Mantis
First appears in Book 2: The Dark Forest, chapter 8 (“Yet its engine lights up. We’ve observed that. When it went out for a second time, Blue Shadow wasn’t close enough to capture an image in time, so we don’t know where the light came from.”)
Appearances
What you know
Book 2: The Dark Forest
- Ch 8A small unmanned craft with an extra-long robotic arm, previously used to collect asteroid samples; it captured the droplet.
- Ch 8Mantis was an unmanned ship holding the captured droplet; it was vaporized and exploded when the droplet activated, killing the four-person expedition team.
Connections
- related toTrisolaran probecaptured it
Key moments
- Book 2 · Ch 8Mantis captures the droplet
Mantis approaches and grasps the droplet, retracts it into its cabin, and two hours pass without self-destruction. Earth celebrates and opinion toward Trisolaris softens.
- Book 2 · Ch 8Expedition examines the droplet aboard Mantis
The team boards Mantis and tests the droplet, finding its surface perfectly smooth at ten million times magnification and unmarked by a claw or pick. Ding Yi concludes it is held by strong interaction and is a threat.
- Book 2 · Ch 8Droplet destroys Mantis and the first row of the fleet
Communications are jammed, the droplet ignites its tail halo, vaporizes the team and Mantis, then speeds through the fleet's first row of a hundred warships, detonating them in fusion explosions in 78 seconds.