I just finished the fuel pellets mission, and there is a way you can kill or at least scare off the three cruisers. The key is that they are not particularly maneuverable, and you have sweet lateral movement. First get the freighter to drop her cargo, and then lure the cruisers a bit of a way away. Back up far enough from them and they will stop chasing you and rest in a triangle formation. at this point, select the closest one and sneak up on it. Go slowly, because once you get to a certain distance away it will see you and come after you. Make sure you're careful and don't get close enough to the others such that they come after you too. Once you've got one of the cruisers in tow, lure him far enough away from his buddies so you can take him out without alerting them. There are two ways you can do this. First, have like forty hammer rockets (because they're cheap) handy. The cruiser will approach you head on, and eventually get close enough so he can't fire on you, because his guns are on the sides of his ship. He'll just sit there like a big old cow. Now empty your twinpacks into him. Once he is almost kaput, he'll try to FTL out of there, but you can finish him off. So satisfying. The other way is to keep circling around and shooting him in the ass (or engines), which are unshielded. Use your lateral thrusters for this and it will be very easy. It's a bit unfair. Reminds me of when I learned how to take out a star destroyer all by myself in X-Wing.
Fuchs Shock Turrets
