Juggernaut Collective

The Juggernaut Collective is a global hacktivist group dedicated to exposing and fighting corruption. They target the Illuminati in particular, who are often responsible for this corruption. The organization is led by the mysterious hacker known as Janus.

Background
The Juggernaut Collective originated in the early when a hacker named "Eli" posted a call-to-arms message on the Darknet inviting those "dis-elushuned with the stranglhold 1 purcentors have on R world" to join him in attacking, exposing, and "spoiling their plots."

The group made its debut on the hacker scene in 2025. During an event sponsored by Page Industries, they hijacked "atmospheric processors" used by a weather artist in Paris, thus trashing the event. Since this brash debut, the Collective has made its way onto the NSA's most wanted list.

Around the same time, "Eli" was replaced on-line by a new nom-de-plume: "Janus".

Under Janus' leadership, the Collective has become increasingly effective. They were responsible for bankrupting two Fortune 500 companies, crashing the Syrian intelligence agency's mainframe and bringing the Seattle traffic grid to a standstill. They have ties with the New Sons of Freedom and help the NSF to avoid drawing the attention of the world's intelligence agencies. In return, the NSF provide personnel for ground operations.

Activities Against the Illuminati
Under the leadership of Janus, the Collective has become a formidable adversary to the Illuminati.

In 2027, the Collective succeeds in hacking into the Killing Floor, a computer system used by the Illuminati to give orders to the Tyrants. From the Killing Floor, the Collective uncovers the Illuminati's plans to assassinate Bill Taggart, leader of anti-augmentation activist group Humanity Front, in Switzerland. The assassination, if successful, would make Taggart a martyr for his cause and push for a UN vote on augmentation regulation. A group composed of Collective and NSF members travel to Switzerland and thrwarts the assassination. However, the Collective is damaged after one of their members, D-Bar, betrays them, resulting in the loss of several members of the joint Collective and NSF effort.

In 2028, the Collective leaks incriminating details about Rifleman Bank Station, a black site facility owned by the Illuminati-affiliated Belltower Associates used for the creation of Hyron drones. The leak was the culmination of Juggernaut member Garvin Quinn's investigation of the facility. As a result of the leak, Belltower goes bankrupt, forcing the Illuminati to seek other operatives to carry out many of their ground operations.

Later in 2028, the Collective recruit Adam Jensen with the intention of deploying him to investigate Task Force 29's Prague division, after Janus and the Collective had realized that the task force has been compromised by the Illuminati. By 2029, Jensen has joined the TF29 unit in Prague. However, it appears that the Illuminati purposely allowed this to happen, given that it was Joseph Manderley, the director of TF29 and an Illuminati member, who signed Jensen into the unit.

The Illuminati's Response
Shortly the Collective's mission in Switzerland, which ended with new Juggernaut recruits Ben Saxon and Anna Kelso seemingly missing, Illuminati leader Lucius DeBeers declares that the Collective has been dismantled and that Janus is an insignificant matter.

One year later, DeBeers admits to Beth DuClare that he had declared victory too soon. DeBeers has also come to realize that the Collective's actions are the workings of Janus, whom DeBeers acknowledges to be an uncommon foe. DuClare tells DeBeers that she has formulated a plan of action to deal with the Juggernaut Collective, namely engaging in a "subtle and lengthy game" to get close to their leader Janus. undefinedIn the mid-credits scene of Mankind Divided, it is revealed that the Illuminati's plan is to use Adam Jensen to get close to and uncover Janus.

Organizational Structure
The Juggernaut Collective appears to lack a formal hierarchy or chain of command. According to Garvin Quinn, the Collective is a collaborative effort working together to oppose the same forces. Although Janus is generally regarded as the leader by outside observers, Quinn prefers to characterize Janus' role as someone whose voice carries "a little more weight" than those of the others.

According to Quinn, the Collective's decisions get made by the whole, not by one person. However, in view of the practical difficulties in congregating safely, this characterization likely applies only to the most significant decisions for the group. In Black Light, Janus holds a virtual meeting with other Collective members to discuss the recruitment of Adam Jensen, but the length of the meeting is limited due to the necessity of avoiding detection.

Members
As a group concerned with anonymity, the members of the Juggernaut Collective are naturally not publicly known. Apart from their leader, Janus, hackers of the organization include hackers D-Bar and Garvin Quinn. Other hackers of the group include SWellingTOWN and MKOFF, who, along with Janus, are listed in a report of top hackers at large who pose a threat to the Palisade Bank Corporation's data archiving operations.

Although the Collective originally began as a group of hackers, the Collective have recruited members with a diverse range of abilities and resources, including Russian federal assembly minister Mikhail Kontarsky, NSF investor Juan Ivanovich Lebedev, and augmented field agents Ben Saxon, Anna Kelso, and Adam Jensen. The recruitment of Saxon, Kelso, and Jensen prove the Collective with significant capabilities in ground operations. Saxon helps to recruit Alex Vega, a pilot who subsequently acts as a go-between for Janus and Adam Jensen.

Trivia

 * The group shares many traits with the real life hacktivist group, Anonymous, such as anonymity and the use of aliases, a sense of righteousness and the aim to expose corruption.