On the fringe of Human space, near the Kilrathi border, the industrial machine is running full-tilt to feed the war effort, and there is a lot of shipping... and a lot of pirates... and Retros (fanatical religious nuts who wants to destroy technology), military, militia, merchants, mercenaries, and privateers. In the darkness, a battle between ships has woken up something ancient... Something powerful... Something... deadly.

You are a privateer. Start with the lowly scout, and upgrade to one of the three other superior ships: Galaxy (superior cargo space), Orion (superior protection), or Centurion (superior offense). Buy optional equipment such as armor, engines, shields, weapons, launchers for torpedoes/missiles, and MUCH MUCH more. Take on missions (multiple sources, from the cheapest mission computer, to fixers who has the toughest but most rewarding missions) and earn money for upgrades. Use spare cargo room to trade commodities to further add to your account. Missions can vary from search and destroy to Fedex (i.e. delivery) to bounty hunting, and more.

Privateer is set in the Wing Commander universe, but is more of a free-form game similar to Elite. While there is a central plot, you can deviate from it somewhat and you can continue playing after you finish the main plot. It also has the infamous talking heads dialog Origin pioneered in Wing Commander, this time with higher resolution and more natural look, and still has the lip-sync.

http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/wing-commander-privateer