Movement

When a group activates, unless otherwise specified, all of the ships in it may move individually. A group does not have to maintain a specific formation when it moves but must be within its Group coherency distance at the end of the move.

To move a ship, measure a position horizontally from the flight stem directly ahead, according to the Thrust value allowed by the ships order. Place the ship in the new position. Ships may move through Orbital Debris and Planetary Rings, but may suffer adverse affects of doing so.

Moving between orbital layers

A ship may move voluntarily up or down one orbital layer (e.g. from High Orbit to Low Orbit, or Atmosphere to Low Orbit) as a part of its movement, once per turn. However, it must be able to turn to do so (but does not use its turn to move between orbital layers). This means that ships that have Weapons Free, Active Scan or Silent Running special orders on them or ships that cannot turn for any other reason may not change Orbital Layers.

Ships may go down an Orbital Layer at any point in their movement for no penalty to their movement (other than those associated with going into Atmosphere - see the Atmosphere section for details). A ship must expend 4" of its available Thrust to move up an Orbital Layer. A ship that does not have 4" of Thrust available may not move up a layer.