Act of War: High Treason (abbreviated as AOW:HT) is an expansion pack for Act of War: Direct Action. It was developed by Eugen Systems and published by Atari. It was released in Europe on March 24, 2006 and in North America on May 30, 2006. Plot Act of War: High Treason takes place over the course of three days, three years after the events of Act of War: Direct Action. On the eve of the U.S. Presidential election, the two presidential candidates, Senator Watts and Vice President Joshua Cardiff are attacked. Task Force Talon intervenes and rescues both, but in the meantime, President Baldwin is assassinated. Thus, Vice President Cardiff becomes the new President of the United States. Later, Senator Watts disappears and is announced dead by officials. In the aftermath, several important government officials and U.S. Army personnel are arrested on conspiracy and assassination charges, but Colonel Whitemore, leader of the military unit in charge of Senator Watts is conveniently not questioned. Task Force Talon tries to meet him in Fort McCoy, Wisconsin, but the U.S. Army forces open fire on the task force units and they are branded as traitors. Task Force Talon tracks Whitemore's C-17 Globemaster transports carrying a shipment of USAMRIID biological barrels to Cancún, Mexico. The recipient is the Consortium, a highly advanced and well-funded shadowy military organization, which was assumed eradicated in the events of the previous game. The cargo contains X-357, a virus deadly to many animals, but harmless to humans. Task Force Talon commandeers a Consortium Visby-class corvette and pursues a trio of Consortium Typhoon-class submarines carrying the biological samples, one of which eludes them and reaches Cuba. After extended fighting alongside Cuban loyalists, Task Force Talon raids a Consortium hacienda in search of the last submarine and its payload. Although Task Force Talon does not find X-357, they find and liberate Senator Watts. Transferring him to a friendly U.S. naval base in the Bahamas, Watts exposes the Consortium and Cardiff as the conspirators on a live television show. The U.S. Navy defends the naval base against the Consortium onslaught until Watts finishes his speech and is evacuated to Washington D.C., where he testifies in the U.S. Congress. Meanwhile, X-357 is tracked to Cape Canaveral, where it is scheduled for launch into space via the Space Shuttle Liberty, where the Consortium can mutate it to infect human hosts. Task Force Talon fails