My first actual victory!
Resistance victory in sector 297.
I seem to have been a quest away from a Tentaculon victory too.
I was just playing on Normal/Permadeath, not Hard, as I started the game hoping to unlock the Cruiser class. By the time I got that far, I had such good components and crafting that I became fairly unstoppable.
Not that I didn't lose a few away teams. 12 officers down, 34 crew.
As for the Resistance quest difficulty Bob asked about earlier, well everything was easy for me by the time I got around to doing it, thanks to some crafting practices I had which I think were basically exploits which should be patched. However I think the later missions could do with being much harder, at least on Hard level. For one thing, they're missing an element of fighting back. If the Bankers started sending forces after you all the time, that could make it a lot more interesting.