In part 1 it mentioned that the Terrapin was better off running from a battle than it is standing its ground in a dogfight. Can you explain in more detail what this means?

The Terrapin is designed for military long-endurance recon. It's an intelligence ship; its best defense is, in fact, intelligence. The general idea is to see the enemy before they see you, and manage your position or make use of environmental hazards or features to keep them from finding you. If you learn the signature and shadowing game well, you should find that slower acceleration isn't much of a problem, especially when you know where they are, but they don't know where you are.