Yanme'e

Name: Yanme'e
Dice: 12D
Dexterity: 1D+1 / 3D+1
Knowledge: 2D+1 / 4D+1
Mechanical: 2D / 4D
Perception: 2D+1 / 4D+1
Strength: 1D+1 / 3D+1
Technical: 2D+2 / 4D+2

Move: 10 / 12 walking; 14 / 18 flying* (See Special Abilities)
Size: 1.7 - 2.1 meters
Weight: 75 - 110 kg

Special Abilities:

• Voice Box: Yanme'e are unable to pronounce any language other than their own, although they can understand other languages perfectly well.
• Flight: Yanme'e have wings but cannot fly due to their natural weight. If equipped with an integrated anti-gravity device, they can fly at a movement speed of 14/18.
• Chitinous Exoskeleton: Yanme'e's exoskeleton provides a +1D to resist physical damage and a +1D to resist energy damage.
• Technical Aptitude: At the time of character creation only, Yanme'e receive 2D for every 1D allocated to any Technical skills.

Description: “Drones aren't brave; they're just incapable of feeling fear.”
— Bungie.net's description of Drones.

The Yanme'e (Latin Turpis rex, translated to "Ugly king") are insectoid creatures that travel in swarms; however, in Halo: Reach and Halo 3: ODST they seem to travel in much smaller groups. They are referred to by humans as Drones or Buggers, and are a race of sentient, flight-capable insectoids who make up part of the alien religious hegemony known as the Covenant. Their mastery of antigravity-assisted flight has given them an almost insurmountable strategic advantage in combat.

Background

The Yanme'e are human sized, insectoid creatures that are covered in a natural chitinous exoskeleton that affords them limited armor protection against modern weaponry. Yanme'e typically mount small antigravity devices on their exoskeleton to assist them in flight. It seems, like the other Covenant species, that Yanme'e share a ranking system from the colored plating of their exoskeletal armor. The Yanme'e do not interact with the other species except to trade and serve in a military capacity. The Yanme'e's exact position in the Covenant Hierarchy is relatively unknown, although it is reasonable to speculate that they are higher in rank than Unggoy and Kig-Yar, but lower in rank than Sangheili and Jiralhanae. Yanme'e are often used as mechanic crews on ships when Huragok are not available, though they aren't as effective as the Engineers. In jealousy, Yanme'e have even killed an Engineer named Lighter Than Some which was assigned all the drones' tasks aboard the Covenant vessel Rapid Conversion. After the Great Schism began, almost all of the Yanme'e took the side of the Covenant Loyalists.

The Yanme'e are a eusocial species, meaning their society usually consists of a single reproductive queen, reproductive males and non-reproductive female workers and/or soldiers. Because of this, the Yanme'e can be extremely dogmatic and hive minded; something that may have made for an easy conversion into the Covenant hierarchy. The Yanme'e were one of the newest races to join the Covenant, and are respected by the other Covenant species for their natural intelligence, obedience, and technological skill; the latter skills set has brought them into an often violent rivalry with the Huragok, as seen in Halo: Contact Harvest. The Yanme'e fought for the Covenant Loyalists during the Covenant Civil War in 2552.

The Yanme'e joined the Covenant in the year 1112. Much like the Unggoy and the Mgalekgolo, they are a conquered race that was forced into service by the Covenant. Despite this, unlike the two former species, they remained with the Covenant Loyalists during the Great Schism. They strictly follow the Covenant religion and obey any command without question, yet do not partake in social norms due to communication difficulties with other species. They view the Prophets as "Queens", a remnant of their former hive lifestyle. The Queens of the Yanme'e have been described as "enormous" and had to be supported by multiple wingless Yanme'e males. The Yanme'e's language is a cacophony of high-pitched clicking or whining from the rubbing of their waxy, leaf like wings. They are also known to communicate with loud shrieks and screeches. Some ideas are conveyed through the use of pheromones.

Anatomy and physiology

The Yanme'e are not true insects, as they do not share a common ancestry with Terran life, but they share many similarities with earthly beetles and colonial insects. The Yanme'e have hard exoskeletons made from a glossy chitinous substance, as well as two pairs of veined wings.

Unlike Earth insects, which have three body sections, the segments of the Yanme'e body are broken into five: a head, a cephalothorax, a thorax, a pelvis and an abdomen. The head supports a pair of feathery sensory antennae and a pair of compound eyes. The mouth consists of sets of mandibles like those found on insects. Their hands sport opposable thumbs and dextrous fingers. The first pair of legs are attached to a pelvis like structure, while the second pair is attached to the abdomen. The last set of limbs allow the Yanme'e to latch onto ceilings and hang down vertically during sleep.

The exoskeletons of the Yanme'e are brightly colored, with different hues representing different ranks or stages of maturity. Adolescent, or pupal, Yanme'e are luminescent yellow and orange, workers are a green hue, soldiers are pale blue, and Yanme'e majors are dark red.

There seem to be a number of different varieties or ranks of Yanme'e, including copper, green, blue, silver, red, and gold. Drones have also shown variation in other characteristics than color, including differences in mandible, limb, and antennae structure. Whether these traits are indicative of different tasks or functions, or simply a result of genetic variation, is unknown. When the Drones sleep, they do so hanging upside down from the ceiling, similar to bats.

The weight of the Yanme'e's exoskeleton prevents them from flying in gravity without the use of antigravity technology. This is presumably the purpose of the mechanical nodes that are integrated into the Yanme'e's carapace.

Intelligence

Yanme'e are a eusocial species, and therefore their intelligence is geared toward working in concert with large groups. They can accomplish tasks swiftly and efficiently when working together, and their knowledge of machinery is rivaled only by the Huragok. However, they lack individuality because of their hive lifestyle, and their instincts and societal conditioning suppress creative thought and encourage total obedience to authority. No examples of Drone names have yet been discovered, which could be another sign of their lack of individuality. They do not appear to experience higher emotions; It is suspected that they are able to feel jealousy, as seen when they killed Engineer Lighter Than Some when he unintentionally usurped their role as technician on board the Rapid Conversion. The Halo 3 Campaign Scoring description of Drone Majors states that Drones are incapable of feeling fear. In Halo: Evolutions, Unmutual Yanme'e are seen to be capable of independent thought and strategic planning.

Capabilities

Yanme'e are deployed in battle situations, such as aerial insertions, often alongside other Covenant forces. They have been seen to be used for surprise aerial ambushes and assaults, such as catching infantrymen off guard and causing them to shoot upwards as a diversion so that their allies may attack on the ground. This is a common Covenant tactic that can be used to wipe out a whole squad of Marines. They can also be seen lifting their enemies off the ground to impressive heights despite their frail appearance. This likely shows that the strength of the Yanme'e in general is underestimated and that they can lift greater than their own body mass in flight for a short time.

Hives

Yanme'e generally build their hives into cavern ceilings deep underground, and they are able to build a fully functional hive within a single day. A defining characteristic of Yanme'e hives is that they radiate heat to their surroundings from vent-like openings, elevating the temperature over a large area.

Source:

• Halo Wiki: Yanme'e
• thedemonapostle