Eggman Fleet

"Muhahaha! You fools must all have a death wish? Witness this invincible battleship, built by the hands of a genius! Its power, unmatched throughout the universe!"

- Doctor Eggman announcing (via his P.A. speakers) from the Final Fortress about the Eggman Fleet.

The Eggman Fleet, also known as the Egg Fleet, is a massive aerial assault force of flying battleships that appears in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. This amazing, yet dangerous fleet of weaponized airships are built and commanded by the maniacal genius Doctor Ivo Robotnik (now known as Doctor Eggman). Bristling with guns, cannons and robot armies, it is capable of laying waste to nearly everything in its path. Built for the purpose of helping the evil scientist take over the world, the Eggman Fleet has appeared in various forms in Sonic Heroes, Shadow the Hedgehog and Sonic Unleashed, to aid Dr. Eggman in his quest of global domination.

History
The Eggman Fleet was first seen in Sonic Heroes, deployed by Neo Metal Sonic to conquer the world when he usurps control of the sinister Eggman Empire from his human creator. A smaller, redesigned Eggman Fleet engaged the Black Arms during the Sky Troops level of Shadow the Hedgehog.

In Sonic Heroes, the armada first appears to Team Sonic after they defeat the Egg Albatross. It contains hundreds if not thousands of fish-like ships, modelled on sharks, narwhals, stingrays, and a whale shark. Metal Sonic (disguised as Eggman) boasts that their fight in Bullet Station merely served as a distraction to allow the Eggman Fleet to get underway. Later, the last two levels of the game (Egg Fleet and Final Fortress) are set aboard the ships of the battle group, and the final boss fights against the Egg Emperor and Metal Overlord take place there. Metal Sonic himself devastates a portion of the fleet during the last fight, snatching cruisers out of the sky to hurl at Super Sonic until he was defeated by Super Sonic with the help of his friends with the help of the magical Chaos Emeralds.

The Fleet reappears in a reduced role in Shadow the Hedgehog. Not quite as large or blatantly piscine as in Sonic Heroes, here, the armada is ordered into action by Eggman when he takes offense at Black Doom's wanton destruction of Westopolis. Clashing with the Glyphic Canyon ruin-ships in the stratosphere, Sky Troops sees Shadow the Hedgehog determine the course of the battle himself, either aiding Eggman or the aliens.

Although the fleet has not referred to by name since the Shadow the Hedgehog game, Eggman still uses the flagship Egg Carrier for general acts of villainy, and fields a (rapidly destroyed) spaceworthy armada in the opening of Sonic Unleashed.

Sonic Heroes

 * Whale Gunships - Red airships shaped like mako sharks. They were the basic ships of the fleet, and each of them armed with a battery of cannons.
 * Shark Gunships - Other mako shark-styled ships are seen as well but are more blue and have 4 front fins.
 * Sawfish Battleships - Formidable airships, larger and more heavily armed than the gunships and shaped like a blue sawfish. In the background of the Egg Fleet stage, it shows that one battleship leads a group of 5 gunships. They can be destroyed by spinning into their internal mechanisms, causing the bridge to self-destruct.
 * Manta Ray Ships - Giant purple ship in the shape of manta rays. Though they are battle ships of similar function as the other ships, none of the characters actually board any of these ships. Their size is unknown, but is assumed to be greater than the sawfish ships.
 * Whale Shark/Final Fortress - This massive ship is the flagship of the Egg Fleet. It is in the shape of a whale shark and is much larger than any of Eggman's previous flying fortresses. The Final Fortress was heavily armed, and could have easily been the equivalent of the rest of the fleet in size and armament.

Shadow the Hedgehog and Sonic Unleashed

 * Minor Battleships - The most commonly seen battleships of the Eggman Fleet in Shadow the Hedgehog. These airhips are quite very similar to the Mako shark gunships from Sonic Heroes, sharing similar designs. They have a completely red color scheme with stripes of yellow across the side. As mentioned above, the battleships have a more stream-like design, thus they lacks any passageway across the ship and has only one row of cannons, unlike the Mako shark gunships. The size of each of these ships differs between each other. The most commonly seen battleships of the Eggman Fleet in Sonic Unleashed. These grey battleships had vaguely the same shape as the Mako shark gunships from Sonic Heroes, but they lacked the ship stabilizers and their bridges were raise onto a platform of their own with a satellite dish on top. They also featured several more gun turrets and cannons.
 * Central Battleship - The central battleship of the Eggman Fleet in Shadow the Hedgehog and the largest seen so far. In terms of shape, this massive battleship resembles the Egg Carrier from Sonic Adventure, but with a more stream-like shape. It spots a red and yellow color scheme, and is heavily armored. At the bottom of the ship it has large turrets that can fire large bullets with destructive power. In Sonic Unleashed, it is a red battleship that was basically a much larger version of the minor battleships, but was much more massive, with extra large engines, was much more heavily armed and had an army of Egg Fighters at Eggman's disposal, ready.

The Eggman Fleet's main airship, the Final Fortress, also appeared in Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, where three courses took place there, including Turbine Loop, Dark Arsenal, and Thunder Deck.

The Egg Fleet made an appearance in the Sonic the Hedgehog comic book series by Archie Comics. Constructed by Dr. Eggman himself, the Egg Fleet was meant to be the mad doctor's ultimate weapon against his enemies and a vital key in his conquest of Mobius. During its time, the Egg Fleet had many successes, such as eliminating the rouge A.D.A.M., the Destruction of Knothole and much more. The Egg Fleet was however finally destroyed in battle by an enraged Enerjak.

During the comic's adaption of Sonic Unleashed, the Eggman Fleet presented in Sonic Unleashed was mentioned, this time under the name "Eggman's Space Armada".