Swarms of Palamok

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Swarms of Palamok
Geographic information
Home galaxy	Milky Way
Primary region	Orion Arm
Star system(s)	Napret system
Homeworld(s)	Palamok (Homeworld) Oquiu (moon) Ka'amoti (moon) Naxook (moon) Many other colonies in the Napret system
Political information
Government type	Absolute monarchy
Head of State	Master Queen
Head of Government	Master Queen
Commander-in-Chief	Master Queen
Societal and historical information
Capital	The hive of the Master Queen
Official language(s)	Yanme'e English (poorly and only a tiny minority can speak it)
Population	~300-400 billion
Era	Pre-Human-Covenant War Human-Covenant War Post-War conflicts
[Source]

The Swarms of Palamok are a government created, or rather reestablished, after the Covenant Empire dissolved and most of the Yanme'e returned to their homeworld of Palamok. It was and became ruled by a queen titled as the Master Queen who is usually elected from some of the oldest queens or most powerful hives. The government was essentially never disbanded but all its power and authority was taken over by the High Council. Incorporating the Yanme'e worker caste into the protector caste was but one of the proofs of this shift in power.

History

Pre-Covenant

The Yanme'e was reseeded on their homeworld of Palamok after the firing of the Halo Array. From there they began rebuilding their civilization from scratch. Many wars and conflicts between the different hives ensured that the Yanme'e as whole evolved with a great sense for war and its art.

The Six Great Wars

According to their historical records, there have been many bloody conflicts fought on their homeworld. The most gruesome of these are known as the Six Great Wars. These wars are said to have each been waged across most of the planet if not all of it. They can be said to be the equivalent of the humanities world wars. The first three have little records that survived the passage of time but are said to have been vast and very bloody with many hives eradicated. The fourth one became known as the War of Seven, a war where seven vast and powerful nations fought an all-out war with each other. This war ended with the destruction of all seven nations and the creation of many independent hives. The Fifth Great War can be said to be the prelude to the sixth and last Great War on Palamok. A time of relative peace between the many small countries after the fourth one had nearly sent the Yanme'e into a dark age when the seven great nations fell apart. This peace only lasted 30 years before a hive rose to such power that it began conquering all the nearby hives and countries. The other hives feared for their own countries when the momentum of the rising hive didn't seem to falter as time went on. In a desperate act of fear allied many free hives under a stronger hive. Three massive nation, including the aggressive one that forced the others to band together, entered a worldwide war.

The Sixth Great War of Palamok was the first war where nuclear weapons were utilized on palamok

The war lasted 20 years but in the end there was no decisive winner in sight and the war had taken its toll on all three of them. Agreeing to a ceasefire, the three super nations end the war. Although the war was officially over the three still hated each other and Palamok entered an age of cold war with the three super nations building up their military might. The cold war eventually ended with the economic collapse of one of the nations that couldn't keep up anymore. The two others rushed in to conquer as much as possible before the other. This sparked the sixth and final Great War on Palamok. The Sixth Great War, also referred to as the Unity War, was the shortest but also the one with most casualties. The war didn't even last two and a half. It is estimated to have been fought somewhere around the 920's by Covenant historians within the Ministry of Concert. The reason for the high casualties was the development of the nuclear bomb. The super nation that devolved it tested the first one on a heavily defended hive that prevented the enemy from creating a massive pincer movement on their positions. The result of the bombing was devastating but not enough to force them to surrender. The war continued for another five months with a nuclear bomb going off each month on heavily populated and strategic hives, the ruling hive was the final hive to receive a bomb, killing the supreme queen of the super nation. Free from the ruling queen's control the free queens practically threw themselves before the queen of the last super nation, hoping to be spared. The almighty queen accepted their surrender and crowned herself the first Master Queen of Palamok and ruler of all Yanme'e. With no official enemies left the Yanme'e turned their focus to restoring the planet and to pursue other branches of technology. Technologies such as satellites and space rockets soon came on the table as wild theories and the Yanme'e began to study what lay beyond their homeworld.

Contact with the Covenant

Many rebellious queens attempted to break free from the forced union in the following years but were mostly crushed by the sheer numbers and firepower under the Master Queen's command. As time went by the title of Master Queen became one of fear, respect and awe among the queens and the cornerstone of their civilization. The Yanme'e became a space-faring race around the year 1009 and a hundred years after they began the preparations for the first colonization of their moons, Oquiu and Ka'amoti. Those plans, however, had to be placed on hold when they encountered the Covenant for the first time. A Covenant exploration fleet had entered the system in search for Forerunner artifacts but had instead stumbled over the Yanme'e. The Covenant Fleet Master tried at first to make peaceful contact with the natives, but the talks quickly broke down due to the Yanme'es' complex language and the fleet master and his escort were killed due to a misunderstanding. This sparked a war between the two factions.

War with the Covenant

"Day 16: Our unit has successfully linked up with two of the other units in the area and we are marching on, on foot. We can't get any air-support this far into hostile territory and it shows with all the communications down and all. We lost eight men last night to an enemy attack, it saddens my to have so many brothers in arms die this way for there is no honor to be found here, only madness and insanity. My bones feel so heavy on this gods forsaken world, I haven't slept for days and I'm jumping at shadows now. Just like most of the men in the unit."

―Extract from an unknown Sangheili's recording device

Although the Covenant was technologically far superior to the Yanme'e, they were still losing the war. This was due to the great gravity that gave the Covenant forces a massive disadvantage but also because of the dense jungles and the Yanme'es' guerrilla warfare tactics. The Yanme'e set up numerous jamming devices across the battlefields to disrupt Covenant communications, turning the entire war into something like a worldwide Vietnam War. Covenant troops didn't know left from right or where their allies' positions might be. Friendly fire became a common cause for casualties on the Covenant side. The commanders in charge of the war pleaded to the

A Covenant fleet over Palamok during the war with the Yanme'e.

San'Shyuum to be allowed to glass the planet and its population, their forces had already been reduced to a fraction of its original size and half of those that were left had gone insane. The San'Shyuum would have none of that however as they feared that the Yanme'e hives could be hiding Forerunner installations. But as the war dragged on the San'Shyuum eventually saw that the war could not be won this way and demanded all forces off Palamok and began to study the Yanme'es' language. They soon found a way to successfully communicate with the Yanme'e and a treaty was struck, although the Yanme'e eventually came out short from the deal.

The Yanme'e was incorporated into the Covenant and received the technology that the Covenant had to uplift them to tier 2 on the Forerunners categorization of Technological Achievement Tiers. After searching Palamok for artifacts, it turned out that there were no installations to be found on the planet. Enraged that they had wasted both precious time and a large amount of forces for nothing the San'Shyuum took their revenge by instead enslaving the Yanme'e, removed their Master Queen from power, and eventually assassinated, and replaced with an assembly of queens that had secretly opposed the Master Queen.

The Covenant

Now a part of the Covenant it brought a confusing time for the Yanme'e as their beloved Master Queen had been taken from them and great changes were placed on them. The worker caste was absorbed into the protector caste, a change that confused many workers and protectors alike.

A lone hive guarding a vast field on Oquiu

This confusion brought much death to the Yanme'e units as they didn't know how to work probably together, a thing that they had always been good at. It would take many centuries before the worker caste was probably integrated into the protector caste. It didn't take the San'Shyuum long to spot the Yanme'es' talent for mechanics and a great deal of them were placed on Covenant vessels as maintenance crew and mechanics. But as bad as the coming time was, it wasn't all bad. With the technology of the Covenant at their disposal, they were finally able to truly escape the boundaries of their homeworld. The Yanme'e made quick use of the Covenant slipspace drive to colonize two of the four moons of their homeworld, Oquiu and Ka'amoti. New hives arose all over the moons and Yanme'es population exploded at an almost insane rate. So many hives were created that they almost stood side by side on the moons. The Yanme'e then focused on expanding into the rest of their home system, creating many asteroid bases for mining and extraction of fuel from the rich asteroid belts around their sun and the outer reaches of the system.

The Great War and its end

For the Yanme'e, the war with humanity wasn’t something particularly special, not to the masses at least. It was simply another command given to them from the Assembly of Queens who themselves had been given orders from the High Council. The Yanme'e fought as they had always done, relentlessly, tirelessly and with utter loyalty to their Queens. Hundreds of thousands if not millions of Yanme'e must have sacrificed their lives during the war, but none of that was important to them as long as they did their job right.

When the Great Schism came and the High Prophet of truth declared the extinction of the Sangheili race they obeyed with no hesitation. Yanme'e mechanics and maintenance crew on Sangheili controlled ships ran amok, killing everyone and sabotaging everything not standing against the Sangheili. As much damage as they did it wasn't enough to ensure the defeat of the Sangheili fleets and they were all killed to the last.

Post War

With the final High Prophet dead on the Ark and the Covenant falling apart many of the Yanme'e returned home to their home system while others chose to turn their back to their queens and allied themselves with splinter factions such as the Merg Vol's faction or Jul 'Mdama's faction. Back on Palamok the Assembly of Queens was disbanded as the treaty with the Covenant was, after almost 1450 years of enslavement, no longer valid. The assembly was not fond of letting go of their power and a civil war waged across the Napret system. In the end, the assembly and their forces were defeated and a new Master Queen was chosen, a young one even, and the worker caste was reestablished along with the reestablishment of their old ways from before the chains of then Covenant.

Having a large number of warships at hand and in dire need of more land to grow food for their huge population, the Master Queen declared war on the Jiralhanae and Kig-Yar by invading their territories and conquering their worlds. While the conquest came as a surprise to all and its initial momentum vast, the invasion soon turned extremely dire for the Yanme'e. While their forces were numerous and far outnumbered their enemies in most engagements they lacked tactical and strategic oversight in the naval engagements. The Yanme'e won many ground battles, but they suffered too many losses in space to carry on their conquest. In the end, the Yanme'e forces were pushed back and their fleets destroyed, only a fourth of their original naval forces managed to withdraw and regroup back in orbit of Palamok. The Kig-Yar launched attacks into the Napret system in retaliation but was forced to retreat by the large number of ships that the Yanme'e still commanded. The Jiralhanae had in the meantime problems elsewhere with Sangheili raiding parties and had to focus on the present threat as they concluded that the Yanme'e were pushed back for now and could be dealt with later.

Government

The Swarms of Palamok is an absolute monarchy ruled by the Master Queen. Each hive is essentially their own nation, but it has become a bone-deep tradition to respect the authority of the Master Queen from the years of wars against her predecessors. Even then there are still queens that secretly plot and scheme in the shadows to gain more power and to rule one day over all Yanme'e.

The Swarms are generally unfriendly with many of the Covenant races, seeing them as slavers and bad company. They have, however, begun to reach out to both the Sangheili and Humans for trade as they have come to realize that they can't supply their massive population alone. They have also begun searching for new worlds to colonize to expand their influence and rising empire, one such world is the moon of Naxook.

Military

"The buggers are a damn pain in the ass to fight on the ground, I tell you. Hives appear by the dozen by the hour when those oversized insects have settled in."

―Unknown UNSC marine

The Yanme'e military, also known as the Swarm Hordes, is a massive organization that encompasses every hive's protector caste members. Their numbers are vast and are known for being incredibly annoying when their forces have settled into a good position as dozens of temporary hives are constructed as outposts and strongholds within hours.

Ground forces

Yanme'e from the protector caste is born into the sole role of becoming the hive's guards and military forces. After the fall of the Covenant Empire, the number of troops in the Yanme'e military drastically decreased when the worker caste was reestablished. Hundreds of thousands of young worker Yanme'e were pulled out of their military service while older workers who had lived and experienced war for many years were forced to stay as had been in the military for so long that they were practically a part of the protector caste. Many hives also focused on rebuilding their forces to what it had been and protector eggs in the nurseries became more and more common in the years after the Human-Covenant War.

Navy

Sticking to the tradition of numbers above individual strength the Swarms fleets have massive numbers but are usually made up of small and weak ships. The CRS-class light cruiser makes up the majority of their fleets while ships such as the CCS-class battlecruiser normally function as their flagships. In recent years, the Queens have taken it upon themselves to great and design new ships to fill in the gaps in their fleets and have come up with a few new classes. Unfortunately the shipyards that orbit Palamok aren't designed to build the alien designs that queen has created and as such had to be either retrofitted, expanded upon and entire new shipyards had to be constructed. This too heavily on the Swarms economy and many other plans had to be either canceled or put on hold for later when their economy had recovered enough.

Yanme'e shipmasters

"At first the Yanme'e shipmasters were something to laugh at. They couldn't seriously do anything right... But then they adapted and boy they took us with our pants down."

―anonymous UNSC Captain

The Swarms of Palamok was a force to be feared on the ground but as fearful as they ground forces could be their navy was the complete opposite. The Yanme'e knew nothing of naval combat and tactics and this cost them dearly during their first attempt to expand into Jiralhanae and Kig-Yar territory. Their fleets were decimated and only 1/4 of their forces managed to escape and regroup back in orbit of Palamok. Enraged by such a huge humiliation the queens vowed that they would build a naval force that would spread fear across all known space. Many new Leaders and young Ultras were pulled out of their units and forced to study and train to become capable shipmasters.

The remains of the Swarms of Palamoks' fleets

Although they were far better than the last shipmaster they were far from as good as the Sangheili and Jiralhanae, a fact that the queen demanded to be eliminated. To accomplish this, the Master Queen sent out bounties for Kig-Yar and Sangheili ship- and fleet masters alike to be captured and delivered to the Yanme'e. Surprisingly many pirate and mercenary bands took up this offer and hunted each other down to get their shipmasters. The swarms acquired many prisoners this way and gave them all a simple offer: teach our naval officers how to command properly or become their next meal. After the first three Sangheili had rejected the offer and eaten in front of the rest they suddenly became very pleased with teaching the Yanme'e how to become competent shipmasters. Of course when the Yanme'e had a sufficient number of capable shipmasters that could teach the next generation of shipmasters there was no longer a need for their former teachers. They were served to their pupils on the day of their graduation.

biology

physical appearance

Exoskeleton

The Yanme'e drones are covered in a strong exoskeleton that protects its soft interior from both foreign microorganisms and attacks from predators. The Chitin is composed of many long stains of densely compacted polysaccharides. The chitin's chemical structure allows it to form strong hydrogen-bonds which strengthen the chitin many times. Calcium Carbonate is an important mineral for every Yanme'e as it also helps strengthen and harden their chitin multiple times over. The exoskeleton keeps growing as a Yanme'e grows older and older, making it harder and harder to penetrate their chitin as they get older. A Yanme'e Minor is known to have a chitin strong enough to absorb multiple armor-piercing rounds fired from most handheld human weapons while older Yanme'e such as the Ultra can take much more punishment than the Minor.

Beneath the skeleton

Beneath the exoskeleton are the muscles and internal organs stored and protected. The arms and legs are mostly made up of pure muscles, blood vessels, and nervous clusters, giving them great strength. This large build up of muscles were necessary for the Yanme'e to get around on their homeworld which had a gravity of 2.2 G's. Nervous ends penetrate up through the chitin to give the Yanme'e feeling of touch and to register pain though Yanme'e of the Protector caste have special Hormone that allows them to almost completely suppress signals of pain from all over the body. There have been many instances observed by both the San'Shyuum and the UNSC that some Yanme'e have fought on although they should have been dead an entire minute ago. So far such encounters can last up to roughly one and a half minutes at the very most though rarely seen to such an effect.

Internal organs number the same as a human, but some organs like the liver, stomach and heart are considerably different. The liver of the Yanme'e has shown to be many times more effective than that of a regular human. It's capable of filtering more blood faster and handling many elements considered toxic to the human body. The Stomach is also much stronger than the human equivalent. The stomach acid is able to break down many things that would be impossible for a human being and the rest of the gastrointestinal tract are also known to be superior to that of a human as it can extract and absorb many other substances from its diet than a human can. Finally, the average Yanme'e heart has been observed to be larger than an average human heart. This is because there is a greater need for blood circulation to transport nutrition to all the muscles that burn energy at a high rate.

Pheromones

AIE pheromone

The Yanme'e swarms can be said to be directed by pheromones produced both from the queens and the drones themselves. Most notably is the pheromone called the Amico et inimico pheromone (Latin for friend or foe, shortened to AEI) by the UNSC. The AEI pheromone acts much in the same way as a chemical/biological IFF system to help the drones from the different castes to identify other drones to be either friends or foes. The pheromone is unique from hive to hive with its queen as the original source. Any eggs laid will carry her unique pheromone until she is subjugated by another queen. When a queen is subjugated by another, the victorious one implants her own AEI pheromone into the defeated queen, altering her own AEI pheromone to look more like the others. This process will mostly insure that the rest of the defeated hive will not revolve. New eggs and old drones, whose own senses and pheromones will adapt to the changes of their queen's and see the conquering queen as their new supreme leader. It has been speculated by both Yanme'e queens and San'Shyuums that the Yanme'e Unmutual actually lacks the ability to sense the AEI pheromone and because of this goes crazy from seeing enemies all around them.

Spatium pheromone

The spatium pheromone (Latin for space or area) is a territorial pheromone produced by the yanme'e to mark their territories. The pheromone is ejected into the air through small glands located in the areas of their joints. The more yanme'e is in an area the denser the pheromone will be in the air, signaling that the area belongs to this group. Hives expel this pheromone over a large area around it through the ventilation system where Yanme'e usually gets rid of heat to cool the insides of their hives. It is said by some San'Shyuums that when the Huragok took over their role as mechanics, the Huragoks invaded Yanme'e territory as the Yanme'e saw this role as a part of their territory and simply refused to give it up to the Huragok without a fight.

Ranks

Master Queen

The supreme ruler of all Yanme'e, all other queens bow to her and offer their armies and hives to her service. The Master Queen was removed from power when the Yanme'e was absorbed into the Covenant but was placed in power once more after its fall in 2553 and the years after the end of the war with humanity. It was tradition that the Master Queen gave birth to an heir or a new Master Queen was to be elected between the oldest or most powerful queens to rule them if the previous Master Queen hadn't produced an heir to replace her. Currently, it’s a rather young but powerful queen that rules the Yanme'e race as the queens thought that new methods were needed to allow the race to prosper.

Hive Queen

Each Hive Queen is essentially the ruler of her own hive and other minor hives built as strongholds by her protector caste. They are the beating heart of the race and as such is guarded and cared for as the single most important thing in the hive. They are also the most intelligent of the Yanme'e and stand almost solely for the technological advancement of the race. Before the Covenant and even before the rise of the Master Queen were wars between hives a common thing. Kingdoms and vast empires rose all across Palamok and battled each other for supremacy. Some hives were subjugated by stronger hives during these wars. The weaker queens were brought before the stronger and received an 'imprint' of sorts that transferred the genetic makeup of the superior queen's pheromones which then would fuse with the receiver's own pheromones. This allowed the superior queen to not only subjugate the weaker queen but also her hive and its population. Breaking free of subjugation is far from easy, especially at the time before the Yanme'e were absorbed into the Covenant, as it involved altering one's genetic codes which are an extremely dangerous practice that either outright kills the queen or make her produce pheromones that cloud makes nearby drones go into a berserk-like rage, killing everyone around them including their own queen.

Leader

The Leader is the leader of Swarms military, both in the Army and Navy. They have been accelerated to their pupal stage through genetic enhancement done personally by their queen. How this is done is unknown to everyone but the Yanme'e and it is also a closely guarded secret that not even the San'Shyuum knows about. The leaders used to command low-ranking lances in the Covenant military or commanded temporary hives during sieges. When the Covenant fell apart the Swarms were in need of new commanders to lead their vast hordes of troops and as such the Leaders were 'promoted' to army commanders. They now command thousands of Yanme'e and are in charge of military operations across all Yanme'e territory. The Leaders can be considered the generals and admirals of Swarms.

Mega

"Monsters! They're monsters, I tell you! I could only watch as our SPARTAN took down a few of them and then they got to him and ripped his arms, legs and head off and started to freaking eat him... I just ran, man. I couldn't take it."

―Unnamed traumatized marine

Megas were first observed by human eyes years after the Great War during a reconnaissance mission led by ONI into the Napret system. Their mission was to gather information on the Yanme'e and their activities within the system. Unfortunately for the humans they had been discovered and the Yanme'e had decided to deploy a force of megas to test them in actual combat. The result was the near total destruction of the human crew.

A detailed sketch of the Yanme'e Mega

Only one survived the encounter though he died during the slipspace travel back to human controlled space. He did, however, have records of the slaughter with him, gathered and downloaded onto a data chip by the ship's AI. The videotapes show large monstrous Yanme'e, at least a head or two bigger than even SPARTANs, ripping the human crew apart with sheer strength and gunning them down with never before seen weaponry. After this encounter, all reconnaissance operations into the Napret system were canceled, fearing such horrible fates could wait for all crews heading into it.

The Megas, also known as drone commandos by the UNSC, are a new breed of Yanme'e. They are bigger, stronger, faster and tougher than even the ultra but usually lack the sheer combat experience. Like the Leaders, the megas have been genetically enhanced. They grow faster than the usual drone and have greater strength, stronger exoskeleton and bigger wings to carry them. They are also very independent compared to other Yanme'e units and are often given missions that take them far behind enemy lines with little to no support. Furthermore, they're equipped with new plasma weaponry, developed by the Yanme'e themselves.

Ultra

The ultras are some of the oldest and strongest troops the Swarms has. They are tasked with the security of the queens but also act as commanders for large forces of Yanme'e majors and minors. They're fearsome opponents as they have years of training and battlefield experience to pull upon. The ultras are considered the equivalent of the UNSC Major and Lieutenant Commander.

Major

The Majors are the squad leaders of the Swarms equivalent to a lance. They coordinate closely with the commanding Ultras that serve as their superiors. The majors are known for being rather good fighters but lack the sheer experience and skills of the older Ultras.

Minor

The Minor is the rank and file trooper in the Swarms military. They are considered to be nothing more than foot soldiers and often make rookie mistakes during combat. Many Minors will not live long enough to grow into a major, but the absurd birth rate of new minors outweighs this by far. Even if they are inexperienced they are, however, still a force to be reckoned with to normal human troops as they're still strong enough to lift a full grown human off the ground and fly away with him. This speaks volumes of how strong they can be.

Unmutual

The Unmutual is the rank or unofficial caste of Yanme'e males, created to categorize all the individual Yanme'e that can't function in the Yanme'e society. They seem to suffer from a personality disorder that, though rare, makes them unable to function as normal drones and are known to be very aggressive towards other Yanme'e. Their very existence is viewed as a plague towards the unity of the Swarms and the individual hives. As such they are treated as less than dirt and their lives become one of pain, hunger, and torture from the moment they are discovered and caught. They are usually forced to work in the mines on the countless asteroids in the Napret system or are simply executed if they prove too uncontrollable and dangerous. Execution is a quick way to end their miserable lives, but most are usually worked to death in the mines and their bodies recycled as food for some of the larger carnivorous animals that the Yanme'e keep as livestock back on their worlds. A very, very few of the Unmutual manage from time to time to break free of their shackles and flee Swarm controlled space. What happens to these few miserable but brave souls are unknown. Some speculate that they are either killed somewhere else by someone else, go into hiding in the neutral zones or simply hire themselves out for whatever job they can get their hands on.

Castes

Royal caste

The royal caste, commonly referred to as the leader caste, is the caste of all Yanme'e queens. The caste is the absolute ruling class within the individual hives and has complete authority over all the other castes that make up the hive's population.

Advisor caste

The advisor caste is the queen's nearest and most trusted minions. The caste is unique because members of the caste are not born into it but are instead selected personally by the queen from all the other castes to act as her advisers. As such these individuals have tremendous power and influence within their hive.

Assistance sub-caste

The assistance caste is a sub-caste of the advisor caste. They are tasked with their queen's daily needs and personal protection. Some of them also act as her diplomats and are by definition an extension of her will when she is not personally around. A large number Yanme'e from this caste were always present on the holy, mobile capital of the Covenant,High Charity, to function as messengers between the High Council and their queens back on Palamok or any other world under their control. Drones from the protector caste, usually Ultras, that are pulled from their own caste into this one are responsible for the queen's safety and as such can be said to be her personal guard or honor guard. The caste is also tasked with helping their queen in her research projects, both as assistants and as test subjects.

Nursery caste

The Nursery caste is a crucial caste for every hive as they take care of and nurse eggs and larvae until they enter the pupal stage. As such they weren't allowed into the Covenant military and stayed at home where they could take care of the next generation of Yanme'e drones. Nursery drones are viewed as less aggressive than other drones as long as no one acts threateningly around the hatcheries. They will, however, attack and terminate any threats if no drones from the protector caste are around to deal with it. This was the case with a Kig-Yar thief who wanted to steal and sell an egg that should become the next queen of the hive. Kig-Yar

Protector caste

The protector caste is the second lowest caste, only just above the worker caste. They are responsible for the protection of the hive and its population. It is also responsible for the construction of minor hives that function as strongholds and outposts for the major hive as well as temporary hives during sieges of hostile world or territories.

Worker caste

The worker caste is the lowest caste in the Yanme'e caste system. They are responsible for the production of facilities and products that the hive needs to function as a whole. They take care of production, livestock, mining, and maintenance. They also act as the mechanics on all Yanme'e ships, be it warships or civilian ships.

Industry

After the worker caste was reestablished the Yanme'es' economy almost exploded. They had a massive worker force which was eager to do what they were born to do: to work. The Yanme'e set about gathering engineers from the other races, either by kidnapping them or hiring. These engineers were tasked or forced to plan and oversee the construction of countless factories that should jump start the Swarms economy and military build-up. Factories of all kinds were built both inside and outside the many hives across Yanme'e territory. They also managed to get a few, but small shipyards up and running above their homeworld of Palamok. The shipyards, however, were so small that the Yanme'e still had to rely on other races for access to the larger ship classes the Covenant Fleet used.

Weapons and ships

With the San'shyuum gone for what appears to be for good the queens took on the responsibility of developing new technologies, weapons and equipment for their race. This led to numerous new weapons and ship designs for the Swarms of Palamok. Such technologies involve a series of new warships to supply their fleets and small arms currently used by the Yanme'e Megas.

Type-53 bug rifle

The type-53 bug rifle, more commonly known as the Bug Rifle, is brand new DEW rifle designed after the Sangheili type-55 storm rifle. The design supports the Yanme'e physical appearance. This makes the rifle rather unwieldy for other races. The Bug Rifle has a low RoF compared to other assault rifles but packs a much harder punch. It has a battery of 200 shots before it needs to be recharged or replaced.

Variant

The Bug Rifle can be modified to serve more like a sniper rifle. This variant focuses more on sheer firepower, range and precision than RoF and ammo. This variant has a battery for no more than 10 shots.

The Bug Rifle

Although the standard variant and this one looks more or less the same it is the innermost mechanics that the two differ the most. The standard is built to generate and release plasma at a high rate but less power while the sniper variant takes more time to generate a larger amount of plasma which is then launched through two rails that generate a strong magnetic field, enclosing the plasma in it and then firing it out through the muzzle with great speed and precision.

Type-34 Mosquito

The Yanme'e had never liked the aircrafts that the Covenant utilized in their military and had therefore never considered using them; their ability to fly on most habitable planets also helped to make them less attractive. When the Covenant fell, however, The queens were left with a great problem: they had no space or air fighters or bombers in the Yanme'e navy.

Two type-34 mosquitos patrolling the oceans of Palamok

The problem only grew when kig-Yar and Unggoy pirates began raiding the outposts and mines they had in the Napret system. They could fend off the larger ships, but smaller vessels were able to outrun and penetrate their defenses with little trouble. It was then that a Queen came up with the design for the Mosquito, a fighter that could fill the much needed role as fighter and bomber in space as well as in atmosphere. The design was again taken from previous Covenant designs, this time it was the Type-31 Seraph. The Mosquito was equipped with six micro impulse drives just behind the cockpit. Right in front of its two wings was a pulse laser placed on each side while two class-2 energy cannons were placed near the tip of the craft. A plasma charge was placed underneath the vessel. Finally, it was also equipped with energy shields to shake off some damage before attacks could cut into its weak armor. A special vacuum-sealed flight suit was also created alongside the Mosquito to further protect the pilot as well as making interfacing with the craft easier.

Beetle-class Patrol Ship

The Beetle is a class of ships used to patrol the area around Swarm controlled planets and space stations. The was created to supplement the Swarms fleets with recon and scout ships so that ships like the CRS-class light cruisers could focus on escort and attack roles. The Beetle is small and fast it is perfect for quick runs to scout ahead of the fleet or patrol important areas.

A trio of Beetle patrol ships on a scout mission

The Beetle is not built for ship-to-ship combat but should be able to hold its own in minor skirmishes against small ships and squadrons of fighters. The Beetle is armed with eight pulse lasers that are placed in each corner of the ship both on top of it and below it. This makes hard to find a safe bombing run as the turrets have a 360-degree turn. Four Mosquito fighters can be attached at its bottom for extra support and optimizing its scouting capabilities. It is manned by a crew of 345 Yanme'e where 300 of them come from the protector caste and the last 45 come from the worker caste as mechanics and maintenance crew. The ship has a length of 234 meters. The interior, like all other Yanme'e designed ships, are rather weird compared to both Human and Covenant ships as they are built with Yanme'es ability to fly and crawl on walls. Boarding teams will often find it hard to navigate Yanme'e ships as they usually lack stairs or elevators.

Vetruvious-pattern light destroyer

The Vetruvious-pattern light destroyer was easily the oldest line of ships in service of the Swarms, and by far the most numerous. Developed by the Covenant as a pirate-hunter, these ships eventually became a shameful symbol that would ultimately be discontinued on the Sangheili's orders. It was fast and fairly durable by Yanme'e standards, easily capable of keeping up with the SDV-class heavy corvette used by many ex-Covenant factions. Unfortunately, they are poorly armed with outdated weapon systems that fire slower and don't do as much damage as modern energy weapons, and their reactors require a larger amount of fuel to operate and weaker shields than a ship of its size should have. In addition, these ships follow a standard hull plan that makes them easy to board and capture - however, their obsolete nature gives very little incentive to do this over blasting them into space-dust.

Moth-class Light Destroyer

The Moth-Class Light Destroyer was designed by a group of queens on Ka'amoti. The Swarms needed better access to more offensive ships than could be provided to them from the other Covenant races due to being too expensive to buy. The Moth is a 1557 meter long ship, armed with eight plasma torpedoes and multiple pulse lasers.

A Moth-class Light Destroyer having finished off an opponent

Its armor is weaker than what is used for the standard Covenant destroyers and, therefore, rely much more on its energy shields to take the damage. The Moth, being a capital ship, is carrying a number of Phantom dropships and Mosquito fighters to aid it in both combat and planetary assaults. It has a crew of well over 3000. Like with the Beetle and the Dragonfly, its interior is of an odd design for ground-based species and boarding teams will often need jet packs or the like to navigate the ship more easily.

Dragonfly-class Light Assault Carrier

The Dragonfly-class was the innovation of none other than the Master Queen herself and a few other queens from Palamok and its moons. The Dragonfly was designed to fill the gap the Yanme'e had after its original fleets were defeated and crushed by the Jiralhanae and Kig-Yar. Staying true to the other designs that followed after this humiliating defeat, the Dragonfly have weaker armor than normal Covenant ships of its size and relay on powerful energy shields to protect it from incoming fire.

The dreaded Dragonfly-class Light Assault Carrier

The Dragonfly is 3000 meters long and crewed by 15,672 Yanme'e of all ranks from the protector and worker castes. It is armed with 20 plasma torpedoes and many pulse lasers. As it also takes on the role as a carrier it is equipped with a few hangers across its hull that serves as deployment zones for both landing crafts and fighters. The Dragonfly is planned to slowly replace the CCS-class battlecruiser as their fleets’ flagships but due to being quite expensive to produce there are only a limited number of Dragonflies in active service as of 2560. It is often used as the flagship for Yanme'e Leaders who serve in the Swarms navy. Like the Beetle and the Moth, its interior is odd and hard to navigate without a jet pack or other forms of equipment that allows its operator to fly short distances.

Economy

The Yanme'e mostly exports raw materials that they mine from the asteroid fields close to their sun, Napret, and an outer Asteroid field at the edges of the system. They also have a few fuel refineries scattered across the system. From there they sell fuel to the other Covenant races. Some hives also make money by selling out troops from their protector caste as mercenaries for a high price. A warlord who's in need of an army can usually find one for the right price with the Yanme'e.

As a growing empire with a massive population but little land, the Yanme'e have to import a great amount of food for their hives. They also have to buy and ship important materials and components to recover the might of their fleets.

Territories and important locations

Naxook

Naxook is one of the four moons of Palamok and has long been overlooked as a potential colony due to its toxic air but as the population kept rising and the demand for more land and resources rapidly increased following close behind. The Master Queen and her follow queens had to terraform Naxook into a habitable world as their fleets still weren't ready for another conquest after the failure of the first attempt. Many hundreds of Thousands of Yanme'e were worked to death to establish the first few settlements on the hostile moon. As the surface were too toxic to live on the Yanme'e constructed large Space elevators and spires that went far underground. A vast network of tunnels and halls were dug out and served as both hives and underground biospheres to support plant and animal life. It is theorized that most of the underground in a depth of 3 kilometers will be turned into hives within the next 50 years by some of the queens if the Yanme'e doesn't find other worlds to colonize and spread their population out thinner.

The Anvil Belt

The Anvil Belt refers to the asteroid belt closest to the sun, Napret. The name was given to it due to its large deposits of valuable metals that could be mined and refined for many different uses such as the armor used on most Covenant warships. Many asteroid bases were built by the Yanme'e to act as centers for mining operations and as refineries to purify the metal before it's shipped off to Yanme'e population centers or sold to other races. The belt is also home to a large force of Beetle patrol ships, known as the Anvil Guard or Fleet of Anvils, that guards the mining facilities against hostile forces that would seek to steal and plunder them.

Ho'maruk Delta

Ho'maruk Delta is the fourth planet in the Ho'maruk system. The system was originally under Jiralhanae control but was left to the Yanme'e during their first conquest as the planet and the system had little value to them. Ho'maruk Delta is one of the very few planets outside the Napret system under the Swarms of Palamoks' control. The planet is an icy world covered in thick snow and seemingly never ending blizzards. A few hives have managed to adapt to the cold weather and environment. The Master Queen plans to use this planet as a stepping stone to get deep into Jiralhanae space when she'll launch the next conquest. This is why the few hives that live on the planet mostly focus on preparations for this. They stockpile weapons, fuel and most important of all troops for the upcoming wars.