Canadian Collective
We must always be mindful of the fact that our unbridled success ultimately spawns those who will stop at nothing to undo all the good that Hegemony International has produced in this world.
Reginald Howell, Founder and CEO of Hegemony International
T
he Canadian Collective is an international resistance group dedicated to the downfall of
Hegemony International.
Structure
L
ike many terrorist organizations, The Collective maintains no formal organizational structure. It operates through a series of highly-independent cells. Those cells presumably receive guidance and directives from a handful of shadowy leadership figures, but they're also presumed to have a high degree of autonomy.
Generic Boogeyman
Owing to their chaotic and highly-independent structure, it can be challenging to determine whether any given terrorist attack truly emanated from the "real" Canadian Collective. Many splinter groups claim affiliation with The Collective, but intelligence analysts have sometimes found these associations to be tenuous at best. Even when known Collective associates have been proven to have executed strikes, it can be challenging to definitively say whether those attacks were actually ordered, planned, funded, and carried out as official initiatives of The Collective.
Non-Existent?
The group's ethereal nature has even led some to claim that there is no functioning group known as the Canadian Collective. Drawing their cues from mafioso, supposed Collective members will rarely admit that the Canadian Collective even exists. And even when they are caught and punished for their crimes, they steadfastly insist that their actions were not ordered by The Collective.
Public Agenda
T
he public assumes that The Collective's agenda is solely to undermine and ultimately destroy Hegemony International. But many of their initiatives are only loosely tied to Hegemony's explicit organizational goals. Rather than being anti-Hegemony, they're more accurately described as anti-capitalism. Although many of their strikes have certainly come at the expense of Hegemony International, they've also carried out numerous attacks against other titans of industry and against countries that are known to champion capitalist ideals.
Not-So Canadian
The idea that The Collective is singularly focused on Hegemony International is perhaps fostered by Hegemony itself. The company's founder, Reginald Howell, goes to great lengths to paint The Collective as Public Enemy #1. The company often cites the group's attacks whenever a particular division, or a particular market vertical, fails to meet Wall Street projections.
This is not meant to imply that The Collective would not like to see the downfall of Hegemony International. They absolutely would. But its most zealous acolytes rarely cite such a hypothetical downfall as their primary objective.
Assets
T
here is no proper accounting of The Collective's resources. In a handful of Third World countries they're believed to stash significant capital, and even, to control some degree of military hardware. But many of the exposed cells have been found to consist merely of radicalized hardliners with few-if-any assets. It's no exaggeration to say that some convicted members were nearly broke at the time when they carried out their attacks - often operating with little-or-no financial backing.
The kind of sophisticated explosives deployed by The Collective can't be built on a shoestring budget. And someone out there is footing that bill.
Rachel Bell, Intelligence Analyst with the U.S. government
There are a handful of oligarchs across the world who've been tied to The Collective and it's assumed that they take an active role in funding the group's activities. Although these idealogues come from many political and ethnic backgrounds, a disproportionate number of them reside in Russia, China, and India.
History
T
he Collective did not start to enter the public consciousness until the early 2000s. Initially, a group of separatist Russian oligarchs adopted the name of The Collective as a moniker for their movement. In the 2010s, this group was brutally supressed by Russian president Vladimir Putin, culminating in the execution of most of The Collective's leadership. However, by the mid-2020s, "The Collective" began appearing on the radar of many intelligence operatives as a new-and-growing terrorist organization. Whether this new iteration of The Collective was truly spawned by the original Russian separatists, or whether the name was simply co-opted by opportunistic "freedom fighters", has never been definitively determined.
Territories
A
lthough the group's name implies that they are based in, and closely associated with, Canadia, their ties to the country are tenuous, at best. Throughout the years, there have certainly been a handful of Canadian citizens who've been tied to the group. But the same can be said for nearly every other country on earth.
Canadian Prosecution
The Canadian government, in lockstep with every other First World country, has taken an active position against The Collective. Not only do they cooperate with international law enforcement, they also aggessively pursue the conviction and incarceration of The Collective's members. Most known members don't even identify the organization as the Canadian Collective, preferring instead to refer to their group simply as The Collective.
Smear Campaign
The association between Canadia and The Collective emanates primarily from Hegemony International's CEO, Reginald Howell. He only ever refers to the group as the Canadian Collective - and in many circles the country-specific label has stuck. Whether Howell makes this connection because he knows that The Collective is rooted in Canadia, or whether his claims are a side effect of his unabashed bias against the country and Canadian Royal Enterprises, is a matter of public debate.
Military
T
he group is often characterized as a paramilitary organization. Weapons caches, believed to have been accumulated by The Collective, have been uncovered in numerous countries. And they're certainly known for violent actions. They've blown up many key pieces of Hegemony infrastructure and they have no qualms about causing civilian casualties to further their objectives.
I don't fear what The Collective can do with bombs and rifles. I fear what they can do with keyboards.
Anton Pająk, Polish government official
Hacking
However, many of The Collective's most successful strikes have not been violent in nature. They're known for conducting devastating cyberattacks. They're believed to be capable of sophisticated digital espionage. And they're not above hobbling the entire IT infrastructure of small and midsize companies - and even, governments - in the pursuit of lucrative ransoms. For this reason, some governments have classified the organization as more of a hacker group.
Trade & Transport
A
lthough The Collective has no legal tender of their own, they're known to have a strong preference for hard currency. If they are forced to conduct transactions in digital currency, they typically fall back to Bitcoin. Since one of the group's grievances is the establishment of the bizkit, and the extreme control that it has afforded to Hegemony International over many aspects of the world economy, members of The Collective will usually flat-out refuse to use the currency in any capacity.
Type
Secret, Brotherhood
Alternative Names
The Collective
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