Cloaked in flowing red robes and full body armor, their faces completely hidden by masks, the Imperial Royal Guards were Emperor Palpatine's personal bodygurads, charged with protecting him and defending the most important treasures of the Empire, including the Imperial throne room in the Imperial Palace on Coruscant. Afforded the best military training and mental conditioning in the Empire, the Royal Guards never hesitated to demonstrate their formidable skills at wielding their imposing force pikes, making quick work of any transgressors.

The force pike is a two-meter-long pole-arm weapon topped with a charged power tip. Weighing barely seven kilograms, it is light for its size, allowing someone with sufficient training to manipulate the weapon with stunning swiftness. As is typical of other vibroweapons, the force pike's power cell energizes an ultrasonic generatorand so produces a distinctive low hum when activated. Conductive circuitsthat line the pole's interior carry the ultrasonic charge to the power tip, which emits thousands of microscopic vibrations per second. This rapid motion allows the blade to slice effortlessly through stone, metal, and of course flesh and bone. The blade's vibrating action means that even a grazing attack can cause serious lacerations, dismemberment, and other griecous injuries. Even with the generator deactivated, the metal blade is extremely sharp.

A force pike also can be set to release a stun charge, which is delivered as soon as the power tip comes within four centimeters of the target. The painful shack charge is powerful enough to knock a full-grown Wookiee unconscious. The force pike's long pole is perfect for thrusting attacks, gibing the weapon a considerably longer reach than standard vibroblades while allowing for precisely controlled strikes. This design also allows the wielder to applly gis or her full physical strength to an attack. The pole's spun graphite composition strengthens the shaft while allowing it to flex andtemporarily bend rather than break under extreme pressure.

Besides their noted use by the Emperor's Royal Guards,force pikes are carried by honor guards and diplomatic corps troops as "ceremonial" (but nonetheless deadly) weapons. Force pikes are also quite effective for crowd control measures, allowing police officers and military troops to disperse bystanders quickly and round up demonstrators for detention and questioning.

Force pikes are useful weapons for boarding actions, since they allow attackers to slice through bulkheads and air locks in a few seconds without having to resort to dongerously unpredictable explosive charges.

Gaderffii, also known as gaffi sticks, are the dangerous bladed weapons wielded by Tatooine's fearsome Sand Peaple, also known as Tusken Raiders. Fashioned with metal scavenged from wrecked starships, these handcrafted weapons are crude, dangerous, and sturdy enough to last for years.

The simle design consists of a hoolw f\durasteel tube with a cutting blade affixed on one end and a weighted club or a second blade attached to the other end. The double-edged ax blades are sharpened to a razor's edge, able to cleave blasters--or living beings--in two with a single blow. The promary blade often has a spike used for spearing attacks. Gaffi sticks equipped with a second blade allow a Raider to deliver multiple cutting swings or strikes in quick succssion, while sticks armed with a weighted club head can be used to knock victims unconscious or batter and break apart objects such as droids, speeders, and vaporators.

Individual field disruptors are high-power portable energy projection systems that are used to defeat energy screens and fences. It is worn around the waist. However a disruptor also can serve as an umpomptu personal weapon, deliveringa potent energy blast to anyone who touches the person wearing th disruption field equipment.

At the minimum setting the disruptor, model Evasive-13, can pass through low-power fences, and the power cell lasts for over an hour of continuaous use. Howerver, maximum output,which is necessary to counteract many military-grade fences, drains the cell in less than four minutes.

Ryyk blades are the traditional hand weapons carried by the Wookiees of Kashyyyk. Essentially long machetes, they consist of sharpened blades with hide-wrapped grips. Specific blade and handgrip designs vary from clan to clan, and each warrior often etches personal markings into his or her blade.

Ryyk blades were fist developed when the Wookiees were still technologically primitive. The Wookiee clans lived in the uppermost braches of kashyyyk's trees, but hunting parties often ventured to the dangerous lower levels of the jungles, using their ryyk blades to carve paths and create intricate networks of vines for swinging from tree to tree. Before the development of bowcasters, hunting parties relied solely on spears and ryyk blades to feed their clans and protect their villages.

"Vibroblade" is the generic term applied to any powered cutting blade, ranging from tiny vibroshivs to sword blades that can be up to a meter long. As with the vibro-ax, these weapons use small ultrasonic generators to produce thousands of microscopic vibrations per second along the blade's edge, greatly improving the ability to slice through dense materials. Originally developed for industrial uses, vibroblades are used in factories and are carried in the field by scouts, mechanics, and other laborers. Medical applications are numerous, since vibroscalpels allow for very precise, effotless incisions.

Pressing the activation stud powers up the weapon, although the blade can be preset to activate as soon as it is pulled from its sheath. When powered, the blade vibrates so quickly that it seems to blur, while the low hum of the vibration generator can be heard from several meters away. The blade effortlessly cuts though duraplast, ceramic armor, and metal alloys. The handrip's padding absorbs excessvibration, resulting in a weapon that is extremely easy to wield. Its excellent weight distribution allows it to be thrown with great accuracy.

Vibroblade