Five years before the rise of Robotnik's empire:

"Doctor, the natives have surrounded us with their troops!" Ivo reported with a mild rebuke in his tone.

The leader of the expedition sighed inwardly. Ivo Robotnik was a prodigy, both in the sciences and martial arts, but he lacked the courage to break the rules of his culture, even when it was clearly the only way to avert the destruction of the natives of this planet. A civil war was brewing in the native population of the planet they were about to land on (dubbed by its inhabitants 'Mobius') one that would permanently divide the population of this carefree planet. Although the natives were too primitive to destroy Mobius, the human observers couldn't allow them to start a war that would last into the nuclear age when the inhabitants would then go out of their way to destroy each other with these weapons, damning themselves to the same fate humanity narrowly avoided back during the War on Earth.

"I still say that this was a mistake," Ivo continued, "at best we delay this war, at worst we make ourselves the enemy!" Even in his relaxed posture he loomed over his mentor, over seven feet tall and twice as wide as an ordinary person, Ivo was the sort of person you could easily mistake for a massively fat man. This impression remained until one saw the ease, precision and swiftness of his motion, which revealed a strength and agility at odds with his expertise in the sciences. He wore his brown hair very short and even in his early twenties it was beginning to recede.

"Quiet, Ivo. Await instructions and be prepared for possible attack." The older scientist ordered "Our translators should work, though, so any hints of conflict will be apparent early enough for us to escape if need be."

Ivo appeared frustrated at the lack of a satisfactory explanation, but kept his silence as commanded.
The door on the research ship hissed open and revealed the rows of Mobian soldiers standing in chainmail armour before them. Again the old scientist was struck by the resemblance to Terran animals; a trait had led to an early hypothesis that there was a connection between earth and Mobius. This theory had been proven conclusively wrong, as although they had evolved along similar lines to Earth born creatures, their evolution was the result of chaotic radiation.

The general hostility of the natives could be felt even this early on in the encounter, causing many of the combat trained members of the humans group to tense ready for what seemed to be an inevitable fight.
If those fools make one wrong move, on either side we're looking at a war. Thought the doctor in frustration.

"Hold up, ladies and gentlemen!" called Ivo to the landing crew, in fluent Mobian "We didn't come here to fight with the people of Mobius; we came to teach them the ways of the stars."

The doctor sighed in relief as his protégé managed to cause enough surprise amongst both the human science crew and the Mobian soldiers to at least get the time to talk things out. If only he hadn't promised something that they really didn't want to give.

"Eerr, yes we will need to discuss this with you leader though before we give you this knowledge, however." The older scientist said.

"How do we know this isn't some trick to assassinate the king?"
But, always, there was some slow idiot, in this case a massively built bull holding a claymore, carrying on with the old thread of thought. The previous tension began to rapidly seep back, but Ivo though quickly.

"If we were intent on that we wouldn't have landed here we would have simply destroyed him along with his castle and family."

"No one can do that!" The bull said angrily "Not with a thousand cannons, definitely not with a fancy silver boat that flies!"

Ivo now looked amused "I didn't come here to trade threats with a stupid, overgrown, inbred foot soldier."

Oh, god, thought Ivo's mentor. Why is he instigating this fight? He knows that this idiot is a member of the aristocracy by his armour. He knows that such an insult cannot be let slide, by Mobian nobility.

"How dare you?!" Roared the bull "Don't you know who I am?!"

"Offhand I can't say I do, we only concerned ourselves with important individuals, not minor members of the nobility." Ivo retorted in a deliberately arrogant tone.

This was too much for the bull to take. He roared in rage and charged at Ivo with his sword raised. Ivo waited until the last second and sidestepped the attack. The massive human then moved with shocking speed to deliver a punch to the side of the bulls head, just enough to daze him and allow Ivo to disarm him without severely hurting him. Ivo then pinned the bull to the ground and held him there without any outward display of effort. The bull struggled and pushed up managing to gouge out Robotnik's left eye, allowing him to turn the tables and pin the massive human to the ground.

This didn't have the desired effect though as Ivo managed to get his feet under the bull and kick him away, causing the bull to fly several feet back before crashing to the ground and landing in an embarrassing heap. Ivo was quickly on his feet and the bull quickly recovered from his fall. Both of them looked ready to kill the other, with the human science crew at a loss of how to diffuse the situation.

The soldiers seemed about to come to the aid of their comrade when one of them in decorated armour raised his hand

"Enough! Arie, stop struggling and try not to infect the situation with your stupidity anymore" Called the decorated hedgehog

"But, Milord," The bull, named Arie, gestured in Robotnik's direction, who looked just as disappointed.

"I said, enough!" The hedgehog said firmly, "we came here to determine who these things were and we got that. We didn't come here to start a fist fight with a bunch of furless aliens."
Well this is getting off to a wonderful start I see, mused the old scientist, my student is half-blinded and we've managed to incur the hostility of the military, but diplomatic channels ARE open, which is good. Best get things off to a start and find out who I'm dealing with. "Inquiring minds would like to know who you are, since you so graciously prevented my student from starting a war with your world."

"Of course, my name is Jules the fourth of house hedgehog, eldest son of Reginald, Grand Duke of the Emerald Hill and Green hill territories." The Hedgehog bowed graciously.

The scientist covered up his laughter with a perfectly polite smile "I think you may need to send a messenger to the king to let him know in advance of our presence and intentions, after what happened here just now." The old scientist said "My name is Doctor Gerald, by the way."