[@MrMinerGuy142]
I've played it (FTL) for about ten hours total, which is about 29 playthroughs, according to the stats.

Congratulations, you lightly defended your side and then immediately gave up when I simultaneously responded to as much as I possibly could without putting it in word and colorcoding everything and putting all the sections beneath specific headers, for clarification for myself as I wrote and reviewed.

You're saying an independent ship moving through space without a commanding officer would be attacked by pirates- which is true. But a ship that's outlying and in constant communication a mother fleet would be much less likely to be attacked. 

Also, there is historical representation in carrying a cutlass into battle- they were used all the way up until charging with a sword failed six times out of seven, and resulted in heavy losses to the sword-wielders every time. You can't block a shotgun, see. And a shotgun can be fired from much farther away than a sword, while managing to be a variety of sizes with different powers. A shotgun can act as a rifle, without a stock and with a short barrel, as a shorter-ranged rifle that's easier to fire than a bolt action. Or, it can act as a spray-and-pray weapon, such as an automatic shotgun, that can tear apart anything in front of it, regardless of body armor or shield. In this age, there could also be energy weapons that's simply a burst of paralyzing energy, nonlethal but effective, which would be almost impossible to dodge unless you weren't in its range in the first place.