Doctor Eggman's flying fortresses

The fictional villain Doctor Eggman from the Sonic the Hedgehog series of video games uses a large amount of gigantic combat aircraft in his quest for world domination.

The very first one being the "Sky Base Zone" in Sonic the Hedgehog for Game Gear. The most widely known airship stage, however, was the "Wing Fortress Zone" in Sonic the Hedgehog 2. They have reappeared (often with different names) in many games since - one zone in Sonic & Knuckles was aboard a flying fortress called the "Flying Battery", and another in Sonic the Hedgehog Pocket Adventure which was aboard the "Aerobase".

Sonic the Hedgehog (8-bit)
The Sky Base Zone appeared as the final Zone in Sonic the Hedgehog for the Game Gear and Master System. It was Eggman's first flying fortress; a blimp, gray and red in color. It floated above Eggman's Scrap Brain base on South Island.

After Sonic reached Eggman at Act 3 of Scrap Brain Zone, the doctor escaped to the heavens on a floating platform. Sonic followed him to the Sky Base, and fought his way through the airship. At the end, Sonic battled Eggman in the base, and then escaped from the Sky Base.

Though not a flying fortress, a smaller blimp similar to Sky Base would appear in the game, Shadow the Hedgehog. It appears in the level Iron Jungle as Eggman's getaway blimp, and you have the option of destroying it to complete the Hero Mission.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (16-bit)
The Wing Fortress Zone was the second-to-last Zone in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for the Mega Drive. It was a large brown airship driven by both propellers and powerful jet engines. It was armed with laser cannons to fight hostile aircraft, along with Clucker Badniks and spherical energy turrets on the exterior. Inside, there was a ceiling-mounted laser that blasted enemies and spike-equipped floating platforms as a last line of defense. According to logos seen on the Wing Fortress, it is classified as "EG-01".

After Sonic and Tails defeated Eggman at Act 3 of the Metropolis Zone, he fled to the Wing Fortress. Sonic and Tails followed him with Sonic's biplane, the Tornado, throughout the Sky Chase Zone. After catching up to the Wing Fortress, the Tornado was blasted by its lasers and crash-landed, but Sonic managed to jump onto the fortress. He ran along the outside of the Wing Fortress until he found an entrance, where Eggman pitted him against the aforementioned ceiling laser. Sonic destroyed it and chased the fleeing Eggman to a spaceship located in the front of the Wing Fortress. Tails reappeared with a repaired Tornado (now with a rocket on the bottom), and Sonic managed to get onto the spaceship and was taken to the Death Egg Zone.

Death Egg is a parody of Death Star from Star Wars. It is the last zone for Sonic 3 & Knuckles and Sonic the Hedgehog 2. In Sonic 2, the Death Egg is only a fight with Silver Sonic and Death Egg Robot. In Sonic 3 & Knuckles, the Death Egg is a complete zone.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles
The Flying Battery first appeared in Sonic the Hedgehog 3, where it was colored green and orange, and performed a bombing run on Sonic and Tails near the end of Angel Island Zone Act 2. It appeared again in Sonic & Knuckles as an entire Zone. There it was colored gray and orange, and was apparently a place for manufacturing the Capsules seen throughout the Sonic games.

After Eggman was defeated at the end of Mushroom Hill Zone Act 2, he fled onto the Flying Battery as it swooped down to get him. Sonic and Tails grabbed onto it, and moved through the ship, fighting a fake robotic Capsule on the way. They eventually reached Eggman, who pitted them against a laser very similar to the one from the Wing Fortress. After the laser was fired a number of times, it damaged the Flying Battery, and Eggman escaped once again. The heroes followed and battled him, and proceeded to flee the airship into the Sandopolis Zone below.

Apparently, the Flying Battery was not destroyed at this point (or there was more than one) as Knuckles' story, which takes place after Sonic's, also features a Flying Battery stage (but not a bombing run prior).

Sonic Adventure
The Egg Carrier was another large airship, and a quite important location in Sonic Adventure. It was colored black, red and yellow, and was more heavily armed than the previous ships. It had missile launchers, air mines, lock-on energy cannons and a large laser cannon known as the "Egg Cannon" hidden in the beak-like bulb in the front. The Egg Carrier could transform into two shapes; offensive and defensive. While being somewhat streamlined in its offensive shape (pictured), the defensive shape folded the wings out to the sides and makes it much harder to get from the landing area to the bridge. The Egg Carrier was crewed by Eggman and various robots, including the first E-100 robots, notably E-102 Gamma. According to an eyecatcher card in the Japanese version of Sonic X Episode 30, the Egg Carrier is 789 meters long, and weighs 655 281 metric tons.

Eggman first used the Egg Carrier to find and destroy the Master Emerald at Angel Island in order to free Chaos. After succeeding, the Egg Carrier landed in his Final Egg base in Mystic Ruins for later usage. This usage came when Eggman brought the Egg Carrier to the place where Sonic, Tails and Knuckles battled Chaos, and then pick up Eggman and Chaos with a tractor beam of sorts. Sonic and Tails followed it with the Tornado, but the plane was shot down. The Egg Carrier then flew over Station Square, scaring the inhabitants. It then flew back to Final Egg, where it was infiltrated by Knuckles and Big the Cat, as pieces of the Master Emerald and Big's friend, Froggy, were located on it.

It then took off again and picked up a robot that had kidnapped Amy Rose, and was subsequently chased through a storm by Sonic and Tails in their new Tornado 2. This time the heroes managed to land on the Egg Carrier, where Eggman challenged them to get through the ship. Meanwhile, Knuckles and Big found what they were looking for, and Amy managed to escape from her cell. On the deck, Sonic and Tails defeated E-102, when suddenly the ship started losing altitude (it is not explained why, but Sonic, Tails and Knuckles had caused some destruction in their respective stages), so Tails, Amy and E-102 fled the ship. Sonic stayed to find Eggman, which he did, along with Chaos. Sonic, Knuckles and Big all fought and defeated Chaos, and everyone fled the ship as it crashed into the ocean below and started floating on the surface. E-102 later came back to the floating vessel in order to defeat his brothers, E-105 Zeta and E-101 Beta, which he did. Finally, Amy also came back to look for the relatives of her bird friend. She battled E-100 ZERO and discovered that E-102 and E-101 had held the two birds. It can be assumed that Eggman salvaged the Egg Carrier for parts, as it is revealed in Sonic Battle that he had reused the parts of E-102, whose "corpse" was located on the Egg Carrier.

After Chaos obtains all seven Chaos Emeralds, becomes Perfect Chaos and destroys Station Square, Eggman reveals the Egg Carrier 2, which was a fail-safe to use against Chaos in case he rebelled. However, the Egg Carrier 2 proved to be nothing compared to the power of Chaos, who shot it down with a large energy beam. This is almost ironic; Eggman declared previously and proudly how the original Egg Carrier's power was no match for that of Chaos' potential.

In-game, the Egg Carrier is an "Adventure Field", where the characters can walk around and enter various "Action Stages", the stages that have an actual goal. The Egg Carrier contains two Action Stages and several bosses:
 * Sub Game: Hedgehog Hammer: A mini-game played by Amy, which resembles Whack-a-Mole. Amy attempts to hit blue and gold colored hedgehogs (representing Sonic) with her hammer, while avoiding hitting little Eggmen. It is allegedly Eggman's favorite game.
 * Sub Game: Sky Chase (Act 1 and Act 2): A mini-game where Sonic and Tails chase the Egg Carrier in their plane, shooting down enemy robots. The first Sky Chase uses the Tornado, while the second uses the Tornado 2.
 * Action Stage: Sky Deck: A stage set on the outside of the Egg Carrier, and split into three parts. The first one is set underneath the battleship, on various platforms attached to the belly of the ship, and ends with a gigantic cannon. The second part is set on top of the ship, and ends with another cannon. The third part is apparently set inside the ship, but there is no ceiling. Here, the gravity is constantly changing as the ship turns. Sonic goes through all three sections, while Tails goes through the first one, and Knuckles just goes through the third one.
 * Action Stage: Hot Shelter: The inside of the Egg Carrier, filled with high-speed transport rails, elevators and other mechanisms. Amy, Big, and E-102 go through Hot Shelter.
 * Character Battle: Sonic and Tails battle E-102, while E-102 battles Sonic. This fight is set on the deck of the Egg Carrier.
 * Boss: Chaos 6: Chaos, when powered by six Chaos Emeralds, serves as the penultimate boss of Sonic's story, and the final boss for Knuckles and Big (for Big, Chaos 6 is his only boss). He is fought on the green platform in the front of the ship. Sonic and Knuckles both must fight Chaos directly, while Big simply has to fish Froggy out of Chaos; when done precisely, Big's fight with Chaos is the fastest boss battle in the entire game.
 * Boss: E-101mkII: E-101 Beta, E-102 Gamma's "brother" and first boss, is now modified and serves as Gamma's final boss. This battle is also set on the green platform.
 * Boss: ZERO: Amy fights ZERO, the robot that chased her throughout the game, as her only boss. This battle is also set on the green platform.

Sonic Pocket Adventure
The Aerobase Zone was a Zone in Sonic Pocket Adventure for the Neo Geo Pocket Color. It was a brown ship largely based on the Wing Fortress Zone from Sonic the Hedgehog 2, and had the same kind of Badniks and defense mechanisms.

After Sonic fought Knuckles in the Aquatic Relix Zone, Eggman stole Knuckles' Chaos Emerald and headed for the skies. Knuckles used his brute strength to send Sonic straight after him, and Sonic landed on the Tornado, controlled by Tails. Sonic and Tails went through another Sky Chase Zone, and reached the Aerobase without any real problems. Sonic proceeded along the deck of the fortress, and eventually met and fought a Sonic robot. It was largely damaged, and rammed a wall that opened the way into the Aerobase. Sonic entered, and went through the Gigantic Angel Zone, which was the name of the Aerobase's inside. At the end, he battled Eggman who escaped again, with Sonic following him to space once again.

Eggman Fleet
The Eggman Fleet is an immense group of flying battleships built by Doctor Eggman and appear, in various forms, in Sonic Heroes, Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, and Sonic Unleashed'.

Sonic Heroes
In Sonic Heroes, Eggman has at his command a large fleet of airships, with which he intends to Conquer the World - though it turns out that this was simply Metal Sonic attempting to lure Sonic and his friends to him. Whether Eggman or Metal Sonic built this fleet is unknown. The fleet consists of a large number of smaller vessels with a red and grey color scheme, several larger ships painted blue and a giant flying fortress painted a purple-grey color which takes the general appearance of a Stingray. This fleet appears in the last stages of all stories, and the fortress is presumably the setting for the final fight with Metal Sonic. The fleet re-appears in Shadow the Hedgehog, but has been re-painted in all-over red with yellow details, and equipped with the ability to teleport.


 * Egg Fleet: This stage is the second-to-last stage of all stories, and is set in the general airspace around the more minor vessels. It involves much grinding and many precise jumps to complete.
 * Final Fortress: The final stage of Sonic Heroes for all stories. This is set on the largest vessel of the Egg Fleet and involves many switch puzzles, large numbers of Eggman's more advanced robots and several large laser cannons, the pulses from which must be avoided. Towards the mid section of this stage, having narrowly avoided being blown up by the first of the ships Self-Destruct switches, both Shadow and Omega appear to have a sense that something is going to happen when the stage is complete - Shadow commenting that the skies could be an omen and Omega stating that there is an abnormal electromagnetic field. Many characters make references to the original Egg Carrier (Sonic Adventure) during this stage. Tails and Knuckles' comments being "Wow this thing is enormous" "The Egg Carrier is nothing compared to this". Amy comments "This reminds me about our final attack on the Egg Carrier" she was however describing Tails and Sonic storming the Egg Carrier as she did not attack the Egg Carrier, she escaped the Egg Carrier.

Sonic Unleashed
In the prologue, Eggman has recreated the Egg Fleet (Sonic Heroes) as space ships. The ship he first appears in is possibly the main Egg Carrier.

Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)
The Egg Carrier reappears in the 2006 Sonic the Hedgehog game. It is not told within the game if Eggman rebuilt the old Egg Carrier, or if he built an entirely new one. The Egg Carrier looks mostly like the old design, but is in fact smaller, sleeker and less clunky.

Eggman uses the Egg Carrier to attack the city of Soleanna and kidnap Princess Elise, and Sonic chases it in the Wave Ocean stage in order to retrieve her. It is later destroyed due to malfunctioning engines, killing Elise and possibly Eggman. Sonic, however, goes back in time to earlier that day and manages to avert the tragedy. Though the carrier is still destroyed, Sonic, Elise, and Eggman definitely escape.

Sonic X
In the anime Sonic X, Eggman uses several flying fortresses that did not appear in the games.

Following the destruction of his stationary headquarters, Eggman deploys the first of these, the Egg Fort. The Egg Fort was streamlined, black, and had yellow drill-like points in front. This warship served as his vessel for several episodes before damage inflicted in battles with Sonic and friends left it stranded at the bottom of the sea. Later, the Egg Fort was salvaged by GUN, who turned it into the GUN Fort and deployed it against Eggman.

Eggman then introduced the Egg Fort II, a smaller warship that served as his headquarters until its destruction just before the Sonic Adventure adaption. It was a gray, round vessel with a powerful energy cannon. The Egg Fort 2 was actually made out of three smaller ships:
 * Bang, the largest vessel, controlled by Eggman himself.
 * BaBang, a thin ship that is made up of a cockpit along with two engine-like rods, controlled by Decoe.
 * BaBaBang, a square, less-than-streamlined ship, controlled by Bocoe.

When fused as the Egg Fort II, this vessel was even more dangerous, having the ability to turn into a powerful robot named the E-99 Eggsterminator (or Egg Emperor in Japan) which was powered by six Chaos Emeralds. However, even the E-99 proved ineffective when pitted against Super Sonic.

The Egg Carrier and Egg Carrier 2 were both used during the cartoon's Sonic Adventure adaption, where they played the same role as they did in the game.

In Episode 47, Eggman used the Egg Giant-Makan, another fortress. The Egg Giant-Makan was shaped like an old galley, was 891 meters long, and weighed 766 392 tons.

In the final episode of the first series, Eggman used the Grand Egg Imperial, a combination of the either recovered or rebuilt Egg Fort, Egg Fort II and Egg Carrier. It was equipped with a massive arsenal of lasers and missiles, and almost managed to destroy Tails and his Hyper Tornado. It was destroyed by Super Sonic.

In the comic adaption of Sonic X, the Egg Carrier 2 is used many more times, and it seems that it wasn't destroyed by Chaos.

In the second series, Eggman used a flying saucer known as the Crimson Egg to traverse the galaxy, all the while clashing with Sonic and the Metarex.

Archie Comics
The Egg Fleet also appeared in the Sonic the Hedgehog Archie comic, commanded by Snively Kintobor (under his uncle's supervision). One of its first uses was in capturing the force of criminals led by Mammoth Mogul and Ixis Naugus. Later on, it assisted Super Sonic, Super Shadow, and Turbo Tails in an attack on A.D.A.M.'s "gathering", an effort to assemble all the Chaos Emeralds in the universe. It later massed for a new offensive against the Kingdom of Acorn, inflicting heavy damage via aerial bombardment that destroyed Knothole Village. The Egg Fleet was afterwards seen preparing to launch another assault on the newly-revealed city of New Mobotropolis. Fortunately, thanks to NICOLE's defense shields, the initial assault was thwarted, only to be scaled back to bombardment. They were later deployed again, and used to capture Enerjak so Robotnik could use his power for a new project, but suffered heavy losses when Enerjak escaped from his captivity.