I certainly wouldn't ask you to GM a tactical combat scene your character was actually in, but there's plenty of circumstances where tactical combat will be called for and Darius won't be present, or will be busy fighting in some other rearguard capacity.<br/><br/>As for acquisition penalties, those do reset once you complete an endeavor, but not before.  If you make too many acquisition checks, you'll start losing profit factor, or having unfortunate maintenance problems due to money running low.