Affectionately known as the Brick thanks to its simple but sturdy design,
the Atlas carrier was one of the largest vessels to ever fly in the Colonial Fleet.
It was an old Virgon Empire design, from a period known as the Imperial War.
Decrepit hulks of the design dating back to that time
could often be found in the forgotten ship graveyards of the Helios Beta system.
As befitting its role as a carrier, the Atlas carried multiple squadrons of Vipers,
Raptors or other strike craft within its enormous hull.
These acted as its primary armament, taking care of enemy fighters,
striking at vulnerable capital ships,
and providing missile defense for the entire fleet.
The carrier had the best repair crews and overall turnaround rate
for bringing squadrons back up to full strength across the entire fleet.
It wouldn’t be until the introduction of the Defender class and its
specialised repair bay that the Atlas was outdone.
Despite being a carrier, the craft was no slouch in a brawl thanks to its six heavy
and four medium guns arrayed across its broadside, dorsal and ventral surfaces, respectively.
Combined with its exceptionally thick armour plating and assistance from its squadrons,
the Atlas could outlast most opponents it met.
In fact, its robust hull and substantial armor plating gave it more staying power than even
the Artemis class battlestar, and almost as much as the Jupiter class.
However, this came at the cost of extremely poor maneuverability;
it was the slowest vessel in the entire Colonial Fleet.
It’s speed put the craft at a distinct disadvantage when facing adversaries armed with torpedoes,
as it was simply too large and too slow to avoid them.
Since it would take a lot of torpedoes to crack the carriers shell,
any munitions spent on the hulking frame of the Atlas meant they weren’t aimed at softer targets.
While the lower hull was superficially similar to the flightpods of a battlestar,
there were no launch tubes or landing bays there.
Instead, all launches and landings took place via the very large main hangar entrance at the front of the vessel.
As the Atlas typically exposed its broadsides to enemy capital ships, the large armoured segments either side of the
hangar afforded some measure of protection to incoming and outgoing craft.
The Atlas was often the core of carrier oriented fleets alongside Berzerks and battlestars.
These fleets maintained distance from the enemy while allowing large numbers of strike
craft to engage. However, the vessels slow speed meant that sooner rather than later
the Cylons would catch up to it, but its armament and strong defences allowed it to take a fight
when needed.
Since the carrier's primary weapon was its squadrons, it didn’t matter too much if
it was left behind by faster ships within its fleet. The squadrons could provide cover
for those speedy ships while they engaged, and if need be the Atlas provided a fallback
point to rally around.
The ships large hangar, and comprehensive facilities, also allowed it to bring along
support squadrons without compromising the strength of its Viper wing. This allowed it
to fill in the weak spots of any given fleet by launching Raptors for reconnaissance, Assault
Raptors for hard hitting anti-capital strike power, or Sweepers for persistent anti-missile
defence.
While it appeared to be a simplistic design, the Atlas’s origins, as well as some potentially
missing armament, hint at a more elaborate past.
The broadside gun decks, where its heaviest weapons were located, had potential space
for more, but there may have been a minimum spacing requirement that precluded this. Further
aft of this gun deck was a second cutout in the hull that could’ve also mounted more
weaponry, but for whatever reason, didn’t. Ahead of the gun decks were a set of three
mysterious holes, which may have been unused or decommissioned missile launch tubes.
Was the Atlas in the Imperial War more heavily armed than its Colonial Fleet incarnation?
The Virgon Empires navy was one of the better funded ones from that era, and the stresses
of the Cylon War may have forced the design to be cut down. If this hypothetical “heavy
Atlas” existed, then it would’ve had very similar capabilities to that of a battlestar,
and may have even been part of the design lineage of those formidable craft.
Despite these oddities in its design, the venerable Atlas provided the Colonies with
an economical but extremely resilient platform for large numbers of Vipers, and helped hold
the line against the multitude of Raiders that the Cylons brought to the battlefield.
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