View source for Arks of the Cosmos

[[File:SonicRidersZG ConceptArt Storyboard29.jpg|thumb|right|275px|An Ark at the feet of the [[SCR-GP]] army.]]

The '''Arks of the Cosmos''' are five long-lost [[Gravity Drive|gravity-manipulation]] devices, designed by the ancient [[Babylonians|Babylonian civilization]] - ancestors of the [[Babylon Rogues]]. Large, metallic, ring-shaped objects, the Arks glow brilliant blue when activated, and are worn round the wrist like a bracelet by various characters during ''[[Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity]]'', the only game in which they appear. In a sense these devices are the ''true'' antagonists of ''Zero Gravity'', as they co-opt [[Eggman's robots]] and almost destroy the world via the "Lightless Black".

===Story===
Much of the Arks' true nature is only (speculatively) revealed at the very end of the game, when [[Tails]] muses back on the meaning of their recent adventure. The Arks were part of a black-hole-powered drive system for [[Astral Babylon]], an interstellar vessel which brought the [[Babylonians]] to [[Sonic's world]] in ancient times. Some sort of malfunction required the spaceship to jettison the Arks in orbit and crash-land on the planet; stranded, the Babylonians converted their ship into an aerial city, [[Babylon Garden]]. Eventually losing their high technology, the Babylonians' extraterrestrial origin faded from memory, by Sonic's time existing only as [[Gigan Rocks|faded ruins]] and myths amongst their distant descendants (like the [[Babylon Rogues]]).

Thus things might have continued, if not for [[Dr. Eggman]]. Some time before the events of ''Zero Gravity'', the fat scientist discovered one of the jettisoned Arks within an [[Crimson Crater|impact crater]] in the desert near [[Monopole]]. As well as being able to manipulate gravity, the Arks seem able to function as high-power computers, and Eggman extracted a piece of the Ark for use in his [[Meteor Tech]] [[Mother Computer]] atop [[Crimson Tower]].

By coincidence or design, other Arks began to be discovered after the Mother Computer was activated. [[Jet the Hawk]] extracted one from the old Babylonian ruins of [[Gigan Device]], while [[Tails]], [[SCR-HD]], and [[Megalo Station|Megalo City's]] museum picked up Arks that fell as meteorites. At this point, the Mother Computer went berserk, with Babylonian programming taking control of the networked [[SCR-GP]] and [[SCR-HD]] robots, guiding them to collect the 5 Arks together and bring them back to Babylon Garden. The majority of ''Zero Gravity'' sees [[Team Sonic]] and the [[Babylon Rogues]] avoiding the robot's pursuit, and trying to figure out exactly why they want the Arks.

At the end of the Babylon Story, [[SCR-HD]] steals the five Arks from [[Wave]] at the top of [[Crimson Tower]]. Returning them to Babylon Garden, however, prompts precisely the disaster which the ancient Babylonians were trying to prevent thousands of years ago: the black-hole drive overloads completely, obliterating the Garden and threatening to devour the planet itself. [[Sonic]] flies his [[Extreme Gear]] into the maelstrom to battle [[Master Core: ABIS]] - SCR-HD transformed under the influence of the Arks - and manages to stop both the robot and the singularity. The fate of the Arks after this final battle is unknown; they may have been destroyed by the black hole, scattered, or simply resting peacefully on [[Astral Babylon]], now back in orbit.

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