Daedalus

The Daedalus^[1] is a flying aircraft carrier in Saints Row: The Third.^[2]

The Daedalus... a floating military base hovering over the city of Steelport.

— Eric Barker^[1]

Overview[]

The Daedalus is an experimental flying aircraft carrier developed by the US Department of Defense, designed to function as an airborne operations base. Able to deploy heavy armor and shell ground targets with its huge cannons, it is a force to be reckoned with. STAG utilizes it as their base of operations after the sinking of the Thermopylae. It is both an aircraft carrier and a battleship. It is possible to use the distance to the gun turrets to measure it as approximately 500 x 300 meters.

The Daedalus part of the finale mission "STAG Film", which is only available if the "Eliminate Killbane" option is taken during "Three Way". Prior to this, Cyrus Temple brings it up various times with Monica Hughes, asking her to authorize the use of the Daedalus in Steelport.^[3]^[4]

When it suddenly arrives in the skies of the city, it shells various buildings and deploys a multitude of VTOLs. There's a constant battle around the ship, between Saints Tornados and the ship, but Playa is left alone, as long as they are far enough from it.

Playa assaults the carrier, placing explosives on various crates of bunker busters and proceeds to do battle with the STAG leader Cyrus Temple in a VTOL on top of the Daedalus' deck. After Cyrus is killed, the Daedalus explodes, falling to the streets below.^[5]

The Daedalus is powered by 10 colossal jet engines. 8 of which are used to keep it airborne, while the other 2 are used for forward propulsion.

It is only present during the mission, and there is no wreckage in the city after the mission.

Weapons[]

10 large missile launchers with 18 missile containers each.
- 2 on the front end, just above the flight deck.
- 2 on either side of the ship, at its approximate middle area.
- 2 on the rear end, pointing backward.
- 2 on the rear end, pointing forward.
There are 28 very large cannons sticking out of the ship.
- Front corners (In the trailer, these cannons are not there).
- The sides of the ship, at its approximate middle area.
- The largest two guns are at the lower center of the ship, at its approximate middle area.
- All over the bottom side of the ship.
11 smaller anti-aircraft gun turrets with two guns each. Located at several parts of the ship, on its top side.

Vehicles[]

F-69 VTOL
Condor
Crusader - Turret weapons are used against enemy aircraft.
N-Forcer

Trivia[]

Flying an aircraft into one of the Daedalus' engines instantly destroys it, and falling into one causes instant death.
While there are many similar fictional Helicarriers, none closely match the Daedalus.
The carrier is named after Daedalus, a skilled craftsman in Greek mythology who created wings for himself and his son Icarus so that they could escape Crete. Icarus, not heeding his father's warnings, flew too close to the sun, whereupon the wax in his wings melted and he fell into the sea below and drowned.
The Daedalus is a playable map in Whored Mode.
The Thermopylae has a big ID number on it - "01" and the Daedalus has a similar large "02". This indicates that these are the first two ships in the STAG fleet.
No wreckage of the Daedalus is present, despite the fact that it falls in the middle of the city. The crash should level most of Downtown Steelport.
There is a motivational poster of the Daedalus in Kinzie's Warehouse, with the title "Awesome", and subtitle "Check this thing out".^[6]
Kinzie says that the Saints might be able to build their own variant in a couple of years.^[5]
It is possible to mod the game files so that the Daedalus to be present over the city at all times.
There is a miniature model of the Daedalus present in the White Crib in "The Saints Wing".
As the "Save Shaundi" ending is confirmed to be the official ending of Saints Row: The Third,^[7], and Saints Row IV continues from this ending, STAG never got the chance to use the Daedalus against the Saints in this Timeline, so it is unclear what became of it. From the perspective of Enter the Dominatrix, in which Pierce is Mayor of Steelport, STAG did deploy the Daedalus.