'Possible Weakness'

$mineral.type1.nam? I'll just call it antimantisite.

The preceding Story Mission was: 'Energy Depletion'

The following Story Mission is: 'Finding a Way Through'

The arms race with the Mantis takes a new turn in this mission. Tobias Planck has made an interesting discovery about Mantis behaviour. You must fly down to Baumar and meet him in Jogan. When you get there you discover that Tobias is still wearing daft glasses. More importantly he's got a lead on a rare mineral found on Baumar that may affect Mantis technology and act as a repellant. If you can find some of this mineral and bring it to him then he may be able to create an anti-Mantis device. Cool. 

Although...hang on...aren't all of our ships equipped with technology stolen from Mantis victims? Okay the ship Blueprints (BPs) are definitely human made, as the descriptions of the ships are explicit in this. But all of my Blasters, Shields etc. are built from looted Mantis technology. How come this new antimantisite doesn't affect our ships? Explain that one then Splitscreen. Maybe humans pinch the design from the BPs but use their own materials and manufacturing techniques that make them immune to antimantisite. Maybe it's just the Mantis core ship systems that are affected. Maybe, once again, I'm sounding like a nerd. Okay let's just move on shall we?

Tobias fits your ship with an antimantisite detector and you have to fly around and find some. Now these are scattered far and wide across the surface of Baumar so expect to be frustrated. You'll need a reasonably long time slot to complete this one. I started it once but had to stop as life got in the way and I had to log off after 40% complete.

You will cruise around for a while, and then Tobias will pop up to tell you that there must be some of the mineral nearby. Check your map and you will see that you are now on the edge of a marked area. The antimantisite will be somewhere near the centre. Engage shields (if you have them), find and collect the mineral while being pounded by the Mantis, then Afterburn out of there. You can go back to Jogan where Tobias will take the mineral off you or you can keep searching. You are told that if you get podded while carrying the mineral it may be destroyed. The first time I tried this mission I was blown up carrying the first piece of antimantisite but the mineral survived. I simply flew back to Baumar and carried on.

You have to collect 5 pieces of mineral before Tobias says that's enough and knocks up the Mantis repellers. One is installed at Jogan and you have to deliver the other four to the remaining outposts. You can collect and deliver one at a time, or do as I did and collect them all together and tour the outposts.

After I collected and delivered the first mineral which took me to 10% completed I was worried that I'd have to find 10 and I was was already planning a moaning post about this particular story mission. However 5 is a reasonable task, plus the delivery which is quite easy. Not a bad mission at all as long as you have the time. A Tank is definitely the best ship for this mission as you take heavy fire while finding and collecting the mineral.