I believe the mission that you are on is called "into the fire..." In that mission, what I do is, As soon as the mission starts, build 6 cruisers and send 2 to each of your 3 flak drones. Then, as you get more resources, build more and send them to the drones at your discretion. Don't forget to save some to protect the world that you are trying to protect. After you have about 4 cruisers at each drone, then select an enemy drone, and build 3 engineer pods to go after that drone. That way, if an enemy ship trys to get them, they have to go through all 3. Once you have captured the drone, immediately start sending ships there to protect it. Again, 4-5 cruisers should be adequete. Do the same procedure for the other 2 drones. Once you have control of all the drones, select all of your ships, and send them to the enemy planet at the same time. Your fleet by now should be able to cruch enemy defenses with ease. Finally, build a transport and send it to the planet. That is how you beat the level.
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