The Yans

The Yans are a group of people that serve BAHRAM. All are featured in Zone of the Enders: Dolores,i, and are notable for their sunglasses and long brown hair. They also seem to boast reinforced bodies, as Nikolai attempted to shoot himself for killing his younger brother, only to have the bullet bounce off and leave a scratch. 

The Yans are either normal humans that are reinforced to be machines or techno-organic clones that are designed to carry out operations by BAHRAM. As shown in episode 13 of ZOE-Dolores,i, an older member of the group attemps to shoot Nikolai, not with a gun, but rather a reinforced shooting weapon built in the left wrist.

Known Members

• An older member of the group is seen directing the other members, who all look identical due to a disguise that they wear in order to appear similar to one another. This member also attemps to shoot Nicolai with a weapon pre-built in the left wrist.
• One member murders the trucker that was sent to transport Isis and later murders the inspection crew sent to inspect James' ship. He pilots a manned Mummyhead and is very ruthless.
• Nikolai, upon targeting James Links, slashes at the outline of what he believes to be Dolores, but accidentally kills his younger brother. He is seen as one of the more sentimental Yans. He and his younger brother pilot manned Raptors.
• Nikolai's younger brother was shown to have admired his older brother, and joined BAHRAM for that reason.

Synopsis

A member of a member in the family murders the trucker that was sent to transport Isis, unwittingly placing it into James Links' hands and later preparing to assault Links' truck. The same member likely beats Leon in order to obtain information on Isis.

Later, on an abandoned military base, the older brother accidentally kills his younger brother by slashing apart his Raptor with his own. He then swears revenge upon James and, after being denied orders to capture Isis, escapes the BAHRAM occupied mansion and dons the disguise of "Nikolai".

Nikolai later gets close to the Links family, and manages to incur some romantic interest from Noel. It is only later, when he kidnaps Noel and demands a duel with James, that he reveals his true identity. He sends several blasts from an overhead ship, and gains the upper hand after Dolores' shield gives them away. However, when the Isis AI takes over, Nikolai's ship is effortlessly and mercilessly beaten down.

James questions Nikolai for his reasons for a duel when he could have chosen other reasons or attacked them any time before. Nikolai confesses to his motive and self-destructs the ship after saying so. Shortly after, it is revealed that he left several record tapes of BAHRAM facilities in his truck, as well as a past photograph of him and his brother.

Later, other Yans are seen accompanying Radium Lavans and his children on Abu Simbel. James ultimately managed to defeat the murderer when he shoots at Rebecca Hunter, while another Yan detonates Abu Simbel in the wake of several Earth LEV pilots.

Trivia

• A photograph of the two brothers hints that both had natural dark blue hair.
• It is never revealed whether Nikolai was the older brother's real name.
• To a certain extent, the Yans are like Terminators, being built with weapons hidden inside the body and being indestructible to a certain extent. To make them look more like those Terminators, every Yan wears a pair of sunglasses.