I'm sure there are a bunch of guides out there, but as it's recent and easy for me to find, here's the most recent video from Commander Mechan. He's getting to the cloud from about 17 minutes in :Well if it has not already finished, and if I am lucky enough to get back on game tomorrow night, perhaps I can waste another hour and a half of my life trying to make this load of cocijo make sense...
Only tried for the splendid reward on offer. Does not honestly feel like it's an achievable goal for me at this point though.
You only need to score a minimal amount of damage to qualify for the CG, which is very achievable first-time solo if you have an appropriately equipped ship. Just pop a couple of vents and get one or two hits with AX missiles on the Core and you're good. You'll need to get in a bit more practice if you want to do more damage and get higher rewards, but not needed for the CG goodies.