Tya'k'aaku

The tya'k'aaku ("star droid" in the Mandalorian language), often simply referred to as the Mandalorian droid starfighter was a model of droid starfighter employed by some Mandalorian factions.

Characters
While Mandalorian droid starfighters varied in design between the few clans that had the resources to employ them, they often took the appearance of a Basilisk war droid's head, leading historians to speculate that the first Mandalorian droid starfighters were simply heads of these war droids that were modified to function as starfighters without the need of a pilot. Most Mandalorian droid starfighters were equipped with a single blaster cannon or, in the case of repurposed war droid heads, pulse cannons.

History
The first Mandalorian faction to use droid starfighters was the Aka'liit, who deployed thousands of them in their space battles with the Thyrsians (which occurred between 250 and 200 BBY). Since then, they were relatively phased out as many Mandalorian clans turned to technology produced by foreign corporations, however they made a minor return during the Great Clan Wars, in which the Journeyman Protectors used these centuries-old droid starfighters to carry out attacks on Republic Judicial Forces warships. Some may have even been reactivated by Mandalorian insurgents during the Mandalore campaign, as the captain of an Arquitens-class light cruiser stationed in the Hrthging system reported an assault on his vessel by around seventy unidentified droid starfighters; after destroying the attacking droid starfighters, further investigations revealed that these droids were in fact tya'k'aaku. Scientists aboard the light cruiser examined a fragment of one of the destroyed droid starfighters and discovered that they were over two centuries old.