The Collective

The Collective are an enigmatic and clandestine group devoted to furthering scientific discovery throughout the galaxy. It is unclear how well established the group is or how much influence it has throughout the galaxy's various spheres of influence, but a close analysis of scientific advancement across the past two thousand years would indicate that an outside source has played a role more than once. However, the Collective are careful to leave almost no hard evidence of their involvement.

Staff and Structure

Although agents of the Collective are a rare encounter, their organisation's very nature forces interaction with the rest of the galaxy. Although it is rare for them to actually mention who they represent, often citing that they represent an 'interested third party', the nature of their interest often implies who they are truly working for. Reports of these encounters suggest that a number of species work for the Collective in this role.

However, the overarching structure of the of the Collective remains somewhat unclear, with only a handful of clues gathered from Collective encounters pointing to its nature. While it seems the organisation does have a central headquarters, many Collective agents make a point of noting that its location is 'outwith civilised space'. Besides this central HQ, it is implied that the Collective maintains a number of underground labs and warehouses for its own personal research projects, as well as maintaining a pervasive network of moles and spies within the laboratories of both major corporations and galactic governments.

Although it is still unclear how the Collective provides the funding for all this, there are ideas. The most popular of which suggests that the Collective runs and maintains a number of legitimate 'front companies' to provide the required funding.

The rumour of a "Director", a head of the Collective has been hotly debated in conspiracy circles. These claims of leadership have gone so far as to accuse certain heads of state, several highly prestigious scientific researchers and even certain agency heads, such as the heads of the Confederate Office of Intelligence and Galactic Surveillance Agency.

Activities of the Collective

The Collective is an organisation with a singular yet extensive goal, scientific advancement. Given the vast nature of this task, even the Collective's own considerable resources are not enough. In addition to the organisation's own personal research, the Collective appears to monitor the research projects of factions and companies throughout the galaxy, providing covert funding and occasional assistance to projects which they deem to be of particular interest or importance.

There are many who believe the Collective to be responsible for far more illicit actions; often accusing the hidden entity for the suspicious death or disappearance of political figures with supposedly 'anti-science' agendas. If this is true, then Collective must maintain a network of extremely talented assassins, as there has been no evidence to incriminate an outside source in any of these cases even when foul play has been suspected.

The Collective and the Public

Most people in the galaxy aren't even aware of the existence of the Collective, having no reason to be familiar with it or its ideologies. Outside the academic community a few people may be familiar with the concept of the Collective, likely from information posted on the extranet. However it is likely that even if they themselves were to believe what they read about the shadowy organisation, others would simply view them as a conspiracy theorist.