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Military Service.

"Join the army they said, it's a man's life they said..." Thats exactly what you can do. Occasionally the armed forces of each race will start recruitment drives on StarNET. When the player answers one of these adverts, provided background checks come up OK, he/she will become a member of the local fighter pilot corp. The player's ship will be sold off (the player can do this before joining to get the best deal). After a period of training and testing (which is shorter for experienced players and only needs to be taken the first time you join up) the player will be put on operational service. If the local area is quiet then the player will, if possible, be transferred to another station (the player has to fly there in his/her own, military issue, ship). Missions are issued every one or two days and will not consist of single tasks in most cases. The possible types of mission include:

• Patrol.
  Fly around the designated area making sure everything is ok.
• Recon.
  Get in there and get some info.
• Hunt.
  Information shows that x is in area y but we aren't sure of the exact location. Find it.
• Destroy.
  Guess.
• Follow.
  Find out where x is going but don't be seen!
• Attack.
  Guess again.
• Escort.
• Protect
• Run Away
• Undercover.
  I can't tell you for security reasons.

Promotion and awards depend on your success and the difficulty of the game (medium difficulty gives the fastest promotion whereas easy and hard games take forever). Promotions are also affected if you leave the armed forces.

Every year (except during wars...) the player will be given the option to leave the armed forces. Doing so will allow the player to continue as normal but it does mean that if he/she joins the forces again then his/her rank may not increase as quickly as it would otherwise.

If you are on a station which is taken over you stand a good chance of being killed. If the station breaks away from it's government you will have the option to leave and move to another post or to remain and 'defect' to the station command.

Sometimes you will be posted to a capital ship rather than a station in which case the location of your base will be constantly changing. This will be accounted for by the navicomp.

Players will be able to be put in charge of stations. This will mean that players can (but not must) have control of the day-to-day running of the station. It will also be possible for players to expand the station, especially ground based ones.