Far From Extinct

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PTI TechWatch: New Earth Trading Company’s Buffalo Hovercraft Leads the Herd
Anytime someone mentions "Star League technology," minds alight with visions of the most advanced BattleMechs and the most heroic MechWarriors in history: Kerensky in his Orion, DeChavilier in his Atlas. We see the Gray Death Legion rescuing the Helm Memory Core. Hardly anyone looks at the delivery hover first thing in the morning and think to himself, "There's an amazing relic of the Star League, right outside my door!"

The Terran Hegemony used the Buffalo (which comes from the original designation, BFFL, or Behind Friendly-Line, Fixed Logistics) cargo hovercraft for most of its rear-area logistical train. After the fall of the Star League the craft’s manufacturer, the famed New Earth Trading Company, continued to market the hovercraft across the Inner Sphere, and despite the decline of technology this wonderful craft proliferated and prospered.

The Buffalo has many advantages over its competition, not the least of which is one of the quietest noise levels of any civilian hovercraft. This advantage, more than any other, has led to the Buffalo’s status as the preeminent choice of local delivery franchises across the Inner Sphere. Combined with an amazingly-simple maintenance course and smartly-designed cargo storage, the lack of noise keeps the Buffalo at the front of the herd. With forty tons of cargo capacity and a range of more than 1,700 kilometers the Buffalo has also made a name for itself as a robust long-haul carrier, since its speed is much greater than that of comparable wheeled vehicles.

All of these factors combine to make the Buffalo—again—the PTI TechWatch's choice for this quarter's hover cargo carrier.