A-10 Warthog
The A-10 relies on its massive size 7 autocannon for most combat actions, using the huge gun to cripple even the largest tanks. For lighter vehicles and enemy aircraft, the laser turret mounted behind the cockpit is generally sufficient, and when it's not, the 'hog can carry up to 8 missiles to make short work of enemy units. Despite its large size, the aircraft is rather slow, a necessary trade-off given the plane's heavy armor*.
HT-101 Turtle
A massive transport, the Turtle can haul several squads of troops into combat, and the four hover pads attached to the main hull ensure it can do so at a considerable speed. It was designed to, and excels at, transporting and redeploying infantry along a large battlefront, and some canny commanders have found that it can haul light vehicles around just as well.
However, the HT-101 is not a combat aircraft, a fact underscored by the paltry mini-gun that constitutes its solo armament (and many commander remove even that, choosing to attach the gun to other, more valuable units). It also lacks the thick armor of other aircraft, as heavier plating would have slowed it down too much. For this reason, it is rarely flown near anti-air units, and is usually assigned escorts to prevent it from being shot down before it can unload the troopers.
Here's what it looks like when the troop bay is full. It only takes a village to raise a child, but it takes a platoon to raze a village.
GS-40 Mantis
The GS-40 serves as middle ground between its bigger cousins, able to simultaneously engage hostile units and transport infantry units, albeit not as well as either of the other two aircraft.
Armed with two Sentinel Auto-lasers, two plasma cannons, and a pair of missiles, the Mantis is pack enough firepower to engage everything from infantry squads to medium armor. Sadly, power distribution issues prevent the Mantis from being able to fire more than 2 weapons at any one time.
The GS-40 can carry up to four soldiers, and includes a weapon rack so that a squad can carry additional equipment into battle. The GS-40 is typically used to transport and support special forces units, as a four man squad of regular soldiers is often not able to operate without the support of a much larger force.
*The A-10 doesn't have armor plating, but the 4d10 armor it comes with was more than enough to force a lower speed in order to keep the cost down.
