YMIR Mech: Hahne-Kedar Heavy Combat Mech

The YMIR Mech, formally the Battle YMIR Mech or Model 34-A and commonly called simply a Heavy Mech, was a massive armored combat walker manufactured by Hahne-Kedar. Built as an anti-infantry killing machine, it was clad in bone-white armor lit with red and bristled with heavy weaponry. It served as fire support for mercenary outfits such as Eclipse and the Blue Suns and stood guard as security on some colonies, and it would later be remembered as the forerunner of the larger piloted walker known as the Atlas.

Design and armament#

The YMIR was a slow but imposing machine, a large and heavily protected chassis that concentrated formidable firepower into a single frame. In its right arm it carried twin automatic mass accelerator cannons, and in its left a rocket launcher; both weapon mounts remained concealed until the moment of use, opening as the mech prepared to fire. It could engage at long range but tended to press relentlessly toward its targets, advancing slowly and noisily and unable to climb any steep change in elevation, though it could manage ramps and gentle inclines.

For protection the YMIR relied on high kinetic shielding backed by thick armor. So long as either layer held, the mech was virtually impervious to force-based attacks, whether from biotics or other sources, and could not be staggered. Only once stripped of both shields and armor did it become vulnerable to being knocked down or held in place. When destroyed, a YMIR invariably exploded, and a catastrophic hit could trigger a delayed critical overload that consumed it in a far larger blast.

In appearance and behavior the mech echoed the synthetic war machines of the geth. Its bone-white plating was lit with red, and the symbols and markings on its armor resembled those of the smaller LOKI Mech. The robotic sounds it produced in battle were reminiscent of geth vocalizations, and it would occasionally speak in a low, mechanical voice, announcing its own status as it fought. Like the geth Armatures and Colossi, a YMIR unpacked from a stowed configuration when it was deployed into action.

Service#

Manufactured by Hahne-Kedar, the YMIR was put to work wherever heavy, durable firepower was wanted. The Eclipse and Blue Suns mercenary companies fielded the mechs as infantry support, leaning on their armor and weapons to anchor a firefight, and some colonies employed them as security against raiders and intruders. In this role they were frequently paired with the smaller, humanoid LOKI Mechs, the heavy walker providing weight of fire while the lighter units swarmed.

The YMIR's design later gave rise to a still more powerful machine. Drawing on efforts to build a heavier walker than the automated mech, Cerberus developed the Atlas, which began as a more powerful YMIR variant with a soldier inside before a protective canopy was added and the frame enlarged. Where the YMIR ran on its own, the Atlas was built around a living pilot, marking it as a crewed successor in the same lineage. The YMIR's name, like those of the LOKI and FENRIS mechs, was drawn from Norse myth, after the primordial frost giant Ymir.