Yanme'e Hives (War of Vengeance)

The Yanme'e Hives is the term given to the collective society of the Yanme'e, based from the planet of Palamok. Despite its name, it is not a government in any sense understood by Humans.

Background History
Originally, the Yanme'e had a planet-wide hive-empire, ruled by a long line of Queens, a reign that lasted several thousand years. Eventually, the Yanme'e were discovered by the growing Covenant Empire, and with only biological defenses (acidic spit from their mouth, chitinous armor, sonic wing vibrations, natural flight, etc), they were quickly conquered. The males were then used for ship repairs and tasks requiring flight capabilities, while the females, on the other hand, were kept around merely for breeding purposes, with the Yanme'e Queens stripped of leadership powers (if they ever had any), and used as breeders, producing thousands of eggs at a time, and puppet leaders to keep the general populace in line. Lesser members of the species recognized the San'Shyuum as their new "queens".

Post-GW1
Despite the splintering of the Covenant into various competing factions after the conclusion of the First Great War in 2553, the Yanme'e did not make a bid for independence like the Unggoy or Jiralhanae, instead remaining with the New Covenant. Seeking to try and keep the Covenant as unified as possible, the Prophets of Objection, Protestation and Devotion made many changes in the internal structuring and organisation of their faction, seeking to make better use of each of their member-races' talents. Yanme'e were elevated to the Warrior Caste, with Huragok taking their former technical roles, while Unggoy were removed from the military totally, relegated to civilian roles to build up the New Covenant infrastructure and to deny them the resources for revolt. Thus, the Yanme'e were mostly complacent throughout the War of Vengeance.

War of independence
However, with the coup by the Governors of Contrition in 2561 and the subsequent Great Upheavel, many Yanme'e began to question their loyalties: The Prophets, their "Queens", had been replaced by the Sangheili-dominated Governors, whom the Yanme'e felt no loyalty to. Furthermore, with the pressing material needs of the Second Great War, and the Governors intent on beginning the Great Journey they had been promised for so long, they press-ganged thousands of Yanme'e into service. The return of the Yanme'e soldier class into an active combat role was recieved poorly by the Yanme'e Queens, and rumours began to circulate that the Yanme'e were preparing to leave the New Covenant in a similar schism to that of the Sangheili - and as before, the leaders cut down the leadership, scattering the main body, and quickly moved against the threat. Unlike the Sangheili, the Yanme'e had no access to the ships and fleets that gave them their edge, but their technical skills would become invaluable. Eventually, a sizeable portion of the Yanme'e hive queens splintered off - while they would remain separate from the Loyalist faction, they would still resist Governor encroachment, using equipment that was either stolen, bought from the Kig-Yar black market (with considerable difficulty), or recommissioned from the Virtuous Herald ship graveyard. Initially, the force was merely a handful of scraped-together ships, barely capable of protecting Palamok. Within a few years, the Yanme'e separatists had assembled a fleet large enough to repel Governor forces from Yanme'e held space. Contact with the Prophet-led Loyalists in 2570 would lead to the Yanme'e entering the war against the Governors in a full capacity, hoping to free their hive-queen brethren from the Governors practice of using leaders as puppet commanders.

Post-GW2
After the Second Great War, the Hives chose to ally with the Unggoy Star Empire in their Cold War against the UNSC and its allies.