However, one had to admit that Major General Hongkas truly lived up to his reputation as a seasoned Imperial ground-combat expert. At the very least, his nerves were rock-solid. Even when the armored airship he was riding in was shot down and lurched around in an uncontrolled Brownian motion for nearly half a minute before crashing to the ground, he remained remarkably calm.
He hadn't even been surprised when they were hit. To accommodate his burly frame, the airship he rode in was actually a transport craft designed for use within an atmosphere. Its cabin had been converted from a cargo ship, but after it was fitted with all sorts of command equipment and crammed with an adjutant, two communications officers, and two staff officers, it became extremely cramped.
The cabin was cramped, but the airship itself was still very conspicuous. Though this kind of craft always stayed more than two thousand meters above the ground, it was exactly the sort of target that drew the most concentrated fire.
A ship like this getting hit wasn't anything new. It would have been downright suspicious if it had been ignored.
But getting hit once and then crashing straight to the ground—that was something the general hadn't expected.
Major General Hongkas's personal transport was a C88 Shepherd-class cargo airship, a medium-sized atmospheric transport craft used by the Imperial military. At twenty-eight meters long and twelve meters at its widest point, this semi-elliptical flying vessel looked broad and bulky. It was equipped with two high-powered antigravity engines, and its payload, speed, and maneuverability naturally depended on the planet's gravity.
On Yaochi, a perfect planet with standard gravity, it could indeed carry more than a hundred tons of cargo straight into the sky.
This C88, temporarily serving as a command vessel, didn't need to