(Shump!) And just like that I'm plugged into the Matrix. It feels so real: the breaths I take, touch, sight it's like I never left my body instead I was suddenly transported and my body is left trying to adjust to the sudden change of altitude. I would even insist it was real if, I wasn't riding in a shuttle descending over a lush un-earth-like planet and my body wasn't suddenly green.

"Isn't this surreal Phalen!" I shout out gleefully to the only other person seated in the shuttle my best friend and neighbor Phalen Flemming who I dragged into this experiment with me. When I finally pry my eyes from the amazing view outside my porthole to look at him my breath hitches in my throat. "What happened to your eyes!?"

"I, the Programmers claimed that we would see things from the eyes of the characters so I wanted to know how that would work for a character with no eyes..." He answers absently while fingering the patches of alien tech where his brown eyes used to be, obviously as stunned as I am if not more, to discover his eyeballs are gone. No wonder he wasn't reacting to the view outside.

"Geez, so you chose your species to be Miraluka!" He's gutsier than I am, I chose Mirailan because it's the closest thing to Human without actually being Human, that and the tattoos are cool. "Does it hurt, can you see?"

"No, but I can see, just not in a way I, I can describe. I can see you but only as multi-colored lights in your silhouette and the definitions on your face, it sparks and fluctuates like it's energy... Where are we?" He asks nervously gripping his seat tightly when shuttle buckles from turbulence.

"Um, a Republic shuttle entering a planets atmosphere, Tython I think since we both chose jedi classes. So you can't see the ship's hull or the planet outside the window?" This is going a bit far for a "new gaming experience" to cause a kid to be virtually blind.

Phalen doesn't respond at first as he tries to take in the interior of the ship somehow finding his porthole to the view outside. "Holy... This is incredible Cass! It's like I'm looking at satellite pictures of the planets radiation or something." He exclaims twisting in his harness to press his face into the glass "Everything is like looking at a running Matrix code cept in an unlimited color spectrum!"Leave it to Phalen to think that's cool and not off putting. It takes a couple of tries to get his attention again since he's transfixed with another version of the world outside I can't imagine.

"Phalen! This might be the last time we get to talk before were swept off for our class missions planet side. What's your approach going to be for the Consular and where should we meet up when we can?" Despite playing swtor more times then I care to admit I still can't help feeling anxiously excited about living it, and I know the only thing to settle my nerves right now is to have a plan.

"Right sorry, uh like how I played it originally I guess?" He scratches his close cut curly black hair, it's a little unnerving to see nothing but two eye patches looking back at me. "Honestly whatever makes sense to the situation Cass... Do we have any bags or pockets that might contain a holo-communicator?" Hey yeah, why didn't I think of that? The characters are always pulling those out of nowhere. It would help a lot to be able to keep in touch that way.

My padawan standard uniform has no pockets to speak of but as I look around I spot two packs in the overhead compartment above Phalen's head, huh I could have swore that wasn't there before. Finding the release on my harness I stand up unsteadily in the moving vehicle.

Grabbing both I plop back into my seat and toss one across to him. "Check it out."

But instead of catching the lightly tossed sack Phalen makes no reaction until it smacks him in the face, "Ugh, what the heck was that!?" He coughs as it rolls off his face and plops in his lap.

"Sorry. I tossed you one of the packs I found in the compartment above you, you can't see it can you?"

"I could see the air in front of me parting for a teardrop shape of dark space but other than noticing it was coming fast at me..." He answers irritably before turning thoughtful. "I, I think objects with no energy or power source, I can only see as empty spaces in the matrix..."

"Is this too weird for you? We can abort the program if it is." Which is honestly the last thing I want to do for this once in a lifetime opportunity but I will if he's experiencing side-effects. This is the first time anything like this has ever been done who knows if it will have real life consequences, like what if his brain hooked up to the simulator in reality can't process the world like that.

"No way! It's weird, but I'll get used to it." He's as, as trilled by this prototype testing as I am and probably wouldn't abort early even if he had to. Well that's why we have a bunch of guys in lab coats monitoring everything while we're hooked up to this thing, if there's actually a problem they'll pull him. And me too, I don't want to do this alone while he's forced to watch from an average monitor.

"But um Cass, I can't tell what's in this thing from touch..." He says sheepishly as I quickly pop to my feet and stand over him to look over the bag and not drag out his embarrassment.

It's odd that a society so advanced as the Republic would have a simple draw-string canvas pack, probably Jedi issue, trying to go for simplicity of their robes maybe. "Just clothes mostly: simple tunics, pants and a Jedi cloak cool. Oh and there's the communicator! Though I think this bag is meant for me and the one I have is meant for you."

"Why do you say that?" He asks curiously reaching in to finger the contents within trying to picture them.

"Well for one, that one has a bra in it." I smirk as he jerks his hand back out looking like he's been caught rooting around in my underwear drawer. I try to hold back a laugh as I open the one in my hands for a brief inspection. "Yep this ones the same as mine but meant for a dude your size, here." I switch the one in his lap before reaching in and placing his communicator in his hand returning to my seat to closer inspect the contents of mine.

"How do we call each other?" He asks while fingering the clothes within rooting around for anything that isn't fabric. That clould be a potential cool toy.

"Well, remember in game they would refer to holo-frequencies like a phone number, we just need to figure out each others frequency..." I tell him what he probably already guessed, just filling the empty space with words, pretending that I know what I'm talking about as I inspect the object like a monkey given a cell phone.

"Beep-beep-beep." Phalen's communicator lights up after I press the first of eight buttons stacked in two rows of four on my communicator. Causing the image of me sitting cross legged with my hand outstretched popping out of his palm. "Okay... I think I have you on speed dial, on the first button top row." My image echoes before it blinks out when I thumb the biggest button ending the call, "I wonder want the second speed-dial button is for?"

"Hel-hello? Who's this, is this thing on?" Says the very distorted and upside down image of a dark blue Twi'lek as she awkwardly fiddles with the communicator in her hands causing it to project an unfinished image of her until she finally lays it flat in her palm.

"Wow, Cassadee is that you? Sweet facial tats!" The Twi'lek with a face like my cousin Min's, exclaims as she finally takes in my holo-projection. "I'm so glad I let you talk me into doing this everything is so awesome here!"

"Min, I'm so glad you decided to go through with. Where are you? What class did you choose?" And it did take some convincing she was terrified that an electric short from the Prototype would render her brain dead or something... Which would almost never happen... I think.

"I'm in my ship that just landed on a planet this guy Skavak calls Ord Mantel. You would not believe the intense landing I just had!" When we started this we all thought having some of us eight testers having no experience with the game made a good control group, but now, the thought of having my spontaneous cousin role playing as a smuggler in a war zone with no clue what's going to happen...

"...and then this way cute boy comes running in saying it's not safe to take off until some turret thingys are taken out of commission. Somehow I got volunteered to run towards the fighting and take care of it all by myself. So I said I needed to get my gear and now..."

"Min! Take a breath. You can't continue on in the game unless you shut down those turrets so your going to have to improvise. Avoid the fighting as much as you can, make sure you always have a blaster with you... and don't trust Skavak, but the dude with dreads, Corso Riggs you can trust, he's gonna be your first NPC."

"Oh... my NP-what?" Seriously? I made sure to go through SWTOR 101 with her before we plugged in, I even turned on my PC and showed her the mechanics of the game.

"It means Non Player Companion he'll join your crew soon enough, Min." Phalen answers helpfully for me as I plop my forehead into my free palm with a frustrated sigh. "Find my brother Skylar, he said he'd be trooper class and Ord Mantel is the troopers starting planet also. He knows the game and can help you."

"Is that Phalen, he's with you?" She asks coyly and I have to resist the urge to hang up on her, every opportunity she gets Min annoyingly likes to insinuate that Phalen and I have something going on beyond being friends. "Anyway thanks I knew he would be a trooper but I had no idea to look for him here."

I'm about to warn her about Syreena when the shuttle rocks and settles to a stand still. "We've landed on Tython Min, we've got to go now, we'll call you back when we can." Phalen tells her before hanging up for me just as the back end of the shuttle opens and lowers a ramp for us. This is it, let's hope I don't get killed on the first mission. I'm still not clear how respawn will work...

Author's Note: Hey thanks for reading this all the way through! This is my first Fanfic entry so if you like it so far, please bear with me as I try to get this together, it'll get better. Oh and any helpful tips or advice you'd like to share I'd appreciate it. Next I hope to upload Alex's chapter he'll be the bounty hunter SI.