The Collectors

**The Collectors** are an alien race and antagonist in the story of GTFO. Despite their importance, they are only briefly mentioned, and never directly encountered, throughout the rundowns.

## Plot

**The Collectors** are an alien race capable of both space and inter-dimensional travel. Their ship crashed on Earth roughly 65 million years ago, creating the Chicxulub crater that was later mistaken by humanity as having been created by a meteor. The reason for the crash is unknown.

The ship, the specimens and artefacts within, were discovered during Santonian's mining operations within the crater, in an area named "The Inner." Exploration into the ship, together with lax quarantine procedure, would eventually expose humanity to NAM-V and the parasite.

The Collectors would attempt to contact humanity via the "Conduits", but may have attempted contact prior to the outbreak of NAM-V by hijacking Biocom to pass messages through the KSO objective stack. The Collectors are responsible for and directly control The Warden, and after the fall, all KSOs within Garganta.

### Motivation

It is understood that The Collectors' ship was a kind of intergalactic, or inter-dimensional, zoo or sanctuary. The motivation for this collection is unknown, given that there are only a few logs relating to the Collectors, but it is implied that either:

1. **The Collectors are intentionally collecting the virus**, and that their "collection" is a membrane or planet where the only life remaining is that of the virus. In this interpretation, it is unclear why The Collectors would assist the prisoners but also prevent further spread of the virus. It is possible that the prisoner's had become a hindrance to their objective, and cooperation was easier. Or similarly, because the prisoners were able to spread the virus throughout other membranes during their expeditions.
2. **The Collectors are collecting creatures and caught the virus by accident** — either through taking aboard an infected creature, the parasite, or some other means. In this interpretation. The Collectors had likely encountered the virus previously, are aware of its danger, and assist the prisoners as means to help preserve life.

The first interpretation is primarily supported by the dialogue of the Conduit:

> "We travel, We collect. Through the membranes. We collect the virus. The Collection is impure."
>
>

However, as all of the Conduit's dialogue is without tense, it is also possible to interpret the same statement as:

> "We travel, We collect. Through the membranes. We [collected] the virus. The Collection is [now] impure."
>
>

In both interpretations, the near-immortality of the virus and parasite symbiosis would conceivably allow the virus to survive in the crashed ship until its discovered millions of years later.

### The Conduits

The **Conduit** were clones, individually known as a **Unit**, created by The Collectors, utilizing the cloning facilities of the failed Rise program, with the purpose of communicating with humanity. Many clones were created and killed by sleepers and KSO during this process.

In the original timeline, Schaeffer kills a Unit, believing it to be a sleeper and otherwise does not learn about The Collectors or the purpose of the Conduit. However, in the alternate timeline, Schaeffer converses with a Unit, learning about The Collectors and devising a new plan for escape.

The prisoners were directed by The Warden to help to create the clones over multiple rundowns.[*which?*]

## Notes

* Until its name was revealed, the "Units" were referred to as "Mimics."
* The term "clone" is not strictly accurate, as the Rise program didn't create genetic duplicates of existing people. Rather, the Rise program attempted to genetically modify "seeds," with the goal of growing operatives from infancy to adulthood with specific abilities and fit for specific uses and environments, etc.

## References

1. ↑ MAH-HS-666.LOG and NNT-453Y.
2. ↑ NNT-453Y
3. ↑ NNT-453Y
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 [ALT://Rundown 6.0 Logs#8AA-FEE-EDD 8AA-FEE-EDD]
5. ↑ EBDT-44-WSX.LOG in the original worldline. 4AK-KPG-6BE and CVB-SK5-F71 in the alternate worldline.
6. ↑ 8AA-FEE-EDD
7. ↑ A1 Voiceover #2 (R8); QSW-EQW-S99 in Rundown 7.0; and the same log in Rundown 8.0
8. ↑ See Rundown 8.0 and EF01
9. ↑ 834-786-872
10. ↑ 60F-056-HNK
11. ↑ PUT-THX-3DX and FFW-HYY-6FL
12. ↑ 8AA-FEE-EDD
13. ↑ Y6T-UH7-811 and FFW-HYY-6FL
14. ↑ SC3-3BF-03 and Schaeffer message (R6CX)
15. ↑ ALT\_R6D1\_Schaeffer\_Message
16. ↑ 8AA-FEE-EDD