The pinnace lanced through the thick atmosphere, bulling air molecules aside, setting up sonic booms that reverberated halfway around the planet, discarding portions of its own ablative underbelly with the same careless abandon with which it shed relative velocity.

The pinnace lanced insolently through the thick atmosphere, bulling air molecules aside, setting up sonic booms that reverberated halfway around the planet, discarding portions of its own ablative underbelly with the same careless abandon with which it shed relative velocity.