alright so i'm a little confused about these, i know you can launch them, but can they move or even attack or are they just meat shields? If what page in the rule book is it, because i'm missing it.

thanks for any help

One of the locations on BS allows you to "activate two fighters"...i.e. either move or attack.

oh ok thanks for the the help

It's important to note that 'unmanned' vipers are a bit of a misnomer. They're just crummy pilots, and not any of the main characters. So, they don't attack or move or do anything on their own without the use of the Command location. However, they make good shields for real pilots (unmanned vipers get targetted first) or civilian ships.

We call them affectionally "Red Shirt Vipers", "Extras" or "Speaking Roles".