If you used another game start, you need to join the Argon Military instead. Check Here
Cadet Training
As soon as you start you will be given your first mission. Find your trainer on the local trading station
Get in range of station if not already, comm and find the trainer
You first mission, is to destroy 3 fighter drones that will be launched one at a time from the trading station. Simply kill each one to continue.
Once all the drones are killed, return to the Trading station and speak to your trainer.
Repair Ship
If you sustained damage, you next task will be to repair your ship, if you have no damage, the mission will skip this step.
Simply Eject into your spare suit, and use your installed repair laser on your ship to repair your ship to 100% (this is mainly to teach you about the spacesuit repair).
HINT: You can use SETA to speed up the repair from your spacesuit.
Once fully repaired, you can then get back into your ship. (Select your ship to open the context menu)
Meet Patrol Zeta
Next, you will meet up with your assigned patrol leader, so start you actual military career. If you didn’t damage your ship previously, you will jump straight to this step, skipping the whole repair part.
You will find them in the sector, Home of Light gamma, to get there, head East, South, South, East. You can follow the mission tracking, that will point to the next gate you need to take.
Here you will find a Trading Station, where your patrol leader is waiting for you to contact them.
Upgrade your ships speed
If you have already upgraded your ships speed, then you will skip this step.
Here you are gifted an additional 10,000 credits to help you upgrade your ship. If you haven’t spent any money yet, you should have enough to cover the cost of the upgrade. Otherwise, you may have to go out and earn some more credits before you can continue. (The mission will wait for you as long as you need).
The mission will point you to dock at the trade station, where you can buy the speed tuning.
HINT: You can use the autopilot to automatically dock at the station
Once docked, access the trade menu to buy the upgrade, found in the side bar to the left.
Find the Engine Tunings which will increase the speed of your ship, each ship type has a maximum number of tunings that can be installed, and each tuning gets more expensive as you buy more.
You will need to buy the maximum, set the quantity bar (at the bottom) to the maximum.
HINT: You can use the End key to instantly set the maximum amount.
You can see at the bottom it will cost you 28,197 credits (if you haven’t installed any previously).
Start your first Patrol
You are now ready to start your first patrol, contract your Patrol Leader again.
Undock and meet up with your patrol leader in space. This is your patrol mission, this first one will be easy, with no actual enemies to fight.
First Patrol
For patrol missions, you just have to stay close to the patrol leader, in this case, Argon Military zeta Leader.
If you move further than 5km away, your patrol will pause until you get back into range, so just still within 5km and follow the patrol leader. They will fly to several points within the sector, before moving onto the next.
The Patrol will eventually end in Argon Prime gamma.
While there are no enemies on your first patrol, if you are unlucky, and there are pirates randomly flying around the sector, they may be added to the patrol if you get too close.
When approaching gates, its generally best to let your leader go in first, then follow through the gate, reforming once on the other side.
Once you reach Argon Prime you can then speak to your patrol leader to complete this stage.
That concludes your first assignment.
Military Enlistee
To start your next assignment, you will need to increase your fight rank to at least Novice (one more rank), remaining friendly with Argon and have at least 30,000 credits.
You will need to wait about an hour of in game time before your next assignment.
Once you have achieved all this, you will be contacted again via message about your next assignment.
HINT: To help with your next assignment, you could try to install the Fight Command Software MK1 from the Equipment Dock in Argon Prime alpha. This will allow you to enable auto aim when using boresight fire, that could make combat easier. You will need more credits for this however, and still need the 30,000 in your main account to continue the mission.
Head to Argon Prime delta and find your patrol leader in the Trading system there. They should launch once you arrive in the sector, so fly to their ship and talk to them to coninue.
Enlistee Patrol
This patrol will be similar to the first, however, you will end up fighting some pirates. Once the pirates appear and are targeted by the mission, you can move away from the Patrol Leader to engage the hostiles. You will have to form up again once its clear (getting back within 5km).
The enemy ships will appear out of the closest gate to your leader, just kill all the marked targets to continue your patrol.
This patrol should end at Elena’s Fortune alpha. Which is the main base for Zeta Patrol.
Upon arriving in Elena’s Fortune alpha you will then need to contact your patrol leader again.
Leader Repair
The leader took some damage on the last mission, and needs a repair, which you are tasked to do.
Get close to the patrol leader, then eject into your spacesuit so you can use your repair laser to repair their ship. Similar to repairing your own in the earlier part.
Once repaired, return to your ship
Additional Ship Upgrades
Now talk to your patrol leader, where they will ask you to upgrade your ship further. If you have previously upgraded your ship, you may skip this part.
Here you will need to buy some shields to fill up your shield bays. Unless you have previously bought some, you will need 1 more 1MJ shield. You should have plenty of money to be able to buy one, the tricky part is find one available somewhere
HINT: Use your encyclopaedia to check if you can buy them anywhere. You may have to explore so more until you find a place to buy from.
The Equipment docks in either Argon Prime or Home of Light might be your best bet.
Finishing Assignment
Once you have full shields, you can go back and talk to your patrol leader again to finish your assignment.
This concludes your assignment. Next step is to get a new ship, either an M4 or M3 ship. The mission will not continue until you are in an M4 or M3.
If you have already upgraded to an M4/M3 ship, you will see a slightly different text.