spoiler: zebo battle very hard...

[b1274506]

SPOILERS BELOW

I had 2x Kali shields, Smog anti-missile and the 50% laser damage reduction for mothership.

My fighters mostly had 4 slots, not three, but it's not all that relevant for my tactic. I'd replace repair with a good shield though (+500 shields or +350 shields). Also had Systems mark 3, which is important since it boosts the shields repair rate by 250 percent. Keep lots of saves (though I only needed to reload a few times until I figured this tactic out, the tactic worked from pretty much the first try).

Anyway, the tactic is that as soon as you're thrown into the system, follow the top of the map to the left, then down and you'll reach the first hyperspace jump inhibitor (all 3 are marked on your map). Keep all your fighters in your bay. Back when you first jump in and start going to the left, beserks will immediately find you but ignore them and continue. I had the Lion MK2, I am not sure if this is true for the Manticore, but it's faster than the beserks (only a few will stay with you).

Once you reach the first inhibitor, start firing at it immediately. At this point (or shortly before you reach the inhibitor), you'll need to launch one of your fighters. In my case, two of them had the Polarizer option (Cleric and Alex). I launched Cleric first. Have him polarize your ship once your shields are at minimum (which will restore your shields), which should be under attack by a lot of berserks who at this point will catch up. Make sure to take him far from your ship (take him a bit past the inhibitor, for instance) so that they don't concentrate fire on him but concentrate on the ship.

Once first inhibitor is destroyed, take both the fighter (do not dock - takes too long) and the mothership toward the next closest inhibitor. Keep restoring your shields (Cleric could do it four times in my case, and Alex could do it 8 times but I only had to do it a total of about 8 times). Repeat what you did before - shoot the inhibitor, keep the fighter a decent distance away. Once the second inhibitor is destroyed, repeat as before with the third inhibitor.

Once all 3 are down, you'll get a bunch of ships jump in (as promised). From that point, the mission is pretty much won.

Also, if this doesn't work for you, try searching these forums, there are other discussions.