The cargo ship on our port side was fighting aerodynamic forces to counter its tumbling and turn itself heat shield-first into the airstream. The heat shield was offset by a good margin, which was leaving some of its vulnerable hull exposed to the extreme heat. Its tiny rotation thrusters were no match to the accelerations induced by its faulty asymmetric design.
The ship's white metallic exterior was turning red and black. Aluminum, steel, titanium or whatever - the hull plating was failing and getting thinner. All those serving aboard the vessel knew they were about to die, but it was too late to do anything.
Mei was thinking otherwise.
"Sir, I can get our ship right below the cargo vessel. Lodos is quite bigger than that small cargo ship, if we can block the main portion of the airstream from hitting their hull, we might be able to save-"
"No." I stopped her from attempting such an overconfident and crazy idea. "Once we block their airstream, their deceleration rate will decrease and they will hit the top of our ship."
"I can make sure it's just a soft touch." Mei tried to argue.
"Mei, I said no."
The red flames turned bright white when the first hole formed on the ship's hull. Before the vessel made a 270 degree flip and disintegrated into millions of charred pieces, we got a final message from it's commanding pilot.
'---IDENTIFICATION DATA MISSING---
It's been an honor.
---END OF PACKAGE---'
Lodos kept decelerating on its normal entry profile and minutes later, the danger had passed. We were now simply a rocket vehicle flying inside a giant ball of gas. Nothing but gas. An endless realm of the various shades of blue, sometimes stained by faint, thin white clouds. It was feeling like I could jump down from the ship's airlock, into the depths of the planet, and I would fall into the blue for eternity.
Our horizontal velocity was still very high, but since the air drag was very high down here, we could not orbit the planet at this altitude; so we had to keep our engines running all the time. Running the bottom and rear thrusters in order to maintain altitude (or rather, depth) and horizontal velocity, we were experiencing a bit less than 9m/s^2 of gravity. Our ship's own artificial gravity generators were no longer useful, so they were shut down.
The situation we were in was by no means a regular thing - it was neither a method of efficient spaceflight nor a battle tactic used before. Physics of flying inside gigantic balls of gas were only explored by experimental science ships, until now.
Everyone was stunned by the view, and were watching their ship's external cameras, except the navigators. They were too busy trying not to accidentally dive too deep into the planet - doing so would be catastrophic. If the atmospheric pressure rose too much, the engines' efficiency would drop and the ships could no longer lift themselves - they would then sink deeper until they were crushed by extreme pressures. Not the best way to die for sure; drowning in high pressure hydrogen, helium and methane with multiple tons of metal plates breaking your bones simultaneously.
"The Fleet is slowly coming back together." said Mei. "They've adjusted their trajectories to meet us."
"Very well." I said. "Did all others make it?"
"It seems like we lost 2 ships in total during atmospheric entry." said Mei. "One of them is the cargo ship with the faulty heat shield installation that was right next to us."
"How about other one?" I asked. "How did we lose a second ship?"
"It appears that one other cargo ship came in a bit too fast and the crew didn't account for their ship's aerodynamic properties, so they went a bit too deep into the planet. With all the atmospheric disturbance, we can't even contact them from this depth. They are just... doomed."
"I hope this was worth it." I sighed. "We lost way too many ships fighting against what is essentially a comparatively tiny enemy force."
"It is not the size of the enemy force that's important here." said Professor Yamamari. "This is a critical fight. If we can find a reliable tactic to use against them, we can take on them more easily on the upcoming battles, no matter their fleet size. And besides, we were caught by surprise, so this experience already taught us a fair deal. Now, as long as we make it out alive..."
"I see your point, professor." I said.
"Well then, I guess we will wait for the two enemy motherships to come fight us now." Mei said.
"For now, exactly." I said. "Once the enemy motherships dive into the atmosphere to engage us, we will take them out. Meanwhile, I want The Fleet to examine Neptune's atmosphere; the more data we have, the more accurate our maneuvers can be."
"Yes, sir."
In about half an hour, all the surviving ships of The Fleet came together into a V shaped formation, like birds migrating in the skies of planet Earth. This way, while the ships at the front took most of the drag, the ones at the back were less affected, therefore increasing overall efficiency of the flight. But because the ships were in close proximity, great care had to be taken by crews to keep the engine plumes away from neighboring ships.
"This is the most stressful thing I've done in a while." Mei said. "You don't know how hard it is for spaceships to fly in formation when we are experiencing different atmospheric drag."
"Stop complaining, this is what you signed up for in the academy." I said.
"Not exactly; I signed up for spaceships, not submarines." she said.
"Well, it wasn't me who signed up for the apocalypse." I replied. "But here we are, driving one of the two remaining navies of humanity."
"I am sorry to interrupt your friendly conversation..." Professor Yamamari stopped us. "But the motherships are approaching. They are decelerating, probably for atmospheric entry."
"Here we go." I said, sitting on the sensors console. "It's showtime."
Of all the times I've been wrong, this was probably the worst time.