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 Psienesis wrote:
Sub-orbital is not the vacuum of space... it would be the upper atmosphere of the planet.

A 'suborbital trajectory' usually means one where the highest part of the arc is in space and the lowest part is on the surface. A vehicle launched from a spaceship above the atmosphere on a trajectory to reach the ground would be suborbital. It's suborbital because it doesn't go all the way around the planet, not because it's any particular height. Launch a powerful rocket straight up and it will be in a suborbital trajectory (because it's eventually coming down again) but will get higher than objects in a low orbit.

 Psienesis wrote:
Basically, load the ship up with whatever it needs to deliver to planet (troops, bombs, flaming death, whatever), and then launch it out of the side of a starship, either with its own engines or a catapult launch system.

That only works if you have a pretty powerful catapult or engines which work in vacuum and have enough Delta-V to slow you down enough for a re-entry.

 Psienesis wrote:
Let gravity do the rest til you hit the atmosphere of the planet.

If you are in an orbit, gravity is already using all it's force to stop you flying off into space. You need to use thrust to slow down and drop your orbit. You can use the atmosphere to slow down more once you reach it, but you need to have enough juice to reach the atmosphere and the ability to survive hitting the atmosphere at orbital velocities. There are a lot of things which could go horribly wrong during re-entry in a craft not specifically designed to handle it.

 firebat wrote:

 Talon of Anathrax wrote:
Note: in the Scions codex, it says that Valkyries must be specially modified to deploy from space (there's an example in the model pictures section). On one hand, it means you can't do it normally. On the other, it means it can be done if you figure out a reasonable fluff reason (such as the gratitude of a powerful Forge World).

Yay! Another reason to Forge A Narrative!

May I ask what page? I can't seem to find this in my copy

Page 35.