Part V: Envoy
From the moment he was "born" he knew what his purpose was. Purpose was something he'd never been without, something he could not live without. He was a weapon built to lead the Space Pirates on their conquest of the galaxy. That was their destiny; that was their purpose.
Ridley, unlike his "brother," Kraid, was more than a simple attack- dog. Kraid could never have gotten his bloated carcass off Zebes to be anything more than a guard in the Mother Brain's lair. Ridley's task was to lead the Pirate Army, a task at which even Mother Brain had failed. Ridley had made a decision: no more Kraid; no more Mother Brain. Ridley alone would lead the Pirates to their destiny as rulers of the galaxy.
The one and only being that ever truly stood in the Space Pirates' way was the Hunter, Samus Aran. The Hunter had been interfering with the Pirates' affairs for years, ever since Zebes. If they were ever going to succeed, the Hunter had to be eliminated. Ridley recalled his experiences battling the Hunter...
Ridley first fought the Hunter in the scorching depths below Norfair. He'd underestimated her then. Initially, Aran had been overcome with terror at the sight of the Space Dragon. That fear was soon replaced by a power and determination unlike any Ridley had ever encountered. The general soon found himself severely wounded and defeated. After the Hunter had left his chamber, Ridley managed to drag his crippled form out of the caves and to his flagship. The Pirates were already working on a means to mechanically enhance their general, and they used this technology to keep him alive.
The Hunter's mission to destroy the Mother Brain and the Metroids it was manipulating had been successful. The Pirates' fighters shot down her ship as she fled the planet, yet she managed, unarmored, to infiltrate the flagship and the adjacent Chozo ruins and acquire a new, more powerful combat suit. The barely-functional Meta Ridley was no match for the Hunter in her newfound power. The flagship was destroyed and Aran hijacked a Space Pirate fighter to escape the explosion.
The Pirates that survived the disaster began work on rebuilding Meta Ridley. They used wreckage from the ship until reinforcements arrived with more resources. The Pirates' forces divided. One group remained on Zebes to rebuild the destroyed base and re-create Kraid and the Mother Brain. The other set out to explore new energy sources. Ridley accompanied the latter team. Ridley's mission led him to Talon IV, a planet where a highly radioactive element had arrived on an asteroid. The Pirates named the element "Phazon" and began their experiments. The Hunter interfered again.
She'd opened a passage to the core of the Phazon meteorite, and Ridley planned to dispatch her and obtain the pure Phazon within. Somehow, Aran had become even more powerful since their last battle. Both combatants on the brink of defeat, the Chozo statuary surrounding their battleground suddenly revealed themselves to be a highly potent weapon. They blasted Ridley with immeasurable force, critically damaging his electrical systems and plunging him into the Phazon crater. Samus ventured into the core of the meteorite and destroyed the Metroid Prime, the source of the element. The entire site collapsed and exploded, the Hunter barely escaping the blast. As Aran's ship sped out into space, Ridley pulled himself out of the smoking debris and activated his distress beacon.
The Space Pirates on Zebes picked up the signal and rescued their leader. They repaired and enhanced him once more, this time adding systems that would allow Ridley to repair severe damage to himself using nanotechnology to reorganize the molecules of any other substance into compounds that needed for repairs. While Ridley joined the effort to rebuild the Zebes fortress, Aran was on SR388 wiping out the entire Metroid population. Only one Metroid was spared extermination. The Hunter took the hatchling to the Federation to be used for peaceful applications. Ridley, rebuilt and stronger than ever, attacked the Ceres station. The Federation personnel fought back, but the Space Dragon slaughtered them. Once the station was devoid of life other than Ridley and the Metroid, the general took the opportunity to access the Federation network and look for valuable information. It was then that Ridley learned the true identity of the Hunter that had stood in their way for so long.
Ridley's first mission after his creation was the destruction of the Federation colony on planet K2-L. The Mother Brain had been quite proud of Ridley's success on K2-L. He'd left no survivors, or so he thought. The Federation computers told Ridley that Samus Aran was born Rebecca Aran, a three-year-old girl presumed dead for nearly twenty years after the Battle of K2-L. The file went on to explain that Aran had been raised by the Chozo on Zebes. So many things suddenly made sense: The Hunter's ability to use Chozo artifacts that the Pirates could only baffle at, the combat suit and weapons the Pirates were unable to overpower or replicate, even her name "Samus," the Chozo word for "newborn" or "hatchling."
Then Ridley heard a familiar set of starpulse engines. The Hunter's ship was docking with Ceres. Ridley destroyed the station and fled back to Zebes with the infant Metroid. Again, Aran stormed the fortress. Again, she dispatched Kraid with embarrassing ease. Ridley himself fell yet again. The Mother Brain was more prepared for Aran this time, but even it failed again. The immature Metroid had imprinted on the Hunter as a mother figure and protected her from the Mother Brain's new Hyperbeam weapon. Giving its life for its surrogate "mother," the Metroid endowed Aran with the ability to use the Hyperbeam and finish the Mother Brain once and for all. The species known as Metroid was extinct.
The new power core on Zebes reached critical mass and destroyed the entire planet. Only two being survived the blast. The Hunter escaped in her ship. The wreckage of Norfair shielded Ridley enough from the blast that he remained intact enough to begin his self-repairs. Some months after the destruction of Zebes, a Federation salvage ship found Ridley, captured him, and took him to the Biologic Space Labs station orbiting SR388. There, Ridley was put into a subzero containment chamber, infected by the X, and left barely alive before the station and planet's destruction. While the BSL station plummeted through the atmosphere of SR388, Ridley took flight out into space and headed towards the Space Pirate territory. His soldiers recovered him and brought him to his present state.
Now, Ridley's role among the Pirates was changed. He'd appointed himself Supreme Commander of the Space Pirates' forces. His first order of business was to take part in an envoy to greet the invaders. If the Pirates could join forces with the invaders, they could become closer than ever before to achieving their destiny, their purpose.
Ridley flew in open space alongside the Pirate frigate Assassin. The ship was transmitting their proposal to the invader's ship on all possible channels. So far, there had been no response, good or bad. When the frigate was a mere two thousand kilometers from the ship, a harsh signal screeched across the Pirates' comm. channel. Ridley switched off his comm. receiver and looked at the ship. His telescopic vision showed him hundreds of tiny points of movement on the exterior of the warship. Canons.
Ridley reopened his comm. and transmitted the command to take evasive action, but the signal was jammed by the whine of the invaders' transmission. The frigate was going into a full reverse and veering to port. Ridley quickly scanned the area and found hundreds of bogeys all around them. An ambush! A bright flash of light from the invaders' gunship was all that heralded the silent explosion that ripped the frigate to atoms. Ridley was alone and surrounded by enemies. The Space Dragon armed his weapons systems and prepared to fight. If the invaders wanted to kill him, they were in for a hell of a struggle.
From the moment he was "born" he knew what his purpose was. Purpose was something he'd never been without, something he could not live without. He was a weapon built to lead the Space Pirates on their conquest of the galaxy. That was their destiny; that was their purpose.
Ridley, unlike his "brother," Kraid, was more than a simple attack- dog. Kraid could never have gotten his bloated carcass off Zebes to be anything more than a guard in the Mother Brain's lair. Ridley's task was to lead the Pirate Army, a task at which even Mother Brain had failed. Ridley had made a decision: no more Kraid; no more Mother Brain. Ridley alone would lead the Pirates to their destiny as rulers of the galaxy.
The one and only being that ever truly stood in the Space Pirates' way was the Hunter, Samus Aran. The Hunter had been interfering with the Pirates' affairs for years, ever since Zebes. If they were ever going to succeed, the Hunter had to be eliminated. Ridley recalled his experiences battling the Hunter...
Ridley first fought the Hunter in the scorching depths below Norfair. He'd underestimated her then. Initially, Aran had been overcome with terror at the sight of the Space Dragon. That fear was soon replaced by a power and determination unlike any Ridley had ever encountered. The general soon found himself severely wounded and defeated. After the Hunter had left his chamber, Ridley managed to drag his crippled form out of the caves and to his flagship. The Pirates were already working on a means to mechanically enhance their general, and they used this technology to keep him alive.
The Hunter's mission to destroy the Mother Brain and the Metroids it was manipulating had been successful. The Pirates' fighters shot down her ship as she fled the planet, yet she managed, unarmored, to infiltrate the flagship and the adjacent Chozo ruins and acquire a new, more powerful combat suit. The barely-functional Meta Ridley was no match for the Hunter in her newfound power. The flagship was destroyed and Aran hijacked a Space Pirate fighter to escape the explosion.
The Pirates that survived the disaster began work on rebuilding Meta Ridley. They used wreckage from the ship until reinforcements arrived with more resources. The Pirates' forces divided. One group remained on Zebes to rebuild the destroyed base and re-create Kraid and the Mother Brain. The other set out to explore new energy sources. Ridley accompanied the latter team. Ridley's mission led him to Talon IV, a planet where a highly radioactive element had arrived on an asteroid. The Pirates named the element "Phazon" and began their experiments. The Hunter interfered again.
She'd opened a passage to the core of the Phazon meteorite, and Ridley planned to dispatch her and obtain the pure Phazon within. Somehow, Aran had become even more powerful since their last battle. Both combatants on the brink of defeat, the Chozo statuary surrounding their battleground suddenly revealed themselves to be a highly potent weapon. They blasted Ridley with immeasurable force, critically damaging his electrical systems and plunging him into the Phazon crater. Samus ventured into the core of the meteorite and destroyed the Metroid Prime, the source of the element. The entire site collapsed and exploded, the Hunter barely escaping the blast. As Aran's ship sped out into space, Ridley pulled himself out of the smoking debris and activated his distress beacon.
The Space Pirates on Zebes picked up the signal and rescued their leader. They repaired and enhanced him once more, this time adding systems that would allow Ridley to repair severe damage to himself using nanotechnology to reorganize the molecules of any other substance into compounds that needed for repairs. While Ridley joined the effort to rebuild the Zebes fortress, Aran was on SR388 wiping out the entire Metroid population. Only one Metroid was spared extermination. The Hunter took the hatchling to the Federation to be used for peaceful applications. Ridley, rebuilt and stronger than ever, attacked the Ceres station. The Federation personnel fought back, but the Space Dragon slaughtered them. Once the station was devoid of life other than Ridley and the Metroid, the general took the opportunity to access the Federation network and look for valuable information. It was then that Ridley learned the true identity of the Hunter that had stood in their way for so long.
Ridley's first mission after his creation was the destruction of the Federation colony on planet K2-L. The Mother Brain had been quite proud of Ridley's success on K2-L. He'd left no survivors, or so he thought. The Federation computers told Ridley that Samus Aran was born Rebecca Aran, a three-year-old girl presumed dead for nearly twenty years after the Battle of K2-L. The file went on to explain that Aran had been raised by the Chozo on Zebes. So many things suddenly made sense: The Hunter's ability to use Chozo artifacts that the Pirates could only baffle at, the combat suit and weapons the Pirates were unable to overpower or replicate, even her name "Samus," the Chozo word for "newborn" or "hatchling."
Then Ridley heard a familiar set of starpulse engines. The Hunter's ship was docking with Ceres. Ridley destroyed the station and fled back to Zebes with the infant Metroid. Again, Aran stormed the fortress. Again, she dispatched Kraid with embarrassing ease. Ridley himself fell yet again. The Mother Brain was more prepared for Aran this time, but even it failed again. The immature Metroid had imprinted on the Hunter as a mother figure and protected her from the Mother Brain's new Hyperbeam weapon. Giving its life for its surrogate "mother," the Metroid endowed Aran with the ability to use the Hyperbeam and finish the Mother Brain once and for all. The species known as Metroid was extinct.
The new power core on Zebes reached critical mass and destroyed the entire planet. Only two being survived the blast. The Hunter escaped in her ship. The wreckage of Norfair shielded Ridley enough from the blast that he remained intact enough to begin his self-repairs. Some months after the destruction of Zebes, a Federation salvage ship found Ridley, captured him, and took him to the Biologic Space Labs station orbiting SR388. There, Ridley was put into a subzero containment chamber, infected by the X, and left barely alive before the station and planet's destruction. While the BSL station plummeted through the atmosphere of SR388, Ridley took flight out into space and headed towards the Space Pirate territory. His soldiers recovered him and brought him to his present state.
Now, Ridley's role among the Pirates was changed. He'd appointed himself Supreme Commander of the Space Pirates' forces. His first order of business was to take part in an envoy to greet the invaders. If the Pirates could join forces with the invaders, they could become closer than ever before to achieving their destiny, their purpose.
Ridley flew in open space alongside the Pirate frigate Assassin. The ship was transmitting their proposal to the invader's ship on all possible channels. So far, there had been no response, good or bad. When the frigate was a mere two thousand kilometers from the ship, a harsh signal screeched across the Pirates' comm. channel. Ridley switched off his comm. receiver and looked at the ship. His telescopic vision showed him hundreds of tiny points of movement on the exterior of the warship. Canons.
Ridley reopened his comm. and transmitted the command to take evasive action, but the signal was jammed by the whine of the invaders' transmission. The frigate was going into a full reverse and veering to port. Ridley quickly scanned the area and found hundreds of bogeys all around them. An ambush! A bright flash of light from the invaders' gunship was all that heralded the silent explosion that ripped the frigate to atoms. Ridley was alone and surrounded by enemies. The Space Dragon armed his weapons systems and prepared to fight. If the invaders wanted to kill him, they were in for a hell of a struggle.