Excerpt from 'Death's Door: Where Right and Glory Lead':
Trooper’s Whitehead and Ritchie unstrapped and powered up their armour, taking their place at the head of the loading ramp, bracing themselves for landing. Each trooper knew their place in the squad and they would be ready.
Eagle 302’s pilot throttled up and watched the altimeter count down, three thousand…two thousand…one thousand…at nine hundred meters he hit the retro rockets and applied the air brakes. Grilled flap...s popped open on the topside and upper wing section as well as under the carriage to catch the flow of air.
At the same time the four scramjet engines rotated almost 180 degrees to slow the drop ship to just under Mach two. The small ship shuddered violently, as if it would crack open at any time. Wing and belly mounted missile launchers opened to the air and telltales in the cockpit went from standby to green.
At four hundred meters the drop ship started to level out and its gunner sited and plotted targets, coding them as primary and secondary. The violent rocking and vibration died down as the forward velocity was reduced and clean air opened up.
“Stand by!” commanded Taylor.
The first volley of missiles fired from the drop ships went screaming toward their targets. Heat and displacement waves marking the trajectory on the small ship’s tracking sensor.
Heather took her weapon off safe now, as did each squad member, readying themselves for the coming engagement.
