The player starts a level by dropping into the atmosphere off a plane to set up a war base. As anyone who's watched the Space Shuttle clear the Earth's atmosphere knows, one wrong move and the ship and the crew can burn to a crisp. Edward described that the drops will be made through special chutes that enable entry into the atmospheres, and then a high-speed drop into a completely new world. The video we were shown displays the oval-shaped warbirds speeding into the new atmospheres like rockets, plowing though the initial point of entry and then passing through several layers of the stratosphere, including strategically placed clouds and other weather conditions. What players will then do is set up camp and fight against another opponent, with equal but differently designed craft.
Players can transport other stuff, sure, but they're quite handy all by their lonesome, too.
Dropships appear to have primary and secondary weapons, which are easy to use. In one demonstration, we were shown a mission objective that required the ship to travel low through a snaking shallow canyon to a bridge. The goal is to reach the bridge and then destroy it before he enemy tanks reach it. Using missiles, the Dropship blew the bridge up with just a few shots. It was cool stuff, Maynard.