| Space Colony ARK | |
|---|---|
 The ARK | |
 | |
| Basic Information | |
| Type | Territory |
| Location | Sonic |
| Tech Tier | Tier 5 - Future Technology |
| Magic Class | Class 8 - Lingering Magic |
| Controlled by | Altruistic Valorians |
Space Colony ARK is massive abandoned space station built years ago. Built by the late Gerald Robotnik over fifty years ago, it holds many secrets.
Background[]
The ARK was created over fifty years ago by the brilliant Professor Gerald Robotnik. The station held many scientists from all over the world, and was more than large enough to hold all of them and their various experiments. Arguably more importantly to the professor, his granddaughter, Maria Robotnik, could safely live on the space station without her illness threatening to kill her. It was Maria that drove Gerald to preform most of his experiments, in an attempt to cure her of her disease. The noticeable steps towards his goal were the Artificial Chaos, the prototype of the Ultimate Lifeform know as the Biolizard, and the Ultimate Lifeform itself: Shadow the Hedgehog. With Shadow, he hardwired the orders to protect Maria, to help her in anyway possible, and to listen to Gerald's orders. Other known experiments and studies were largely focused on the ancient echidna tribes before they vanished, including the Gizoid (a.k.a. Emerl) which was also considered to be an Ultimate Lifeform. With every thing he created that had a high level of self-awareness, he programmed a self-destruct feature incase his creations ever got way out of control. While he left a very wide berth as to what they could do before they blew up, Gerald found such steps necessary, not wishing to be the cause of a disaster.
When the Guardian Unit of the Nation (GUN) heard about the starts on the later two experiments, they began to grow worried that Professor Gerald was planning to attack Earth by gathering and creating strong weapons. In order to buy time, Professor Gerald gave GUN the Gilzoid so they would be free to study it for themselves. As GUN worked on the robot in vain, the Black Comet flew over Earth in it's fifty year orbit. Gerald made contact with the head of the alien race living on the comet, Black Doom, and offered him a deal: in exchange for his blood in order to have Shadow awaken and not turn out to be the mess Biolizard was, Shadow would hand over the Chaos Emeralds and controls of Gerald's latest, soon to be in production weapon: the Eclipse Cannon, in fifty years. In secret, Gerald recorded a message instructing Shadow to ignore Black Doom's orders, and to instead destroy the Black Comet. Black Doom, oblivious to Gerald's plotting, agreed and donated his blood. However, this little exchanged was spotted by a boy who was related to a high ranking GUN official. While nobody on the station believed his panicked cries about an evil looking alien being on board and helping Shadow come to life, the GUN Commander listened and took steps towards making sure things stayed under GUN's control. GUN offered to use it's troops as security for the station, in exchange for teaching Shadow themselves how to be the weapon they thought Gerald had him created for. Reluctantly, Gerald agreed, believing that after GUN was finished with Shadow he could cure Maria of her illness.
Things did not go as planned however. Upon the finishing of the Eclipse Cannon, GUN decided to make it's move. In an over the top raid, the GUN soldiers "protecting" the scientists onboard the ARK began to open fire on nearly everyone, though they had orders to take Gerald and any children alive. Upon taking the airlocks, more GUN troops poured into the station, mowing down anyone they come across. During the commotion, most of the smaller experiments such as Artificial Chaos, and Gerald's own set of robot security were activated, adding to the chaos of the whole raid. It was because of this commotion that Maria Robotnik was shot while being escorted by Shadow the Hedgehog, who was trying to get her to an escape pod. While Maria survived long enough to see Shadow off to safety, she bled to death moments after.
Because of the overboard reaction to the later proven to be non-existent threats, the slaughter of the scientists, and death of Maria Robotnik, the raid was considered a complete and utter disaster. Instead of taking of the ARK to use the Eclipse Cannon to their advantage, GUN bowed to public pressure and simply left the station in ruins, void of life except for the few remaining security robots and Artificial Chaos, as well as installing their own security measures to make sure nobody could safely use the station, which including hiding the ARK in a false moon. The Artificial Chaos began to self-multiply, the Biolizard was left untouched with its life-support systems, and the robots began to mindlessly circle around the station. While all of this was devastating to Professor Gerald, it was the death or Maria that caused him to snap. Grief, as well as the insanity that resulted from the G.U.N. massacre, caused him to crave revenge against all of humanity. Somehow, he managed to talk GUN into letting him back on the ARK one last time, probably to help shut it down. In secret, he influenced the Biolizard to help him eventually destroy Earth. After programming the ARK to crash into Earth after all seven chaos emeralds were placed in the Eclipse Cannon, he ordered the Biolizard to keep the ARK on its crash course with the planet. Later, when Shadow was captured by GUN, Gerald managed to talk the soldiers into letting him "finish" creating Shadow, claiming that their training had stopped him from finishing the last step. It was at this time Gerald began to mess with the Ultimate Lifeform's memories: altering some, removing others, and implanting false memories. Along with this tampering, Gerald hardwired an order to trick someone until placing the seven Chaos Emeralds into the Eclipse Cannon and causing the ARK to crash, so Maria could be revenged. However, GUN caught onto what was happening once the Professor was finished, and had him executed. Shadow was locked away in a maximum security area.
Fast forwards fifty years to the events to Sonic Adventure 2. Shadow the Hedgehog finally was able to set out to full fill Gerald's last orders. Through many various events, he tricked Gerald's grandson and Maria's cousin, Ivo Robotnik, also known as Eggman, into placing the seven Chaos Emeralds into the Eclipse Cannon. While Sonic and his friends attempted to stop this from happening, they failed to stop Eggman from crawling over to the control panel and placing in the last emerald. Upon the placement, the station's controls locked, and the final words of Gerald began to play on screen. Somehow, his words prior to his execution had made it to the ARK's computer, and they declared the Earth's impending doom as revenge for Maria. While most of the Mobians on board attempted to stop the station from crashing, Shadow didn't lift a finger, content with sitting back and watch the station plummet. However, Amy Rose began to talk with him, trying to convince him to help out and save everyone. Inadvertently, Amy quoted Maria's true last words perfectly, breaking through at least some of the messed up memories in Shadow's mind and showing him that Maria wouldn't want revenge. Faced with this conflict of orders, Shadow went with what Maria wanted, and hurried along to help Sonic, Eggman, and the others stop the ARK from crashing. When confronted by the Biolizard, Shadow beat the creature in combat. However, the Biolizard then teleported to the outside of the ARK, fusing himself to the Eclipse Cannon so that his weight would still cause the ARK to crash. Sonic and Shadow went into their Super Forms, destroyed the Biolizard, and stopped the ARK from crashing just in time, though Shadow was assumed dead for a time.
Later, after Shadow had been found missing his memories, the Black Comet came around once more, and Black Doom launched an attack on Earth. After revealing Gerald's "promise" to Shadow, he tricked the hedgehog into giving him the Chaos Emeralds. Shadow then found the message that Gerald had recorded over fifty years ago about this advent, and stopped Black Doom by using his Super Form. While still in Super Form, Shadow used the Chaos Control to warp the Black Comet under the ARK's Eclipse Cannon, and then used the cannon to destroy the Black Comet.
Multiversal Timeline[]
In the multiverse, the ARK has played a quiet role so far, but events indicate it may grow more important later on. While Shadow was reclaiming the ARK with some minor help from Tails and Sonic, B.B. Hood was on board tinkering with the Eclipse Cannon. She messed with the controls, connecting them wirelessly to a remote, and most likely programmed the remote to send the wrong signal to the Eclipse Cannon if it were ever to be activated. Shadow, Sonic, and Tails chased her off of the ARK, but were now stuck with a possibly malfunctioning super weapon.
Later, during the infection, a small groups of humans managed to get themselves onboard the station and sent off a distress signal. However, this brought the attention of three infected Shadow clones before the real Shadow, along with X, came on board. The clones happily ate the trapped humans, and the infection attempted to take over the various robots and Artificial Chaos on board the station, though they were all forced back and destroyed the group of heroes. Upon the destruction of the Shadow Clones, the station was quickly freed of the remaining infected beings. Afterwards a repair team was sent up to bring the station back online, and to slowly prepare the ARK to be the new headquarters of the Alturistic Valorians.
Shortly after the infection's attack, the station's power source has been switched to seven fake Chaos Emeralds, a gateway has been added in front of the Eclipse Cannon so that it can fire and hit just about anywhere, and a heavy layer of security has been added to the firing controls for the Eclipse Cannon. In addition to upgraded security for the firing controls, other features have been added to the ARK such as magnetic shielding in the hangars, additional internal and external defenses, and greater security for all key computer systems.
Due to attacks on Solleana and murders of members such as Viewtiful Joe, the Valorians decided to move into the station with Shadow's (less than enthusiastic) graces. At the same time, the Valorians are using the ARK as the location to build the Tempest: a massive ship roughly a third of the size of the station itself. During the last stages of the move, however, they encountered a surprise attack by GUN, lead by General Krieg, who took several of their civilians hostage via bomb collar. After defeating GUN, the Valorians began working on reparing the extensive damage to the station.
Places[]
- Hangar Bay - The area on the ARK's exterior where ships can dock from either visitors or part of the Valorian Fleet. Is wide enough to fit several large vessels, and even more smaller ones.
- Construction Dock - Marked by several catwalks stretching off from the station, in-progress projects of Tails or the entire faction (but usually both) can be found here, such as the nearly complete Tempest.
- The Eclipse Cannon Control Room, where you can fire the devastating weapon. Typically heavily guarded; the actual firing mechanism requires top access to operate.
Inhabitants[]
Although the ARK is generally abandoned, aside from the occasional visits to it from Valorians or other passersby, one should be wary of the remnants of experiments executed there, which still wander the halls to this day. Artifical Chaos', organic creations that mimick the Echidna's ancient god, are the most obvious, but there are also numerous sentry robots which haven't been properly reprogrammed. The presence of Shadow Clones on the ARK also raises some uneasy questions; just what else is in there? The Valorians have recently started moving into the station as well.
Bestiary[]
- Artifcal Chaos roamed the station before the Valorians started moving in. As proven by the GUN attack, they are still very much around, though largely contained.
- Various types of robots tasked to clean the station and other various objectives also live here
- Some other of Gerald's various experiments have taken residence up here, including the Biolizard
See also[]
- Link