X Parasite

Parts of this article were sporked from the Metroid Wiki.

"The creature took on the host's memories, appearance, abilities, everything. It sucks everything dry. Utterly terrifying. Can you not see that if a mimic such as this were to infiltrate a population, it could replicate almost indefinitely! With evil taking the form of an ally, the galaxy could be overthrown. It is truly the worst kind of evil... it has no name, but... we call it X."
— Old Bird

The X-Parasite or Mimicus parisitus X is a rare and dangerous life form witnessed in Metroid Fusion and the 2002 manga.

Records of this extraterrestrial organism are hard to come by outside of SR388. The Chozo discovered the parasite when settling the planet, and developed the Metroids to counter it. Knowledge of the X Parasite was kept secret from the Galactic Federation to prevent the organism being cultivated as a weapon. In the prelude to the Third Nazi War, Zebes was invaded and samples of the X Parasite fell into the hands of the Combine Bloc.

File:Thexd.png

Vials containing the X Parasite in an Enclave laboratory

Acquisition of the X-Parasite

During the Space Nazi invasion of Zebes, a squad storming a Chozo temple stumbled upon a locked door marked with an unknown language and an international symbol for biological hazard. Ignoring numerous warning from the Chozo, the five man team broke open the lock and took vials containing the X-Parasite and Metroid DNA as war prizes. One vial was broken and infected Sergeant Hanz Schulz and Corporal Rudolph Manz. Schulz died from organ failure as the X consumed his organs. Manz was placed in intensive care, suffering neurological damage and progressive organ failure.

Deciding he had little use for either Metroids or the parasite, Manfred Hickten presented the Combine with the stolen samples. Nikita Brezhnev in turn sent them to the Enclave and tasked Dr. Breen with continuing research into developing them into weapons. Enclave researchers used the X Parasite to craft clones of CivGeneral and Samus Aran, respectively titled CG-X and SA-X. Breen also sought to use the X against the Gargantua.

The X clones were designed to track down and kill the heroes, either by conventional means or through infection. The project became a costly bust, however, as Samus was already immune to the X Parasite, and used her blood to counter CivGeneral's infection. The plan was further complicated after a botched assassination attempt that led to SA-X's capture.

The Gene Bombs

Following the rout in the Battle of the Bulge, the Enclave began shipping their supplies back to the Space Nazis to keep them out of Coruscanti hands. Enough samples were retained to construct a "gene bomb" in Tokyo as revenge for the disastrous invasion of Japan. Although by this time the X Parasite had proven its viability as a weapon, the Space Nazis favoured the Forced Evolutionary Virus, and contented themselves with simply creating their own gene bomb.

Behind the scenes

• The vials of X-Parasites use the same model as the Bile Bomb used in Left 4 Dead 2. There are plans to have them reskinned to better distinguish them.
• The scientific name Mimicus parisitus X is basically a work-around to explain why it is sometimes referred to as "Parasite X".

See also

• Metroid
• Forced Evolutionary Virus