CM-enhanced transports were known for their versatility and speed compared to the conventional vehicles they replaced, but few had ever seen one put to quite the test as the one was, landing on runway ninety-one amid the terror and confusion of the second major invasion. The transport was a lifting body class airframe with enough CM to keep its immense mass in the air, but given just how much it had been intended to lift, not enough to give the vehicle VTOL capability.

So when the pilot called ahead and informed the ground crews that he was coming in hot and heavy, they took him seriously. Runway ninety-one was a leftover from the earlier days of Spaceport Earth, when rocket- and scramjet-powered craft could be expected to take off and land without the aid of counter-mass technology. As such, it was one of the longest runways in the world.

At just under five miles long, the SE runway came second to a similarly purposed Block runway in mainland China and had the distinction of never having been overshot, even in the early days of the commercial space program. Under normal circumstances, even the largest of heavy-lift transports with CM enhancement would never require more than a mile and a half. But, of course, this was hardly a normal circumstance.

At just a hair under Mach Three and only nine hundred feet in altitude, the transport pilots almost missed the runway when it first flashed under them, a thousand feet gone by in an instant. They shifted power to the CM, then opened the airbrakes full out as the big transport began to drop. Thick wheel struts lowered out of the smooth fuselage, locking into place with two miles gone on the black ribbon they needed to land on, and from there they began bleeding speed faster than any of the manufacturer’s books would have suggested even in an emergency.

The big transport started shaking as it approached Mach One, a deep visceral shudder that had its passengers looking around nervously to see if it was about to shake itself apart. It smoothed out as it dropped below Mach, however, and with a mile left to go the wheels screamed as they touched down.

So focused on his job that he didn’t even flinch when a nearby explosion marked the landing of an alien pod, the pilot reversed thrust. Everyone was slammed forward as the transport’s engines began to whine dangerously. The road vanished swiftly under them as he fought the controls, pushing the braking systems to their limit, and finally brought the craft to a controlled stop just half a mile from the end signs.

He slumped back, closing his eyes for a moment. “Crap. I never want to do that again.”