Maultier Hover APC

         Like its larger cousin the Maxim, this SLDF design can transport an entire platoon of infantry and apparently saw extensive action during the second half of the 26th century. The design was thought to be lost forever until a young Taurian farmer on Celeano stumbled on the remains of a Star League storehouse while plowing his fields in 3019. His discovery provided the Taurian Concordat with sophisticated weapons, vehicles, technological information and several operational Maultiers. Concordat ruler Thomas Calderon, leery of his large neighbor the Federated Suns, ordered news of the discovery withheld. Rumors of it escaped, but few people took them seriously.

         Concordat scientists studied the recovered equipment and attempted to replicate the designs. The Maultier was one of the simplest, and the scientists found it relatively straightforward to copy.
         Built around a conventional chassis, the Maultier used a 50-series ICE engine-relatively easy to obtain even in the Periphery, that gave it a top speed of around 150 kph. This excellent speed allowed it to deploy infantry troops more quickly than most other vehicles, minimizing the time it had to spend in the combat zone.
         The Maultier’s targeting and communications systems were also comparable to those produced in the Concordat and could easily be replaced. However, the vehicle’s armaments posed more of a problem. The Concordat lacked the technological know-how to duplicate ferro-fibrous armor until the early 3040s, and the sophisticated Streak missile launcher had to be replaced with a conventional system until Pinard managed to duplicate the Streak system in early 3054.

         The Taurian Defense Forces have been using the Maultier as an infantry transport since before the Fourth Succession War, mainly in actions against pirates. It also played a key role in an incident that nearly touched off a civil war, which happened during a botched coup attempt against Thomas Calderon in 3055. Resentment had been building against the increasingly unstable Calderon. When Calderon loyalists attempted to arrest government ministers who had called for his resignation, almost two dozen Maultiers of Marshal Hadji Doru’s Taurian Guards Corps delivered infantry to key points in the capital to prevent the arrests. The speed of the Maultiers allowed Doru’s troops to take effective control of the capital before the loyalist troops were even aware of what was happening. Why Doru did not consolidate his control and force Protector Calderon from office remains one of the unanswered questions of history.