Usually a starship acts as soon as it can in
combat, but sometimes it may want to act later, at a better time, or in response to the actions of another ship.
Starships can delay or ready actions in the same manner as characters.
A
hazard is any unmanned obstacle of Large size or bigger that a
starship might hit, either because the
starship has entered the
hazard's square or because the
hazard has entered the
starship's fighting space. Sample hazards include asteroids, clouds of space debris, and electromagnetic storms (which deal
electricity damage). When a
starship enters a square occupied by a
hazard, or vice versa, the pilot of the
starship must make a Pilot check. (Making this check does not count as an action.) The DC of the check depends on the size of the obstacle, as shown in
Table: Avoid Hazard DCs. If the Pilot check succeeds, the
starship avoids the hazard. If the check fails, a collision occurs (use Table: Collision
Damage to determine collision
damage to both the
starship and the hazard). A new check must be made each round the
starship and the hazard occupy the same square.