A small advice: Don't rush for anything bigger than a gunboat as long as you can't RP as a bigger ship. Trade ships excluded.
Oh and come over to RepEx, you'll have a nice entrance bonus so you can get your first trading ship quickly.
Another thing: leave Liberty as fast as you can. There are other colonies too. Although, i would recommend you to stay away from Gallia until you can beat 4 Nomad Assassins (NPC that is). Then you can go there without getting raped by the NPCs.
In a brilliant tactical movement, i charged backwards.