Necessary weapon loadout to fight top-tier Sith without Force sensitivity? *RPG Players wanted*

I searched for threads with titles containing similar terms, but came up with nothing. Sorry if this has been asked before. Also, while this topic is primarily concerned with fanfic, the general subject of the Star Wars RPGs is a crucial component. I took a chance and posted it here rather than in the RPG forum.

Anyway, in a fic I'm writing, the main characters get into a losing battle (I cannot stress "losing" enough, because if I don't you're going to close this topic as soon as you finish this sentence) with Darth Sidious. The main characters are... I suppose the phrase "philanthropic mercenaries" describes them best, and there are six of them. Their physical abilities are about as good as a non-Force sensitive can manage, but it goes without saying that all of them together aren't even in the same league as one Sith Master, especially this one.

I won't waste your time with the backstory, but the basic scenario is this: through a stroke of supreme(ly horrible) luck, this band of mercenaries finds themselves in a position to attack Darth Sidious when he is relatively unaware. I say "relatively" because it's pretty much part of Clone Wars-era Palpatine's character that he's never in the dark about anything. The point is that this is the best possible opportunity anyone could ever get to take him down, the absolute best-case scenario, and when the enormity of exactly who he is hits the mercenaries, they feel a moral obligation to do everything within their power to stop him, suicide mission or not.

Okay, the stage is set. Now the question: what the Hell could they use against him? I can "choreograph" the fight well enough, but I'm just not schooled enough in the obscure bits of tech to know which weapons/armor/accessories would work best against a monster like this. Now, this being fiction, you could obviously pour on contrivance after contrivance until a single blaster shot is enough to kill him and it's not a suicide mission after all ("Oh, if only Palpatine hadn't slipped on that banana peel and cracked his skull open on the doorframe, leaving him completely defenseless!"). However, to avoid that, I thought of an approach that may make it easier for you to help me: Is anyone here a fan of the Star Wars tabletop RPGs? West End Games or Wizards of the Coast, it doesn't matter.

While tabletop games certainly have more than a bit of creativity involved in the proceedings, they are still a far sight more structured and pseudo-quasi-kinda-sorta-objective than the "I can do whatever the Hell I want" mentality available to a (poor) writer. I never really got into SW RPG myself, but I had a brainstorm: Palpatine is statted somewhere in one of those books, right? Okay, look up those stats. You just rolled the worst random encounter in the world and that's your enemy. Now imagine you have a painstakingly min-maxed high-level scoundrel with enough money to buy anything from any game book that you can carry on your person (so no calling in air strikes or other such tactics). Given these parameters, what is your optimum "Sith-buster" loadout?


Mav Edit: We don't allow threads that ask questions about anyones specific story, only general questions threads. But seeing as how there is very little story detail and this can be discussed as a general Non-Force sensitives vs. Sith and we haven't really had such discussions, I'm going to let it stand as long as the converastion stays general and not plot specific.

 

I know of a few things that would help, like cortosis and ultrachrome, but I've never looked through the RPG books so I can't say what stuff makes use of those. Cortosis disrupts lightsabre blades and stops them working for a short time and ultrachrome is resistant to lightsabres as well as being super conductive which would help against Force Lightening. Not sure if that's much help but it's a starting point.

 

Beskar'gam is resistant to lightsabers (if I recall it right), so I'd get armor made of it for all of your mercs. Certainly, a big problem is that Palpy could use the Force to stop any missiles, so projectile weapons are out. And blaster bolts he could deflect back, making it very hazardous to use blasters.

What I'd do:
Beskargam armor with helmets
Flamethrowers (he'll have problems deflecting that)
a device that produces a loud, high-pitch sound (their helmets will protect them from it, while Palpy will double over in pain until he can do something with the Force to "turn off his hearing" or similar)
flash grenade (same idea as the sound device; while it will not effect him for long, it may distract him for a while)

And then charge. Seriously. If you have armor that can't be penetrated by lightsabers, you don't have to be too cautious about staying out of range. Engaging an elderly man in a fist-fight might be a good idea. With six people there, he hopefully won't be able to hit all of them with his Force Lightning at the same time.

Of course, if your guys can find ysalamir, that would help tremendously.


Also, if you want to pack more weapons I can recommend the following weapons based on playing Jedi Knight 3: Jedi Academy:
Golan Arms FC-1 Flachette Launcher (fires a spray of stuff that is pretty much impossible to completely deflect with a lightsaber, but might accidentally hit your buddies as well)
Stouker concussion rifle (gave me huge trouble because it creates a nasty shockwave)
PLX-2M portable missile launcher (also nasty if fired at your feet, although Palpy might be able to stop the missiles with the Force)

Hope I could help a bit. Good luck!

Edit: If I remember it correctly, Cortosis ore, while stopping lightsabers, is very soft and can easily be destroyed by a blaster shot.

 

Hehe, I'm guessing you don't want them carrying a ysalamir around.

 

Chilla: yeah, cortosis isn't strong, but it'd be strong enough to disrupt his lightsabre blade at least once. That's all you need to get an edge as he doesn't use blasters (that I know of).

 

Phrik is apparently stronger and lighter than Beskar and very lightsaber resistant. It was used to create the Dark Trooper series of combat droids in the Dark Forces (Jedi Knight I) game. Only problem with it is that it is very expensive to refine into useable armor and weapons.

A Carbonite Gun is also an effective weapon against a Force-user. It's basically a carbonite chamber on the go.

The mercenaries real problem is preventing or disrupting any mass Force Choke attack by him. Lifting and choking six people at the same time should be no problem for him. He's likely to do this if he believes he cannot win the fight, probably at the very end of the battle. Palpatine does strike me as a "cat playing with his prey before he kills it" kinda guy. He'll toy with the mercenaries first as entertainment before he gets serious and wipes them out. Unless he's just in that foul of a mood that day.

So any sonic disruptors or anti-personnel sonic disruptor tech should be reserved for any Force attacks that cannot be dodged and are channeled.

No explosives, not only can he deflect them, they will also create debris in which he can use against the mercs.

Cortosis blades will help them fight him in melee if he's still armed with a lightsaber. Palpatine is also a practitioner of Jar'kai, dual-welding, so having a cortosis blade may come in handy.

He's also apparently very fast despite his age, so anything that can slow him down without slowing them down would be useful.

Finally, the mercenaries best chance of defeating him is getting into his personal space and slowing him down. Like the Jedi, the Sith rely on lightsaber technique, foot work and the Force to defeat their enemies. Jango Fett was able to defeat six Jedi Knights with his bare hands simply because he got into hand-to-hand combat with them and garroted one. Palpatine was impressed and amazed that Jedi were defeated that way when Dooku told him, which gives the impression that he might consider himself superior to a non-Force sensitive in single combat.

EDIT: Oh, I forgot one very effective weapon. The electroshock net. If you can get that on him, its pretty much game over for him.

 

That's true. But if any stormtroopers or other guards enter the fight, they'll be in trouble....

Disrupting the lightsaber would give them a huge opening for an attack. But how exactly could they use the ore? Make armor or a blade out of it and wait for his lightsaber to turn off when it connects?

Edit: Never mind. CmdrMitthrawnuruodo already mentioned a Cortosis blade. (I didn't know there was one.)

 

Cortosis blades consist of metals mixed with cortosis, so they don't cause the feedback loop that we see in the Thrawn Duology as Luke hacks away at the rock wall. It just prevents the lightsaber from cutting through the blade like it would to a normal vibroblade. I think contact with pure cortosis causes the feedback loop however.

 

There are a lot of specialty items such as ysalamiri and cortosis, but most of these are probably rare and expensive, so they might not be available. Depends on how much cash and time the mercenaries have. Generally speaking, the most effective weapon against any Force-user tends to be just piling one distraction on top of another, to the point that they are unable to focus effectively on all the threats. For example, most of the Jedi killed in Order 66 were relatively easy for the clone troopers to pick off because they were already in an unpredictable, distracting environment that kept them busy looking for external threats.

 

Well, we know that the Noghri tried to use stokhi spray sticks against Luke Skywalker, and they didn't exactly come out on top. IIRC, several antique tapestries gave their lives so that Luke could remain free to rescue Han and Leia...

 

Not to mention the fact that most of the Jedi considered the clones their comrades in arms, and in some cases as friends.