I have loved the Type S since it was the Icarus on the Planet of the Apes:
However, the Serpent is a better design for realism. The wedge shape of the Type S means it is not the best for aerodynamics. Changing orientation in space so that the thrust is from the bottom is fine, except for the nozzles being on the rear.
I played the boxed set of Star Frontiers, Volturnus, and all that, when it came out; we did not find it doing anything significantly better than Traveller, so that's where it ended, pretty much. Nice looking ships though. The Type S doesn't really need the deck re-aligned, as in realistically, it wouldn't be accelerating for 2G's all the time, so in 0 G, no need to have it one way or another.
Blood pools at your feet due to the vascular system's inability to pump against the G forces. The truth is, at the end of the day, for the player, none of those things sound fun. If you want to do stuff like that, cool, except I can see why they were left out of the original game.
Gravity goes through anything, its hard to conceive of a shield or armor that could stop a gravity beam.