Star Luster/Enemies

Enemy squadrons
When you arrive in a sector that an enemy squadron occupies, you immediately enter Combat Mode. In order to clear the sector, you must defeat all 10 of the enemies' craft. Despite the differences between the various ships, there are some features common to all of them.
 * Squads possess three degrees of strength. The color of the squad indicates their strength. A blue squad is the weakest, a gray squad possesses medium strength, and a purple squad is the strongest. The degree of strength determines how many shots are needed to defeat the craft, and how much damage their shots can do to the Gaia.
 * Only three ships will attack you at one time. As soon as you enter, three ships will engage you. Whenever you destroy one ship, it will be replaced with one from just outside the visible range of your LRS. When 7 ships are destroyed, the last enemy to arrive is typically the Disruptor.
 * The enemy will only shoot at you when they are directly in front of you. As unrealistic as it might seem, enemies will never fire at your ship if they are above, below, in back of, or to either side of you. They must be, to some degree, in front of you before they will fire. This way, you never have to dodge an enemy bullet that you never saw coming.
 * The enemy will usually attempt to line up with you. Because of the rule above, in order for them to fire at you, they must attempt to reach your field of vision. So even if they start out above or below you, they will attempt to merge with the plane of space that your ship is currently in. In other words, don't try too hard to seek the enemy out. They will come find you.
 * Enemies use an approach and retreat pattern. Once an enemy has your position, they enter a particular flight pattern. From behind you, they fly over and away from you, firing backwards, as long as they remain in your field of vision. Once they escape the view cone on your LRS, they turn around and continue to approach you until they end up behind your ship, and repeat the pattern.
 * Enemy bullets are "attracted" to the front of your ship. The enemies do not fire straight shots. They fire bullets that continuously correct their velocity in order to hit the nose of your ship. Therefore, you can easily confuse the bullets by changing your orientation frequently, forcing the bullets to over-correct themselves and fly past you.

Ragra
This is the weakest craft of the Battura fleet. They can be destroyed in one shot, regardless of strength. Once they appear in your view, get them in your crosshairs quickly and blast away. Don't wait around to see if they are destroyed. They are defeated so easily, you're better off moving on to the next enemy threat right away.

Allef
The Aleph is the most common craft to find in each squadron. They are not the fastest, but they possess the most defense after the heavily armored Disruptors. Except for the blue Allef, more attention is required when fighting against Allef since they are not as easily dispatched as Ragras. Keep them in your crosshairs for as long as possible and fire continuously. Watch out for shots fired from purple Allefs, as they can damage one of your subsystems.

Rate
Rates are, by far, the fastest moving craft in any squadron. Additionally, they are the second strongest offensively after Disruptors. Fortunately, they aren't too common. Getting a Rate in your crosshairs is a difficult endeavor. Your best bet is to chase after one with your thrusters while it is flying away from you and fire at it's back.

Disruptor
The fearsome Disruptors (which, not so ironically, looks like the Death Star) is the deadliest foe in the game. Fortunately, you never deal with more than one of them (with one exception in Adventure mode), and only after the majority of the squadron is defeated. They are the strongest offensively and defensively. The fact that they are slow is no help. That just means they will have greater opportunity to fire at you as you get closer to them, and their shots are entirely destructive. One shot from a purple Disruptor will completely destroy the Gaia, ending the game immediately. Constant motion is highly advised when you attempt to take these on. Standing still is an invitation for annihilation.