The Union (gen:LOCK)

The Great Union of the Fourth Turning Republics, also known simply as The Union of the Fourth or The Union, is the main antagonistic organization of the Rooster Teeth animated webseries gen:LOCK. They are a hegemonic terrorist force bent on eradicating their political rival, the Polity.

Past
The Union started as an opposing culture to the primary one, the Polity, with different political ideals and systems in place. Though conflict existed between the two cultures, an uneasy peace was eventually reached, though the Union continued to spread propaganda across Polity territory.

Season 1
Tensions continued to rise between the two cultures until the year 2068, when the Union suddenly and unexpectedly declared war on the Polity by launching an attack on New York City, a safe zone, by releasing nanomachines that sought out and killed organic matter, including people. The Union unleashed their forces into the city, gunning down any civilians without Union identification. The Vanguard, the Polity's military force, was forced to intervene, but the Union fired missiles at their air units and attacked their ground units with war machines and nanomachines, even hacking into Polity robots and forcing them to turn on the Vanguard, killing many soldiers. When pilot Frazzle attempted to use her ESD Pulse Rifle to eradicate the nanomachines, the Union's guns seemed to recognize the energy and fire at it, destroying her aircraft and killing her. In a desperate attempt to buy time for civilian and soldier evacuation, pilot Julian Chase used his ESD to destroy all the naonmachines, but was targeted by the Union guns and went down. The Vanguard was forced to retreat, with New York City falling under the Union's control.

Over the next four years, the Union continued its hostile takeover until it had conquered the entire eastern half of the United States. Around that time, the Polity began working with the Experimental Science Unit on a mech program. When the Vangaurd was sent out to rescue refugees from the border, they were ambushed by the Union. However, in a turn of events, they were unexpectedly saved by the ESU's mechs and their pilots.

Trivia

 * On January 18, 2019, as promotion for the series' premiere, the Rooster Teeth Titter account was briefly taken over by the Union, posting propaganda and censoring anti-Union tweets.