Well, your story was a bit confusing. You are saying you had battery level voltage and that's why you shouldn't check the basics, like battery cables. This makes no sense to me. Let me explain why, you can leave the grounds unhooked on the transmission and you'll have power of 12V to the car. The minute you turn the key and aim for power, you'll know something is wrong.
You shotgunned a pump into the car w/o testing for power at the pump's connector. Heck, you still haven't tested for a full 12V at the connector. It's a simple thing to pull the trunk carpet up and remove the hatch. Then check power to the pump. Work your way back if you don't have power.
The fuel pump resistor is a bad suggestion, because when it's bad, you'll get fuel pump prime and nothing else under 70% throttle. High speed pump relay is used for priming and above about 70% TPS. Key in mind that when you turn the key from off to on, your pump is run in high speed for about 2 seconds, then it will not run again until the engine starts.
Have you had issues with the fuel gauge working? Maybe toss another gallon of fuel into it if you ever saw flaky behavior.
Could your fuel filter be old and clogged?
Honestly the lights flickering, just means the car didn't stall instantly, it likely fluttered for a moment.
There are a lot of basic things you need to go check and start ruling out one by one.
