A rarer carrier variant of the Endeavour, the Defiant is rarely utilised on its own in the Imperial Navy, as its typical weapons loadout leaves it vulnerable to direct attack and totally reliant upon its relatively small number of Furies and Starhawks to defend it. In centuries past, these warships occasionally formed the flagships of long range light reconaissance patrols into the Koronus Expanse, prior to the establishment of the more permanent taskforce known as Passage Watch 27 Est. Even then, some Defiants still remain in service with Battlefleet Koronus. A few of these spacecraft have made it into the hands of some of the richer Rogue Trader dynasties, where they are often utilised as a versatile "second ship," a supplementary support vessel used to fill gaps in the capabilities of t