Ripper (Metroid)

A Ripper is an ovaloid, coelopteranoid creature native to the planet Zebes, but also found aboard the BSL Research Station. The creature is completely brainless and flies back and forth its whole life. It keeps alive by breathing air, which is rich in minerals and other nutrients. It only has nerves to control itself and mainly uses them early in its life to find a place to fly for the rest of its life.

Rippers are generally brown in color and have a tough shell that protects them from most attacks, although a powerful enough concussive blast or intense exposure to plasma and electricity, such as with a Screw Attack movement system, will destroy them. They are also susceptible to cold, and can be frozen in place; somehow, a frozen Ripper will not fall to the ground. Their body is split into two main segments:
 * The head, the small pointed anterior section of the body. It is approximately only 1/10th of the total body length.
 * The thorax, which makes up the rest of the body and is covered in the smooth, rounded shell.

With the destruction of Zebes, they are now considered extinct in the wild, although the same might not be true with the Ripper IIs, assuming that they were creations of the Space Pirates or said Pirates found a use for them.

Ripper Subspecies

 * Ripper II
 * Winged Ripper