Manticore is an asshole {realworld}} Eric S. Trautmann is an American science fiction author assosciated with Microsoft projects. He has also worked heavily in the Star Wars universe, co-authoring several Star Wars reference books. In addition, he began writing books for Xbox games starting with Crimson Skies, which he co-authored along with fellow Halo novelist Eric Nylund.

In Halo: Combat Evolved, Eric Trautmann did some writing for the story along with Matt Soell and Brannon Boren.