approaching me.
I quickly broke out of what was left of my stunned bemusement and lunged for my ship's yoke controls. One of the advantages of my prototype craft was its retractable wings. I could manually shift and rotate them to be able to glide my craft through the open air of a planet should a malfunction occur in my G-Diffuser engines for a safe landing. This was the exact situation I had envisioned when I proposed this feature during the Cloud Runner's construction. I hoped that it would be enough to regain sufficient altitude because I was moments away from becoming obliterated.
Still very much filled with the desire to be alive, I pulled my yokes back as hard and as far as I could towards me, gritting my teeth as I pushed my feet against the console to desperately add to my strength. I had my eyes closed nearly the whole time, not daring to look should my plan literally blow up in my face, but I began to feel my orientation shift more favourably once I began to fall back into my seat again.
I opened my eyes again and saw that I had miraculously pulled off a ninety-degree recovery and was now gliding over a large open terrain dotted with shrubs and bushes. I could not have wished for a better place to try and ground my Arwing. I was still flying uncomfortably fast, and the terrain, while open, was not even, so landing would be nothing short of bumpy.
Having no other choice, I carefully raised my yoke controls and the Cloud Runner responded by descending carefully towards the ground. It is a frightening thing to try and land a craft flying over sixty miles an hour without working landing gear or any available way to reduce its velocity besides actually running it into the ground, which was the only option available to me. Wishing to bring this horrid ride to an end once and for all, I braced myself for impact, and the Cloud Runner touched down on the surface.
I held on tightly as my Arwing dragged across the ground of this new environment, tearing up the terrain and crashing through vegetation with little hindrance to its velocity. Gradually, after a few rocky collisions over the occasional elevations in the terrain, the Cloud Runner inevitably lost all of its momentum and came to a gentle stop on the ground. My hands were still gripping my controls like my life depended on it and did not fully relax until I assessed that my joyride had indeed come to an end.
My fingers slipped off the grips of my controls as I let out a long and exhausted sigh, letting both my arms fall to my sides. It took me another moment to recollect myself and get right to work in assessing my current situation. I peered through the glass of my cockpit door and saw that I had crashed into a vast field dotted with bushes and other vegetation. The sky was a powdery white with a layer of clouds covering the heavens, though the blurry, non-lethal burning disk of a sun could be seen piercing its way through the cloud cover.
Somehow, in some unexplainable way, I knew I was nowhere near the Lylat system or any of its worlds. Whatever solar system this world was I could not even begin to guess. My instincts had never failed me when it came to determining my location, so I was quick to accept that I was well out of reach from any of my friends. Still, that did not keep me from trying to get any of their signals.
My headset had been flung into one of the passenger seats behind me during the fall and promptly retrieved it and secured it back over my head. The headsets operated independently from our fighters' power, so I hoped that mine was still functional as I turned it on. "Fox…? Falco…? Slippy…? This is Krystal…" I churned out, surprised to see how dizzy and out of breath I had suddenly become. "I… I don't know where I am… Please respond…"
Nothing but static was all I heard. I knew I had to be well out of range but I kept at it for another minute or so, praying that I would hear something. "Anyone…please respond. Please…" This was the last thing I said before I gave up and took my headset off. It looked like I would be on my own for now.
Having to accept this reality quickly, I recognized that my greatest priority was obviously to get the Cloud Runner running again. The blast from the rift that swallowed me and brought me here somehow sapped all reserve power from my engines, so I needed to find a power source and charge her back up. I had a firm inkling that it would be easier said than done.
Having no juice in the engines also meant I couldn't measure the air outside to see if it was breathable, so I had no choice but to brave it out. I carefully unhatched my cockpit shield manually and pushed it up exposing me to the alien elements. A steady dry wind greeted me, and I could inhale the air it carried comfortably. Having deduced this, I then grabbed the backpack full of emergency supplies along with a lightweight compact machine gun, all of which was stored in a compartment behind my seat for marooned situations like this.
Having gathered my essentials, I crawled out of my canopy and landed on both hands and feet. I took a few mindful steps forward, taking another look at my surroundings before fiddling through my backpack for another moment before fishing out a small but vital disk-shaped device. Not only did it provide the global coordinates for the Cloud Runner, but also was able to generate a sort of camouflage projection around the craft itself, masking any conceivable trace from enemy scruples.
Slippy had developed these devices from schematics provided by his father, Beltino Toad, of reversed-engineered Aparoid biology. Slippy thought it was a nifty idea to upgrade our awnings with the ability to blend in with local environs seamlessly, all without the need for a power source as well. Now was the time to see if it worked.
Pointing it at the Cloud Runner (which appeared to be in rather good condition, all things considered), I activated the cloaking feature, and a shimmering layer of illusory manifested around my spacecraft, making it look like a large boulder that matched the surrounding terrain perfectly. The only giveaway was the long and massive dirt trail leading up to the boulder. I hoped that wouldn't entice possible locals to investigate what lay at the end of the trail because otherwise, things may get even more complicated for me.
Marvelling at this engineering wonder, once again courtesy of Slippy, I decided to take my first real cautionary steps out to explore this new mysterious world. Although I was lost, I was not afraid, for I still had my magic staff retracted and clipped securely to my belt. My lost family and home world lived on in it, and it was them that gave me strength and courage to handle any challenge.