The Empire always had a large weapons cache held in reserve, in case of an emergency.
During your control phase, if you have a weapon (except a lightsaber or [Permanent Weapon]) at a battleground you control, opponent loses 1 Force. OR If you just used a weapon (except a lightsaber or [Permanent Weapon]) to ‘hit’ a character or starship, opponent loses 1 Force. (Immune to Sense.)