Daedalus-class

## Daedalus-class Battleship

The **Daedalus-class Battleship** was a class of Battlecruiser built by Red Wood Industries. It often doubled as another role, such as a command ship or carrier. Although all Daedalus-class ships were the same class, they all had differences.

## History

### The Colony War

It is rumored that the RWI *Phantom* (002) was destroyed before or around the time of the Colony War, as its status as RWI’s flagship was given to the RWI *Apollo*, although not much is known about the battle that took place since it has not appeared on-screen in the Colony Universe. The original RWI *Daedalus* (001) also has not appeared, so its status is totally unknown.

A more secretive Daedalus-class Battleship was constructed before or around this time as well, the RWI *Pegasus* (00X or 000). It served as a black-ops starship and was testing experimental weaponry at the outbreak of the Green Drone War. It was commanded by Admiral Markus. At some point near the beginning of the war, the *Pegasus* went missing in action and ended up crashing on the planet Agaris. It was not recovered until after the war.

### The Green Drone War

Four Daedalus-class Battleships were utilized at various points in the Green Drone War. The last MK.I Daedalus, the RWI *Osiris* (003), was mainly used as the command ship of the RWI Home Fleet, which was charged with defending Icarus, RWI's capital world, and other key locations. It was commanded by Admiral Isaac Sheppard.

The RWI *Apollo* (004), flagship of RWI, fought throughout the entire war on the front lines. It was commanded by Grand Admiral Adam Williams and his second-in-command, Commander Edwards, and was present for many crucial battles of the war.

Six months before the Green Drone War, the RWI *Valiant* (005), commanded by Captain Jonathan Hunter, was constructed and commanded a fleet during the Battle of Monus III at the opening of the war, where many ships were lost. However, after rescuing the team led by former RWI Captain Jack Roberts, the *Valiant* aided Roberts’ crew for the Battle of Ravcor and the Battle of Demus, where it crashed on Demus and was destroyed.

Shortly after the Battle of Icarus, the RWI *Zheng-He* (006) was built and retrofitted with two Atlas Superlasers on the bow in place of the ten Mk1 Batteries, as well as other tech reverse-engineered from the GDA. It was commanded first by Captain Gideon, but during the Battle of the Black Hole, the *Zheng-He* was critically damaged and Gideon was killed; command fell to Commander Sam Reed. Despite extensive damage, the ship managed to survive and was taken back to Icarus for repairs.

### Post-War Operations

The *Apollo* and *Osiris* remained in active service in the aftermath of the Green Drone War, while the *Zheng-He* was recovered and repaired. About three months after the war, the RWI *Osiris* launched a task force led by the newly-promoted Admiral Jack Roberts to Monus III to investigate rumors of potential GDA activity, and to reinforce the Dawnstar Salvage Corporation's operation on the planet. However, after deploying the task force, the *Osiris* moved on to the next sector, but was seemingly attacked by unknown forces, leaving pieces of debris, including one bearing the ship's name, floating through space.

### Operation: Chrysaor

About seven months after the war, the mission to finally locate the RWI *Pegasus*, Operation: Chrysaor, was launched. Admiral Roberts led a small crew aboard the Defender-class Frigate, the RWI *Tigris*, to search for the lost ship with some help from the United Colonies of Agaris (UCA). After a lengthy search and several deadly encounters with pirate forces, the ship was found, although its crew remained lost. Nevertheless, the team was able to repair the vessel and send it into space, where RWI reinforcements picked them up and brought them safely back to Icarus. It is unknown what happened to the *Pegasus* after these events.

### Joint Expedition Task Force Mission

By the time of the Joint Expedition Task Force (JETF) mission one year after the war’s end, the RWI *Zheng-He* was fully operational and under the command of Admiral Kieron Hask, the new head of RWI Intelligence after Gideon's death. The *Zheng-He* was the lead ship in the RWI *Prometheus*'s escort fleet under the command of Admiral Hask, alongside the new heli-carrier RWI *Olympus* and a few Defender-class Frigates. The *Zheng-He* led the group to the Chrome System to reinforce the heavily depleted JETF forces.

## Characteristics

### Armament

#### MK.I

The MK.I ships were more heavily armed than later models, with the lack of flight pods, Mk3 Battleship Cannons had been fitted, along with broadsides being Mk2 Battleship Cannons.

#### MK.II

With the MK.II ships having been fitted with forward-facing flight pods on the port and starboard sides, the Mk3 Cannons had been removed, along with the broadsides being replaced with lighter 2x300mm Autocannons.

#### MK.III

The RWI *Zheng-He* was the only of the MK.III Daedalus-class constructed. It was originally planned to be completed as a MK.II, however Jack Roberts' team had recovered Atlas Superlaser tech from a GDA Destroyer, which was reverse engineered into her Mk1 Battery housing, after the GDA war, she underwent a refit which replaced her Mk3 Cannon with an X-3 Heavy Cannon.

The RWI *Pegasus* had many laser-based weapons on board, many of which are classified and not currently known. However, it did keep some typical weapons seen on the other Daedalus-class ships.

### Power

The MK.I ships were outfitted with nuclear reactors only, as the Deuterium reactors of the MK.II models were not available to RWI at the time. However, they were implemented into the MK.II design, although some nuclear reactors were kept as an alternative power source. Both models also included batteries for minor power.

### Shields

Similarly to power systems, the MK.I Daedalus-class’s technology was limited compared to the MK.II in terms of shielding. All the MK.II starships had bubble shield generators outfitted on the dorsal hull, and control tables were within the engine room. Sometime around the start of the Green Drone War, the *Osiris* was outfitted with shields to better fight the GDA.

### Thrusters

The MK.I vessels were only outfitted with hydrogen thrusters. However, since hydrogen fuel could be expended or destroyed in battle, a few large ion engines were added to the MK.IIs as backup thrust.

## Ships in class

### MK.I

* RWI *Daedalus*
* RWI *Phantom*
* RWI *Osiris*

### MK.II

* RWI *Apollo*
* RWI *Valiant*

### MK.III

* RWI *Zheng-He*
* RWI *Pegasus*

## Continuity

The RWI *Pegasus*, seen in the later episodes of 'Space Engineers: Colony Wars', and later in 'Space Engineers: Starship Lost' was the name of the Daedalus-class ship commanded by Admiral Markus. However, due to continuity issues with the overall Daedalus timeline, the ship’s name was retconned and removed from the lore. While the ship itself is still technically canon, it was given the designation 00X or 000 and assigned as a black-ops starship with no numerical designation.