Metroid: Project Ridien

During the time between Metroid Prime and Super Metroid, the Project Ridien incident occurred.

Project Ridien was originally called A.S.H., standing for Anti-Space Hunter. The project was originally started to create a super-being that could be used to fight off all Space Hunters. However, during Samus' invasion of Zebes, it was reorganized to stop her specifically. After countless attempts to create a super monster that could destroy Samus (one of attempts resulted in the fake Kraid) they changed what their goal was. Using cameras and other technology, they managed to almost duplicate Samus's basic suit.

The plan was to create a duplicate robot of Samus that could, being equal to Samus, destroy her with the help of other Space Pirates. Unfortunately, the robots that were placed inside the suit could not function well enough. When pitted against other space pirates, the robots were easily defeated. Samus's invasion almost over by now, and her approaching Tourian, the space pirates changed A.S.H. to a codename, Project Ridien, in case Samus were to stumble across evidence of it while invading Tourian. When the time bomb was set off, Project Ridien, its creators, and its blueprints were evacuated to the other side of the planet. There, in the Coron Skystation, a giant station floating in the clouds, further tests were conducted.

There the space pirates working on it determined that they could not create a robot programmed well enough to destroy Samus. For about 2 weeks the project was ignored, but then a new discovery was found. A search team of space pirates looking for metroids (that survived the explosion the time bomb caused) discovered the remains of a metroid. When the metroid DNA was tested to see if it could be used to create new metroids, the results were negative, but they did find something very interesting in the DNA.

When this specific metroid latched onto Samus, it had been bombed off. However, the metroid had sucked out enough of Samus's energy to extract some of Samus's DNA. The creators of Project Ridien picked up the project again, this time hoping not to have to use a robot but instead of clone of Samus.

The original idea was to create a perfect clone of Samus- body, mind, and abilities. They already had the entire mind they needed (having receptors picking up Samus's brainwaves when she was invading Zebes), which they merely needed to focus into the clone’s own brain to learn them. The creators' idea was to recreate the Samus we all know and love, a perfect clone.

However, this plan did not work. They soon realized that the DNA that had been extracted from the Metroid remains was, like the Metroid DNA, not intact and had missing parts. Original attempts to create a clone without repairing the damage ended up creating a random blob of cells. After numerous attempts, the creators decided they'd have to repair the DNA.

Attempting to repair the DNA with artificial particles, the result was horrible. Although the results were human-like shapes, the bodies was mangled, disproportioned, missing limbs, and usually dead. The few that did come out alive only lasted for about a minute. They twisted and twitched for a minute, then their bodies collapsed and they died. Finally, the space pirates were close to giving up Project Ridien. In addition, funds had been running low as a large amount of energy was being put into Mother Brain's recovery; after Samus defeated her on Zebes, there was a flash and a burst of flames, thought to be the Mother Brain exploding. However, in reality, it was her teleporting away... To a hideaway on Coron Skystation. In an attempt to advance her biological section's recovery, natural plants were brought in to help it feel less mechanical... But the plants grew, and took over, consuming the metroid cloning area as well and corrupting the metroid's DNA into Kesonoids, a planty mutation of metroids. Faced with this new problem, the researchers were told that they needed to