The Faceship is a massive airship designed and built by Dr. Eggman. It is so named due to its crude resemblance of Eggman's face. It was launched from the Final Egg base and was used to distribute Eggman's Metal Virus around the world.
History[]
Pre-launch[]
Prior to its launch, the Faceship's blueprints were discovered on the Eggnet by Sonic the Hedgehog and Amy Rose in Echo Mine until they were ambushed by Rough and Tumble, for Dr. Eggman's interest. The two skunks were carrying canisters of Metal Virus at the time, which opened when the skunks pressed the buttons on their packs' cross-straps, smothering them in the contagion and turning them into Zombots. Sonic eventually pushed Rough and Tumble down into a deep pit, though he was infected with the Metal Virus in the process.
After launch[]
After witnessing Sonic's infection, Dr. Eggman would launch the Faceship, which was being powered by the seven Chaos Emeralds which Dr. Starline had provided. During the vessel's flight, Eggman distributed the Metal Virus on Windmill Village, Seaside City and a number of other territories, commanding the Zombots he had created to spread out in all directions and infect all life-forms they encountered.
As the Metal Virus spread across the world, Eggman and Starline remained safe aboard the Faceship. However, the virus would eventually mutate to the point that the Zombots stopped responding to Eggman's commands, although the doctor was not overly concerned about this and decided he would deal with the problem after total planetary saturation had been achieved. Dr. Starline was deeply perplexed by Eggman's attitude to the issue, later confronting him about the lack of a vaccine in the event of an accident on the Faceship. Eggman continued to disregard Starline's concerns, causing the platypus to go behind his back and reach out to the Deadly Six for help in managing the crisis.
Change of command[]
Using the Warp Topaz, Dr. Starline summoned the Deadly Six to the Faceship so that they could use their innate electromagnetic powers to control the Zombots. Despite having a Cacophonic Conch on hand, Starline gravely mishandled the situation as the conch was taken from him. He and Eggman fled through a portal before the Zeti could kill them, leaving the Six in control of the Faceship.
Each of the Deadly Six would take a Chaos Emerald for themselves, magnifying their powers. One emerald remained to power the Faceship and Zavok took command of the vessel while his cohorts traveled to the world below, using the Zombots to terrorize the remaining population. Orbot and Cubot remained onboard, having sworn loyalty to Zavok without falling victim to his EM-powers. However, the two robots were, in fact, secretly working with Rouge the Bat, who had previously snuck aboard the Faceship in order to sabotage it.
Destruction[]
While the surviving members of the Restoration would strike at the Deadly Six members in order to claim their Chaos Emeralds, Rouge, Orbot and Cubot would go about sabotaging the machines responsible for producing the Metal Virus. While Zavok was distracted by this, Rouge would steal the Chaos Emerald from the control throne, causing the Faceship to lose power and ultimately crash. With the ship in ruins, Zavok had lost his means of producing more Metal Virus. Shortly after the Faceship's destruction, the Metal Virus crisis would be resolved as Sonic and Silver used the Chaos Emeralds and the Warp Topaz to strip the virus from every infected being across the planet and hurl the toxic mass into the sun.
Features[]
As Amy describes from the schematics, the Faceship closely resembles the Space Colony ARK, though it is actually much smaller than the former. The vessel was built for the purpose of dispensing the Metal Virus and could remain airborne indefinitely since it was powered by the limitless energy of the Chaos Emeralds. Though designed with fear and intimidation in mind, the Faceship had no armaments and only a small crew of Badniks operating its systems.
Areas[]
- Bridge - The Faceship's control room. From here, Dr. Eggman would oversee the vessel's operation and observe his Metal Virus plan unfold. Orbot and Cubot would operate the ship's helm controls while Eggman sat upon his command chair, which also served as a cradle for the Chaos Emeralds that powered the ship.
- Metal Virus Factory - Within this vast chamber, several large vats would produce large quantities of the Metal Virus, which would be poured through the Faceship's "mouth" down onto a target area. When Dr. Starline asked how the Metal Virus was produced, Eggman claimed it to be a "trade secret" and refused to explain how the machines worked.
- Hangar - A storage area for reserve Badniks and support vehicles, such as Dr. Eggman's Egg Mobile.
- Egg Cave - Dr. Eggman's private study/playroom where the doctor spends his days off. Here, he would plan new strategies, conjure up new mechanical designs or simply build and play with toys and models for his own amusement.
Trivia[]
- The Faceship is exclusive to the IDW Sonic comic, but it bears some similarities to the Death Egg and Space Colony ARK.