Jordan Shepherd (Daedalus)

Daedalus is a Chimera that appears as the main antagonist of Resistance 2. Daedalus takes sole command of the Chimera, eliminating the command role of Angels and replacing them with Primarch and Overseers. Daedalus was formerly a human being known as Jordan Adam Shepherd.

Daedalus is a creation of Dr. Malikov. During Project Abraham, Malikov infused DNA from Pure Chimera strains into two subjects; one of which was Jordan Adam Shepherd, a soldier who Hale knew very well. Shepherd mutated into Daedalus, and was kept in captivity at SRPA Station Igloo up until his escape at the beginning of Resistance 2. During the events of Resistance 2, Daedalus was trying to recreate the Prometheus Weapon by collecting the Gray Tech components, but was foiled by the efforts of Specter Team. Also Daedalus became more primarily focus on activating the Chimeran towers scattered across the USA, which SRPA had been desperately trying to shut down. He is finally killed by Hale on board his flagship in the Chimeran Fleet.

As Jordan Shepherd
Prior to becoming Daedalus, Shepherd's childhood was consumed by his father's abuse, alcoholism and religious fervor, along with his father's extreme temper he passed onto his son. In his adult years, Shepherd married a woman named Hannah and became a traveling bible salesman. It is during their marriage, that Hannah suffered a miscarriage of their unborn baby, pushing her into depression. When Jordan came home to his wife, he found his neighbor, Mr. Hetterwood, comforting Hannah (only for her loss of her baby). In Shepherd's state of mind, consumed with paranoia on how close his wife was becoming with neighbor, Jordan murdered Mr. Hetterwood. Consumed with guilt, horrified of how he was more like his late father, and desperate to redeem himself, Shepherd joined the U.S. Army. Initially, Shepherd was only interested in duty, and so did not want the camaraderie of the other men in his unit, causing them to mock him for being solitary and quiet. When Shepherd saw a notice from a confidential project (Abraham) canvassing for volunteers, he eagerly put himself forward. However, Shepherd fails to mention his immune system was compromised during his childhood after wandering into a chemical testing zone in the everglades surrounding the house he shared with his father. Shepherd refused to say anything about his past illness, in the hopes that the procedures he would undergo would suppress the natural anger he inherited from his father. After being injected with the Pure Chimera strain his whole body slowly mutated into what came to be known as "Daedalus".

As Daedalus
Following Shepherd's slow transformation and all of SRPA's attempts and efforts to hinder the progression of the virus via inhibitors, Shepherd is imprisoned into maximum confinement. Throughout the months under confinement, Shepherd, under codename as Daedalus, was observed and studied by SRPA's research staff. He had been experiencing aural and visual hallucinations, as well displaying violent behaviors towards SRPA's patients and staff. Most of Daedalus' violent episodes involved demands to see his wife, with his becoming enraged when his request is denied. Dr. Malikov had frequently interrogated Daedalus (who mostly communicated by telepathy after a point) by proxy through infected subjects. During these "conversations", Daedalus acknowledged the mystery of the Chimera, including their origins and the towers, to Malikov but refused to explain any further. Then on July 8, 1951, while being berated by Dr. Martin Ortiz, agitated Daedalus suddenly developed psychokinetic powers and used them to mentally attack and kill eleven SRPA employees before being sedated by an SRPA panic team called by Ortiz. Two days later, on July 10, Shepherd was transferred to Station Igloo.

Under Daedalus' new confinement in Iceland, he was able to contact the Chimera and allowed them to attack the facility on July 15.

Coincidentally, Nathan Hale and Richard Blake untimely arrived at a besieged Igloo Station. After Hale and Blake fought their way through Igloo, they arrived at Daedalus' detention cell. Blake attempted to input the kill code to destroy Daedalus, but ended up releasing him. Daedalus brushed aside Blake and confronted Hale, cryptically saying, "They are calling to us. Can you hear them? It is beautiful", before making his escape from SRPA Station Igloo.

Resistance: The Gathering Storm
In a few months after Daedalus' escape from Iceland, he was later recaptured by American forces and over-watched by the Domestic Security Agency (DSA) instead of SRPA, in which the organization have insisted of being responsible for Daedalus but only to be rebuked for their faults of losing the creature from the beginning. And on November 13, as Daedalus was being transferred from Offutt Air Force Base to a maximum security lab facility in Florence, Colorado, the convoy he was riding in was attacked by a Chimeran commando force who were there to rescue Daedalus. Eventually the conflict allowed Daedalus to escape again.

Three days later on November 16th, President Noah Grace planned a contingency plan in declaring a truce between the Chimera and the United States known as Project Omega. The Grace Administration, seeing that Daedalus was the only known Chimeran entity to be communicable with the human race and "speak" for the Chimera, oversee the capture of Daedalus as a higher priority in the negotiations. The project was then led by Chief of Staff William Dentweiler and involved in capturing Daedalus. By capturing Daedalus, Dentweiler planned on luring him into rescuing his wife, Hannah Shepherd, from Sheridan, Wyoming by torturing her into sending a mental signal to Daedalus, who still cared for her. Daedalus later sent a contingent of Chimeran forces to rescue Hannah and bring her to his location. After briefly talking to, and warned by his wife, they were traced by American forces via a tracking device in Hannah's hair. The American forces sedated Daedalus with harpoons containing 2000 cc of sedatives and brought him to a secret military base near Sheridan. In taking necessary security procedure, Daedalus was embedded with a electrode which electrocuted him whenever he attempted to use his power to escape. Hannah was also kept as a hostage in order to convince Daedalus to aid in the negotiations. Weeks later, Daedalus began to cooperate in the truce, in which part of the negotiations involve in allowing a Chimeran warship to peacefully enter Sheridan's airspace. On December 24th, Noah Grace boldly confronted Daedalus and started to negotiate his intended truce by allowing the Chimera race to take over the world unimpeded so long as they left the United States in peace. Daedalus inwardly laughed at Grace's offer. The truce came to an end when Nathan Hale killed Grace for his treasonous action, and Daedalus quickly broke his confinements by sending a mental blast, in killing three people and paralyzing every human being within two-hundred yards; as his mental attack force the operator for Daedalus' embedded electrode to unleash a painful shock to him, but result in overloading and destroying the device inside of him. In leaving the base, Daedalus ordered the Chimeran warship to destroy Sheridan and its surroundings in retaliation for his imprisonment.

Resistance 2
The months after his escape from Sheridan, Wyoming, Daedalus have been quickly improving the Chimera military force such as nullifying the Chimera's dependency on Angels by allowing the creation of castes equal to the Angels known as Primarchs and Overseers, and the evolutionary creations of Chimeran strains that are adapted to warm environments, thus limiting the need for cooling units. The change in Chiemran military tactics cause great concerns among SRPA, and the organization have decided that eliminating Daedalus was the utmost primarily option in overcoming the war against the Chimera. SRPA made several attempts to assassinate Daedalus but all ended in failure.

Between 1952 and 1953, Daedalus began to quickly carry out the Chimera's goal of excavating and activating Chimeran towers scattered throughout the globe. In his quest, Daedalus commanded his forces in conquering nations and continents including Africa and South America.

And On May 15, 1953, Daedalus led the Chimeran fleet in the invasion of America. After the fleet are within the American mainland, Daedalus followed his mission of activating the towers in America. Daedalus then traveled to Bryce Canyon, Utah, and encountering Dr. Fyodor Malikov and Nathan Hale. Daedalus then activated Bryce Canyon's tower and immediately leaved before causing Hale into brief unconsciousness.

Daedalus was later relocated to Holar Tower, Iceland where he is able to use the hub tower to remotely keep all the Chimeran towers throughout the world activated. This was evident when Echo Team managed to annihilate the Chimeran forces defending the Chicago Tower and only to discover Daedalus' control after Dr. Malikov initially deactivated the tower and finding it activated again. SRPA forces unleash an all-out assault on the Holar Tower, but only to be devastated by strong awaiting Chimeran forces. Daedalus impeded Echo team who were able to enter the tower, and tragically killing Spc. Aaron Hawthorne by splitting him in half from his waist, then impaling Sgt. Benjamin Warner, and finally nearly killing Hale by impaling him(who was then rescued by Joseph Capelli).

Following the fall of the Liberty Defense Perimeter, Daedalus traveled to the Chicxulub Crater to finally initiating the Chimera's plan. On his flagship, Daedalus discovered SRPA's final action of detonating a fission bomb in destroying the Chimeran fleet and himself; knowing the presence of the SRPA strike team including Richard Blake, Hale and Capelli, Daedalus commanded his forces in the ship to bringing the bomb to him, in so personally disposing of it. However, despite procuring the bomb, Daedalus confronted Hale, who managed to overcome impeding Chimeran forces. Daedalus then battle Hale, and was eventually killed by Nathan. After his death, Daedalus' powers are immediately transferred to Hale, whom upon touching Daedalus' corpse.

Daedalus' body was presumably destroyed in the nuclear blast upon the successful detonation of the fission bomb. Despite Daedalus' death, his efforts in activating the Chimeran towers and channeling their energies to the Chimeran fleet was seemingly achieved with the apparent teleportation of Earth to another part of space and the appearance of unknown planets/moons. And as a result of his implementation of Primarchs and Overseers, Chimera were no longer left leaderless and did not die off when Daedalus was killed.

Personality
Prior to becoming Daedalus, Jordan Shepherd was a taciturn and religious person. Despite his serene characteristic, Shepherd has an innate feeling of intense anger and jealously due heavily influenced from his abusive father while as a child.

And as Daedalus, he is shown to have high appreciation of the Chimera and consider himself as a greater part of a "great whole". Daedalus bears a strong dislike of the human race, and consider them as a sort of evolutionary dead end that see the Chimera as a "disease" and refuse to recognize them as "the evolution of man". He also derogate humans as "meat-things" and other demeaning words. However, despite his transformation as a Chimera, he still possess his love and care for his wife, Hannah.

Abilities and traits
Daedalus is a fairly large, black, Angel-like creature that can float in the air (utilizing what can only be described as telekinetic levitation to achieve this). It is clearly visible where his old human body is, as it appears his brain has expanded enormously, and his human body has bent backwards onto it (his skull, ribcage, and upper-arms are all visible in the boss fight, and corpse). Daedalus can telepathically float, use mental blasts and has razor sharp tentacle ends that he can forcefully stab enemies with, but Daedalus's true power lies in his absolute control of the Chimera. Daedalus had uncanny intelligence and an effective military strategist particularly due to his experiences as Jordan Shepherd while in the U.S. military, which was instrumental in the Chimeran evolutionary and command structural changes he instigated himself. Even though Daedalus loss his capability of audible speech in his mutated form, he is able to communicate through mental telepathy. His mental communication is known to have "speak" at ranges greater than 800 feet, or presumably at global range.

It is revealed in Resistance: The Gathering Storm that Daedalus has the ability to transfer his consciousness to any Chimera type or unit on Earth; while remaining linked to his body. This presumably allows him to communicate with others even when Daedalus himself is not present.

Quotes
"They are calling to us. Can you hear them? It is beautiful"
 * Daedalus' first meeting with Hale at Station base Igloo.

"Leave now...order your men to go. This place does not belong to you."
 * Heard telepathically at Bryce Canyon, Utah.

"You are too late, you are leading your men to their deaths!"
 * Heard telepathically right before Hale and his squad first encounter The Swarm.

"Such arrogance...to think that we are a disease to be destroyed, when in fact we are the evolution of man. You think this planet is your birthright, but it was first ours. It was ours ages before you walked upright, and now it shall be once more. Soon your skies will shine with our stars, and the Earth shall tremble...only then will you know what it truly means to suffer..."
 * Daedalus meets Hale again at Bryce Canyon, while Daedalus activates the controls.

"This matter is beyond your domain, you are a squirming larvae refusing to evolve. Cease this futile resistance and awaken."
 * Heard telepathically as Hale and Dr. Malikov escape Bryce Canyon.

"Look through my eyes Nathan, this the future that they will see."
 * Heard telepathically while Hale and his men search for Daedalus while Stalkers attack many squads of Black Ops in Iceland.

"You must be free of them"
 * Heard telepathically as Daedalus prepares to kill Hawthorne.

"If you knew what was to happen you would not have fought. Such a waste, you could have been so much more."
 * Daedalus stabbing Nathan Hale in the stomach.

"Traitor! You fight for a race that will only betray you!"

"You are all coming home."

"They don't deserve this world, not after all they've done, not after all they've taken!"
 * Daedalus during the final boss fight.

Trivia

 * Daedalus is named after the mythical craftsman of Greek mythology.

Source

 * Intel 14, Journal Entry (Daedalus)
 * Intel 15, Journal Entry (Pure Chimera Strains)
 * SRPA Intelligence Memorandum 3
 * SRPA Intelligence Memorandum 5
 * SRPA Intelligence Memorandum 18