Three commander slots to choose from (unless that's changed recently)...
The 1st will be a Federal Military merc who used to be enlisted, was badly injured while flying in a flotilla with the [REDACTED], had to be medically disharged at the rank of Corporal (as the healthcare budget did not cover long-term care nor expensive reconstructive surgery), spent some time recovering from his injuries, and then took up some trading to amass enough money to buy a combat-capable ship with which to start a mercenary career with the Fed. Military. I haven't selected a start location for this one yet.
The 2nd is my Imperial agent, maybe an assassin or a bounty-hunter. The start location will be appropriate to that character, maybe an Eagle Mk 2.
The 3rd will start out in a Sidewinder and 100 credits.
I'm probably going to write some backstory for all the characters once we know more about the structure of the Elite universe.
If there's a 4th character slot, that one will probably start in the Founder's system... Just to see how that one starts out.