E-102 Gamma (Archie)

"You will never destroy all of me, brother. You cannot destroy my soul."

- E-102 Gamma, Sonic Universe #3

E-102 Gamma (3236 - 3237) is a character that appears in the Sonic the Hedgehog comic series and its spin-offs published by Archie Comics. It is the third unit in the E-100 Series robotic group created by Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik. E-102 Gamma was one of the first E-100 Series robots created during Eggman's campaign to harnessed the power of Chaos. Due to an encounter with Amy Rose and her Flicky friend however, Gamma gained a consciousness. Gamma then went rouge and waged war on the Eggman Empire. After over a year spend fighting alone, Gamma was offered to join Guardian Units of Nations, but was hunted down and destroyed by E-123 Omega. However, he managed to upload his "free will" code into Omega's programming to continue his fight. He exists in both the Pre- and Post-Super Genesis Wave timelines.

Creation and Gradual Betrayal
Created in the year 3236 by Dr. Eggman inside the Egg Carrier, E-102 Gamma was the third unit of the E-100 Series, powered by a female Flicky. Shortly after his activation, Gamma met Eggman who send him out on a training course to test his skills which Gamma completed with resounding success, earning Eggman's favor. Supposedly, Gamma then participated in an attack on the Floating Island.

Along with three of his "brothers"–E-101 Beta, E-103 Delta, and E-104 Epsilon–Gamma was first assigned to a competition to see which E-100 Series robot could retrieve Froggy (the entity that contained the "tail" of Chaos). Gamma eventually reached the Mysterious Cat Country where he found and captured Froggy from Big the Cat while knocking Big out. Upon Gamma's return, he was chosen as the winner of the competition and saw his brethren being disposed by Eggman.

With his success, Gamma was assigned by Eggman to bring the flicky captured by the E-100 Alpha robots earlier to the mad scientist. Gamma entered the prison, where the other prisoner, Amy Rose, refused to hand over the flicky. Amy's compassionate tone contrasted Eggman's orders which made Gamma remember the cruel fate of his brothers and he had an epiphany: if he were to follow Eggman's orders, both the flicky and Amy would be most likely roboticized. The will of the flicky powering Gamma–which was the parent to the Flicky accompanying Amy–mixed with his programming, awakening a consciousness within Gamma. With a change at heart, Gamma released the two captives and went outside of the Egg Carrier.

Later, both Sonic the Hedgehog and Miles "Tails" Prower arrived at the Egg Carrier, which led to Gamma being ordered by Eggman to attack the two Mobians. During the battle, Sonic tricking Gamma to shoot himself, bur Amy stopped the fight as she explained that Gamma helped her. Sonic believes in Amy, and as the heroes prepared for the final fight, Gamma left the Egg Carrier, saying good bye to the friend he saved.

A Mission To Set Things Right
Having went rouge, Gamma made it his mission from that point on to hunt down and destroy each and every E-100 Series robot to release the flickies inside the. During this mission, Gamma had faced both E-101 Mark II and a E-1000. After having destroyed the last E-100 unit, Gamma continued to travel the world fighting the Eggman Empire, though he never allied himself with anyone. During his travels, Gamma went to Downunda where he destroyed a Wing Dingo in front of Walt Wallabee.

From Gamma to Omega
After over a year of working solo, Gamma had begun to wear down. While traveling a snowy region of Mobius, Gamma noticed the arrival of Shadow the Hedgehog and tried to ambush him, but quickly realized Shadow was also an enemy of Eggman, and therefore an ally. Shadow explained to Gamma that he was send to recruit him for Guardian Units of the Nation as he could be a reliable asset to their organization and get repaired there. Gamma had agreed to Shadow's offer, believing his time fighting the Eggman Empire alone was gone. As they where heading to the extraction point however, E-123 Omega ambushed the two heroes, having been send by Eggman to obliterate Gamma.

While Shadow kept Omega busy, Gamma hid from Omega, but the walking arsenal quickly blow Shadow far away and resumed chasing Gamma. While retreating, Gamma set up an ambush for Omega. During this, the two exchanged comments about their mutual strengths and weaknesses through radio signals, before Gamma managed to knock Omega down with some precise shots. However, Gamma then approached Omega and surrendered to him, admitting that Omega was right: he was outdated, and the resistance needed something more. Omega then prepared to destroy Gamma, but Gamma told Omega that his soul was indestructible and would still linger within the walking arsenal that is Omega, despite the latter's mockery. Omega then unleashed his full weaponry to destroy Gamma, but not before Gamma upload all of his free will algorithm into Omega's programming.

Legacy
Before his destruction, Gamma successfully uploaded his free will code into Omega, allowing the latter to gain a free will of his own. As his coding integrated into Omega, Gamma gave some parting words to his "brother" before disappearing. Unable and unwilling to follow Eggman's orders with a new view on the world, Omega opted to take Gamma's place and join G.U.N. to fight the Eggman Empire. Both Shadow and Omega then build a grave marker out of rocks for Gamma. Also, with Gamma's destruction, the flicky serving as his power source was finally released.

Revived, But Still Gone
Although much isn't known about E-102 Gamma and its role in the Post-Super Genesis Wave timeline, it is known that it and Sonic the Hedgehog crossed paths before on the Egg Carrier, and that is apparently turned traitor, like its past-world counterpart.

Personality
Like most of Eggman's robots, Gamma had a free will and personality, though unlike over-ambitious models such as the original Metal Sonic, Gamma's leave of duty was usually out of a compassion or remorse for his actions against Sonic and his friends. Gamma was renowned for gaining his sentience and more or less being the first to portray the thoughts of an average Eggman robot. However, given his mindless actions as Eggman's slave, it is unknown if he gained sentience or had it all along but simply disregarded it at first.

Even under evil alignment, however, he held a sensible and rational manner towards his enemies. However he became somewhat uncomfortable to vivid human emotions, to the point that the emotional conflict of his loyalty pained him, leading to his eventual leave of duty. Gamma was shown to be very rational, yet still showed a deep sense of dedication to the fight against Eggman. He was also very clever and cunning judging by how he quickly assessed a situation and made a trap to defeat an enemy in no time at all while covering his tracks.

Powers and Abilities
Like most other E-100 Series units, Gamma was build for battle. He was build to be sleek and versatile, able to overcome most terrain. Gamma was also good at tactics in assassination and was meant to be a killer; in his own words, he was an "assassin." He was specifically excellent at stealth, as he was able to ambush Omega without him knowing and could attack an opponent without them even noticing that they were being targeted. He was also skilled at making traps by using only elements from his surroundings, such as false foot steps in the snow while he lied in wait for someone to spot them and then ambush them.

Gamma possessed two main weapons. He had a precision laser weapon for a right-handed arm cannon which was capable of firing three simultaneous shorts and could lock-on with help from a targeting laser-sight, and a second laser positioned on the right side of his head which was powerful enough to cut through metal. Due to his laser sight, Gamma's shots were almost always accurate, and allowed for pinpoint accuracy to find an enemy's weak spot.

Gamma was equipped with a magnetically-tethered jet disk and a howercraft fan build into his chassis that allowed him to hover for some time and cross longer distances in the air. Additionally, he was made of a titanium-alloy and was extremely durably, remaining completely unfazed by a direct punch from Big the Cat who is the physically strongest Mobian on the planet.