Tri-Fighter

"This fighter certainly has not outlived its usefulness."

- Keldon Tyfus

The Tri-fighter, also known as the tri-droid fighter or tri-droid fighter, was a deadly Confederacy droid starfighter designed as a fast and agile space-superiority starfighter, built to excel in dogfighting. It was used most towards the end of the Clone Wars, and later brought back into commission through vigorous efforts made by Keldon Tyfus in the Shadow Imperium.

Characteristics
The droid tri-fighter was designed by the Colicoid Creation Nest — makers of the deadly droideka — and manufactured by Colla Designs and Phlac-Arphocc Automata Industries. The droid's ridged, three-armed design was based on the skull features of a fearsome predator native to the planet Colla IV. The bracing arms surrounded the droid's advanced artificial brain, housed in a rotating, gyroscopic core. The droid tri-fighter had three independent thrusters providing it with agility and a powerful reactor and control/comms transceiver that provided unusual range for a fighter drone.

It was armed with one medium laser cannon protruding from the central ball, and a light laser cannon for each of the three arms. Two to six missiles of variable payloads were housed within each arm. The nose-like cannon made the droid tri-fighter similar in appearance to the DSD1 dwarf spider droid also used by the Confederacy.

The droid tri-fighter was capable of deploying buzz droids via discord missiles, and quickly became rival to the ARC-170 starfighter and the V-wing starfighter. Although it could not outrun the Eta-2 interceptors favored by the Jedi, it was bulkier and more heavily armed, making it a challenge for even the best living starpilots to overcome.

History
The droid tri-fighter was introduced into the Confederate Navy relatively late in the conflict. One of its first recorded uses was on Praesitlyn, where they were matched against the T-19 starfighters of the Praesitlyn Defense Force. Tri-fighters were also deployed at Boz Pity, Saleucami, and Belderone.

Many tri-fighters fought during the Second Battle of Coruscant, where they decimated ARC-170 squadrons. Following the execution of the Separatist Council by Darth Sidious's new apprentice, Darth Vader, these units were de-activated. At least one tri-fighter comprised part of the Imperial junkyard during the Galactic Civil War.

Exodus Divergence
Following the Battle of Endor, Keldon Tyfus spearheaded an extensive operation to salvage any remaining craft of this type. Successful in retrieving the remaining fighters, Tyfus had the Tri-fighter upgraded to house humanoid pilots, and thus integrated it fully into the Shadow Imperium's Starfighter Corps. Retaining much of the original configuration, but improved in terms of speed and maneuverability, the Shadow Imperium's variant of the Tri-fighter remains as useful as it was before.

However, a constant problem that has been faced is the obstruction of the viewport. Because of this, active-service Tri-fighters are few and far between, as the scientists in the Shadow Imperium are looking for ways to overcome this drawback to reintroducing the design.