Samus Aran

Samus in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.
Samus Aran
Species	Human
Hair color	Blonde
Eye color	Blue
Voiced by	Jennifer Hale
Debut	Metroid

Samus Aran is the female bounty hunter who stars in the Metroid series.

Background

Early Life

Samus was only an infant on the planet of K-2L when it was attacked by Space Pirates. As the sole survivor of the tragedy, she was left orphaned and alone. A group of Chozo found her and took her as their own. They raised her on the planet Zebes where these particular Chozo lived. During this time she was infused with Chozo blood. After she had grown to adulthood, the Chozos fashioned for her a Chozo Power Suit to defend her. Not only that, but it posessed the ability to assimilate other technologies (Chozo or otherwise) into the suit.

For a time she served in the Galactic Federation, likely as a Federation Trooper. During this time her Commanding Officer was Adam (who presumably died at some point). For reasons unknown she left the Federation and became a Bounty Hunter. Although her career as a bounty hunter is only lightly touched upon, she soon after became an enemy of the pirates.

Bounty Hunter Years

Her first mission (or 'zero mission' as she refers to it) was to track down and destroy the Metroids that the Space Pirates had stolen from Federation hands. During her excursion into the heart of Zebes she battled many creatures, some of which she would soon face again, such as Ridley and Mother Brain. With the Metroids destroyed, she managed to escape the planet before the structure of the Pirate caverns collapsed. Before she could completely escape her ship was downed and her Power Suit destroyed. There she proved her worth and merit by infiltrating a Pirate frigate with little more than a gun that only stunned the pirates. She was able to get a new suit (or have her original repaired) at a Chozo Shrine. She was then able to defeat the Mecha Ridley creature inside and escape from Zebes.

Samus in her flight suit

After the defeat at Zebes, the pirates branched out their operations in order to rebuild. While some stayed on Zebes to rebuild, another group went to Tallon IV. Samus was able to track the pirate frigate in orbit around the planet. Upon infiltrating the ship, she discovered the pirates had discovered something important on the planet. She then proceeded to land on the planet and wipe out the Pirate bases. In the process she learned of the presence of Chozo ruins on the planet. She was able to defeat the strange 'Metroid Prime' creature and put to rest the ghosts of Chozo warriors.

Her next mission was not to destroy, but to aid Federation Troopers who had gone MIA near Planet Aether during a conflict with Space Pirates. On the planet she discovered the Federation Troopers had been wiped out, but not by pirates. Instead they had been slaughtered by the 'Ing', creatures created by an unfortunate incident involving the Luminoth who lived on the planet. With the guidance of U-Mos, the only remaining Luminoth, she was able to restore Aether to light, defeat the Ing, and the strange Dark Samus that had come into existence.

After repeated encounters with the Metroids, it became all too apparent that they were far too much of a threat to keep alive. Samus Aran's next mission was therefor to destroy every Metroid on their homeworld of SR388. She travelled deep into the planet, exterminating the creatures. She at last encountered the Metroid Queen that was the source of the Metroids. After defeating the Metroid Queen, she witnessed the birth of one remaining Metroid. The creature followed her to her ship. She proceeded to hand the metroid over to Ceres Space Station for research.

Before Samus was too far away from the sector, she received a distress signal that the space station had been attacked. The Space Pirate, Ridley, had invaded and stolen the Metroid Larva. Samus followed him back to Planet Zebes, there discovering that the Zebesians had rebuilt their underground operations. She again defeated Kraid, Ridley, and other beasts that guarded the caverns. She was narrowly defeated by Mother Brain, but was saved at the last minute by the Metroid Larva (which was soon after destroyed by Mother Brain). After the defeat of Mother Brain, the planet began breaking up. Samus was able to escape the planet before it was destroyed. With that mission, she believed the last of the metroids to be destroyed.

Samus wearing the Fusion Suit

Her next mission was to escort a group of researchers on SR388. During that time she was attacked infected with Parasite X. She was quickly rushed off to be operated on by the researchers. The X had quickly infected her Power Suit, which had to be surgically removed. In order to save her life, she was injected with Metroid DNA in order to combat the virus. Though effective, it left her behind in a strange version of her original suit and the ability to absorb the X Virus like Metroids. In the meantime her damaged suit had been sent to B.S.L (Biologic Space Labs) for research. When she went to the lab, it was discovered the X Virus had spread from the researchers and infected the entire space station.

With the aid of the AI (which she named Adam) installed on her replacement ship, she travelled through the space lab trying to defeat the virus. To complicate things, the X Virus had managed to infiltrate her suit and use her DNA to create 'SA-X', a clone of Samus with all of her original powers. After powering herself up substantially, she was able to defeat SA-X and many other collosal creatures the X parasite had infected, including the remains of Ridley. She soon discovered Metroids had been cloned on the ship from the same sample that saved her. With the advice of Adam, she decided to destroy the space station and destroy the X Virus for good. Before she could return to her ship, she had to defeat an Omega Metroid. After the destruction of SR388 and B.S.L., she returned back to the Federation, presumably to await trial for disobeying orders to leave the X Virus alive for research. What happened afterwards remains unknown.

Trivia

• During Metroid Prime 2, we discover that most Federation Troopers think of Samus as more legend than reality. However in later (chronological) games, she seems to be in close contact with the Federation.
• In the original Metroid manual, Samus is referred to as a 'he'. Combined with the fact that games predominantly starred male heroes, it is little surprise that the fact Samus was a female was a surprise at the end of Metroid.
• The fact that the Chozo still lived on Zebes is rather odd, considering that it seems implied that the Zebesians wiped them out.
• Samus Aran was absent from the Captain N cartoon series (despite one of her enemies, Mother Brain, being in it) but she appeared in the comics based on the show and seemed to develop feelings for Captain N.