Beating IMT Needs Help Again solo?

[M175]

Hi,
I'm playing playing a Normal+Champion game for the first time, and so far everything went more or less well, but now I've seemed to have a hit a brick wall with the IMT needs help again mission (IMT and Mourners vs. Citadel Ascendent and Dark Spire).
The wiki's recommendation is to drop the large Dark Spire station first, but that means that I'm unable to shepherd either of the two vastly outnumbered allied fleets, they get their behinds kicked and allied stations start dropping... when I try to protect one of the fleets, it ends the same way, as the allied reinforcements decide on engaging in a bit of being defeated in detail by engaging enemy flotillas by themselves instead of rallying with the fleet.
So... any ideas or basic champion tips?

(My champion is currently L25, with 6 points to spare, Needler2,Laser2,MLRS4,Missile0,Shield5,Acid1,Paralyse2,Heat3,Nano1,Insanity1,Translocutor1,Rail1,Slicer1,Interceptor1,Flak1.  My standard is a Spire Cruiser with a full loadout of shields and MLRS, which is somewhat weak offensively but is capable of shielding allies for some time even when I've burned through the shadow charge. I've tried a variety of other builds (Rail clusters, human cruiser with a full loudout of flak (as it's the only AoE weapon), Zenith with Heat, a Missile-heavy loadout to try to drop the bases more quickly, various mixes... some go quicker, other slower, but the end result is the same. Usually wait until the shields go and then return to the large base to rebuild, as I'm playing in a vine galaxy, letting the destroyed champion return takes ages).

[Tridus]

Are you dancing around the Spire base?

The trick with this one is that the Spire bases are easier than the others to take out. Get to close range and go around the base in circles. The photon lance on the base will start firing and be hitting you, but as you're moving in a circle at close range you'll be out of it in a second and it can't quickly retarget. That massively reduces the damage you're taking and lets you mop the floor with the base. This works best with the Zenith Cruiser as it can pack on a lot of Missiles, which do heavy damage to the base. The Spire Cruiser can load up more shields (and photon lances), but then you have the same problem of not doing full DPS as you move around. (OTOH the Spire Cruiser is the best one against any other base.)

I found the best way to do this mission is to ignore the fleets as much as possible and just go wipe out the Spire base yourself. Once that's done provided the two large starbases on your side are still up, you can shepherd their fleets against the single Mourner fleet and it's fairly easy going. You're going to lose some allied small bases, but if you can keep the large ones up you're fine.

[M175]

Are you dancing around the Spire base?

The trick with this one is that the Spire bases are easier than the others to take out. Get to close range and go around the base in circles. The photon lance on the base will start firing and be hitting you, but as you're moving in a circle at close range you'll be out of it in a second and it can't quickly retarget. That massively reduces the damage you're taking and lets you mop the floor with the base. This works best with the Zenith Cruiser as it can pack on a lot of Missiles, which do heavy damage to the base. The Spire Cruiser can load up more shields (and photon lances), but then you have the same problem of not doing full DPS as you move around. (OTOH the Spire Cruiser is the best one against any other base.)

I found the best way to do this mission is to ignore the fleets as much as possible and just go wipe out the Spire base yourself. Once that's done provided the two large starbases on your side are still up, you can shepherd their fleets against the single Mourner fleet and it's fairly easy going. You're going to lose some allied small bases, but if you can keep the large ones up you're fine.

That did the trick - thanks