Daedalus

"Well, the Daedalus is loaded with Asgard technology. The beaming technology's the first part of it. They've got things like ..."

- Rodney Mckay

The Daedalus is the first 304 produced by the United States, and the second generation of interstellar capital ship developed by the United States military and its allies. Commanded by Colonel Steven Caldwell, her standard mission has been to ferry equipment and personnel between Earth and Atlantis, assisting the expedition team there as needed.

The Daedalus is armed with 32 railguns, Mark-8 tactical warheads, Asgard plasma beam weapons, and a bay of F-302 fighters. It also possesses Asgard shielding and beaming technology. Unlike its predecessor, the Prometheus, this equipment was installed during the ship's production rather than added after the fact. Also unlike the Prometheus, the Daedalus was not equipped with Asgard weaponry, as it was only provided as a refit after the extinction of the Asgard race. To assure that their technologies were not abused, the Asgard provided an engineering expert to monitor the ship's systems. For the first two years of its operation, that role was filled by the Asgard Hermiod. Propulsion consists of standard thrusters as well as an Asgard hyperdrive engine, capable of traveling one way between Earth and Atlantis in 18 days without the use of a ZPM.

Crew

 * Commanding Officer
 * Colonel Steven Caldwell


 * Other notable crew
 * Doctor Lindsey Novak - Engineer
 * Hermiod - Asgard Advisor
 * Captain Dave Kleinman - Weapons Officer.
 * Major Kevin Marks - Weapons Officer
 * Major Charles Brown - Engineering (The Intruder)
 * Major Emma Cooper - Navigator (The Siege, Part 3)
 * Captain Megan Cooper - Navigator (Aurora)
 * Lieutenant Colonel Pat Bishop - Navigator (Allies)
 * Captain Frank Levine (Adrift)
 * Hawking
 * Hutchison - Daedalus security
 * Doctor Monroe - Engineering (The Intruder)

The Siege of Atlantis
The Daedalus' first mission was to travel to Atlantis, which was, at the time, facing attack by a trio of Wraith hive ships. Using a zero point module discovered in Egypt, the Daedalus was able to make the three million light-year journey in less than four days. Upon arrival, the Daedalus used its Asgard transporters to rescue Major John Sheppard, who was piloting a puddle jumper on a suicide mission to destroy one of the hive ships, and to beam down their ZPM to Dr. Mckay, who used it to power Atlantis' shield. The Daedalus then launched several nuclear warheads at the remaining hive ship, which were intercepted by Wraith darts long before they reached their target. Hermiod then reluctantly agreed to use the transporter to deliver a warhead aboard the Wraith ship, thus destroying the one remaining hive and routing the assault force. When the Wraith dispatched twelve more hive ships to attack Atlantis, the Daedalus was send to intercept them and, in the process, destroyed two more hive ships before the Wraith managed to employ countermeasures preventing the use of the Asgard transporter. After sustaining moderate damage, the Daedalus was forced to withdraw and land on Atlantis for the protection of the city's shield. Ultimately, a plan was devised to fool the Wraith into believing the city was destroyed. All nonessential base personnel were then evacuated to the Daedalus and, using the ship's transporter, a nuclear weapon was beamed directly above the city shield. The cloak was then activated while the city was hidden by the blast. The plan succeeded, and the Wraith withdrew.

After returning to Earth, the Daedalus ferried Doctor Elizabeth Weir, newly promoted Lt. Colonel Sheppard, and the rest of Atlantis' command staff back to the city. While en route, it became clear that the ship had been infected by a Wraith computer virus that attempted to kill the crew and deliver the ship to the Wraith, who desired its intergalactic hyperdrive technology. The virus was ultimately eradicated, but not before the ship's long-range communications and Asgard sensor array had to be destroyed in order to prevent the virus from using a distress call to broadcast the ship's location to the Wraith.

Duties in Pegasus
During a routine resupply run back to Earth, Colonel Caldwell diverted the Daedalus to observe Doctor Rodney McKay's experiments with what he had deemed, the ultimate power source. When the power source created a reaction that ultimately destroyed five-sixths of the star system, the Daedalus assisted in his and Colonel Sheppard's escape by providing cover for them as they fled in a jumper to the system's space gate, leaving the area just moments before the explosion.

When Atlantis picked up a signal from the Ancient warship Aurora, the Daedalus carried Sheppard's team to investigate. Upon their arrival, they encountered a Wraith scout ship that they quickly destroyed without difficulty. Subsequently after that, the Daedalus' sensors detected two more wraith cruisers en route. The Daedalus then withdrew but not before Col. Sheppard activated Aurora's self-destruct. The resulting explosion destroyed Aurora and the two Wraith cruisers upon their arrival.

The Daedalus was dispatched to destroy a Wraith hive ship on which most of Sheppard's team had been imprisoned on along with Lieutenant Ford. Discovering two hive ships instead, Colonel Caldwell chose to engage them nonetheless, unwilling to risk knowledge of Atlantis' survival being spread among the Wraith. During the engagement, Sheppard managed to turn the Wraith ships against each other, destroying them. Finding no survivors, the Daedalus returned to Atlantis.

Some weeks later, the ship was returning to Earth from another resupply mission when it was used to relay a warning to Atlantis that a Trust operative had planted a bomb in the city. Doctor Weir ordered the Daedalus to return to Atlantis to assist in locating the Agent, and assisted in an evacuation of the city before the operative was revealed to be Colonel Caldwell -- actually a Goa'uld.

Following the destruction of the Prometheus, the Daedalus was briefly used in the Milky Way as well. The vessel was sent to Tegalus after contact was lost with the people of that world; there they found evidence that the two rival nations on that world had all but destroyed each other.

On one visit to Atlantis, Hermiod eventually felt the need to affect repairs to the ship's hyperdrive that involved traveling in a wide orbit around the solar system.

The Daedalus evacuated several hundred Taranian refugees from their world to Atlantis in advance of a supervolcano eruption. The Daedalus remained in orbit of the planet until the eruption occurred and rendered aid to those who Colonel Sheppard had managed to rescue using the damaged Ancient warship Orion.

Alliance with the Wraith
Three weeks later, the Daedalus held position just out Atlantis' sensor range in anticipation of the arrival of a Wraith hive ship, which carried a proposal for an alliance against other factions of rival Wraith. During the ensuing efforts to weaponize Doctor Carson Beckett's retrovirus for use against a Wraith hive ship, the Daedalus observed one attempt by the Wraith to infiltrate another ship. When the other hive opened fire, Daedalus came to the friendly hive's aid as the attempt failed. During the next attempt, in which the Daedalus was to hide in close proximity to the friendly hive so as to deliver the retrovirus using its Asgard transporters, the Wraith had provided them a means to break through their countermeasures. This proved to be a trap resulting in the Daedalus' ambush by two hives with the transporters still ineffectual. After an intense battle, the two hives simply jumped away, leaving the Daedalus behind.

Caldwell then took his ship back to Atlantis for emergency repairs, where Doctor Weir ordered him to pursue and destroy the Wraith ships at any cost. Aided by the Orion, which destroyed one hive ship before being destroyed itself, the Daedalus managed to severely cripple the second, but was disabled before it could be destroyed thus resulting in a stalemate. As life support had failed, but Asgard transporters were still operational, a plan was devised to to deliver the retrovirus onto the hive, thus resulting in breathable air and the hive ship's capture. Using the hive ship's hyperdrive, the Daedalus returned to Atlantis where it could be repaired.

Further duties
Again operational, the ship ferried Sheppard's team to Sateda, where a Wraith had taken Ronon Dex and was in the process of hunting him; as Caldwell was unwilling to engage the Wraith directly, the Daedalus departed immediately after releasing Sheppard's team in a puddle jumper. On another trip, the ship ferried Doctor McKay and his sister, Jeanne Miller, to Atlantis as part of efforts to recreate McKay's ultimate power source. The vessel was also dispatched to recover Sheppard's team after the DHD on the world they were visiting was destroyed by sabotage.

While observing the first test of the McKay-Carter Intergalactic Gate Bridge, the Daedalus detected the Ancient warship Tria, and provided transport for the Ancients on board back to Atlantis. Some weeks later, after the Ancients had retaken control of the city and then lost it to the Pegasus Replicators, the ship was dispatched with orders to destroy the city. These orders were countermanded at the last minute by General Jack O'Neill, who had been rescued from the Replicators by a team led by Sheppard and Weir.

Following the return of the Atlantis Expedition to the city, the Daedalus was present during an apparent onslaught by the Lantean whale-fish Flagisallus. Caldwell recommended simply shooting them all, but when it was discovered that the animals were simply reacting to an imminent Coronal mass ejection by the Lantean star, the ship was equipped with Atlantis' ZPM and sent to deflect the blast using its shield. In doing so, the Daedalus sustained considerable damage and came seconds away from destruction, but the mission was a success.

The Daedalus also assisted Sheppard's team in halting a war between two nations whom Sheppard and McKay had unwittingly been influencing through a piece of equipment on Atlantis that they had believed to be a game. In order to frighten the two sides out of confrontation, the Daedalus' weapons were used to simulate bomb explosions on the planet's surface.

Battle of Asuras
The Daedalus returned to Atlantis accompanied by the Apollo, the newest ship of the Tau'ri fleet. The two launched an attack against several Asuran Warships using their new Asgard weapons, which causing them to retreat back to Asuras. The Daedalus, Apollo, seven Wraith Hive Ships, and five Travelers ships later launched an all out attack against Asuras in an attempt to destroy the Asurans for good. The fleet, led by the Daedalus and the Apollo, held off the Asuran fleet long enough for McKay to implement the plan and left when Asuras exploded destroying most the Asuran replicators.

Destruction of Midway
At the time of the destruction of the Midway Station, the Daedalus was in orbit of Earth. The ship then beamed Ronon aboard left for Atlantis where it stopped by the Midway Station only to find it destroyed and a lone Puddle Jumper floating nearby. The Daedalus then picked the Puddle Jumper up in one of its 302 Bays and left for Atlantis with Ronon and the crew aboard the Puddle Jumper.

Skirmishes with Michael
After learning the possible location of Teyla, the Daedalus was dispatched to investigate. It picked up Sheppard, Ronon, McKay and Major Lorne and his team at a nearby planet and headed to the location given to them. Upon their arrival, the two teams were beamed into the base while the Daedalus remained in orbit. Michael showed up in a Wraith Cruiser and engaged the Daedalus in battle. The Daedalus' shields held and the cruiser proved to be no match for the powerful warship. After learning from a guard that Teyla was probably on board the cruiser, Sheppard asked Caldwell not to destroy it. Realizing that the cruiser had sustained heavy damage, the Daedalus tried to disable it, firing at its engines as it ran. However, the cruiser escaped into hyperspace before any damage could be done.

Several weeks after this incident, the Daedalus was sent to retrieve the survivors of a building collapse that occured while Col. Sheppard's team was searching for Teyla, leaving them trapped under the rubble. The Daedalus arrived and exited hyperspace over the planet, and found itself in orbit along with Michael's cruiser. Michael realized that the Daedalus had arrived, and attempted to jump into hyperspace. However, Colonel Caldwell ordered Major Marks to disable the cruiser's hyperdrive, stranding it in the star system. Just as Michael's drones are were about to retrieve Sheppard and Ronon, they were beamed out by the Daedalus. As the Daedalus had to drop its shields to beam the survivors, Michael's ship was able to cause considerable damage to it, disabling sublight and hyperdrive engines as well as Asgard Weapons. As only the shields were going to hold for a short time, the Daedalus launched an F-302 strike against Michael's cruiser to which darts were launched in response.

This attack disabled the cruiser's main weapons as well as allowing a cloaked jumper with Sheppard, Ronon and McKay aboard. The strike team was able to disable the cruiser's hyperdrive and rescue Teyla (with the help of Kanaan). As soon as the team was confirmed safe, the repaired Daedalus destroyed Michael's cruiser.

Alternate realities

 * In an alternate reality that Lt. Col. Samantha Carter was accidentally transported to in 2006. In this reality, the Daedalus and Prometheus were the only ships Earth had. The Daedalus detected and monitored the approach of five Ori Motherships.


 * In an Alternate reality, one of the alternate Daedaluses was commanded by Captain Sobol. The ship had somehow shifted across to several parallel universes including ours. Sobol was eventually forced to abandon the ship and left a message, hoping her people would find her and her crew. The ship had also jumped over M35-117 in this reality.


 * ''In one of the alternate realities encountered by the Daedalus that Lt. Col. Sheppard and his team were on, that Atlantis' Daedalus was destroyed in the Battle of Asuras.

Major campaigns

 * Battle of Atlantis
 * Battle of the Void
 * Battle of Asuras
 * Battle of M2S-445

Behind the scenes

 * In Greek mythology, Daedalus was a cunning inventor. He was the most technologically advanced man in the ancient world. It is told that he invented making images and was the first man to fly.


 * In the anime series Macross (adapted in the U.S. as part of Robotech), one of the super carriers attached to the SDF-1 Macross was named the Daedalus. Perhaps not coincidentally, the other carrier was called Prometheus.


 * In "Be All My Sins Remember'd", the Daedalus only ever fires two Asgard beam weapons, from either side of the ships nose.