The Collaborators were an elite group that consisted of eight individuals who had significant political ties within the United States government. Serving as the heads of a shadow group inside the U.S., they also had connections with the AIC, a rogue intelligence faction inside the Central Intelligence Agency. Standing to benefit from orchestrating the hostage crisis in New York, the group managed to conceal their innermost workings. This was achieved through clandestinely coordinating efforts towards influencing power within the government in order to partially implement policy, sideline elected officials and eliminate opponents without regard for the state democratic processes. The identified members of the group are Henry Roarke, Alice Winter, Rebecca Sherman, Thomas Roth, Peter Theo, Warren Shepherd, Maxwell Fletcher, and Christian Kelly.
Hostage Crisis at the G-20 summit
Prior to the hostage crisis at the G-20 summit, First Lady Elaine Todd, conspired against the U.S. government and affiliated herself with the AIC. The rogue group received aid from The Collaborators to complete a certain mission; gaining access of drives, containing sensitive U.S intelligence. These drives had the potential to be used by certain groups to orchestrate terrorist attacks within the United States.
After the remaining AIC members were briefed about the details of their operation by the First Lady, they headed to the summit so that they could complete their mission. Nonetheless, their efforts were thwarted when the Citizens Liberation Front (CLF), another terrorist group, had secretly been investigating the AIC. As a result of gaining foresight into the AIC mission, the Citizens Liberation Front deemed that in order to eliminate the group, they needed a preemptive strategy; by orchestrating a hostage crisis at the 2018 G-20 summit in New York City.
Shortly after infiltrating the G-20 summit, the group took control of the New York financial district area by holding hostages in the Federal Hall and bringing explosives within the crisis zone. Later, President Todd managed to finalize a deal with the terrorist group, to spare the lives of the hostages at the summit in exchange for the release of an infamous person of interest and hacktivist named Eric Boyer. Moments after President Todd compiled to the orders of the CLF, the First Lady was murdered.
After the First Lady was publicly executed on national television, the terrorist group initiated multiple interrogation attempts to lure out AIC associates. After the group killed several AIC members, the remaining members posed as hostages and made their way out of the crisis zone.
Before the crisis ended, Lydia Hall downloaded the intelligence drives onto the Internet as part of a CIA black ops mission. As a result of her actions, she was incarcerated in a federal prison.
Aftermath
Two weeks after the 2018 Hostage Crisis ended, President Claire Haas first mentioned The Collaborators during a private meeting between a few CIA and FBI officials. She mentioned that the Collaborators needed to control eight key "pillars" to take over the country: Money (funding), Logistics (contacts), Ideology (political justification), Defense (field operations), Law (legal counsel), Technology (piracy and surveillance), Media (mass influence) and Government (political support). The President highlighted that the shadow group, which aided the AIC, was directly or indirectly involved with the 2018 Hostage Crisis. As a result of Lydia's actions during the crisis, the group gained access to sensitive U.S intelligence. This information was vital to their goal of controlling certain areas within the government. As a response, President Haas and CIA director Matthew Keyes assembled a covert task force to remove the remaining threats that The Collaborators posed to the public at the time. The primary mission of the task force was to uncover the conspiracy behind the nefarious agenda of group and expose the identities of their members. Members of the task force included Alex Parrish, Ryan Booth, Nimah Amin, Dayana Mampasi, Shelby Wyatt, Harry Doyle and Owen Hall. The group was commanded by Clay Haas who is a renowned political advisory strategist.
Unmasking The Collaborators
After the first four collaborators (Christian Kelly, Henry Roarke, Rebecca Sherman, Thomas Roth) were revealed, the task force convinced Rebecca Sherman to switch sides. She then contacted Thomas Roth and attempted to expose the identities of the remaining members of The Collaborators. However, it was later revealed that Rebecca and Thomas were unable to provide the necessary information to the team as they were killed by unknown snipers connected to the shadow group. However, with the help of research conducted by CIA case officer Sebastian Chen, the group uncovered the identities of the four remaining members of The Collaborators.
The Final Game
During a mission, the task force organized a party for Maxine Griffin and Clay Haas, in an attempt to confront and expose the agenda of The Collaborators. Although the task force are initially successful in blackmailing Alice Winter, they recruit Alex Parrish who provides them the necessary intelligence on Claire's role in setting up the unsanctioned covert task force. As a result, the group leaks the information to the public, putting the presidency of Claire Haas at risk. Later, the task force was permanently disbanded after Claire resigned from her presidency. Shortly after, Henry Roarke succeeded in being appointed as the President of the United States. Some time later, Alex uses Alice to prevent another terrorist attack carried out by the shadow group. As a result of her failure in the operation, Winter was presumably murdered by unknown assailants connected to Roarke.
Months after Roarke's inauguration, the members of the former task force convene prior to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. Resorting to a final strategy, Alex Parrish attempts to expose Roarke as a traitor to the United States as a result of his affiliation towards the shadow group.
On the day of the Convention, Alex headed into a court room and publicized highly classified intelligence on Roarke's involvement with the Federal Security Service to amend the United States Constitution. Then, she was shot by someone who was part of a plan for Alex to flee the United States. Furious, Roarke committed suicide while Alex fled from the authorities as a result of being issued a Red Notice by INTERPOL. As of the end of RESISTANCE, it is unknown if the remaining members of The Collaborators were arrested or have fled the country.
Members
The collaborators all fall under one of the key eight “pillars” of a terrorist act to gain control and influence. To take over the country, each Collaborator was related to a specific "pillar":
- Government: Henry Roarke, Speaker of the House
- Logistics: Rebecca Sherman, famous socialite from New York
- Defense: Alice Winter, CEO of Greypool Security
- Law: Thomas Roth, influent lawyer who use trials to ruin opponents of the Collaborators
- Technology: Peter Theo, contractor specialized in Cybertechnologies
- Ideology: Maxwell Fletcher
- Money: Christian Kelly, independent investor
- Media: Warren Shepperd, media magnate