Bombu

Bombu is a species of flying creatures made entirely out of electricity that appear on Tallon IV in Metroid Prime. They are driven by a basic instinctual need to generate and seek out focused energy sources.
Bombus are found in Space Pirate bases as well as within ruins which belonged to the Chozo. Their stronger presence in the former leads to the general belief that they are associated with the Pirates.
==Description==
The entities are comprised of a large, translucent sphere of electricity with four smaller opaque spheres embedded into it. They constantly produce energy and consequently must discard the excess in manners that are hazardous to other life-forms that happen to be nearby. This behaviour is likely the reason they are deployed as bioweapons by the Space Pirates as a form of security in areas of interest to them. They are only vulnerable to the electric-based Wave Beam and charging any Beam weapon will drive them erratic, making them more dangerous.
The Bombus, aside from different coloration and having an extra sphere on their main body, are virtually identical to the Atomics in appearance. However they share far greater similarities with the Harmony and Diligence drones from Metroid Prime 2: Echoes which serve the exact same gameplay roles despite their different origins.
=== Pulse Bombu ===
This cyan and yellow breed drops explosive segments underneath it. They mostly appear in open areas. Charging a Beam will cause them to be violently drawn to Samus and harm her on contact. 
=== Scatter Bombu ===
This purple and pink breed fly back and forth in tight corridors. It spins while continuously firing three electrical currents towards the nearby surfaces. Use of the Charge Beam drives it erratic and makes it spin at a rapid speed.
=== Invisible Pulse Bombu ===
This breed can only be seen and targeted through the X-Ray Visor. It behaves like the standard Pulse Bombu.
==Development notes==
Metroid Prime was originally intended to feature the same enemies from the 2D games, specifically those from Zebes"The entire first year’s worth of characters I modeled for the game were cut. At first, we were making all the enemies looking just like the old Metroid 2D enemies. Nintendo later decided that they wanted the enemies to have a new look, so we scrapped all of those creatures. These weren’t just models that were scrapped, but these were enemies that had a full set of animations and some even had AI programmed. I’m actually very glad Nintendo made that call because I think the newer designs that Jones and Keller came up with were a big improvement over the original 2D designs." https://shinesparkers.net/interviews/mike-sneath/. The Pulse Bombu and Scatter Bombu were seemingly part of this initial plan early in development due to them being internally named "AtomicAlpha" and "AtomicBeta"Metroid Prime - The Cutting Room Floor, hence their close visual similarities with the Atomics which at this time had only appeared in Super Metroid. Likewise, the two identical Harmony and Diligence drones from Metroid Prime 2 reuse the Bombus' internal "Atomic" names.Metroid Prime 2: Echoes - The Cutting Room Floor
An unused Logbook entry for the overall Bombu species exists in the internal data of Metroid Prime Remastered:
== Trivia ==
* The Bombus' implicit connection with both the Chozo and Space Pirates is another aspect they share with their 2D Atomic predecessor. However, the Atomic only had their ties with the Pirates established in Metroid: Zero Mission, a game released two years after Metroid Prime. The Bombus were thus the first to have this aspect.
* *Their presence in the territories of both alien races imply that the Bombus are, like the Atomics, artificial life-forms.
* The possibility that the Bombus once belonged to the Chozo is supported by the lookalike drones created by the Luminoth of Aether. The Luminoth are stated to have met the Chozo of Tallon IV in the past: the Mechlops, another robot built by the former which imitates Tallon IV's Triclops, suggests that the Chozo presented several life-forms to the Luminoth, the Bombus among them, leading to the creation of their robotic duplicates.
==Gallery==
Lake Tunnel (PD).jpg|Scatter Bombu
Invisible_Scatter_Bombu.png|Invisible Pulse Bombu
==References==
de:Impulsbomber
ru:Бобму
Category:Species
Category:Tallon IV
Category:Bombu Family
Category:Bioweapons