Free Mantis

**The Free Mantis** are a new faction in FTL: Multiverse. They are independant from The Mantis Hive and strongly oppose their hive-minded structure. The Free Mantis live nomadic lives, living in large clans spread across multiple ships. They idolize the Federation and its officers. They can be found in several sectors, but most notably their own territory. They rely heavily on a synthesized version of the Mantis pheromones, to which they become addicted without concern of its side effects, resulting in the degradation of their intellect.

The faction is based loosely on vanilla Mantis C and use the same color scheme for their ships. They are a heavy boarding faction, who also frequently use mind control and flak weaponry. Their enemy ships also use the "invasion" boarding AI, unlike most ships that use "sabotage" AI.

The Free Mantis faction consists entirely of Mantis, as their name would suggest.

## Gameplay

The Free Mantis are deadly boarders, but fortunately are usually friendly to the player. Their ships will almost always have teleporter systems, similar to Hive Mantis ships. They can also use mind control fairly frequently, but never have cloaking, hacking, or drone control.

The Free Mantis also have a few interesting gimmicks. Their ships always have Zoltan bypass, and they use a special boarding AI called "invasion", similar to the vanilla flagship, where they will favor sending over more crew instead of pulling them back to heal. Free Mantis crew are also weaker than regular mantis, more comparable to a human, until they activate their pheromone ability, which temporarily gives them boosted damage and mobility.

## Relations

### **The Federation**

The Federation is idolized by the Free Mantis, who are concerningly obsessed with the Federation lifestyle. Many Free Mantis soldiers seek out positions amongst the Federation's ranks, and will usually provide aid to passing ships. However, they are typically unintelligent due to their strong addiction to synthesized pheromones, and sometimes mistake ships as Rebel spies.

### **The Rebellion**

Due to their obsession with the Federation, the Free Mantis bear a strong hatred for the Rebellion. Unlucky Rebel ships who journey into Free Mantis territory will find themselves taken hostage and executed "in the name of the Federation" before hundreds of bloodthirsty mantis.

### **The Mantis Hive**

The Free Mantis consists of Mantis either born free or those who broke free of the Hive's control. Strongly opposed to the oppresive nature of the Queen and her Bishops , the Free Mantis resent them and will kill Hive ships who travel into their sectors. The Hive often does the same, sending hunters or sometimes even Suzerain vessels to kill Free Mantis revolutionaries who cause problems within the Hive's infastructure.

### **The Zoltan Ministry**

Because the Ministry rejected the Free Mantis and refused to help them in finding a refuge from the Hive, the Free Mantis decided to lash out and, as a direct response towards their uncooperative decision, take zoltan controlled sectors by force.

### **The Coalition**

Much like with the Rebellion, the Free Mantis despise the Coalition for being enemies with the Federation.

## Ships

Free Mantis AssaultFree Mantis BattleshipFree Mantis BomberFree Mantis DestroyerFree Mantis DropshipFree Mantis GuardFree Mantis InterceptorFree Mantis ScoutFree Mantis TransportFree Mantis CruiserFree Mantis FighterFree Mantis Station (currently unused)
## Warlord Ships

Warlord AssaultWarlord BattleshipWarlord BomberWarlord DestroyerWarlord DropshipWarlord GuardWarlord InterceptorWarlord ScoutWarlord TransportWarlord Cruiser