Raid on Planet Zebes

"No matches found in flora and fauna databank"

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“	Samus Aran's mission is to infiltrate the headquarters of the Zebesian space pirates and recapture the Metroid hatchling. Zebes is made up of six huge areas. Here's a brief survey of the planet.	„
—Super Metroid manual

The Raid on Planet Zebes is Samus Aran's final mission on Zebes, and occurs during Super Metroid. It is her second mission to Zebes, after her original Zero Mission.

Background

Zero Mission

The Space Pirates have based their operations on Zebes before, during the events of Metroid: Zero Mission. Led by the corrupted Chozo supercomputer Mother Brain, the Pirates seek to multiply Metroids stolen from the Galactic Federation using Beta-Rays. After Samus destroys this operation, the remaining Pirates on Zebes begin to reconstruct their base, as well as Mother Brain, while other members of their race seek the mutagenic substance known as Phazon throughout the cosmos. This distracts both the Galactic Federation and Samus from Zebes, allowing the Pirates to rebuild their installation there undisturbed.

Metroid Theft Incident

Following Phazon's eradication, Samus is commissioned by the Federation to eradicate the Metroids on their homeworld, SR388. Samus spares the life of an Infant Metroid that spawns in front of her and imprints onto her. Calling it the baby, she brings it to the Space Science Academy on the Ceres Space Colony in the hopes that the researchers there can study the Metroid. They discovers that the Metroids have the ability to give energy to bioforms, as opposed to only siphoning it. Satisfied that research is well underway, Samus leaves the station.

Moments later, Ceres Station is attacked by the Space Pirate leader, Ridley, who steals the baby and causes the colony to detonate. Samus pursues Ridley to Zebes, and sets out to recover the baby at all costs. While she fights her way through the caverns of Zebes, the Space Pirates again use Beta-Rays to multiply the baby. However, the excessive amount of Beta-Rays used on a single Metroid triggers an anomaly in its evolutionary cycle, causing it to become a Big Metroid rather than an Alpha Metroid.

The New Operation

Samus observes the Golden Statues, which guard the entrance to Tourian.

Samus discovers that the Pirates are operating in nearly every sector of Zebes, and that the heart of their operation, Tourian, is guarded by Golden Statues linked to the lifesigns of four Pirate leaders. To access Tourian, Samus will have to defeat each leader.

Samus begins with Kraid in Brinstar. Kraid, previously defeated during Samus's Zero Mission, is back and even stronger, but Samus is able to defeat him. Entering the Wrecked Ship, she eliminates the second of the four guardians, Phantoon, whose defeat allows her to access the Gravity Suit, which becomes necessary for the final two guardians. In Maridia, she defeats Draygon, the leader of the Evir creatures, before finally reaching the depths of Norfair for a confrontation with her arch-nemesis, Ridley. She is able to defeat Ridley once again, but in the next room, finds the baby's capsule broken and empty.

Tourian

Samus confronts the cloned Metroids in Tourian.

Returning to the Golden Statues, Samus watches each statue "die", before the entire sculpture sink into the ground and reveal the path to Tourian. Without wasting time, Samus enters Tourian and battled the Metroids multiplied from the baby.

Samus enters a barren wasteland-like area in Tourian and finds the dried husks of several creatures, having been killed by Metroid predation. She then encounters a massive Metroid and tries, but fails, to escape it. The Big Metroid siphons her energy until she has one unit left, before it recognizes her as its "mother" with Samus in trade, realizing that the Big Metroid is indeed the baby. The baby then flees away presumably in shame, though Samus restores her energy and continues on to the rebuilt Zebesian Command Center.

Final Conflict

During the Final Conflict, Samus confronts the rebuilt Mother Brain, who attaches herself to a mechanical body and unleashes a barrage of deadly attacks against Samus. She is eventually able to cripple Samus using the Laser Brain Attack. As she moves in for the kill, the baby ambushes her and begins to siphon her energy, which turns Mother Brain into a brittle husk, before transferring said energy into Samus. Mother Brain somehow reactivates, and kills the baby. Samus, fueled by the baby's energy and her own rage, unleashes the Hyper Beam against Mother Brain and finally destroys her. Mother Brain's death triggers a countdown sequence that will destroy the entire planet. Samus escapes with her life, but the universe loses the promise of the Metroids being used for good.

Aftermath

Samus, wounded from the battle against Mother Brain, returns to Galactic Federation Headquarters to publish her report. Ringleaders of a secret and illegal project salvage fragments of the baby from Samus's Power Suit while she recuperates, and use them to clone Metroids on the BOTTLE SHIP. Samus falls into depression following the baby's death, feeling guilty over her failure to save it. Eventually, she is led to the BOTTLE SHIP, and discovers her role in the revival of the Metroids, merely weeks after she has eradicated them.