@Mancuso: I’m gonna guess a lucky shot hit something important. The hover units originally weren’t meant to be sent into combat or something so it wasn’t properly shielded. It’s a bit hand-wavey, though, and I’d have to do some re-reading to find out whether it actually holds up.

Alas, this chapter is nearing its conclusion. I predict 3 more pages.

I’m just interested if you have anyone has any creative ideas that could explain the above mentioned oddity.

An interesting oddity though: I’m still surprised how that -handgun- could deal enough damage to render an armed transport flight-incapable in a single shot, yet still not kill our heroes when they are hit. Could it be because of unreliable damage output from an overloaded gun? Any guesses?