The latest Jump Point issue mentioned the Defender has one purpose, "protecting Banu Merchantman ships that operate it as a dedicated interceptor." Defenders were mentioned again in the Merchantman piece, "Merchantman are typically protected by smaller Defender parasite fighters that tend to prevent pirates from hunting the Banu." This may be old news to some but I didn't know that was official; last I heard CIG was merely thinking about that. I imagine acquiring Banu ships in-game will be an involved process of raising your reputation with them and finding appropriate dealers, etc. Seeing as all Andromeda ships come with their parasite ship, and the same is true with the Carrack and pieces respectively, will the Merchantman come with a Defender? Is this part of the reason behind the most recent price hike, or will need to pledge for both?