I was reading a bit more on this game and how to play, like the tip sheet in the OP... and then when I went to play I got my ass kicked even worse than when I went in blindly
Won a fight against a rebel ship and was all like "YEAAAAH!" but then the game said "you had to flee before looting the ship" so I got zero goodies from it

Another time I ran out of missiles... and another time I followed a distress signal to a planet where I picked up a guy who went crazy on me and took out one of my crew members.
Another few questions - how do I acquire and deploy drones? How do I get my crew to board enemy ships?