I just got screen offering my first mission. It said to go to a screen(can`t remember which) and wait for a few seconds to accept. nothing happened. Have moved on and saved.
have I missed the mission now?
sincere condolences that you have stumbled into the localhero missions :-)
The first missions are not so hard, so it won't take so long to fulfill the goals, but after a few missions it becomes a little bit harder. So take care that your ship has everything you can buy for money. Specially a ECM-system and your shields and energy unit should be up-to-date, a military laser will be a great help too to cut them in pieces and sometimes the Injector to run away :-)
And for sure you will need a FuelScoop to capture one or more pilots of Harkovs group.
Between the missions you can do every other mission, milkrun or just cruising. There is no timelimit for a mission or a counter for failed missions, so if you can't do the job (killing little harmless pirates?) it's no problem.
Localhero has a own FAQ, you could take a look in it to get some more infos about the technique to play this oxp and it will answer some other questions too.