Jordan Shepherd (Daedalus)

Daedalus was formerly a human being known as Jordan Adam Shepherd, and a Chimera who appeared as the main antagonist in Resistance 2. Daedalus took sole command of the Chimera, eliminating the command role of Angels and replacing them with his own command system; this new system included Primarchs, who have control of around forty lesser Chimera, with Overseer's having command of around twelve Primarchs, ensuring for a much more efficient leadership system.

Daedalus was a creation of Dr. Fyodor Malikov. During Project Abraham, Malikov infused DNA from Pure Chimeran strains into two subjects; one of which was Jordan Adam Shepherd, a soldier, and Nathan Hale, who knew the former 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 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 and the world, which SRPA had been desperately trying to shut down. He was finally killed by Nathan Hale on board his flagship in the Chimeran Fleet.

As Jordan Shepherd
Prior to becoming Daedalus, Shepherd's childhood was consumed by his abusive father's alcoholism and religious fervor, along with his father's extreme temper that 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, 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 the neighbor, Jordan murdered Mr. Hetterwood. Consumed with guilt, horrified at 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 otherwise distant. When Shepherd saw a notice from a confidential project (Abraham) canvassing for volunteers, he eagerly put himself forward. However, Shepherd failed 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 hope that the procedures he would undergo would suppress the natural anger he inherited from his father. After being injected with the Pure Chimera strain, on December 8, 1950, his whole body slowly mutated into what he became 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 failed, Shepherd was imprisoned into maximum confinement, and was secretly covered-up and listed "Killed In Action (KIA)" to his family. Throughout his tenure under confinement, Shepherd, now known by the codename 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, and becoming enraged when his requests were denied. Dr. Malikov had frequently interrogated Daedalus (who mostly communicated by telepathy after some point in time) 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 8th, 1951, while being berated by Dr. Martin Ortiz, an agitated Daedalus suddenly developed psychokinetic powers and used them to mentally attack and kill eleven SRPA employees before being sedated by a 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 who attacked the facility on July 15th. Coincidentally, Nathan Hale and Richard Blake 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 the few months after Daedalus' escape from Iceland, he was later recaptured by American forces and watched-over by the Domestic Security Agency (DSA) instead of SRPA, who insisted on being responsible for Daedalus's incarceration, despite being rebuked for losing the creature in the first place. On November 13th, 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. Eventually the conflict allowed Daedalus to escape again.

Three days later, President Noah Grace formulated a contingency plan to declare 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, oversaw the capture of Daedalus as a higher priority in the negotiations. The project was then led by Chief of Staff William Dentweiler and involved capturing Daedalus. To capture 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. American soldiers sedated Daedalus with harpoons containing 2000 cc of sedatives and brought him to a secret military base near Sheridan. In taking necessary security precautions, Daedalus was implanted with an electrode which electrocuted him whenever he attempted to use his power to escape. Hannah was also kept as a hostage to convince Daedalus to participate in the negotiations. Weeks later, Daedalus began to cooperate in the truce, in which part of the negotiations involved 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 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. Daedalus broke free of his confinement by sending out a mental blast, which killed three people and paralyzed every human being within two-hundred yards. Though his mental attack delivered a painful shock to Daedalus, it was sufficient to overload and destroy the device inside him. On leaving the base, Daedalus ordered the Chimeran warship to destroy Sheridan and its surroundings in retaliation for his imprisonment.

Resistance 2
In the months after his escape from Sheridan, Wyoming Daedalus quickly improved the effectiveness of the Chimera's military forces, including nullifying the Chimera's dependency on Angels by creating 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 Chimeran military tactics caused great concern among SRPA, and the organization decided eliminating Daedalus was the primary target to end the war against the Chimera. SRPA made several assassination attempts on Daedalus, but all ending in failure.

Between 1952 and 1953, Daedalus began 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.

On May 15, 1953, Daedalus led the Chimeran Fleet in invading America. After the fleet were within the American mainland, Daedalus began activating towers throughout the United States. Daedalus traveled to Bryce Canyon, Utah where he encountered Dr. Fyodor Malikov and Nathan Hale. Daedalus then activated Bryce Canyon's tower and immediately left, briefly causing Hale into unconsciousness.

Daedalus later relocated to Holar Tower, Iceland where he was 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, only to discover Daedalus' control after Dr. Malikov initially deactivated the tower and finding it activated again. SRPA forces unleashed an all-out assault on the Holar Tower, but were devastated by the strong Chimeran forces that attacked them in a crushing ambush. Daedalus impeded Echo Team who alone were able to enter the tower, 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 initiate the Chimera's ultimate plan. On his flagship, Daedalus discovered SRPA's final action of detonating a fission bomb (codenamed "Nellie") in destroying the Chimeran fleet and himself. Knowing the presence of the SRPA strike team including Richard Blake, Nathan Hale and Joseph Capelli, Daedalus commanded his forces in the ship in bringing the bomb to him, so that he might personally dispose of it. However, despite procuring the bomb, Daedalus confronted Hale again, who managed to overcome impeding Chimeran forces. Daedalus then battled Hale and was eventually killed by him. After his death, Daedalus' powers were immediately transferred to Hale 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 seemingly 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, the 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 man. Despite his serene character, Shepherd has an innate feeling of intense anger and jealously due heavily to his abusive father during his traumatic childhood.

After becoming Daedalus, he is shown to have an appreciation of the Chimera and considers himself as a major part of a "great whole". Daedalus bears a strong dislike for the human race, and considers them as a sort of evolutionary dead end, due in part to their view that the Chimera are a "disease", and their refusal to recognize them (the Chimera) as "the evolution of man". He also refers to humans as "meat-things" and uses other derogatory terms. However, despite his transformation into a Chimera, he still possessed his love for his wife, Hannah.

Another aspect of Daedalus' personality was that he retained his knowledge of military tactics and developed a more efficient form of leadership in the Chimeran military chain of command. His shrewd tactical skill was shown numerous times as the Chimera began to slowly overwhelm human resistance in several countries.

Abilities and traits
Daedalus is a fairly large, brown, 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).

When in combat, Daedalus can telepathically float, use mental blasts, and has razor sharp tentacles that he can impale enemies with, but his true power lay in his absolute control of the Chimera. Daedalus had uncanny intelligence and was an effective military strategist 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 lost his capability of audible speech in his mutated form, he was able to communicate through mental telepathy. He is known to "speak" at ranges greater than 800 feet.

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, allowing him a nigh omniscient level of control over his army.

Quotes
"They are calling to us. Can you hear them? It is beautiful"

- Daedalus' first meeting with Nathan 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 a detachment of Victor Company 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 Echo Team search for Daedalus while Stalkers and Titans attack many squads of Black Ops in Iceland.

"You must be free of them."

- Heard telepathically as Daedalus prepares to kill Aaron 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!"

- Daedalus during the final boss fight.

"You are all coming home."

- Said during final boss fight.

"They don't deserve this world, not after all they've done, not after all they've taken!"

- Daedalus during the final boss fight.

"We are taking them. We are taking each and every one of them! No matter what happens to me, the skies will never be the same!"

- Said by Daedalus during towards the end of the boss fight.

"No more humans, no more Chimera. Only the pureness of our kind."

- Said by Daedalus during the final boss battle

"If you seen what I have seen, if you knew what was coming, you would yearn for the beauty that awaits us."

- Said by Daedalus during the final boss battle

Trivia

 * Daedalus was named after the mythical craftsman of Greek mythology and the father of the more well-known Icarus.
 * Daedalus was voiced by Robin Atkin Downes who also voice General Hadley in a Resistance: Fall of Man trailer, and later voices James Grayson in Resistance: Retribution.