Conquest Launch [MEGA]

So, I won the battle with the Sector 5 Boss and got the final crate. I still can clean up a little if I feel like trying out some squads. I forgot to use consumables for that battle, so they were pretty much a waste. I guess I should probably give them a try.

First question for the Hard mode will be how far would we need to get there in order to surpass the rewards in the Normal mode? Will we be able to see the crate rewards and Sector bosses before making a choice? Will the difficulty in Sector 1 Hard be higher than in Sector 5 Normal or will it be like starting in Sector 3 Normal? Will the data disks and consumables be correspondingly more useful?