"Explorers strive, but fate decides. You can prepare and practice for an expedition, but there's only so much a person can do... Sometimes you have to put your life in fate's hands. I've come to understand this intergalactic truth while I've traveled to the farthest reaches of the universe. Fate and I are pretty close." - Olimar

"Computers view the world in ones and zeros, but my people are different. Our world isn't simply black or white, right or wrong. Everybody is different." - Olimar.

Pikmin: A Different Destiny

Day 1: Impact

A vacation... Finally...

Olimar reclined in his chair and watched the stars whizz by the S.S. Dolphin. After three months of back-breaking labor... Finally a chance to kick back and relax.

The captain sat up and looked at the steering wheel. He always had a bad habit of working too hard and too much, and not taking enough time to rest (and not from a lack of wanting to at that). But finally, the president of Hocotate Freight had noticed that his best employee was weary of work. So, Olimar was given a very generous fifteen days off, and was promised that another employee would handle that very important Pikpik Carrot shipment.

His wife insisted that he spent his vacation relaxing, and not sitting at home sleeping. She pointed out that he was starting to get a bit overweight and pale, and the best way to prevent such things from getting worse would be to spend some times out doors doing something - anything really. News seemed to have traveled fast, and that very night Olimar was getting E-Mails left and right from all sorts of friends, filled with "must-see locations for any successful vacation!". Hours after blasting off, however, and Olimar still had no idea where he was going to go or what he was going to do. Rather, he was starting to consider turning around to return home.

Olimar wasn't exactly the family man of the year. Being an intergalactic delivery man has a way of cutting into one's personal life, and considering he was one of the best employees of the company, he rarely spent any time with his family. Recently, they were going to have a big party to celebrate a holiday, but at the last moment before it started Olimar had to work on something big that came up, missing out on all the fun again. He certainly tried to compensate by buying his family whatever they wanted, but there was no denying that his family was growing further away.

Fifteen days... He could certainly use some catch-up time... "Should I go back to Hocotate and spend this vacation with my family, or should I just keep going?" Olimar asked.

"I think you should just pick a destination. An hour has passed and you still have no idea where you're going. Other than that, I just don't care." The computer responded.

"Who's bright idea was it to program a computer with a sarcastic personality?"

"I don't know, but I bet he's related to that guy who asked a computer for family advice."

Olimar sighed and started tapping the steering wheel, lost again in his thoughts. Tap tap tap tap tap tap-

"Look, why don't you drink something?" The Dolphin interrupted. "How do you manage to stress out on a vacation? Just go, get something to calm your nerves, and take that nap you're always dreaming about. I can steer myself without constant supervision."

Olimar yawned. "Are you sure?"

"I'm a computer. I'm always sure. There aren't any asteroids around. Just hurry up and start resting."

Olimar stood up and walked out of the cockpit, and into the "kitchen". It was more a crammed room with some frozen food and a microwave, with a few other gadgets. Olimar opened a container. "Space Noodles. Awesome". The captain had just decided on the first stop on his vacation: getting actual food. He closed the container when the ship jolted violently and he was tossed against the wall
and everything went black.

The first thing he noticed was that there was a bright light shining in his face. The second thing Olimar noticed was that he was no longer in his ship. Rather, he was on the surface of an alien planet he couldn't recognize, covered with vegetation. The captain carefully looked behind him, and winced at the sight of the shell of his beloved S.S. Dolphin. He dashed to his ship, to see what was missing.

Olimar sighed with relief. His engine, the most important piece, was still in his ship. There were still 29 parts missing, and to make matters worse, the atmosphere of this world was filled with oxygen. Olimar checked the battery life of his suit. "thirty days"...

The Hocotatian began pacing around his ship, trying to figure out a course of action. All he had was an engine and some Space Noodles, and even if he somehow found the other parts, he had no way to lift them back into his ship. What he going to do?

Looking on the bright side, Olimar decided that at least his vacation had doubled in length.

The command room of the Omega Onion was bustling with Pikmin. In a single night, thirty objects had struck the planet in a fairly condensed area, and as luck would have it, most of the onions in the area were elsewhere fighting a battle. A glowing yellow Pikmin with a bright flower was staring at a chart of the large area, with red dots over where the different objects had struck. The Pikmin forces were scrambling to figure out what these things were, and there were Pikmin of all colors running about, arguing, researching, organizing, and some even sleeping. Finally, two green Pikmin entered, one with a blue bud and one with a red one. They both had noses like red Pikmin. The yellow Pikmin turned to the new arrivals, and started speaking angrily, "This is perhaps the most urgent situation our generation has ever faced... And the two Pikmin I trust the most, along with a large supply of our onions are NOWHERE TO BE FOUND!"

The blue-budded Pik pointed at his partner, who in turn responded, "Look sir, if you wanted us to just sit back and surrender the Violent Volcano to the Bulborbs, you should've just said so. But being that it's the largest supply of bomb-rocks we've ever found, I thought it would be worth defending. So we needed to get some extra force to fight them off. But hey, if you wanted them to have that firepower instead of us, I'm fine with that."

Their leader stared at them. "We've been studying these objects, and they appear to be intelligent in design. They seem to be pieces of a ship. You obviously know what this means?"

The blue-budded Pikmin got excited, "You mean the Outsider Theory!?"

"Exactly. That same reason we keep onions in every possible area. So that if we are ever visited, we could make sure to be the first to meet our guest and get them to help us... But now, we have NO ONIONS. Which means if the Bulborbs find our friend first..." The yellow one shuddered.

The red one spoke up, "So? What do you want us to do about it?"

"Rally your forces. I want every last non-Pikmin creature to be destroyed in those areas. We might have missed the first chance, but if we act fast enough we can still get him to help us. Go."

The two green Pikmin walked out of the room, and started down the hallway. The blue one started talking again, "Wow. I never thought I'd see the Outsider Theory come into effect. Can you believe it? Man, those Bulborbs are going to be destroyed."

"Pfft. It's a bunch of lies if you ask me. We don't need some alien's help to beat the Bulborbs. We're already winning."

"But at least we're going to win sooner!"

"Whatever makes you happy. Killing Bulborbs is killing Bulborbs, no matter how or where you go about doing it."

In a circular, dimly lit room, a large Antenna Beetle with massive antennae was sitting asleep. There was a Bulbear at the edge of the room, slowly drifting to sleep himself. Suddenly, the beetle's eyes opened, filled with a bright blue light. The Bulbear jumped to his feet and ran over. "It is time... Things are falling into place... Change... Change..." The beetle began muttering to itself.

"What? What's happening?"

"There is hope... In the forest by the spring and cave..."

"Yes?"

The beetle smiled faintly, "...Thirty days...". As quickly as he had awoken, the beetle went back to sleep. The Bulbear quickly ran out of the room to alert the Emperor.

It was nearing sundown. Olimar had pondered many things. He wondered what would happen if he was to die on the planet, whether or not Hocotate would learn what happened to him. His last known words would be a thank-you note he had sent to his friend Ebirk, who had supplied a very lengthy list of vacation spots and ideas. When he wouldn't return after fifteen days, Hocotate might first think he had decided to lengthen his vacation. Maybe they would think he tried to start a new life elsewhere in the universe. It would be years, decades, maybe even centuries or beyond that when they would discover his ship on this planet.

Olimar decided that he wasn't going to mope around and wait for his death, but was going to try to figure out a way to stay alive, like any logical individual would do. His engine wasn't the only thing still in his ship, and some other useful pieces of equipment were still inside. And there was still a chance for intelligent life to exist somewhere on this world, and if he could find that his chances of survival would increase greatly.

"Maybe I'll get lucky tomorrow." Olimar thought to himself as he boarded what was left of his ship and blasted up into orbit.

------

Umm... Yeah. The first chapter. I know it's a bit on the short side... But eh.

Oh, and you can't trust me for deadlines for anything. Ever. Try to review as often as possible.