Since I don't have a lot of time to play games in general, I guess I wanted to spend my limited time in FTL enjoying myself and not chasing some impossible quest. 
But today I decided to give it a shot. I fired up the Rock Cruiser but was unable to find the event for the pod at all during the first playthrough. So I decided to restart give it one last try. This time I actually found the event for the pod twice! The second time I just opted for the scrap, since I already had one
Then I managed to find the Zoltan Research Facility without any trouble at all, it sort of just popped up. 
At this point, I became really nervous. "How many times have others come so far, only to have the Ancient Device slip through their fingers," I asked myself. Some people spent tens of hours trying to unlock this ship. So, with all this in mind, I proceed to the Rock Homeworld sector. And then, my mind was completely blown. After the FIRST jump that I had made that sector I arrived at the Ancient Device!
That was it, right there, in front of my nose! After that, it was just a matter of going to that Quest beacon and the wonders of the Crystal people were at my fingertips! I was so happy 
I must say, for me it was one of the most interesting playthroughs so far. In addition, if I had not encountered the Crystals, I would have probably lost the game. Maybe I was careless due to my enormous excitement, but in the middle of the third and last encounter with the Rebel Flagship I managed to run out of missiles! I only had a 3-shot laser and an Ion cannon left, not enough to break through the enemy shields and cause damage. With 5 crew on the enemy ship, I don't think I would have been able to beam aboard and destroy their shields with brute fist force unless I had my Crystal crew members and their Lockdown ability on deck.
