Ridley

Military Commander of the Kromus Horde

**Ridley** is a high-ranking and rather infamous Space Pirate general, known also by his self-proclaimed title "ni'kima tar aku", or as translated, "God of Death". Where he came from, or what he even is, is unknown even to the Kromus. He seems to have a frighteningly high level of knowledge of Chozo technologies and insight as to the culture and mindset of the Thó'ha, granting him tactical advantages when it came to invading Zebes in 2976.

## Personality and traits

While Ridley displays few outward personality traits, his brutal disposition, foul temper and love of death and destruction are made apparent when he orders his entire legion of Space Pirates to annihilate the inhabitants of K2-L, even going as far as to burn many of the mining colony's workers alive and eat them. His ability for cruelty is further made concrete in his contempt for what he sees as "lesser" lifeforms. He, like many of his Kromus subordinates, also believes in the superiority of certain races over others, counting himself among the privileged elite species and seeing the "lower" races as something only to exterminate.

Despite these bloodthirsty tendencies, Ridley has shown to be an intelligent and competent battle tactician, orchestrating a great many successful battles, as well as proving a serious threat on his own. Many times when he has been in direct command of a Kromus attack force, casualties for their enemies have been maddeningly high, if not near total, owing much to his own size and physical lethality in combat. Ridley grudgingly shows respect to those who are natural leaders, though this often more presents itself as spiteful contempt than genuine respect.

## History

Where Ridley originated from is a mystery, only that he has commanded the Kromus hordes for centuries now. He came to the Kromus almost three to four hundred years ago and ended the escalating tribal wars that they had been embroiled in for almost the entirety of their time as a space faring species, by challenging and crushing, literally, the various tribal leaders of the time. This was followed over the years by Ridley setting up the Kromus High Command as his subordinate "equals" to carry out his orders and intentions when he was not able to do so directly. Over the centuries, the Kromus tribes were slowly unified in a rough form into a Horde, and though the tribes would infight as was their nature, when given a common enemy to pillage, they were as a swarm under his guidance.

Few, if any, among the Kromus dared to question him and his might, and in return, he has led them to conquest in their home galaxy and the Small Magellanic Cloud, and eventually to cross the dark space void to reach the Sol-Daiban Galaxy, where they began probing the Galactic Federation for plundering. The level of returns they have gained for following the dragonoid, however, have been sharply declining, and have given many factions of the Kromus reason to question continued loyalties to Ridley. Despite their biological dispositions to follow the strongest figures of leadership, a growing number of tribes seek to strike on their own without Ridley, after not only the loss of their ancestral origin world in the Kromus War, but also their second ejection from Zebes and his abandonment of many of the smaller tribes following the destruction of Tourian and the death of the Mother Brain.

### Current Status

During the Siege of Zebes in late 2976, Ridley was revealed to the Chozo and their allies as having survived his apparent death on Krom. He had regenerated his injuries not long after he had been rescued from the doomed planet by High Command, only to be nearly blown apart at K-2L by John Aran's self sacrifice. The following fifteen years gave him time to heal most of his wounds, putting him in peak condition during the invasion of the Chozo homeworld, and taking the galaxy by horrifying surprise. However, it was when tormenting the young hunter Samus Aran in the thermal plants in Norfair that he was attacked by Grey Voice in an ancient war suit of the Chozo and found himself sustaining otherwise fatal injuries that left him in retreat for regenerative care. Since their escape from the Confederation fleet, High Command has taken the opportunity to "upgrade" Ridley, installing cybernetics and mounting grafted armor and integrated weapons, the "meta-helix project" as they codenamed the process. His natural regenerative abilities are mitigated to a degree by the extent of his cybernetic augmentations, though still allowing his body to make progress in fully healing. Ridley previously had been with the main Kromus Horde command fleet in the Omega Centauri star cluster, overseeing operations on planet Tallon IV, until the fleet was discovered by Federation agents and an assault by Confederation fleet forces took the Kromus by surprise and captured not only Ridley, but High Command and the *Cunning Death* as well.

## Powers and Abilities

Ridley is a cunning and brutal warrior. One of his most infamous abilities is his plasma breath, which can take the form of spit fireballs or short-ranged plumes of flame. While fighting hand-to-hand, Ridley slashes with his long claws and bites with his giant teeth, while his long tail has a razor-sharp blade at the end, which he uses to slice or impale targets. He is an adept flier whose five and a half meter wings let him move through the air at incredible speeds to outrun and ambush opponents. One of Ridley's signature techniques is grabbing victims with his superior strength, able to hold up a heavy armored human trooper in one claw and throw them like a ragdoll.

Ridley is incredibly adept at regeneration, able to heal himself by consuming living beings and incorporating their biomass into his body to rapidly repair damaged tissue. This high-level of regeneration has become the source of claims by him that he is truly incapable of dying.

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