Yanme'e

Summary
The Drones, or Yanme'e by their name, are insect-like beings with wings. Altough they have been part of the Covenant for some time, they have just recently been put to use as combatants. Their primary use within the Covenant was to help build starships since their favored environment seems to be in space. Although in the Halo 2: Collector's Edition instruction manual it is said that they are from a planet that has the same gravitational pull as Earth, explaining their use in combat for this planet.

Since the Drones prefer to live in space, their wings are not as useful in planetary gravity. They can fly within gravity, but only for short periods of time before they have to rest their wings. Drones are insectoid and are covered in natural chitinous armor, altough it doesn't provide much protection. If you look carefully at a dead Drone you can see small round technological/metal objects on its armour, it is assumed by some that these are small shield genarators employed to make up for the Drones' obvious weakness. Another possibility is that these devices use Covenant anti-gravity technology to help the Drones fly in higher gravity than they are accustomed to, though this is only speculation. They appear to have replaced Ranger in The First Battle of Earth.

During the Civil War of the Covenant, the Drones appear to have stayed in the Covenant, led by the Brutes against the Covenant Seperatists and their Elites.

Combat
Drones prefer to stay at a distance and use long range tactics. However, they are skilled close-range combatants as well if the need arises. They always appear in swarms, and usually in large, open areas, where, combined with their agility, they are hard to target effectively. Drones also have the disinction of being able to board vehicles. However they do not seem cabable of driving them, but will beat mercilessly until the driver is either tired of this, or is killed. The only reason why they were used was because the Marines were never trained to deal with "aerial infantry".

They wield light-weight weapons such as needlers and plasma pistols.

Trivia
'Yanmee' is Japanese for 'dragonfly'.