Almost beat it.

[cloudmaan24]

I was running on easy with a 2nd layout Kestrel named The Voyager. I had made it to the 3rd sector when a few mantis crew members invaded my ship. I was so busy fighting the Mantis ship that my crew were almost dead. I decided that it was too late and flooded the airlock and killed them all. I had beaten the ship and was running on one crew member. After passing another sector I found a store selling crew, I had collected enough scrap to buy two crew members. Later on in the sector I fought a slave ship and the gave me a Rock crew member. In the next sector I had gotten an Engi from a random encounter. I had flown pretty well through the rest until the seventh sector where I had to escape on a red level hull damage. After getting in the 8th sector I had worked out a plan with my weapon systems. I tried to fight the boss but before I could take out the missiles it hit my ship and I realized I had put too much into shield strength. I was taken down by a few volleys of Ion blasts and rockets.

[UltraMantis]

Very brave run. You managed a comeback from the brink of death. The boss is very strong initially but once the weapons are disabled it's only the special abilities that pose a problem. Unfortunately your ship didn't have enough hull to survive the clash.

The best defense agaisnt missiles is a Defense Drone MkI + high evasion (for the last stand i would buy up even the less efficient engine upgrades), or cloaking timed right so that it avoids missiles. Against the boss the Defense Drone also comes in handy in the latter stages of the fight.

Best of luck for the next attempt!