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Drop pod

A drop pod aboard the USS Hannibal.

One-man atmospheric re-entry craft used en masse by Coalition space marines in Operation Alien Overlord to deposit an invasion force on the alien world of Stroggos. Described as "sleek, dark, and invisible to the Stroggos defense systems", they were designed to go undetected by the Strogg Big Gun anti-starship defense platform.

The Mark 9A pods performed less than spectacularly during planetfall, however. The military had failed to anticipate the presence of heavy EMP defences at the target LZ, which disabled a vast majority of the pods in flight, leaving their passengers plummeting to their deaths. Of the initial marine assault wave, 80% were lost in the opening stages of the invasion, leading to the nickname "flying metal coffin".

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