- To start with bounties you need to vanquish Pirate Ghad.
- to do that you need weapons
- those weapons you can buy at Iltari station if you have a license
- your rep needs to be 10 to get the weapon license at iltari station
- the next day you can buy (basic grade 1) weapons and shields at the station
- kill Ghad
- after that you can take on simple bounties and gain NOT
- Once NOT is 10+ (or 5?) you can buy gear at the pirate station (they don't care about licenses)
There is a walkthrough in OP which describes that in detail.
Let me know what was poorly described in the walkthrough so I can improve it.