I'm going to check the FAQ, but I figured I would ask here to.

Do you use energy for actions, (besides recover obviously) or do you just do one action per turn? I'm pretty sure it's one action per turn, otherwise automated protocols would be useless. but that means you don't have to use a lot of your energy.

There's an additional phase after a huge ship takes its maneuver called the Energy Phase, in which gain, allocate, and spend energy to activate cards with the Energy: header. Then you perform your action.

One action per ship section card, and as much energy per turn as you have to use from cards that have Energy: on them - but no more than once per card unless it states otherwise . Keeping in mind if you blow through all your energy reserves in one turn, you may be hard-pressed to restore the energy levels that quickly (Tibana Gas card aside of course).

Thanks guys!

There's an additional phase after a huge ship takes its action called the Energy Phase, in which you may spend energy to activate cards with the Energy: header.

Minor error here, but with possible significant repercussions.

The Energy Phase takes place after the ship executes its maneuver but BEFORE taking its actions.

So, first you gain, allocate and use energy on upgrades. And then, you take ship's action(s).