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The Behemoth was the Alpha Centaurians' equivalent to the Colonial freighter and was of comparable size and capacity. It is the largest ship in their fleet even today and was produced to accommodate the increase in traffic which resulted from the 2039 Trade Agreement. It was equipped with the gravityresist facility which allowed ships of this size to make surface landings and the generators were housed in four external pods.

During the war most of these craft were commandeered by the military and refitted as supply and fuelling ships and, later on, as troopships. Unlike the Quartermaster, the military version of our Colonial, the Behemoth was equipped with a considerable armament and was intended to serve as a gunship in addition to its other duties. The desire of the Alpha Centaurians to maximize the functions of this vessel is quite understandable in view of the prodigious cost of producing a ship of this kind, but in fact it reduced its efficiency in most respects. The many weapon bays, accompanying control systems and military standard defence shield generators occupied a considerable amount of the available cargo space, thereby reducing the craft's payload.

The extra power these facilities demanded also reduced both its performance and its range. The cost of uprating the main drive system to meet the requirements of an effective combat ship would have negated the point of the exercise so the original engines were retained. This compromise made it more of a liability than an asset as a warship, for it proved unwise to commit it to combat without the support of interceptors more usefully employed elsewhere.

An additional disadvantage was the external mounting of the gravity resist generators. Though making sense when the Behemoth was acting as a transporter, they were dangerously exposed to enemy fire and proved a major weakness in this respect. It was not uncommon for these giant ships to find themselves unable to return to their surface bases until repairs to the generators could be effected.
Their lack of success and the number of ships put out of action soon led the Alphas to reserve those remaining for their original task of transportation and supply. Towards the end of the war, the Proximans' control of the air was reduced sufficiently to allow the Behemoth to operate further forward and its armament proved of some value. The illustration here shows an example of this, depicting a troop convoy of these massive ships breaching a line of enemy Watchtowers on Proxima II without the attendance of escorts. Even so they were employed this far forward only because the low gravity of this world would allow them to land even if their gravity resist generators had been damaged.
After the war the Behemoth reverted to its earlier role and can still occasionally be seen in the spacelanes. However, production ceased some years ago and it is understood that Alpha Centauri has developed a new highcapacity freighter along the lines of the Colonial III.