Quarto
Unknown Enemy
We don't actually know anything about the Talon's service history, officially (Standoff provides a few lines of backstory for the Talon, but it's all made up by us). For all we know, it could very well have been specifically designed for the role which it serves in Priv - as a second-line Militia fighter. Of course, Standoff's explanation is equally possible, but the point is that it's all just speculation.Also, what you mentioned was true about decoming ships with low survivability... i think thats why the Talon was retired... why they were sold to pirates instead of scrapped though is beyond me...
On the other hand, we do know that the sale of Talons to Retros and pirates is not something... you know, intentional . It was, according to the Priv manual, a fairly large corruption affair involving the governor of Gemini Sector. Heck, we even have a bounty-hunt mission against that governor during Priv (or was it in RF?).