[Suicide Junkie]

One point that I'd like to make is that a Pirate/Nomad race is possible already with the correct racial choices.

ie. maximum negative values on everything planetary.
maximum positive on research, so you can start off with a decent tech.
merchants,maintenance bonus, so you have 0 or 1% maintenance (0 is better, 1 is really hard)
And all the rest of your points into whatever you feel is good.

As a human, you should be able to grow & win via Pirating.