"you understand," said mackley, "that the amount of fuel we can pack into a hornet is severely limited by the size of the craft. there is not enough to perform the complicated braking maneuvers necessary to return to the satellite.

"therefore, the hornets make no attempt to return to the satellite from which they were launched. instead, they return directly to earth. this may sound contradictory, but remember that the planet has a heavy envelope of air, which the satellite bases, of course, have not. we use that air to brake the ships, through friction."

"but captain, wouldn't the hornet burn as soon as it touched atmosphere?"

"ordinarily, if it plunged directly in, yes. but there are techniques for slowing your flight through friction without heating excessively. basically, the operation is the same as skipping a flat stone on a lake. the hornet actually only skims the atmosphere, entering at a very shallow angle. the entire delta-wing of the ship is a control surface. that much area, even at such extreme heights, gives a certain amount of control, and the pilot can pull up out of the atmosphere again before heating has become too extreme. he has also been considerably slowed by the same friction which causes the heating. do you follow me?"

"yes, i suppose so, but it seems pretty tricky."

"it is tricky, cressey, and you never want to forget it. it takes a very considerable amount of piloting skill, but it can be done."

"captain, how many hornets do you lose trying to get in like that?"

mackley hesitated momentarily. "our losses are right around thirty-seven percent. that's due to enemy fire. it's high, but under the circumstances, it isn't extreme. we're fighting at a disadvantage, and combat is not a gentle affair. men's lives are lost. that's been true ever since two cave men took after each other with stone axes. it was true with bows and arrows and muzzle loaders. it was true with tanks and machine guns, and it is true now.

"it is expected in a combat situation that men will die. one of the aims of military strategy has always been to keep as many of your own men alive as possible. this has not changed either. but combat is, after all, combat; and there are some unavoidable risks."

"what's the total loss, captain? i mean from enemy action and from the hazards of this skip approach you were talking about?"

the information officer stared at cressey for what seemed like a long time before he answered. "our total losses, mr. cressey, are roughly ninety-three percent."