Izumi looked for bird based puns on his cards as he lined up the cubes and ships neatly.

"No, not yet!" she told the Bayushi.

"So everyone's fleet has various ships that represent different parts of their fleet. Some freighters have all of the fleet's supplies, ferries that carry most of their population, cruisers to guard the ships and various scouts that could go ahead before all ship. The idea to keep everyone together and coherent, only when you're together you can benefit the bonuses given by each ship. If a ship is on its own, it can be difficult for them to do well and might even take a while before they could catch up. The game's space travel is about balancing and navigating," she nodded.

"As you can see on the hexagonal tiles, you can move several spaces depending on your movement speed, drift and velocity. On the cards, for each ship, you can see a mini-chart that details the movement you get from each factor. You can only move forward in a straight motion but you can pivot one angle with each space you move forward. The temptation might be to move full speed ahead but it might land you in some trouble when the momentum will have you moving involuntarily past your other ship and maybe even past your destination!"

She took a sip from her thermos. "So each fleet has access to five power cubes that you will have to manage for each of your tasks. When you run out of them, you won't get any back until you find a planet that can be mined for resources while having a refinery ship nearby. There are some refinery stations elsewhere but they will take some taxes from your haul and ultimately could affect the long term success of each of your colonies."

"Now, for this demo, your intended destination is the planet of Hokori and also set up the first permanent colony! So, everyone to start, I want people to roll dice equal to each ship's speed rating to see how much speed you can generate this turn. Then move each ship accordingly."

....

Everyone rolls Piloting/Intelligence as per their character vs TN20. Calling raises for more points. They may spend a power cube to get +1k0 per cube spent. The Camel Consortium gets +0k1 to this roll.

Nishida studied the board and manuvered his fleet in a close formation across the map, he ut an emphasis to put the freighters that carry the colonist inside the middle of the formation!

[D9:LA] Explorer Fleet Demo; Piloting/Intelligence; Unskilled; Power Cube for +1k0; TN20: 4d10k3 25

1 Explorer Fleet point?
(1/5) Power Cube uses

In typical Izumi style the Fox pushed his ships engines TO THE MAX . . . and scattered them everywhere but the destination . . .

. . . at least he'd done it with ENTHUSIASM and STYLE!!!!


"Crapcakes . . . "

--

D9 Chiruha's Game. FOXEH PILOT GOOD! Pil/Int, 1 power cube spent, TN 20: 4d10 16 OVERSHOT!!!!!

1 Power Cube spent.

Lol I rolled too many dice and still failed. Leaving as is.

Mal-Chin looked over the map, trying to decide how fast he wanted to go. And then saw that he had an advantage as the Camels in this.

"I'll use one cube."

He channeled his inner Shiba Tokaru and sent his fleet forward as far as he could!

*******
D9: Explorer Fleet, One Power Cubes, +0k1; Piloting/Intelligence, Void for Skill, 1 CR TN 25: 6d10o10k5 27

1/5 Power Cubes Used, Success w/Raise.

Akagi turned in one of the power cubes and rolled the dice. Counting up the pips, he asked, "Um, is a 15 good?"

Unfortunately, the answer was no. The Gecko cruiser, having started in a gravity well, was struggling to generate enough delta Vee to set a course for planet Hokori.

-
9LA Explorer Fleet demo, move ship INT/Piloting +power cube TN20: 4d10k3 15

"Okay! The Ferret Federation and the Camel Consortium advance toward Hokori with the Consortium being at the head of the race! Unfortunately, it seems that the Gecko Group and Otori Otokodate got lost along the way. Hm, much of your fleet has gone toward this asteroid cluster, Kitsune-sama..."

Chiruha drew from the top card from a pile in the middle of the table. "And it seems that this asteroid cluster is home a lot of iron and other valuable materials! This allows you to mine for some resources but might put your fleet into danger!"

"While...the Gecko Group..." she said as she evaluated the board, "seems that much of your fleet has spread itself out in different places! You should probably consolidate them together or continue on but risk being at a disadvantage later on!"

"As for the Ferret Federation and Camel Consortium, they are close to Hokori and can start deploying their scanners to get a read on the planet!"

...

Otori Otokodate: May roll Engineering/Intelligence at TN20 for points or ignore the opportunity. Failure will result in damage!
Gecko Group: May roll Battle/Perception at TN15 to consolidate or suffer +5 TN for future rolls in the game.
Ferret Federation and the Camel Consortium: May roll Hunting/Perception at TN15 to start scouting operations. The Ferret Federation gets +0k1 to this roll!

Mal-Chin drummed his fingers on the table a bit. "I guess lets try finding out what's there!" He looks over his camel ships and chooses one to go forward and scout, turning in another of his power cubes to try to keep up the success.

"Come on Hokori, reveal your secrets!"

D9: Explorer Fleet, One Power Cube, Hunting/Perception, TN 15: 3d10k2 17

Power Cubes 2/5

(Fluff)

---
(Power Cube (2/5))
[D9:LA] Explorer Fleet Demo; Hunting/Perception; Unskilled; Power Cube for +1k0; +0k1 from being a Ferret; TN15: 4d10 20

Izumi rattled the dice before rolling.

"C'monlet'sgetsomeiron!!!"

But the dice gods were not with him.

"Five,ten,ahhhhjustfifteen. Crapcakes."

--

D9 Chiruha's Game. FOXEH MINE GOOD! Eng/Int, 1 power cube spent, TN 20: 4d10k3 15

2 Power Cubes spent.

Akagi threw the dice in an attempt to rally the Gecko fleet back together, then drew a card. "Transport ship grants shore leave at pleasure planet," he read, as his support ship tokens gradually scattered farther and farther from the objective. "Darn it! That can't be good."

-
9LA Rally the fleet together, PER/Battle TN15: 3d10 10 fails

"Whoa! It seems that both the Camel Consortium and the Ferret Federation were successful in sending their scouts to the planet! Scouts are presented by these..." she placed a few circular tokens surrounding the planet with the factions respective colours, "you can deploy one drone for each capital ship you have in the area and plus one if you have a carrier with you, which both of you since your ships are within three spaces of cohesive. I'd watch your processing ship next turn, Nishida-sama, it might just drift away!"

"Let's see what's on this planet..." she said as she flipped open the tile for all to see. "Oh, looks like Hokori is a gas giant! There are plentiful resources that could be extracted here for power but it's also a hard one to set up a colony. Now you'll have to decide if you want to mine or start setting up a colony!"

Ferret Federation and the Camel Consortium may either roll Engineering/Intelligence at TN15 to gain one power cube and one for each raise called or start rolling Engineering/Intelligence to start construction of a colony at a cumulative TN of 75.

"Uh oh...that's not good..." she said after she drew from the mishaps deck. "Looks like one of your mining crafts suffered a terrible accident and it was lost catastrophic explosion!"

Chiruha reached over and took away one of Izumi's smaller ships from the board. "With that unfortunate incident, you can consider either going toward Hokori or you can keep mining the asteroid field in hopes of finding the resources hidden inside it!"

Otori Otokodate now suffers +3 TN to all rolls. They may roll Engineering/Intelligence at TN20 for points to mine once more or roll Pilotting/Intelligence at TN20 to go to Hokori.

"That's not good at all, Bayushi-san!" she shook her head, "It looks like your ship might be tied for several turns and it seems many of your other ships have drifted away from the transport ship! You can spend another turn consolidating or just accept that you'll have to go on without them."

Gecko Group now suffers +5TN to all rolls. They may roll Battle/Perception again at TN15 to regroup or go toward Hokori with a roll of Pilotting/Intelligence at TN20.

“There’s no sense in arriving at the planet without the right equipment. We need those support ships,” Akagi said firmly. Tossing in a power cube for luck, he threw the dice again.

“Oh no! That can’t be good,” the Scorpion said, chagrined, as the die results table indicated that independent owner-operators of the Gecko merchant ships had begun looking for commercial side jobs rather than rally to the Gecko flag.

-
9LA Explorer Fleet, regroup fleet with penalty, PER/Battle +power cube TN20: 4d10k3 17 fails

Izumi studied the board.

"I'mgonnagoforthegasgiant. That'swhatwecamefor, nottheserocks."

The dice scattered across Izumi's side of the table. Rather enthusiastically and it took him a moment to tally their total.

"Ohyas! ExactlywhatIneeded!!!"

He pushed his fleet closer to Hokori, while giving up his third power cube.

--

D9 Chiruha's Game. FOXEH PILOT GOOD! AGAIN!!! Pil/Int, 1 power cube spent, TN 23: 4d10k3 23

"Power cubes are important. But getting that colony started seems to be the goal. C'mon Camels, let's get started! Gas Giant Colony. Is that one of the satellite colonies or do they find a way to drift in the atmosphere?"

He pushes another of his power cubes forward, assembling his fleet around one side of Hokori to start the colony process.

D9: Explorer Fleet, One Power Cube, Engineering/Intelligence cumulative TN 75: 6d10o10k4 47

3/5 Power Cubes used.

Chiruha couldn't help but grimace at the hold that the Gecko Group found themselves in as the ships continue to drift apart from each other's cohesion range. "It looks like the fleet is having trouble getting back together. You might have tried to put too much thrust earlier and now the inertia is putting them in different places! Uhm, well...the void is infinite but thankfully for you, this board isn't and you can't continue to drift forever."

She smiled sheepishly in encouragement and gestured to the edge of the board. "You may notice that there are these wormholes," she pointed to the tiles found on each tile of the board, doodled as a rainbow-coloured circle. "You could consider sending some of your fleet there maybe or continue to consolidate? Be careful, there's a chance that you might not end up where you want to be!"

The Gecko Group suffers +5TN to all rolls. They may roll Battle/Perception again at TN15 to regroup or go toward Hokori with a roll of Pilotting/Intelligence at TN20.
They may take a chance at a wormhole instead! Roll 1d10. On 1-3, they end up in Hokori and in cohesion, otherwise, something else happens.

"You made it, Kitsune-sama!" she clapped triumphantly at his successful push. "Now, you're also part of the push to claim Hotori for the Otori! You may roll the same actions as Mal-Chin-san and Nishida-sama, once the new round starts."

The Otori Otokodate suffers +3 TN to all rolls. They may either roll Engineering/Intelligence at TN15 to gain one power cube and one for each raise called or start rolling Engineering/Intelligence to start construction of a colony at a cumulative TN of 75.
They get +0k1 on rolling to construct a colony.

"Wow, that's a huge lead, Mal-Chin-san," she said with an impressed nod of her head at the roll, "it seems you might come out with claiming Hokori before the others!"

Ferret Federation and the Camel Consortium may either roll Engineering/Intelligence at TN15 to gain one power cube and one for each raise called or start rolling Engineering/Intelligence to start construction of a colony at a cumulative TN of 75.

(Yasuki Nishida still has a turn before this.)

Nishida also saw the value in trying to establish the Colony and tried to push for developing one

Turn 1:
[D9:LA] Explorer Fleet Demo; Engineering/Intelligence; Cumulative TN75: 4d10o10k3 14

Turn 2:
[D9:LA] Explorer Fleet Demo; Engineering/Intelligence; Cumulative TN75: 4d10o10k3 21

(35/75)

Mal-Chin smiled. "Let's try to finish that colony."

Then the dice are rolled and he finds himself still short of the mark. "Huh. Maybe my luck is turning. I would've sworn that ship could've finished the colony."

D9: Explorer Fleet, Engineering/Intelligence cumulative TN 28 Remaining: 5d10o10k4 16

Izumi was playing catch up but luckily the Otori were really good at colony building! Pity Izumi wasn't as good at rolling dice. He had scattered them far and wide again and by the time he had them back together he'd realised he was still a full turn behind Mal-Chin and Nishida if not more. His colony was only a third done and he was nearly out of power cubes.

"AhI'llgettherenextturn, you'llsee!"

--

D9 Chiruha's Game. FOXEH BUILD COLONY! Eng/Int, Power cube, Otori bonus Cumulative TN 78: 5d10k4 26

4/5 Power Cubes spent.

"Oh, the Otori Otokodate are really good at setting up a colony but it seems that your time in the asteroid field might have cost you, Kitsune-sama! Slow and steady for the Ferret Federation! Finally, it looks like the Camel Consortium might have something set up soon!" she nodded with excitement. "However, dice could still happen and I still think the Otokodate can explode with their colony ingenuity! It's not over until someone sets up something first!"

Otori Otokodate: 28/78 development
Gecko Group: Potentially lost in space or make a sudden appearance! (still has a turn)
Ferret Federation: 35/75 development
Camel Consortium: 63/75 development

Each fleet at Hokori may either roll Engineering/Intelligence at TN15 to gain one power cube and one for each raise called or start rolling Engineering/Intelligence to start construction of a colony at a cumulative TN of 75.
The Gecko Group would get +0k1 at gaining power cubes from Hokori, if they are there and wish to do so.