Cielo is a support ship that has two abilities, one is Embolden that restores shields at 2.5 a second and reduces weapon cooldown.  Its second ability is better in that it causes the enemy to take much more damage when attacked but it costs a lot to activate that one...still, its great.

I agree with Darvin.

Best bang for the buck: Getting out of the red (underdevelopement tax rate). It's diminishing return for every level up, but still worth while. Your terran home planet starts at level 3 and 10 credit/sec, and at level 4 fully populated it goes to 12.2 credit/sec. So I hold off for a while on that costly upgrade.

Sure the investment will pay off eventually (civilian infrastucture level 3 -4). But there are better investments to make first off:

    Ice and Volcanic colonization techs.

    Upgrading civ facilities on newly aquired planets.

    TEC cost decrease for mining structures.

Also military investments can save money, especially against pirates:

   Hangers-fighters can kill planet destroying frigates, while help is on route.

   Repair bay reduces fleet losses and keeps your capital ship hull healthy when they arrive.

   Better regen rates with hull, armor & shields upgrades. It makes it all the more easier to continue to aquire more planets.

A Marza Dreadnaught with the basic regen upgrades is impressive for clearing out the rabble around unsettled planets. Of course you want it "level up" some before taking on a unsettled Terran planet. The repair bay effect is impressive, if the trip to one is too long, it might be the first thing I build at the planet.