I have dual torp launchers. Killing Demons is not the problem, it's them killing me. I've been flying this quite a bit, and often I have no shields by the time the autopilot camera pan completes.
So far there have been no wingmen for hire in the mission computer. I was starting to think that there was code disallowing wingmen if a campaign mission is active... Guess I'll just keep reloading and see what comes up.