Author's Note: I do not own Sword Art Online. It, its story, characters, settings and all other aspects are the property of A-1 Studies, Aniplex USA, and Reki Kawahara. I also do not own the Star Wars franchise. It and all of its branches are the property of Lucasfilms under Walt Disney Studios and the Walt Disney Company. The only aspects of this story I can claim are minor pieces to the plot and several original characters.
Sword Art Online: The Force Within
Chapter One - The Game of the Year
"Everything seems to be working well. The servers have all stayed strong overnight for company players, and the public launch will begin first thing tomorrow morning."
A man sat inside a widespread office room located at the top of a rather large and fairly modern building, deep within the heart of a populous city. A woman had just stepped inside the dimly lit grey office to deliver the news, and after a lengthy pause, the man behind the desk gave her a nod as he turned in his chair. The nameplate on his desk read "Peter Mathis."
"Thank you, Amanda...I'll have the crew downstairs monitoring the servers all week for the launch. I only hope it can all stay online."
Amanda nodded, but began noticing her employer was still caught up reviewing a piece of paper in his hands, so focused in fact that he never actually gave her eye contact for their previous exchange.
"Forgive me...sir, but you seem sort of tense. Are you nervous for the game's launch?"
The man stopped reading and finally looked up to the assistant. He let his dark eyes settle for a brief moment, making the scene rather uncomfortable, but then gave her a soft laugh.
"I am a little, yes. I guess I have no reason to be, though. From what I've gathered my two admins are both very eager to make this game a reality."
Amanda's frown went rather weak from that remark, almost as if he was referring to her. She bowed and turned back towards the door. "I guess so…w-well I hope everything goes well on your end."
"Yes." The man replied, blankly looking at the top of his desk. He let the moment sink in for a brief second before recollecting his thoughts. Then, the executive laughed, and rested his back inside his chair.
"Right. Anyway, I'll be glad to address the press tomorrow, after the sun comes up and the players have a chance to ask questions about the game's playability…and Amanda?"
The blonde assistant stopped before her departure, and widened her blue eyes after hearing his last remark. Mathis kept looking out his great bay window, but revealed a soft grin in the blackened reflection of the class.
"You don't have to call me 'Sir', dear. That's not part of the job."
Amanda shook her head gently and grinned as she walked towards the door. She delivered a small wave before leaving the office. "Yes si…I-I mean…just get a good night's rest."
Meanwhile, halfway around the world, we find ourselves joining an extensive line of eager gaming fans, who are now waiting outside a large video game company in the heart of Tokyo, Japan. The massive army of young gamers has been there all evening, and has only grown larger by the hour.
That endless waiting was all about to change, however, once the new products for the AmuSphere had finally finished up. A brand-new addition to the latest Virtual Reality device had finally been signaled for release, and with it came an entire host of new games to enjoy. However, the game our anxious audience finds themselves waiting for is set to become the biggest release of all time.
"Oh man! I can't believe we're actually going to get this game!" The red-haired Ryoutarou Tsuboi yelled out with pure emotion as he jumped up and down to check the progress of the line. He only settled down to hold a better conversation with his friends. "This is going to be the biggest game ever! The line's already going back ten blocks!"
"Did it get that long?" Kazuto Kirigaya turned around and stuck his head out to trace the end of the line, but as his eyes kept going further back, he failed to see its end.
"Wow." Kazuto turned and grinned. "Klein's not lying. This is the biggest gaming line I've ever waited in."
"No kidding." Andrew Mills humbly agreed as he shook his head. "Although, I don't think I needed Klein's brilliant read to explain the obvious. This game is going to be pretty popular no matter how big the opening is."
"Funny." Ryoutarou rolled his eyes. "Just for that comment, I'mma make you buy all the copies for the girls."
"Hold on now." Andrew laughed. "I thought we each were getting three copies. Not to mention we each have actual money from the others to make sure they get their games too."
"Agil's right, Klein. We agreed on three copies each." Kazuto was pointing out the agreement they made with their other friends to buy one copy each, since the majority of them could not join the late-night festivities.
"Well, we agreed differently." Ryoutarou emphasized his gesture towards Andrew as they both laughed. The young man then continued. "I was supposed to get your game as well, Kirito, but you decided on sneaking out to join us grown-ups in line."
"Ahehe…let's not mention that again. I'm not feeling so hot about this." To be clear, this was a school night, and all of their other friends were getting a healthy night's sleep for their mid-term exams the next day.
Their spring break was just around the corner, but until then, Asuna, Suguha, and all the others from their usual gaming party had to wait on playing the new game before they finished out the week.
This group of patient testers should have included Kazuto as well, but being the eager gamer he usually is, the young black haired boy snuck out and located Andrew and Ryoutarou downtown before they made it too far in line.
Ryoutarou raised his hands behind his head and let out a sly grin. "Ah it sucks being in school, don't it? Man, I'm glad I'm done with that crap!"
"I'll say." Andrew agreed. "Still, everyone else is going to be pretty angry that you're here right now, Kirito. Especially Asuna."
"HA!" The red-headed Ryoutarou howled. "No kidding! She's gonna rip you limb from limb if she finds out you came out with us! And what if you fail that big test tomorrow? I bet she'll break your copy of the game before you even get the chance to play!"
Kazuto rolled his eyes and turned away as he stuffed his hands deeper into his coat pockets. "Don't worry about me. It's math tomorrow, and that's my best subject. Besides…if I'm that worried about Asuna, I'll just choose to hold off on telling her…It's Suguha who I need to worry about. I do live in the same building as she does, after all."
"Nah." Andrew waved and arm and turned back to face forward. "I think they'll both understand. After all, this was your favorite game growing up, right?"
"Yea, it actually was." Kazuto smiled and turned towards the brightly lit glass building beside their line, which also happened to feature a large promotion poster for the new game hanging right by their place in line. "Man, it's hard to believe it, actually. Star Wars joins the Virtual Reality."
He was absolutely right. For the first time ever, the galaxy far far away was entering the world of virtually real gaming. Based on a successful series of games in the early 2000s called The Knights of Old Republic series, Star Wars was one of gaming's greatest franchises.
And just like Andrew mentioned, this was a fan favorite loved by all, including Kazuto. The later MMO, The Old Republic, was released in December of 2011, and quickly offered gamers from around the world a new way at enjoying their favorite series. Although it was never officially disclosed, based on estimates, it was also one of the most developmentally expensive games ever made.
During its hay-day, the game had one million subscribers within three days of its launch, making it the world's "fastest-growing MMO ever", though in the following months after release, the game lost a fair share of its subscriptions.
When it was originally released in 2011, however, Kazuto was only 3 years old. He would later discover it as an early school child, and it along with many other games provided Kazuto with his future love of gaming.
Ryoutarou and Andrew were also older fans of the series, and both thoroughly enjoyed the films as well. The former was so enthusiastic, he even contiued sharing his thoughts after the three of them finished gazing at the poster to their right.
"Man! This is the coolest thing I've ever lived through! I mean remember SAO? On release day only 10,000 players joined in to get trapped. The original Old Republic had almost a million by then! And it wasn't even VR!"
"True that!" Andrew agreed. "Not to mention the Knights of the Old Republic was just as big the year it was released too. I think it might have been the first ever RPG for Star Wars?"
"Yea, and now we have the first ever VRMMORPG for the series as well." Kazuto cracked a smile and nodded to himself. "It's almost fitting that this series would eventually get a title for the AmuSphere, and I'm just glad I'm here to live through it."
"Hell yes to that!" Ryoutarou chimed off. He put his arms around both of their shoulders. "Now we did promise we wouldn't play any of it until the others got a chance to join in. So how's about to celebrate, we throw the loot in the car and hit up some night clubs?!"
Andrew smiled and shook his head. "Man, I got my own restaurant. I can't go giving my money up to the competition. It's bad enough this game was so expensive. Plus, we have to update our gear."
"Yea, not to mention I'm not much of the clubbing type…" Kazuto timidly held his head low, and carried on thinking about his future game.
"Agh, whatever. Hey I think the line's moving anyway…" Ryoutarou and Andrew stepped up, and Kazuto slowly followed behind as he was still trapped inside his thoughts.
"Wow. Star Wars in the VR. This is the biggest thing I've ever lived through." Kazuto was so excited, he almost completely forgot about his test tomorrow, and his friends at school who missed out on the chance to join them that evening. Either way, he continued reminiscing from the old days of playing TOR after school, and began wondering how much will stay similar from the old title.
"I hope the factions are going to be similar to the old game. I bet everyone else is going to want to be a Jedi, but I'm almost thinking Sith just for the black outfits and those cool red lightsabers." Kazuto liked the idea of rebelling against his friends, but decided he should probably discuss a plan with them before picking a rogue faction.
Either way, he had a long night, and a long week ahead of him. From here, he, Andrew, and Ryoutarou would gather their pre-ordered merchandise from the store, and continue eagerly waiting until they had enough time on the weekend to play.
Now that the three friends had secured their bounty and left the store, it was now time to separate for the night and return to their homes. They all went back to Andrew's café, and as Kazuto located his motorcycle across the street he finally made his way home to rest his legs.
"Okay…time to see if I was smart enough to leave my window unlocked." Kazuto quickly rolled his powered off motorcycle into the driveway as he crept back around to the side of the house with his room. He located a ladder in the back yard, and softly placed it right outside his window, and slowly shimmied up to his room.
"Phew!" He quietly sighed and pushed the glass window open to slip inside undetected by his housemates. His aunt's room was further down the hall, but his younger cousin and fellow gamer, Suguha, was just next door, and she would be very angry to wake up finding Kazuto coming home from buying the new Star Wars game.
Now that he was finally home, the young Kazuto threw his stuff down on his bed and walked out to find the bathroom. After brushing his teeth, he returned to his room and tried convincing himself that falling asleep would be a great idea. Unfortunately, what he really wanted to do involved plugging his AmuSphere in and testing out his brand-new game instead.
Why did it matter to anyone else anyway? He was mature. If he chose to play the game over studying or sleeping, that was his decision. The test tomorrow was his best core subject, and he would only be on his game for 10, 15 minutes tops. All's he needed to do was let it load, and maybe enter the game to pick his faction.
"If I just pick the faction that I want before everyone else, then I'll just act confused when the others join the game…man maybe I am acting silly."
Kazuto let the thought weigh back and forth inside his head, but as he failed to make a decision, his instincts continued loading up the new game and prepping his shiny new AmuSphere device. A short period made him pause before the disc finally loading inside his computer, and soon allowed him to begin playing his newly loaded game.
"Alright…" He took a deep breath before settling into his bed and gained comfort over his mattress. Finally, he exhaled his entire breath before shouting out his beginning command.
"LINK!...Agh...Link start."
Kazuto's voice changed from a yell to a whisper as the device barely registered the command, and quickly began calibrating his new sights to install his new game. Language settings and visuals were all checked, and before he knew it, the new loading screen took place.
"Welcome to Star Wars: The Old Republic Online!" The usual message floated above a blank black and yellow loading room as Kazuto waited for further instructions. "Please select the avatar you wish to transfer."
Kirito made no hesitation in choosing his one and only avatar for the transfer, because he actually preferred keeping his original name in this new galaxy, just like SAO and ALO before.
However, before the game took him to the usual character selection, or took him straight into the game's loading screen, the entire view went black before his eyes, and a small void of silence took the air.
"Hold on…what is this?" Kirito paused to collect what was going on, but just then a tiny, dark grey play button appeared before his face. The icon startled Kirito for a second before he realized what it was. Naturally he pressed the button and stood back to watch a semi-large floating screen appear out in front of his chest, and without further ado, the mysterious video began playing.
"Hello, and welcome to the all new experience to revolutionize Virtual Reality—Star Wars: The Old Republic Online."
Kirito barely recognized the speaking man's face, because he was only recently seen in the news. Peter Mathis, the elder founder of Immortal Gaming. They were the joint creators of TOR Online. He acquired the production rights from both LucasArts and Bioware Gaming to create his new game, and made sure to bring Virtual Reality to the next level.
The video of Mathis continued. "The Old Republic Online has recently been released world-wide, but only in its traditional form for the AmuSphere. The reason I come to you, however, is because you appear to be one of the lucky 1000 to have earned a second method of playing this game."
"Huh…?" Kirito knew this message was pre-recorded, and Mathis was not directly talking to him. He still seemed rather intrigued and continued listening to the video's proposition.
"As it stands, there are currently two platforms that the Old Republic can be played on, and one of those is this improved version of the AmuSphere. The second however is under current development at Immortal headquarters, and we officially have 1000 units prepped for beta-testing our new state-of-the-art technology. That is…if you find you're up for the challenge."
"Well, when you put it like that…" Kirito narrowed his eyes with both suspicious and intrigue, but chose to let the latter guide his next decision. He carried on listening to the voice's information.
"Right now, I have my Tokyo offices prepped for volunteer Beta-Testers, and I am asking you to join in their research. Complete the trial tests with hundreds of other dedicated friends, and join the never-before-seen VR experience before its officially released. The ultimate full-body dive."
Kirito still was not swayed to make a decision just yet, but as he nearly closed out, the call from Mathis went ahead and initialized an ending for him.
"If you would like any more information, please follow the link on your game box to our website. Until then, I please ask that you make the right decision. Farewell, and may the force be with you."
Kirito rolled his eyes and grinned at the cheesy sign off, but the lasting image of the highlighted web-page left him more and more intrigued. His fingers grew itchier and itchier, and just as he raised his hand to press the link, his heart raced with unwanted anxiety.
Before the link was used, his vision grew blurry, and his monitor and peripheral vision flashed with bright red warnings. Kirito panicked until the visual before him quickly changed to black, and he was swiftly thrown back into the real world of Japan.
Kazuto blinked for a few moments, but then took a great big gasp of air as he realized what might have happened. Finally, his face turned a bright shade of red as he slowly raised his goggles, and just as the view of his room opened up, he saw her standing at the foot of his bed.
"Kazuto…" Suguha Kirigaya sighed with droopy eyes, and held her arms crossed in front of her chest. "…Glad to see you got the game without us."
"The Force System is truly something special, isn't it?"
As one of the head developers for Immortal Gaming, Tanner Holland had a front row experience to the new Old Republic game from the inside of a real-life star ship hurtling through space.
To be more accurate, he was not actually standing in a real-life star ship, it was more of a virtual-life experience. However, the lead lore master and one of the primary story writers for the new mmo did have his own brand of imagination. In this new world of the Star Wars galaxy, he was known as Jedi Master Tallis, trained Jedi knight and warden of the grand Galactic Republic. He was actually stationed as the grand master of the fabled Jedi Temple on the capital city of Coruscant, but he had to get a true taste of light among the stars sooner or later. He chose sooner.
"Can you believe this, Commander Clovis? A whole world open up by the newest technology of Peter Mathis." Tallis seemed awfully proud of this game's current stage of beauty. The Republic guard assigned to his side had a light grin for him.
"Tanner, it's just me, Clair. You don't have to call me commander when no one else is around." Clair was a coder, and fellow company tester for the game's new launch. She admired her supervisor's very creative mind for role-play, but found it to be rather cheesy when no one else was close enough to enjoy the spectacle with them. It was mainly NPCs and employees back in the distance of the cruiser hallway that were currently on their floor.
Jedi Master Tallis had a different opinion. "Real or fake...you have to admit he's done a magnificent job at recreating the world of George Lucas. I mean look at those stars! I feel like I'm at the cinema right now!"
Clair, or Commander Clovis, took a moment to start nodding. "It is pretty...like really pretty, but I don't understand why he had to recreate the virtual world to achieve this. the current VR technologies have to be just as good at producing this sort of HD quality."
Tallis never let his eyes leave the night's sky of space. "It's all about the wonder, and the majesty. There are so many memorable places, and people, and things in the Star Wars universe. The soaring, beautiful score by John Williams. The humor, the drama, the heart written into every scene." He then placed his hands on the glass screen protecting the two of them from the cold vacuum of virtual space. "And the risks. They say Lucas took great creative risks to make his masterpiece come to life, and Peter Mathis has done the same. The Force System...the Holocron technology will revolutionize this industry, and even taken out of the gaming sphere, it can be used to produce great things."
Clair agreed as she and Tallis continued looking over the Coruscant horizon, but as her eyes finally adjusted and agreed with her superior, a small distant flash took her focus. "Sir, those aren't Republic ships."
"I'm sorry?" He tried following her lead. "I told the engineers that Sith cruisers would be banned from this part of the game."
"They reverted it at the last minute." Clair's eyes widened as the crew behind her scrambled to prepare for the single, but dangerous Sith dreadnought cruiser. "They said it would hinder the true potential of the game's open-world mechanic."
"Who canceled it?" Tanner Holland was still playing the role of a calm Jedi Master, but the inner Immortal Gaming employee started growing nervous.
Clair stepped back with a hand on the handle of her rifle, and narrowed her vision. "Luke Ma..."
*Slam!*
Lasers like lightning bolts shook the Republic cruiser with a heavy pound, and the workers preparing for the enemy lost footing as they ran about the polished black floors. Battery canons launched their own fire back at the charging Sith cruiser, but they failed to put a dent in anything thanks to the Sith's superior deflector shields. The canons changed their targets as small, bumblebee-like fighters scurried out of the dreadnought's bow hanger, and soon they swarmed the small fraction of sky that loomed over the Coruscant's defending fleet.
Tallis grabbed his lightsaber handle, but never ignited it as he ran toward the east hanger bay. "The sensory technology says a larger boarding shuttle is trying to land on our ship!"
Technology? Clair studied his words carefully to herself. He normally just calls it the Force like a Jedi...he's breaking character? Is this really that serious?
They finally rounded the corner to the main east hanger bay, and just in time as a large, fiery explosion blew up several Republic escape ships and stationed fighters. Tallis used his Force abilities to shield his company, and Clair used her signaling to round up a small militia of guards ready to act as a proper welcoming party. They charged up their ammunition, and held their barrels at the ready to await the boarding Sith.
Tallis kept his eyes shut, and quickly powered on his single blue lightsaber beam as the smokey doors to the Sith cruiser shifted open. Nothing appeared at first, until several large red laser bolts shot through the mist, and sliced through several of the side men stationed behind Tallis and Clovis. Clovis returned the fire, and shot right at the opened door, all while several Sith marauders deflected the beams away with their own saber swords. The contents of the evil ship, and others that had now secured their landing, eventually poured into the spacious hanger. Red, green, blue, and yellow laser beams crossed over the steel environment, leaving lights flashing over people and steel. Death took the Republic freighter by storm, but the Jedi commander held his arms up and head high as he kept the defense of the ship alive.
That would soon be tested, however, as two figures appeared from a far back Sith shuttle. Four red lightsaber blades ignited between two approaching foes. The lead man has a light cloak topped with a sinister mask, no hood. The man behind him had bright silver hair, and a devilish smile. The commander had a duel-ended saber staff, and his subordinate duel weilded single bladed weapons.
Tallis took a deep breath, and marched forward. He expected to have no support for this daunting challenge, but Clovis followed behind as she charged up the mini-gun strapped to her back.
"Keep them near a ship," Clovis suggested, "We can send them back through the gate with an explosion."
"I'll trust you to keep your aim sharp." Tallis held a confident Jedi's grin as he started falling back into his fictional persona. He had a feeling he knew who the approaching Sith duo was, and the excitement of fighting the top two combat engineers left him excited and ready to spar.
The leader slowed his role, while the white-haired assistant darted forward with two light sabers crashing down on the Jedi commander. He also managed to toss a large piece of metallic shrapnel at the Republic commando, but Clair roll-dodged out of the way. The Sith warrior kept his brutal assault up on the Jedi defender, and Tallis managed to hold his own as his skill with a single blade was enough to rival any approaching duelist. He also had a healthy set of commando armor underneath his robes, though nothing too heavy to limit his movements as he slashed outward to try and catch the Sith off guard.
The marauder flipped backwards in the blink of an eye, then darted back into the fight with a cross slash aimed at the Jedi's chest. Tallis pried a metal floorboard up out of the ground, and pulled the bolts out to curl the steel upward in his defense. The silver-haired warrior pierced the metal sheet like it was liquid with his two fiery hot swords, then sliced through the paper-like metal to cut down his enemy. Tallis kept his blocking up, and suddenly switched to offense as he tried to cut the lightsabers out of his enemy's hand. As a commanding knight in the Jedi Order, Tallis knew disarming the enemy was a far better strategy than taking his life, even if this was all imaginary.
Even better, all he had to do was wait for his ally to spark up the enemy ships, and watch as their engines blew up to send them back into space, but that fire never came to his aid. He was losing his stamina as he kept up his fight with the athletic dark Jedi, and as they both backed off, the Sith spoke.
"You're quite the warrior, Tanner." He held a deep voice with a smooth English accent from the southside of the British country. "Or am I supposed to call you Tannis? I'm new to the role-playing crowd."
"Tallis." The proud Jedi pointed up at his floating name-bar. "I could say the same for you, Darth Trentyn."
"See?" The senior combat specialist, Trent Bishop shrugged. "You can just use your real name, like I did. You don't have to make it all dorky all of the time." He spun his two weapons in hand. "Also, I hope your friend Clair wasn't planning on helping out, or anything."
"She'll be fine." He have Trentyn a wink. "I'd be more concerned about your one way out of here."
Trentyn wanted to provide an acting smirk, but never needed to act as a smoldering body shrouded with purple lightning slammed in between them. The person wore white-gold commando armor, and the helmet was cracked on top revealing a small head of brown hair.
"Clair?" Tanner spoke her real name. He had no idea what happened to players using the new technology once their character died. Would they revive, would they be logged out? He quickly turned his focus away from Trentyn to block the slashing attack of an incoming ball of red and black shadow.
The lead Sith spun around to hack off the head of Tanner's avatar with the back end of his staff, but stopped as the Jedi Master began powering up a large cloud of air and energy.
Tallis shot the Force energy ball right for the torso of the Sith Lord, but the master dark Force wielder grabbed the energy like an invisible baseball, and shot it back toward the owner with twice the power and speed. Tallis flew back through fields of fire and burning metal as his body scraped against the wreckage on its way down.
Jedi Master Tallis had lost his prized weapon, and slowly lifted his head up to see the tall Sith Lord stop at his feet. The master of this dark assault slowly removed his metal mask, revealing a youthful face, buzzed black hair, pale skin, and sharp yellow eyes.
"Well...My Lord." Tallis gave the victor some satisfaction. "Perhaps you are the next ruler of this galaxy."
The man with yellow eyes never changed his vision, and never even spoke a word. He simply ignited the body of Jedi Master Tallis with a shroud of powerful purple lightning, which left the defeated Jedi there to shriek and scream as he echoed through his own fallen ship.
The Lore Master of The Old Republic Online fell out of consciousness, and let his character die as the avatar's body stopped moving. The Sith Master lowered his weapon, and looked up at the open bay door, now turned toward a beautiful view of the enlightened capital down below.
Trentyn sheathed his sabers onto his belt, and adjusted the cuffs on his tunic's sleeves. "Lucas, your orders?"
Lucas never turned around, and slowly put his arms behind his back. "Lusac. Its Emperor Lusac. Tanner Holland was an idiot, but he did have the right idea. If we're playing this game for him, then we're going to play it right. Starting with that planet there. Prep a shuttle, no commanders, only explosives...and a loyal pilot."
Trentyn had his arms crossed while he smirked, and tilted his head as he turned to alert his inferior leftenant. "At once, my Lord. At once."
Well I surely am excited to finally be able to release this story! It's been a large work-in-progress, but I have had/still am having a blast writing it! Kazuto Kirigaya and his friends may be in for a hell of a surprise, or at least a beautiful view inside the world of Star Wars.
I'll try to post frequently. Until then!