You can steal a protectorate cruiser from the protectorate docks, but the snipers and lack of choke points make the battle a pain.
The earliest I have made it to the DLC area is level 13.
Yeah, i did notice that, but that battle is indeed a real pain, something i tried doing on my Balor's Hammer character and oof, snipers shooting out of fog of war, flashbangs and EMP grenades made that the biggest pain in existence, the sad part was that the jet ski there got destroyed in the fighting for me.
I say that battle is a pain and i cleared out the entire protectorate base on that character.