Defeat 18 ships in each of six waves. Read the flashing attack warning, interrupt the attacker, or move away from its incoming shots. Later waves shorten the warning, add three-way fire, and strengthen the armored rows.
Hold A/D or left/right on the pad to move continuously, one character at a time. Hold RETURN or the pad button to fire normal shots; W or pad up fires heavy shots. You can move and fire together.
Normal shots deal 1 damage and add 3 heat. Heavy shots deal 2 damage and add 5 heat, with a longer firing interval. At 12 heat, the weapon locks temporarily and COOLING appears. You can still move. Release fire to cool before committing to another burst.
Directions work on the keyboard or pad; the pad button also acts as RETURN. SPACE opens confirmation to restart this stage. NO is selected initially. Choose with A/D, confirm with RETURN, or cancel with SPACE. Play pauses during confirmation. CTRL+C returns to BASIC.
A flashing enemy is preparing to fire. Destroy it before it shoots to cancel that attack and remove 4 heat; COOL +4 confirms the reward. Armored enemies need two normal hits or one heavy hit. Enemy bolts keep the aim chosen at launch, so moving after the shot is released lets you evade them.
Shots travel across the screen while the battle continues. Damaged armor flashes, and destroyed ships burst into light and debris before disappearing. A hit on your ship briefly pauses the scene with a sound, then gives you a short flashing recovery period.
The bottom two rows show HULL (three hits per wave), ENEMIES, and HEAT. The formation gradually descends. You lose when hull reaches zero or the fleet breaks through. Clear all six waves; later waves fire more often, waves 3–6 use three-way shots, and waves 4–6 add a second armored row.
