War to Take Back the Planet



The War to Take Back the Planet is an event that appears in Sonic Forces. It was a global war that occurred in earth's recent history between the Eggman Empire and the Resistance, which lasted for six months. Easily one of the largest, if not the largest, conflict in recorded history, the war was fought over the control of the world after Dr. Eggman launched a campaign for world domination using a new power he had acquired.

After defeating Sonic the Hedgehog, the Eggman Empire began effectively spreading its influence. To liberate the world from the Eggman Empire's tyranny, the friends and allies of Sonic formed the Resistance and their own army. The ensuring conflict between the Resistance and the Eggman Army marked what became known as the War to Take Back the Planet. However, the Resistance could do little during the early stages of the war, and the Eggman Empire eventually took over 99% of the planet within months. It was first during the last days of the war when Sonic, along with new allies, joined the fight that the Resistance began pushing the Eggman Empire back, eventually winning the war altogether. In the aftermath, the Resistance set out to restore the world from the damage the war had inflicted.

Prelude
The genesis of the War to Take back the Planet began when Dr. Eggman discovered the Phantom Ruby, a gemstone with powers over virtual reality that allowed its wielder to harness incredible power and produce replicas as their beck and call. Soon after discovering the gem, the doctor had a run-in with the Jackal Squad. After defeating the Jackal Squad, Eggman took a liking to the squad's captain and convinced him to become the leader of his Eggman Army.

Having seen the Phanton Ruby in action, Eggman went to Angel Island to test the Ruby's virtual reality projections. At the same time, Knuckles was visited by Silver, who had come to the present to prevent a calamity that would befall the world in the future. After experiencing Eggman's test on the island, Knuckles and Silver took it as a sign that trouble was coming and headed to Earth to prepare for the coming war. Satisfied with the test, Eggman began conducting analyses of the Phantom Ruby in his facility in Mystic Jungle, which he had the Jackal Squad guard. At that facility, Eggman produced a number of defective Phantom Ruby prototypes, which he used to experiment on. Eventually though, Eggman produced a final version of these prototypes.

A number of months before the War to Take Back the Planet, Shadow the Hedgehog arrived at Eggman's facility to raid and destroy it. While executing his mission, Shadow annihilated the Jackal Squad and dealt their captain a humiliating defeat. Outraged over his own weakness, the captain abandoned his old identity and sought to obtain greater strength. This prompted the captain to let Eggman incorporate the final Phantom Ruby prototype into him, granting him the Ruby's powers. Eggman's own reasons for doing this was to make himself an instrument of destruction that would allow him to defeat Sonic the Hedgehog and expand his Eggman Empire across the globe. With the Phantom Ruby, Infinite (as the captain called himself from then on) gained the ability to create a limitless amount of replicas. Eggman thus had Infinite create replicas of Shadow, Zavok, Metal Sonic and Chaos for the Eggman Army.

The beginning of the war
Eventually, Eggman made his move by attacking the City with the Eggman Army. When Sonic came to save the day, Infinite and his replica allies made their debut. Knowing nothing about the replicas, the public believed Infinite's replicas to be the real deal. Infinite and his replicas proceeded to defeat Sonic, who got imprisoned onboard the Death Egg. The public however, was mislead to believe that Sonic been killed by Infinite.

With Sonic gone, the Eggman Army quickly spread its influence and took over, initiating a period of wars and chaos. However, many of Sonic's friends managed to escape Eggman's invasion. Seeking to continue the fight, these individuals formed a tag-tag army named the "Resistance", with Knuckles the Echidna as their commander, to push the Eggman Empire back and free the world from Eggman's encroaching tyranny.

At one point during the war, the Chaotix helped fortify the City, which was being held by the Resistance. Its defenses were a few days later put to the test when Eggman attacked the City with an Eggman Army battalion. However, it was thanks to the Avatar, a rookie soldier serving the Resistance, that the Eggman Army retreated.

Eventually, the City was attacked by Infinite, who wiped out the Resistance battalion defending it. The only survivor was the Avatar, whom Infinite allowed to leave after seeing them run away from him in fear. After that, the Avatar made it to the Resistance's HQ.

As the months progressed, the Resistance proved unable to halt the Eggman Empire's increasing influence, resulting in several places in the world and the outer space surrounding it falling under the influence of the Eggman Empire. In additon, paradisiacal locations like Green Hill were destroyed by desertification and then industrialized to serve as a weapons depot, while industrial areas like Chemical Plant were expanded to other regions on the planet, serving as both a chemical factory and a spaceport. Meanwhile, Sonic was kept alive onboard the Death Egg; this was because Eggman wanted Sonic to see his world-spanning Eggman Empire upon its completion before banishing him into space.

Rise of the rookie and the Sonics
Six months after the War to Take Back the Planet had begun, over 99% of the planet had fallen under the Eggman Empire's dominion, leaving but a few isolated areas in the world under the Eggman Army's control. Worse yet, the Eggman Army had the world's population terrifed, leaving very few willing to take up the fight against the Eggman Empire.

Eventually, the Eggman Army overcame the Resistance in Green Hill while Infinite had the Resistance soldiers on the run. Around that time however, just after the Avatar joined the Resistance's ranks, the Resistance's spy discovered that Sonic was alive onboard the Death Egg, prompting them to plan a rescue. After the Resistance stole a space shuttle from the Eggman Empire at Spaceport to rescue Sonic with however, Eggman got wind of the Resistance's plan and moved Sonic's execution ahead of schedule. The Avatar and other Resistance troops were thus immediately sent to the Death Egg to rescue Sonic. There, they caused enough of a ruckus for Sonic to escape his cell, thereby allowing him to beat the Zavok replica coming for him and link up with the Avatar, who took Sonic back to Earth. There, Sonic joined the Resistance, who quickly put him into the swing of things by sending him on a mission with the Avatar to destroy one of the Eggman Army's ammunition factories. In no time at all, Sonic and the Avatar ensured the factory's destruction, thereby improving the Resistance's chances for a successful attack on Eggman's HQ.

While the Resistance carried out their jailbreak, Tails, who operated on his own, came across Classic Sonic, who had been brought to Tails' dimension by the Phantom Ruby, when the latter saved him from a Chaos replica. Reasoning that Classic Sonic was here to save the world, Tails joined up with him to end the war by going after Eggman and figure out a way to get Classic Sonic home.

Warfare on a global scale
The Eggman Army soon struck back by attacking the local Resistance squads in Mystic Jungle with aerial bombardments, setting the Resistance back. Meanwhile, Infinite would gather the Phantom Ruby prototypes from Eggman's abandoned lab so they could not be used against him. While there, he had a brief scuffle with Sonic, who came to the Mystic Jungle to stop Infinite, and Silver. Although Infinite beat both of them, he let them live in the belief that they were not worth bothering with. Soon after this encounter, Tails and Classic Sonic found Eggman and Infinite in Green Hill while they disposed of the Phantom Ruby prototypes. There, Tails and Classic Sonic heard the villains mention a plan that would ensure the Eggman Empire's victory in the war. After the villains parted ways, Classic Sonic attacked Eggman. Although Classic Sonic beat Eggman, the doctor still got away, although not before warning that the Resistance would be erased in just three days.

Soon after, the Eggman Army broke into the City. With the Resistance's soldiers spent on an attack at Seaside Hill, the Avatar was sent to evacuate the City's civilians. Thanks to the Avatar's subsequent efforts, the Eggman Army was forced into retreat by the Resistance. In the meantime, after learning that Sonic was alive, Tails and Classic Sonic went to Mystic Jungle to find Sonic and tell him about Eggman's plan. Having detected Classic Sonic and Tails' life readings, the Resistance sent the Avatar to Mystic Jungle investigate them. There, the Avatar found a Phantom Ruby prototype left behind by Infinite before finding Tails and Classic Sonic, whom were brought into the Resistance and informed the group about Eggman's plan. In the meantime, the Resistance managed to free Mystic Jungle from the Eggman Empire's dominion.

It was not long before the Eggman Army attacked the City with an army of Death Egg Robot sentinels and the Shadow replica. Coming to the City's rescue, Sonic confronted the Shadow replica while the Resistance kept the Death Egg Robot sentinels in check. It was then that the real Shadow showed up and took out his replica, before informing the Resistance of the Eggman Army's usage of replicas and joining up with them.

Learning that Eggman's HQ in Metropolis was undermanned, the Resistance launched a full-scale attack on Metropolis, called "Operation Big Wave", in an attempt to win the war. However, the attack got thwarted when Infinite used his powers to plunge the Resistance's invasion force into chaos. Suffering huge casualties, the Resistance was forced to withdraw from Metropolis in defeat.

Target: The Phantom Ruby
After their defeat in Metropolis, the Resistance found it necessary to uncover the secrets of the Phantom Ruby if they wanted to have any hope of winning the war. Discovering a lead on the Ruby in Eggman's database in Chemical Plant, Tails and Classic Sonic went there to check it out. In the meantime, a suped-up Metal Sonic replica would surface in the City, along with Death Egg Robot sentinels. However, Sonic and the Avatar were able to stop them. Immediately after, the Resistance remove the Eggman Army from power in the City.

Returning to the Resistance with info on the Phantom Ruby in tow, Tails revealed that the Phantom Ruby required an incredible amount of energy, which only the Death Egg could provide, to work. As such, the Resistance's next objective became to destroy the Death Egg. To accomplish this, the Resistance first had the Avatar create a distraction at Guardian Rock to divert the Eggman Army's attention; in the process of accomplishing this, they also ensured that Green Hill got freed from the Eggman Empire by the Resistance. With the Eggman Arm distracted, Sonic invaded the Network Terminal and used its computers to shut down the Death Egg's weapons systems; Sonic's efforts likewise ensured that the Resistance was able to capture the Chemical Plant's region. Classic Sonic subsequently invaded the defenseless Death Egg to destroy it from within. Although the Death Egg was soon brought back online, Classic Sonic still accomplished his mission. With that, Eggman and Infinite retreated to Metropolis to re-mobilize their forces.

Believing they had rendered the Phantom Ruby powerless, the Resistance launched a second attack on Metropolis so they could capture Eggman and win the war. While covered by the Resistance's fleet, Sonic and Tails located Eggman, only for Infinite to appear with his powers intact and banish both Sonic and the Avatar to Null Space. It was then revealed that the Phantom Ruby had a backup power supply underneath the Eggman Empire Fortress. Using their combined powers however, Sonic and the Avatar were able to return to Metropolis., just as the Resistance's fleet had the Eggman Army on the ropes. In the end, Eggman and his forces withdrew from Metropolis, giving the Resistance control over Eggman's capital.