I first witnessed the extent of Human creativity during the defense of Kailos. The Xen’thic hive swarms were to attack this world next. Growing desperate to stop the horde, we issued a call for aid to every species in the Alliance. The Human Empire responded much as the other races did, with the majority of their military navy joining us in orbit above the planet, along with the smaller, more haphazard civilian volunteers they brought along with them. Most were mercenary ships or even pirates, the Humans own navy had already retrofitted many of the cargo freighters as Carrier ships, a few crazy captains had turned their vessels into fire-ships. I was a Communications Officer on the lead ship of a Narleth Assault Dreadnought formation, the Bringer of Swift Death. I remember well the civilian ship that had been assigned to our squadron, the Superheavy-freighter Atlas and her Captain. The Atlas was a massive ship, larger even than our own, a full 5 Hetras in length.
My Captain was annoyed, why did we have to get weighed down with such an ugly burden? His anger was tempered though by the words of his Commander that the Atlas would at the very least absorb some shots that would otherwise damage our ships. My captain, not even bothering to discover the Atlas’s armament, had her move into formation above and to the fore of our own vessel. We would find out what sort of weaponry she had soon enough, as the great enemy's fleet had been detected at the edge of the system. Things gained a new haste as we manoeuvred into position, I kept a close eye on our new ally as my Captain commanded, watching on the display screen as the Atlas’s cargo doors partially opened and racks, loaded with what looked like small rockets were extended. ‘So that’s how she’s armed?’ I thought to myself.
When we were ordered to attack, I would find out just how heavily she was armed. We began our approach, the Captain of the Atlas surprised us with his discipline, he hadn’t issued the order to fire yet. We hit weapons range and the order was given to fire. Our highly trained weapon crews were pouring pinpoint laser fire into the approaching fleet before they could get the first shot back at us. It was when the enemy fire was impacting on our shields that we saw the distorted cloud of fire that came from above our ship. At first I thought that the Atlas had been destroyed, but it wasn’t so. As I watched on, the screens indicated that she was surrounded by a storm of fire, the streaking fire of rocket exhaust.
She was launching her payload like nothing I had ever seen. We Narleth prefer to fight with Laser batteries. What I had thought were launch racks were more like ramps, acting to guide the rockets as the Atlas’s Captain simply dumped them into space. Then their engines fired, sending them streaking towards the enemy. Not two or three at a time like our own massive anti-ship missiles, but in their thousands. A never-ending stream of explosive death was spat towards the enemy, in a way I had never dreamt possible. Any enemy ships that made the mistake of getting in the way of the Atlas were quickly ground to nothing but debris as thousands of rocket hits took their toll. The constant bombardment rapidly dropped enemy shields and smashed entire bomber waves, however the smaller missiles were not so effective against the heavily armored shells of the enemy capital ships. While the Atlas had a few capital ship kills to her name, it took tens of thousands of hits to achieve each one. We quickly learned a much more effective means of destruction. We were to follow in close formation with the Atlas until the missile hits had caused a shield breach somewhere, at which point our own laser batteries would exploit the rift, destroying enemy ships quicker than we could have without her support.
It turns out the Captain of the Atlas had been offloading a shipment at an old military station when the call for aid was sent. He had been a gunnery officer in the Human navy, and knew some of the depots storing old and now outdated orbital attack munitions, something that was left behind with the Empire’s military mobilized to our aid. Using some contacts, he had quickly jumped from station to station, filling his holds and turning his ship into an improvised missile boat, with a staggering amount of ammunition. That day he came to our aid armed with 4,030,020 ground attack missiles, when we limped home victorious that day her hold was empty. Now I am gladder than ever we are an ally of the Humans as I witness the launching of their new Atlas class Missile attack Dreadnought.
Note: Thanks to u/IUpvoteUsernames for transcribing this awesome story.
