I finally made it!
The RNG wasn't too harsh on me and I finally won on easy! Now for normal...
Kestrel A
Power: 28
Shields: 6x (3)
Engines: 6x
Weapons:
Pegasus Launcher
(Stock) Burst Laser 2
Cloaking Device: 3x
Crew Teleporter: NONE
Drone Control: NONE
Doors: 2x
Medical: 1x
O2: 1x
Sensors: 1x
Early in the journey, I got a Long-Range Sensor. This led me to avoid conflict and stick to civillian sectors. Although much of the journey was tough; I ran out of fuel twice. I even got the Kestrel down to 1 hull, and repaired it to full over time (never got credit for that achievement...) But about 1/2 way through I got a cloaking device and started upgrading it.
When I finally made it to the last stand, I still had some ways to go on tuning up the ship. I only had 4x Shields (2) 5 engine and 2 cloak. But encounters with Rebels went well, and I quickly gained enough scrap to top off the needed upgrades.
The Final Encounter...
When I finally encountered the Rebel Flagship, I planned to use the Cloak for maximum effect - only engaging when waves of weapons were incomming. Once I got to the Flagship I attacked it over and over, without stopping for air in between sorties.
Part One Missiles and Lasers...
The first thing I did was target the enemy tripple missile launcher with the Pegasus, and then began working on the shields. He managed to launch a single wave of tripple missile, which I easily dodged by activating the cloak before they hit me. Eventually the shields were gone, and I took apart other weapons and hull.
Part Two Drones, Drones, and more Dronds...
The second wave was the toughest. I never managed to pick up a satisfactory third weapon, and had long since sold the Artimus to pay for the power for the Pegasus. But I saved the cloak for each time the Power Surge of Drones attacked. Also, to my luck, most drones were beam weapon drones, that couldn't pierce my shields. All I really had to worry about was the repaired tripple missile launcher on the enemy.
Another hard task was getting past the enemy ships defense 1 drone. Luckily, I had the Pegasus, which fires two missiles at once. So the second missile would usually get through to cause some damage.
After some misses, and tense moments, I finally knocked out the Drone Control, and the Tripple Launcher. Then it was all weapons fire at shields, and the second attack was stopped.
Part Three, The Super Duper Uper Shmooper Big Weapon (Of Doom!)
Actually, this was the easiest wave. Again, I saved the cloak for whenever the power surge hit, and even if the power surge launched before the cloak was ready, my Pilot and Shilds were plenty to dodge and take remaining hits. The enemy tripple launcher was instantly destroyed with my first Pegasus volley, and I was working on shields right after that. The Flag Ship was dead before I knew it.
Chest.
Pounding.
Fist.
Pump.
Roll Credits!
P.S. The game before this, I jumped too close to the sun on the third jump. There was no containing the fire, or killing the enemy fast enough - I was cooked before the second solar flare... lol!