Take out the escorts first. Pull to a safe distance away from the Ralatha. Let your shields fully recharge. Come back within torpedo range, lock on and begin the approach. Juke and dodge a little bit, but make sure you don't move so much that the lock isn't lost. Fire off your torp when you are less than 2500 meters from the Ralatha and then pull back to be out of range of her guns (I always go out about 16,000, but that is more than you need.) Let your shields recharge and do it again. It takes two torps to take out the ship.
One other suggestion. Right after you take out the escorts and if you have any FF missles left, switch over to those, aquire a target lock on the Ralatha and then pull out of the gun range. When you swing your ship back around to face the Ralatha, switch from the FF to torpedo and the torp should start aquiring the target from this far out. Other wise the torpedo doesn't begining the locking process until you are in range of the guns, and if you are going fast enough and the Ralatha is moving toward you, you may have to slow down before you fire and then you really get chewed up. Also if you see big blue balls of energy coming at you, avoid them, they are the Anti Matter Guns, and they can do quite a bit of damage. They make a distinctive sound when they are fired, so if you hear it when retreating, check your rear view, or manuver slightly, since they do aim those rather well. Fortunately they travel slowly enough they are easy for fighters and bombers to avoid.
The flak hitting the torp doesn't happen very often. If the torpedo hits, the shields don't go down. You do see a section of the cap ship becomes red, though, signifying damage.
[This message has been edited by Shane (edited September 26, 2000).]