Earth year 2051

The rumored expansion, The Eternal Clone Wars, was finally released. She, like billions of other gamers, freaked out when they dropped the trailer alongside the expansion.

She dashed over to the VR helm and connected it to her neurons. Then, with a simple thought, typed the letters.

Log in: TinyTemp3st

Password: ****

Enter -

By sheer muscle memory, shuffled through the numerous characters she created throughout the years. Her attention was drawn to the main character.

-Thyra Storm-

Class: Jedi

Rank: Padawan

Race: Human

Age: 23

The 3D model came into view.

Thyra was stunning, with her silvery white hair falling to her shoulders and her deep violet eyes. Her skin was free from imperfections. A photo model in all but name. Thyra would never need a single filter. Life is unjust, and where life fails to deliver, games step in.

Thyra was dressed in a legendary Jedi outfit. It bore an uncanny resemblance to a traditional Jedi robe. Despite its rarity, the distinction is quite subtle. The colors were just a tad muted.

The lightsaber revealed more about her stats than the robe did. The handle was made of beskar, the best steel in the game.

She made eye contact with the character after the quick inspection. Violet eyes curved in a smile. Despite this, the character nervously tugged her braid.

She selected Thyra and the character beamed in delight.

Neurons synchronized with the artificial character. Memories of Thyra Storm flooded her brain. As if she recovered from a heavy amnesia. Many unattainable experiences and skills awakened. Abilities none normally can tap into, now within her reach. Along with supplemental skills that require years to master.

Download update...

Now as Thyra, she looked through her achievement notes.

Still far from unlocking knight rank... An earnest wonder anyone reached that. Let alone, master. She put tens of thousands of hours into just one character. Yet, attained barely enough to pass as a padawan.

Her attention was drawn to the empty wallet. She recently used all of her credits to change the color of the saber.

Thyra ignited the lightsaber. Instead of the default blue, it is now glowing red.. Who cares what a red lightsaber represents. It's her favorite color. She can always farm some more credits if she wants to undo the change.

Afterall, her build is now complete. She has the privilege of slapping credits on random skins and features. That's what happens when you max-out the crafting disciplines early in the game.

Plus she chose a solid build to work with. Forcemancer, a healer combat build. She can outlast most other builds, tank multiple targets and still deal insane damage. It's a meta build, but it's not broken.

Because of the extensive training needed to master. It cannot be considered overpowered Combos are essential if a Forcemancer wants to kill anything. Otherwise they hit like a wet noodle.

Download complete!

Finally!

She booted the game and went straight for a match.

Quick play -

Not caring what room, she picked the first and entered.

Immediately Thyra knew something was wrong. Her eyesight wavered for a brief minute before she emerged in the new map. A bug for sure, and it wasn't the only one. Her hud was gone and instead of a base or seized point, she spawned in the middle of a ruined city.

There were no teammates nearby to ask what the hell was going on!?

The area was deserted, and the air smelled strongly of blaster bolts. A recent conflict, but with lack of saber burns.

Her Settings had changed. The Grapchis, It's been turned up a notch, and it should now lag. But then again, her new location is devoid of activity. That explains the consistency of the framerate. It will, however, drop as soon as things get busy.

Meaning, she needs to lower her graphics before she dies by lagging...

"Settings." She made a mental request, but nothing popped up. There was no hovering window in front of her to allow her to change the settings.

That's not good...

"Inventory?"

She tried, but the result was the same, nothing.

The expansion has broken the game, fantastic...

The developers must have noticed. Probably soon to be patched then. Is it, however, playable for the time being?

She put the force to the test by picking up a rock. The stone hung in mid-air before being tossed force worked.

She quickly drew her lightsaber from her belt. The red beam shot out and went into action. Thyra swings the saber in a flurry of combos. As a result, numerous buffs were activated. Setting off sparks of light all around her like fireworks. Symbols appear under her feet several times.

That answered her question.

Yup, playable. No surprise there, she doesn't need a hud to activate skills. It's as if she's playing in cinematic mode.

But without access to the map she couldn't tell the location of her allies. This would not have been a problem if she had been familiar with the map. That left her with only one choice: force sight.

She used the ability to gain 360-degree visuals. It behaves similar to echolocation. The range isn't great though, but it'll suffice for now.

After aimlessly wandering around, her force visual detected a fallen clone nearby. Pretty low HP but not dead yet. He suffered internal injuries, shattered bones and bleeding out.

And to her disappointed, appeared to be a non-player character, also known as Npc...

Darn it, a player would be more useful...

Regardless, she moved as quickly as she could to his position. She heard the clone before she saw him. He let out an agonizing groan. She couldn't say she blamed him.

His legs were crushed beneath a boulder, and he suffered severe injuries as a result. It's not surprising that he was left behind. But she froze when she saw the unexpected gore.

A pool of blood formed beneath him as bones protruded from his body. Yes, she was aware of his condition, but the game never portrayed it with this much detail before!

She winced, the age rating had been revised as a result of the expansion. Thyra can already hear the forums wailing. This will undoubtedly make headlines. But, at the end of the day, it's just a game.

A wave of despair and pain slammed into her head. Wait, that's new... and it was projecting from the clone!

Triple-A introduced a new sensor ability of Empathic nature! She could see how it could be used effectively and exploited. But that's something to think about later. First and foremost, that boulder had to go.

With a simple hand gesture, the boulder was lifted off the ground. The clone let out a bloodcurdling scream. That sent a shiver down her spine. Is she able to report it for being a little too realistic? After the boulder was removed, she had a better view of all the gore, fantastic...

"J-Jedi." Blood was coughed up by the npc. It didn't take long for the scent to reach her. They really didn't need to feature that. Certainly not what the fan base asked for.

"L-leave me...I won't make it..." Clones and their dramatic dialogues...She was not in the mood to role play. Ergo, she ignored it and sat down beside him. Hands hovered over his chest and activated a short range healing skill. Something that only slightly depleted the force meter. Not that it mattered much. Within seconds, the force recovery replenishes that amount.

Organs stitched itself together and bones corrected themselves. Skin soon closed the wounds leaving the clone gasping for air. He's in full health, yet the clone remained on the ground. Absolutely drained despite fully recovered.

She blinked, surprised; they usually get up and walk around as if nothing had transpired. No instead his hands traced the repaired skin. As if he couldn't believe what had happened.

"Y-You healed me." And now he's crying. Plenty of Jedi roam as a healer.

"Yes I did."

Sure, It isn't usually wasted on a npc. But it was nothing noteworthy. Thyra was in need of information something npcs can provide. Otherwise, she probably would have left him there.

Without asking she reached out and grasped his hand, and pulled him up onto his feet. He wobbled on his feet and was forced to steady him.

There were no symptoms of injuries or pain, yet the clone was shaken by the ordeal.

"Tell me where our nearest territory is." There has to be at least one sentry nearby.

"W-West from here... the separatists pushed us back. I'm not sure if the battalion is still operational. My general is dead..."

Players respawn fairly quickly. It shouldn't be a loss.

Then it dawned on her: the trailer had mentioned a new mode. She was too excited to play the game at the time to watch the trailer all the way through.

In this mode, players were only given one life? That explained the lack of players..

"Ask your current superior for a status report." She demanded.

"The communication is hijacked, that's how the separatists knew we were here." These new features were giving her a headache. That was partly her fault. Before playing the game, she should have checked the content. It's a blunder she'll have to live with.

She pulled back when the clone could finally stand on his own legs.

"Alright, then we will find out for ourselves."

"Of course, General!" He raised his hand in a salute. She shot him an odd look. General Storm, is how the clone should address her. They were pre-programmed to recognize their names. No introduction required, it made no sense... Another realistic addition she presumed.

"My name is Thyra Storm," She introduces herself.

"It's an honor working with you, General Storm. My name is Eli."

She raised an eyebrow. It wasn't story mode, just a random game. Why would they waste code, naming a single clone? Did he have a significant role? She only crossed paths due to circumstances...
"Clones have names?" He winced as if she had jabbed him in the gut.

"Some do... but my number is CT-5263." The clone spoke in a monotone tone that didn't match the distinct emotion he projected.

"I see." She gave a nod. Her response did not put an end to the turmoil.

"Eli, nice name." She added.

The clone beamed in delight. A better emotion to sense she decided.

"Thank you General."

"Now let's get going and stay close to me."

Not that she needed a npc companion. They were more utilized for diversions. However Eli was still a little winded after the healing session and would most definitely be killed if he used default instructions. With her directions and assistance he'd likely survive long enough to be of use.

Not that one clone could do much...

There was also his increasing anxiety. It pounded her brain like a relentless spammer.
She take back what she thought about the empathic skill. It's a awful. Hope they give them an off switch after the patch.

She seriously considered soothing his worries. Her force sight hadn't detected any hostiles yet. But everything could change in the blink of an eye... After all, the new features had thrown everything off-kilter.

Thyra would not let her guard down just because a clone is a bit emotional.

As they got closer to their destination, it became clearer. The republic was on the brink. More clones had died than battle droids had been destroyed.

They rounded a building corner and spotted the separatist army. They were crammed onto a bridge leading to a small island.

Her force sight detected numerous clones on the island. Without a doubt, fewer than the separatists. Despite this, it was not invaded by the Seppies.

How strange...

"Why are they just standing there?" The seperatist can easily take the island and wipe them out in one swoop.

"I believe they want us to surrender." Eli answered. She gave him a peculiar look, the only way to give up is by quitting. And she had no intention of quitting just yet. Even if the odds were stacked against her. They were outmanned as well as outgunned.

"What should we do General?"
Eli asked after a long silence.
He would be of little use but if he really wanted to be included.

"Stay here and cover me." Thyra dashed out into the open, lightsaber blazing.

It didn't take long for the droids to notice her.

"Jedi!" Their blasters turned and fired at her.

Thyra redirected them back at the droids, blasting them off the bridge. She raised one hand and fixed her gaze on the target. The pillar was ripped apart by the force.

"Down you go!" Thyra yelled then took cover when the bridge collapsed. Battle droids fell along with the other killing machines.

Clones erupted in cheers. She ignored it while clearing the area. Gravity did most of the work but some survived the fall. None of which is in condition to fight back. So she decapitated them with ease.

Their victory points must be skyrocketing. This is enough to ensure victory in this round. So where is victory screen? Were the requirements raised or there was another bug? Perhaps it's not as playable as she originally thought.

"General Storm!" Eli shouted.

The npc was still roaming around, meaning, the game is still on.

"Eli." She nodded.

He exclaimed, "We Won!"

"We did?" Not according to the game.

"That was the last clankers stationed here." Eli informs her.

She unwittingly tapped into his feelings once more. Joy, excitement, and peace. Thyra shared none of that. Everything was anticlimactic.

She shifted her focus to the force sight. None of the troopers were players.

That led her to believe she had picked story mode by accident. Which means, cutscene coming up!

"Commander will need a report."

As if called, a spaceship hovered over them and descended to the ground. Three clones emerge, one of which is slightly larger than the others.

"Commander Rush." Eli spoke directly to him.

The said man stared at Eli as if he was seeing a ghost.

"E-Eli how are you alive? Your injuries..." He searched for them but could only find remaining blood on the armor.

"General Thyra Storm healed me."

Rush's face hardened.

"There is no General with that name." She should've realized there was a build-up to the title. Every clone looked at her, searching for answers. There aren't any cutscenes?

"I never claimed to be a General." Thyra supplied with the hopes of triggering a cutscene.

"But you are a Jedi. The council sent you, didn't they?"

She isn't a big enough Star Wars fan to answer that question. Who the hell is the council, anyway? Thyra was unconcerned about the lore. She likes the game, that's it.

"The council?" She cocked her head to the side.

Between the clones, a silent message was exchanged. Commander took a step forward.

"Thyra Storm you will have to come with us." He said with authority. Suddenly the force squirmed. She dodged a stun shot before it could strike her.

Her gaze turned to the shooter. It's a clone! What the hell is going on!?

"Excuse me!?" She stepped back and ignited the saber. The clones shuddered.

"She is not a Jedi." Immediately, a wave of rage washed over her.

It was so sudden that she nearly failed to dodge the next attack. This time, the blaster isn't set on stun!

The rules were all over the place. Friendly fire is not even permitted! No, it's time to call it quits. The expansion is too buggy. She signaled the VR to shut down but it didn't respond.

Her eyes widened in realization. She was stuck! The warnings in the force were muffled by her panic. When a blaster shot hit her in the chest, she screamed. Pain, true pain! This is not a simulation.

She flung the squad with the force, sending the ship sideways. Thyra did not wait for them to recover before fleeing to the city. Through the roofs, a clone-unfriendly route.

She leaped from one building to the next while spamming the VR to shut down to no avail.

Eventually Thyra slowed down when she had gained enough distance from the battalion.

She deactivated the lightsaber and tended to the wound after determining there was no threat nearby. It looked more like a bruise than a burn. Once a healing spell was cast, the bruise and discomfort vanished. It could have been a lot worse.

The majority of the damage was mitigated by her garment. It took the brunt and appeared to be damaged..

The robe required some time to sew itself together. Which occurs naturally when not engaged in combat. However, does that even work anymore?

She didn't get much time to dwell on it before ships pursued her, which was unfortunate...but she should seen that coming. Roofs were no go then. Perhaps something below? Her violet eyes spotted a manhole, Bingo!

Thyra waited for them to stack up a little more before unleashing a force storm on them. A tornado erupted, grabbing the spaceships in the air. it's not powerful enough to cause significant damage. It did, however, obstruct their vision and keep them immobile for a short time.

With that done, Thyra dashed down a manhole and shut the lid. The darkness was short lived.

She ignited the lightsaber and the tunnel was bathed in red light. The humming calmed her down but the chase was far from over.

Clones can kill her. They aren't Npc's with restrictions and they certainly were not her soldiers.

Thyra Storm is now her, and this is real.