How do you survive being hit by an ion cannon?

You don't.

It's a good thing, then, that E and K were still alive. As the howling wind whistled through the trees in the eerie night, E started to wake up, to regain consciousness. He coughed as he sat up, propped against a tree. The fall had taken away all of his energy, not to mention shaken him to the core. Ash fell from the sky like snow, the last reminder of the spacecraft that has so very nearly been the end of them. It was still imprinted in his mind, the vision of K practically flying towards the control panel, landing on the big red button. Then the entire floor gave way. He hadn't know what to think in that moment, having just fallen out of the bottom of a spacecraft- then the spacecraft exploded. K had saved their lives. 2000Km above the planet's surface and he'd decided to go bloody skydiving, and it had saved their lives. It was a good thing their spacesuits had parachutes built in, otherwise they would have burnt up on re-entry. It was a miracle they were even wearing them in the first place. It was just one miracle after another. E coughed again. It hurt to move, to do anything. It hurt to even sit up like he was. He had no idea where he was, or how long he'd been there. Worst of all though- he had absolutely no idea where K was.
"I'm right here behind you, you moron" K said sarcastically. E hadn't realised he was talking out loud, and K had heard everything.
"When did you show up?"
"About the same time you did."
"How long was I unconscious?"
"About an hour. I'm surprised you managed to last the 3 we spent re-entering, you looked so shocked."
"What did you expect? I'd literally just fallen through the floor of my now disintegrated spacecraft. I was hardly going to throw a party."
"You're just lucky I recognised the flash of light from the ion cannon." K cocked his head to the side, "Hey E, look over there" He said, changing the subject, "That's the Imperial base. If we're going to do anything, this is where we're going to have to start."
"Right now my body doesn't want to do anything" E complained in return.
"We're going to have to move sooner or later."
Suddenly there was a rustling from within the trees. E and K both looked over, but they couldn't see anything. Then, slowly, it emerged; A sillouette against the darkness of the night. And then he spoke:
"I wouldn't go anywhere just yet if I were you."

E studied the man. He couldn't make out any facial features, but he was wearing a cloak, one that shielded him from view.
"Who are you?" E commanded, but the man did not instantly respond- he took his time to think it over.
"You don't know who I am, but I know a great deal about you. I've been following you since this war started. You two made quite a stir above Bespin. I'm not the only one to notice either-" He pointed to the Imperial compound- "They've been keeping an eye out on you too. General Grievous got to experience you first hand above Kamino, which has only strengthened their resolve to take you out of the equation."
"How do you know about Kamino? There's no way you could have been onboard that ship with us."
"I didn't have to be. Just because I wasn't there for all of it, doesn't mean that I don't know what happened. The Empire have now made you two their number one targets. They believe that if they take you out then they'll win the war."
"How do you know so much about the Empire and what it believes?"
The man sighed, but carried on speaking. "I work for an organisation known as HAWK. We work within the Empire to try and take down the Emperor. I guess you can call us inside men, and women."
"OK then" Said K, "Answer me this: Why us?"
"Because you're powerful. You two are so much more powerful than you could imagine and the Emperor knows that; He can sense it. I can sense it. They had their suspicions about you two before but now they're convinced you're the main reason this war is still going on. Even when they win, if you're involved the Empire never truly wins." The man brought his hand out of the shadows and up to his chest. There was a small device clasped in his hand. "This is what's known as a 'Force Meter'- it measures how greatly people can manipulate the power of the force. The Jedi developed it as one of the ways to test hopeful Jedi Padawans in training. Most normal life forms will only create a small spike on the readout. For Jedi and Sith the spike is much larger. You two were off the charts."
"But neither of us are Jedi. We can't use the force or wield a lightsaber or anything like that."
"And that's what makes you such a threat to the Empire. The fact you aren't Jedi means that they can't predict what you're going to do next. You're so powerful that you manipulate the force without even realising it. It's no coincidence that you always find yourself in the middle of trouble; Trouble gets drawn to you like a magnet. Why do you think The Empire attacked Dantooine? They have no use for it. It's nowhere near their region of control, and surrounded by so many Republic controlled planets that they'd soon be steamrollered if they tried to do anything using the planet. No, they attacked it because they knew that you would be here. They used it to lure you out so that they could kill you off."
"But we were coming to Dantooine anyway, before we knew it had been invaded" Said E, confused.
"Like I said" The man replied, "You manipulate the force in ways nobody can comprehend."
"So what do we do now?"
"You can still save your planet. You can still get out of this alive. But, for any of this to happen, you need to do exactly as I say."

The first thing you're going to have to do is break into the compound. It was only set up as a temporary base, so it has quite a few weak points. There should be a perimeter wall about 500 metres east of here- you need to break through the wall to get into the compound. After you break through you'll find yourself above an underground corridor, which you'll enter through a ventilation grate. There should be two guards patrolling the corridor you'll enter. You need to take them out without them sounding the alarm. Once they're out of the equation, proceed to the far end of the corridor, where you'll find a door. In there is the control room. This is where we attack.
 "You ready for this?" K asked as they approached the perimeter fence. It was all very surreal, taking orders from someone they didn't know. The hadn't even seen his face.
"As ready as I'll ever be I guess" E replied, before adding "My body is going to hate me for this you know. I feel stiffer than a cast iron rod."
"That's quite a weird analogy to use."
"Well, it's not like I've had time to practise." E insisted, then pulled out a torch cutter from his backpack. Whoever the person was giving the orders, he'd given them plenty of equipment. The torch cutter was just the start.
"Burn away" K said, pulling out his CZR X-4 to cover them. It was the only thing he had on him when their spacecraft was destroyed, and now it was going to come in useful. Good thing too; He didn't have 5,000,000 credits to replace it.
The torch cutter made light work of the weak exterior wall, just as they had hoped. Now they just had to hope they hadn't alerted either of the patrolling guards.

They hadn't.

The space they were enclosed in was narrow, but gave them enough of a view to be able to see the entirety of the corridor. Sure enough, two Imperial guards were walking up and down, scouting the area. E and K knew what they were going to do; As soon as one of the guards passed underneath them, E dropped the ventilation grate and jumped down, landing on the guard. Before he had time to react, E picked him up and hit him across the face with the butt of his blaster, knocking him cold. Suddenly, alerted by the noise, the other guard turned round to face E. He looked him straight in the eye, then ran for the alarm. E ran after him, but then the guard suddenly stopped and collapsed forward, a hole seared through his neck from the scathing energy of K's CZR X-4.
"It's nice to see you've got my back" E said, looking back up to the ventilation shaft K had hung himself off of to get the shot away.
"Well, you weren't going to catch him, and I certainly wasn't going to let him get to that alarm."
E acknowledged K with a nod, and proceeded to walk towards the end of the corridor. The approach was calm enough, but neither pilot knew what to expect behind the door….

The Control Room is going to be the biggest challenge in the compound. I don't know how many people will be behind those doors but it'll be a lot, and there's no way you can go about this quietly either. You have to destroy the centre console in the middle of the control room. I don't care how you do it, but once that is destroyed all communications and all power is lost from the compound. Then we can take the rest of it down.
 "We go in as planned" E said as they approached the door. It was a large cargo-esque type door, but it was unlocked, which was always a good start. K moved to the opening side of the door, and primed a thermal detonator. E grabbed onto the door handle.
"On my go" Said K, and he activated the detonator, it's red glow illuminating the entire corridor. "3….. 2… 1… GO" K shouted and E hauled open the door. As soon as the detonator had been thrown in there was a large bang and debris flew out of the room. As soon as the noise died down they burst into the room guns blazing, firing at anything and everything they saw. K dived behind a stray chair, battering away a couple of droids that were in close proximity. The entire place was crawling with droids; Regular battle droids, Super battle droids- you name it, it was there. K was starting to get pinned down in his cover, a mass of droids flooding in through the outer blast doors. E was having trouble finding any sort of cover at all.
"E, we've still got to destroy that centre console" K shouted as he put 2 blaster bolts through a Super battle droid's face.
"I know, I'm still working on it." E replied, equally as pre-occupied by a group of battle droids who had cornered him. He blasted his way through them, but as soon as he was out, he looked towards the blast doors. "K… MagnaGuards coming our way!"
"You have to be kidding me?"
"No, I'm afraid not." E said, retreating back to the inner door. K decided to peek over his chair and take a look. There were 3 of them, and they were coming his way. He got up and went to follow E back to the door, but suddenly he felt something hard kick him in the back, forcing him to the floor. He tried to get up but a hard metal foot slammed into the side of his head, knocking him back to the ground.
"Oh you're so going to pay for that" K hissed and leaped off the floor. He ran head first with all his strength straight into the Super, ramming it into the wall. It tried to fight back, but K grabbed it's gun arm and twisted hard, until finally it snapped clean off. "I hope you like a taste of your own medicine" K said as he pointed the arm straight at the stunned droid and pulled the trigger, destroying what was left.
"Bloody hell K" E shouted from the door, where he was covering fire on the MagnaGuards, "I don't think I've ever seen you this angry."
"This is just the beginning" He replied, and pointed the Super Battle Droid arm at the centre console. With a succession of quick flashes 3 rockets flew from their holdings and spiralled straight into their target, sending the entire console up in a fiery blaze.

Then all of the lights went dark.

E and K stood still, looking out for the danger that surrounded them. The place may have fallen into darkness, but there was still light-the centre console, or what was left of it, was alit in orange flames, and in the distance the eerie purple glow of the MagnaGuard staffs shone through.
"I think we should get out of here" E said, to which K agreed;
"I think you might be right."
E picked up the rucksack full of equipment, and then they bolted it down the corridor.

You need to be prepared for when you destroy the command room. They're going to come at you in extortionate numbers, and you need to be ready for that.
"Where do we go?"
Back the way you came, down the corridor. This time, however, you won't be able to get back overground through the ventilation grate, so you'll have to go right to the end where you'll find a junction. One corridor goes left, one goes right. You need to go left. There isn't much there other than a small storage room, but that storage room is going to be your only way back to ground floor. Once on ground level, activate the beacon; I'll come and get you. Do not activate it until you get to ground floor, I can't help you whilst you're still underground.

The corridor certainly seemed a lot longer now they had to run the entire length of it. The junction was in sight, but the MagnaGuards behind were closing fast.
"I can't hold them off too much longer" K shouted as he discharged a continuous stream of blaster bolts in the direction of the MagnaGuards. It may not have been doing much damage, but it was slowing them down. Unfortunately it was slowing him down too.
"We're almost at the junction" Said E, "Just keep up the cover fire"
"I'm not sure I want to stop" K countered as he sped up his back peddling. Eventually they reached the T-Junction, and E pulled K round with him as they headed towards the storage room. Now they were clear of the control room, everything was pitch black. They managed to feel their way into the storage room, and E locked the door.
"We should be safe in here for a few seconds" K panted, trying to catch his breath. "Then we really need to head up the ladder."
"I'm really too old for this" E replied, laying himself down on the floor.
"E, you're 22, not 122."
"I certainly feel 122. I told you my body wasn't going to forgive me for being dragged into combat after 3 hours of breaking through the atmosphere of this hell hole."
"This hell hole is our home planet" K casually reminded E, who gave a sarcastic smirk in return.
"Right now I'm rather wishing it wasn't"
"I'll tell you one thing though- this place was not built in just 3 days. The fact they've got an entire underground system, one to this detail, suggests they've been here a while. This was not just to lure us out."
"The ground floor stuff seems pretty temporary though, don't you think?"
"I reckon it's a front, one to give the impression that this is temporary. They want to throw us off, make it look easy."
"But when we were given our instructions, silhouette man knew that the underground network was here….."
"Which means that our mysterious friend knew very well that this place was not built in just 3 days."
Suddenly there was an almighty crash as something piled into the storage room door, a noise so loud in the comparative silence E and K had been speaking in that both pilots almost jumped through the ceiling in shock. When they heard the distinctive metallic twirl of the MagnaGuard staffs, they had no doubt they'd been found.
"We've got to get moving!" K shouted, leaping onto the ladder and scaling it in a matter of seconds, reaching the top with ease. E, too, got up, but the rucksack on his back was making it harder for him to scale the ladder. He was about half way up when there was another smash as the door-side window exploded, and two Super Battle Droid rockets burst into the room, hitting the ladder at it's hinges and blowing it off the wall. E landed with a thud.
"Go!" He yelled at K, who was standing in shock at the top, "Go now! I'll meet you at the top." K ran off into the distance; Once he was out of sight, E turned back to the door which was gradually being torn apart piece by piece. He brought his gun up from his side, locked and loaded.
"Bring it on metal-heads!" He shouted at the door, "I'll take you all on!"

K ran. He ran as fast as he could to avoid even having to think about what was going to happen to E down in the store room. All he could do now was escape himself, then try and get help and go back. He was on the ground floor now, which meant that as soon as he activated the beacon mystery man could come and save him. He reached for his pocket, then he realised it- E had the rucksack. E had the beacon. He couldn't summon any help. Who was he kidding, there wasn't going to be any help anyway. There never was going to be any help, not since the moment they agreed to try and save their planet from the Imperial forces. Just the two of them, liberating an entire planet. It was never going to work, yet they still did it. Enough- he had to get himself out of this attitude. He reached back into his pocket; He may not have a beacon, but he might have something of use. 2 coins, his now disintegrated spacecraft's ignition keys, a pen, his blaster, and a radio. A radio. He had a radio. He could call for help.
"Anyone!" He shouted down the radio, still running, "Is there anyone there?! Please respond."
There was a pause down the other end, one that make K believe that there wasn't anyone there, but then someone spoke. K recognised her voice almost instantly.
"Amy?! How the hell did you get this radio channel?"
"It's nice to hear from you too Kissel."
"Very funny. Now, why does my super annoying ex-girlfriend have access to my radio channel? You tapped into it didn't you?!"
"Yes, as much as we both annoy each other, I do like to keep up with what you're doing, like the deranged lunatic you once called me."
"Now is really not the time to start talking about our previous relationship. If you hadn't realised from the tone of my voice, I'm currently being chased down by Imperial forces that want to kill me!"
"You always seem to find a way of drawing trouble to yourself, don't you?"
"Believe me, you're not the first person to tell me that today."
"It's nice to see you still have the personality of a wooden pole too, Kissel."
"What is it with people making bad analogies today? First E and now you."
"Oh yes, how is your friend?"
"AMY! I really don't have time for this" K shouted down the radio. Suddenly there was a burst of gunfire down below which drew away K's attention. E was still down there. Amy came back over the radio, but K didn't answer. He just kept running.

It was empty. As the MagnaGuards searched the storeroom, it was apparent to them that it was empty. The pilot was nowhere to be seen. They continued to search every corner of the room, before one finally gave up and walked back out to the corridor to take a look. It walked out of the door, scanning every area. It still couldn't find him. One look to the left, one look to the right- nothing.

Then it hit them.

With the speed of a missile and the force of a god E swung down from his ceiling perch and hit the MagnaGuard do hard in the back that his foot went straight through the armour and they both came crashing down to the floor. Sensing an opportunity, E grabbed the staff from the floor and swiped it across the stunned MagnaGuard, virtually splitting it in half. It groaned and tried to get up, but it was finished; The very robotics keeping it moving trailing from its ruined body. That left 2. They went on the offensive, forcing E back. He had no idea how to use a MagnaGuard staff, but somehow it was coming naturally to him, blocking and deflecting the relentless attacks coming his way. They were pinning him, forcing him towards the wall where he couldn't manoeuvre. Blow after blow, strike after strike, he was slowly losing his strength to keep the MagnaGuards at bay. He'd managed to take one of them down, a lucky swing which had decapitated it, shutting it down instantly. Suddenly a strike came low to his right, but he couldn't react in time and the staff struck him in his leg, sending him to the floor, screaming in pain. The MagnaGuard brought his staff down again but E just managed to roll out of the way in time, the staff hitting the floor inches from his head. He got up. He had to move. The MagnaGuard took another swing which flashed above E's head and into the wall where it stuck fast. This was his opportunity. This was when he had to run.

K had reached the end of the road. He was finally outside, surrounded by long, green grass, up to his knees. The noise still echoed in his head, the blaster rifles discharging in the basement below him. He tried not to think about E, but no matter what he did, he couldn't stop. He was running on empty. Drained off all energy, he stumbled out into the grass, swaying under the breeze of the night sky. His vision was blurry, but he could swear that there were droids everywhere; He saw them out of the corner of his eye at every turn, but when he looked back they weren't there. They simply weren't there. He took another step, but his legs would no longer move. He was paralyzed by fear. And then he saw them again, but this time he knew they were real. They stood over him, expressionless and emotionless. It was over.

E had reached the junction. He knew that turning right would take him back to the control room, so he headed straight ahead, into the unknown. He didn't know how far away the MagnaGuard was, but he was aware of the faint glow of the staff behind him as he ran. The corridor seemed to go on forever, and E was running out of energy, his legs moving on pure adrenaline. A light, glowing dimly at the end of the corridor, suddenly caught E's attention- it meant that there was something there. He ran too it in excitement, in anticipation. It was a door switch. He hit it, and watched as the giant blast doors opened up. As soon as they were open he stepped into the room.

What he saw made his jaw drop.

It wasn't just a temporary command post, this was a full blown Forward Operations Centre, and in its centre stood a Class 1 Imperial Star Destroyer. The hangar was expansive, not just taking up a large width, but it was at least 3 times as tall as the rest of the basement. It should have been visible above ground, yet they hadn't even noticed it. The place was packed with Imperial officers, Stormtroopers and battle droids, all feverishly working to get the Star Destroyer into a battle worthy condition. E was in awe, so much so that he had forgotten all about the chasing MagnaGuard. It silently walked up behind E, bringing its staff up in the air….. and then it struck down. E screamed as the staff cut a deep line across his back, burning through his skin. Enraged, he turned around and ripped the staff out of the MagnaGaurd's hands, and rammed it straight through its chest, pinning it to the wall. The MagnaGuard squirmed, overloaded by energy from the staff, until it finally became still, burnt out. E pulled the staff back from the wall, and turned around, plotting his next move, but in doing so accidentally walked into someone. It was General Grievous.
"YOU!" The General screeched in shock at seeing E alive. E just looked at him, stunned, until Grievous hissed again and kicked E in the stomach, sending him back flipping across the platform. E got up, but Grievous was already storming over to him, lightsabers in hand. Instinctively E reached for his blaster, and opened fire on the ever nearing General, who easily batted away the oncoming bolts. E retreated, but kept up the hopeless assault; Grievous took stride after stride and as soon as he was within touching distance of E he hit out with a vicious strike, taking E's gun hand clean off. He let out a smile at this small victory, then gave E a backhand square to the face, sending him flying straight over the railings and onto the hangar floor below.
"Leave him!" Grievous cried out to the now alerted Imperials, "This one I want to take care of… Personally."

They all stood and watched as E and K were paraded through the compound. Imperial officers, Stormtroopers- even the emotionless battle droids and MagnaGuards were there, their mechanical heads pivoting to follow the two pilots' every move. For General Grievous, this was his finest hour. Ever since E and K had defeated him above Kamino and left him to rot on an asteroid heading for nowhere, he had sworn to himself he would get revenge. He had come close on Corellia to fulfilling that promise, but, despite leaving Corellia in a critical state, he hadn't finished them off. Now he had them trapped, and he certainly wasn't going to make the same mistake twice. It was going to be slow, painful, but none the less effective. It was going to be his finest moment; Just the thought of it empowered him, made him feel 100 times as strong as any Jedi or Sith Lord. As soon as they reached the assembly area, Grievous took the two pilots and tied them to a set of solid steel poles, tightly. Then he sat down in front of them and stared, stared continuously into their eyes. Oh yes, he was going to have fun with them.

"So, I guess this is it then" K said to E, shaking in his bindings. They'd waited until everyone bar General Grievous had left, so that they could speak in their own solitude.
"It looks that way" E replied, staring into space. "I guess mystery man was right; Danger really does seem to follow us wherever we go. Even when we try and go on holiday, we find an entire Imperial base right in our path."
"I wonder if everything else he said was true as well. Everything about the force, the fact we registered off the chart. Surely that can't be right?"
"Well I certainly don't feel like I have any kind of powers at the moment" E concurred, his face turning whiter by the second. "It's a miracle I haven't passed out yet."
"They really should let you get your injuries checked out" K said, but E laughed at the suggestion.
"Seriously? They're going to kill us soon anyway, you really think General Grievous cares that I'm missing my freaking hand? He's probably enjoying this."
"Point taken."
"Bloody hurts though. I feel like someone has given me a shower at 4000 degrees Kelvin, and them driven a lawnmower over my back"
"That's weird analogy number 3 tonight" K whispered under his breath.
"Huh?"
"Nothing….. Nothing. Let's just try and focus on trying to make our last few minutes count, eh?"
"It's a shame your simulator didn't give us this scenario to practise. Would have come in handy about now."
"Well," Said K, "I didn't really think we'd get this far."
"It's nice of you to tell me that now, fills me with confidence. I should have listened to Commander Stark and turned the bloody ship around and headed back to Coruscant."
"Or Naboo."
"Either one would have done nicely. Much better than this."
"Like I said, let's try and focus on what's left of our life, not what might have been."
"You mean like that ship?" E said, looking up to the sky. K followed suit, and looked on in suspense as the landing craft touched down next to them. Neither pilot had any idea what was going on, but each of them dreaded what it could be. The craft shut off its engines, lowered the gantry, and then, slowly, a shadowy figure started to emerge.

The Emperor had arrived.

"My Lord" Grievous said, startled at the Emperor's arrival. "I was not expecting you here."
"You may rise General" the Emperor said, then walked straight past him and towards E and K. "I knew you were going to be here." He said to the two pilots. "I could sense your presence before you even left Coruscant. I knew I would lure you here." He took a pause to catch his breath, but then the Emperor continued; "You two have caused me a great deal of trouble. I would have won this war already had it not been for you two getting in my way. I would already rule this galaxy."
E gulped hard at The Emperor's words; K listened in absolute silence.
"I could just kill you here, right now. I could finish you off easily, but there is something about you two, a presence in the force. I can sense it- your fear, your hatred. You long for revenge, yet you're afraid of what revenge may end with. You have power, but you don't know how to use it. I know everything about the force, even the dark arts of the Sith. With my training, you could become the two most powerful people in the galaxy. I've been watching you, ever since you stopped the takeover of Kamino. I've even been testing you." The Emperor sensed a change in expression when he said that, one that he had more than expected.
"I wanted to test your abilities, to see how powerful you really were. Corellia, The Senate revolt- they were all tests of your ability. Join me!" The Emperor cried, "And together, we could rule the galaxy. You would be my two finest soldiers, bringing peace and tranquillity to the many star systems currently being corrupted by the politics of the Republic. Join me. Join the Empire!"
"MY LORD!" General Grievous exclaimed, striding over to where the Emperor stood. "You cannot let them live! This Republic scum has destroyed countless numbers of Imperial machinery. They are the reason Jedi still live! They must be stopped now."
"Remember your place General" Palpatine snapped. "Remember what I did for you. If it wasn't for me, you would have died on Kalee. If it wasn't for me, you would have been left drifting through space for eternity. Do not question my authority."
"Yes my lord" Grievous eventually said and sank back into the shadows, visibly annoyed at the Emperor's decision.
"Well," Said The Emperor, "I'm waiting for your decision."
Time passed as neither pilot said anything, but then K suddenly lifted his head, and said one striking word.
"No."
"No?" Questioned the Emperor.
"I will not join your Empire, and I will not join the Sith. I've seen firsthand what you've done to this galaxy, what you've done with peace and tranquillity. You killed my friends, and I will never join an army associated with death and destruction."
"I won't either!" Said E suddenly. "You did this to me" He said, indicating his handless arm, "K is right anyway. I would rather die than join the dark side of the force. I am not going to join your Empire." He turned to face K, and forced a smile.
"Brothers in arms"
"Until the end of the universe."
They both gave a silent nod and stamped the floor in salute, then turned back towards the Emperor.
"I have to say, I'm disappointed with your decision" The Emperor said, "I thought you would be wise, but instead you've been foolish."
The Emperor stepped forward to face them, force lightning sparking from his fingertips.
"This decision leaves me with no choice. I'm afraid, my friends, this is the end for you." The Emperor to a deep breath, then pointed his fingers in the direction of E and K.

"You. Will. DIE!"

END OF ACT I