Some months ago I hacked Psi5 to fill up shield and energy every vertical blanking interrupt so basically I always had 99 shield and energy. Still you have nearly no chance at all. Even with 99 shield all the time damage leaks through the shields faster than you can say "no chance". I doublechecked, there are level three enemies which can kill all your shield with one good hit and others which always bypass your shield with 1-10% damage. Those enemies also take lots of damage, are hard to hit and overall pretty badass, so you better never fight more than one at once. After three failures I managed to make it through mission three but not within time and only with 20% cargo left.

But let's discuss tactics, my choice of crew:

• Weapons: Boris - works wonders with the cannon but the blaster is useless, disable it to safe some power grid.
• Scanning: Phyzo - isn't the fastest with tracking lock but very fast with the info scanner. This is an absolute must have on harder levels as optimal weapons kill the boggeys a lot faster.
• Navigation: Nik Relpo - best evasive maneuvers and very fast reactions.
• Fligronk Plgzur - can resort power grid fast and doesn't die easily.
• Repairs: Bru Marmo - gets most jobs done on herself and is best for scanner and droids repair.
• Disable Blaster - it is totally useless on Boris. Resort your power grid like this:
  1. Shield Battery
  2. Engines
  3. Scanners
  4. Weapons
  5. Shield
  6. Emergency Battery
• While traveling put the Emergency Battery at Place 1. but watch the scanner for boogeys - put the battery back at 6, otherwise your scanner has no power. Scan the enemy while cruising at warp 8, if you get the optimal weapon or if he opens fire drop to warp 2 or 3 with evasive maneuvers, finish him.
• If your reactor gets damages and you lack power then your shield will be down already - put Shield Battery at Level 6.
• The most vital System is you tracking lock, then your cannon, then your info scanner. Everything else is "just nice to have".