The planet defenses.

[Tsagoth]

I think there are still some details missing from the explanation of how combat works. Here is another anecdote that Player One might be able to confirm if he reads this:

Last night when I logged out of the game, my opponent had a fleet of 23 cruisers orbiting the star of a system in which I had a colony. Given that I couldn't attack this fleet directly (because of the "no combat in star orbit" bug), I parked 26 cruisers at my colony, in addition to the 2 orbital laser arrays. This was a 400mu colony.

When I logged in this morning, his fleet was gone, my fleet was gone, and all of the orbitals around the colony were gone, but the colony was still mine. I assume he attacked with the 23 cruisers, although I suppose he could have mustered some more ships.

If you tell me the server and the planet involved, I can pull the log and play the fight back to see what went on. I'm under no illusion that combat is working perfectly.