Egg Carrier

The Egg Carrier (エッグキャリア Eggu Kyaria?) is a fictional flying fortress created by Dr. Eggman in the Sonic the Hedgehog series of video games, making its first appearance in Sonic Adventure. It is a large, armored aircraft with red, yellow, black and white colored hull. It is equipped with a super laser cannon, a turret laser cannon, air mines, and missile launchers.

Similar flying fortresses have been appeared in numerous Sonic the Hedgehog games since Sonic the Hedgehog for Game Gear.

Sonic Adventure
The Egg Carrier first appears as Eggman's large airship, and plays an important role 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 hidden laser 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.

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 andKnuckles battled Chaos, and then picked 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 is proved to be nothing compared to the power of Chaos, who shoots it down with a large energy beam.

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, several bosses, and a chao garden:
 * Egg Carrier Island: Located in the interior of the Egg Carrier, which requires the password "EGGMAN" to gain access. It is a desert island with a base and and a huge crashed missile.
 * Sky Chase: 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 upgraded Tornado 2. The Egg Carrier itself is also fought as a boss in Act 2 of this mini-game.
 * Sky Deck: A stage set on the outside of the Egg Carrier, and split into three parts. The first one is set underneath the ship, on various platforms attached to the belly of the ship, and ends with a gigantic cannon. The second part is set on the wing of the ship, and ends with another cannon. The third part is on the deck in the middle area of the ship which is revealed when the ship is in defensive mode. Here, the gravity is constantly changing as the ship goes through many sharp turns, with the ship apparently pointing straight downwards at one point. Sonic goes through all parts, while Tails only completes the first and Knuckles just goes through the third one.
 * Hot Shelter: The inside of the Egg Carrier, filled with cogs and gears, high-speed transport rails, elevators, cranes and many 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 rear deck of the Egg Carrier.
 * Chaos 6: Sonic, Knuckles and Big fight Chaos powered by six Chaos Emeralds. He is fought on the transparent raised platform in the front of the ship. Sonic and Knuckles both fight Chaos by freezing him with Eggman's ice-mines, while Big simply has to fish Froggy out of Chaos. During Knuckles' fight some of the sections of glass were shattered (presumably in Chaos 6's previous fight with Sonic), leaving dangerous gaps which the player must not fall in to.
 * E-101mkII: E-102 fights his enhanced brother, E-101 Beta. This battle is also set on the raised transparent platform.
 * ZERO: Amy fights ZERO, the robot that chased her throughout the game. This battle is, again, set on the transparent platform with electricity surrounding the battle area.
 * Hedgehog Hammer: After Amy escapes from her prison cell she must play a sub-game called Hedgehog Hammer. She uses her Piko Piko Hammer to smash Sonic and Super Sonic looking heads. There are also Eggman ones, but these decrease the players score. They must beat Eggman's score to proceed as well as obtaining the Warrior Feather. After returning to the Egg Carrier as soon as the Mystic Ruins Adventure Field is accessible as Amy, getting a certain score will earn her the Long Hammer.

Sonic Heroes
Although the Egg Carrier didn't appear in Sonic Heroes, it was briefly mentioned by Amy Rose in the stage Final Fortress when played as Team Rose and by Knuckles in that same stage when played by Team Sonic.

Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)
The Egg Carrier appears as Eggman's battlecraft in Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) as it introduced a new Egg Carrier model. It looks mostly like the old one, but is in fact smaller, sleeker, more streamlined in appearance, and less clunky in design. It is only called the "Egg Carrier" in text-boxes; in all audible dialogue, it is oddly referred to as "Eggman's battleship".

Eggman uses the Egg Carrier to attack the city of Soleanna and kidnap Princess Elise. Sonic chases it in the Wave Ocean stage in order to save her. It is later destroyed due to malfunctioning engines, killing Elise and possibly Eggman. However, Sonic uses Chaos Control to go back through time to save Elise, and as such, Eggman also manages to escape with his life. When Sonic saves Elise, he fights Eggman in the Egg Wyvern underneath the Egg Carrier.

The events that take place in the stories of Sonic Adventure and Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 almost mirror each other.
 * Whenever the Egg Carrier appears, the city (or area) is completely engulfed in a large shadow and various people scream and run in terror.
 * Amy is caught in a situation when the Egg Carrier appears over the city.
 * In Sonic Adventure, she was shopping and gets chased by ZERO after Birdie had fallen from the Egg Carrier. In Sonic the Hedgehog 2006, Amy was walking through the city and ran for help, while at the moment Eggman was threatening Elise.

Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood
In the prologue of Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, Eggman has built another Egg Carrier but is defeated by a combined effort of Sonic, Tails and G.U.N. Tails shuts down the Carrier when he pulls out some cables in the control room and it crashes into Metropolis. Oddly enough, the Egg Carrier doesn't look like the other ships that were seen in Sonic Adventure nor Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 but rather the Final Fortress from Sonic Heroes, except without the wings or tail.

Sonic X
The Egg Carrier and Egg Carrier 2 appear in the Sonic X anime, as both of them were featured during the Sonic Adventureadaption, where they played the same role as they did in the game. The Egg Carrier 2 appears with a large "2" painted on the side.

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

Trivia

 * In Sonic Adventure, the Egg Carrier can be seen changing its appearance (rendering state) during certain missions. For example, during the battle between Amy and ZERO, the window bars on the bridge disappear and the yellow topped radar looks grey with red outlining. This may have something to do with the original Egg Carrier look before drastic changes.
 * During Sky Deck part two, Sonic is placed on the tip of the left wing, having to run to the fuselage of the ship. While running across the wing, the yellow Eggman logo was blown off (likely during the dogfight). As soon as Sonic grips onto a monkey bar, the wing falls off, this was possibly a warning that the Egg Carrier isn't as sturdy as it looks. It could also have been part of Eggman's plan to stop Sonic and Tails, since he was watching them the entire time they were going through the Sky Deck.
 * In the cutscene depicting the Egg Carrier's freefall, it is visibly damaged, with entire portions of the ship missing. During Knuckles' battle with Chaos 6, the center turbine portion where the battle takes place is damaged as well, something not visible in Big or Sonic's battles. However when the Egg Carrier is revisited while floating in the ocean, there are no signs of damage whatsoever.
 * The song "Calm After the Storm - Egg Carrier - The Ocean" is listed as the Egg Carrier's second Field Map track, implying it was meant to replace the map's default track when floating in the ocean. However, the track only plays once during the game, during E-102's assessment of the Egg Carrier and fellow E-series robots upon arriving. The Egg Carrier's default track still plays for the map afterwards.
 * The Egg Carrier features several rooms which serve no gameplay purposes other than finding the odd Emblem. Such rooms include what appear to be living quarters for Eggman, complete with a fold-out bed and kitchen appliances, as well as recreational devices such as joyride versions of the Egg Mobile. The Egg Carrier also features a number of devices which tie into gameplay, such as a swimming pool which Knuckles must drain to access the Sky Deck.
 * In Sonic '06, the Egg Carrier splits into two (leaving the bow to crash first following with the stern to crash second). This scene has a similarity to Titanic, with Sonic and Elise escaping from the stern.
 * During the final battle under the Egg Carrier, in Sonic the Hedgehog 2006, the Egg Carrier drops charges from the hold. It is not known if the Egg Carrier was lightening its load to stop falling or if that was a developer's method of making the battle more interesting.
 * The BGM played on the Egg Carrier in Sonic Adventure is called Egg Carrier - A Song That Keeps Us On The Move.
 * When you finish Red Mountain part 2, the Egg Carrier seems to change color.
 * If the player pauses the game when the Egg Carrier is transforming in Sonic Adventure, the Egg Carrier will disappear.
 * When the sequence occurs when the Egg Carrier changes forms, if the player is Tails and attempts to fly, the sound he makes when he flies can still be heard.
 * In Sonic Underground episode "Come Out Wherever You Are," a ship called the Predator closely resembles the Egg Carrier.
 * In Sonic Heroes, Knuckles makes a reference to the Egg Carrier in the Final Fortress by saying "The Egg Carrier is nothing compared to this"
 * Furthermore, Amy makes the same reference in the Final Fortress by saying "This weather reminds me of our last attack on the Egg Carrier."
 * In an episode of the Adult Swim show, Eagleheart, The US Air-Force shoots down a UFO flying over Kansas. It only shows the UFO for a brief 8 seconds, but this "UFO" unprecedentedly resembles the Egg Carrier.