The Great Union of the Fourth Turning Republics,[1] also known as the Union of the Fourth, and often referred to simply as The Union, is the primary antagonist group of gen:LOCK. After an era of uneasy peace with its political rival, the Polity, the Union initiated the Global Culture War by attacking New York City, thus beginning its hostile expansion across North America, and later, other continents.
Overview
Politics and Culture
Much about the Union's government and structure remains unclear for now. However, advertisements and episode summaries have suggested that the Union is a monocultural dictatorship that is, judging by its name, heavily influenced by Fourth Turning theory, and thus likely subscribes to an ideology steeped in collectivism.
Despite access to advanced technology and machinery, the Union has been described as incapable of innovation and heavily dependent on stealing technology from its rivals. It does, however, hold an acknowledged superiority in electronic warfare over the Polity which would seem to contradict this characterization to some degree at least. Similarly, it is implied that the Union has a major advantage in naval forces over most if not all of its enemies. The Union holds a high interest in hunting down and rounding up Polity scientists and engineers, along with their technology, and other "intellectuals" they perceive as a threat.
Geography
Compared to the Polity, the Union is seemingly much more scattered, its occupied areas almost random in their placement with a single clear point of origin, with some major territories thousands of miles apart. Union-controlled areas also seem to bleed over quite a bit; they do not have clear national boundaries like the Polity does, suggesting the Union is more of a grassroots movement.
World map of 2072, with the Union marked in red
The Union's largest areas of control appear to be in southern and western Africa, South America and eastern North America, with a significant presence in parts of Egypt, Europe and Southeast Asia. Minor territories also exist in the Far East and Oceania.
It is also noteworthy that the Union seems to control all four most important maritime traffic choke-points - Gibraltar, the Suez Canal, the Strait of Malacca and the Panama Canal. Such positions allow the Union to fully control maritime trade and may explain how its economy manages to stand against the Polity.
Military
Despite controlling a relatively small percent of world's resources and population, the Union manages to maintain quite an effective military, easily capable of rivaling the Polity's main military branch, the Vanguard. The Union military relies on their significant technological superiority over the Vanguard, and numerous unorthodox solutions, like weaponized Nanotech, Spider Tanks and massive Behemoths. Despite this, their average technology often seems to be somewhat inferior to the Vanguard analogues (although this may be down to logistical or economic considerations rather than to their tech base). They are, however, known for their proficiency in electronic warfare, such as the hacking of enemy robots and other weapons systems present in the field.
Their general doctrine, according to Yasamin Madrani, follows the idea of a war of attrition. They tend to expand slowly, pushing their opponent back by the constant series of small-scale skirmishes, while avoiding decisive - and thus risky - actions, if possible. Despite this, the Union military is willing to commit significant resources to large-scale operations, if the situation benefits this. It seems that the Union command is especially concerned about maintaining the technological superiority over enemies, launching significant efforts to capture and study the potential game-changing technology, such as gen:LOCK.
The Union military generally follows "organic", streamlined designs for their vehicles and equipment. Their uniforms and machinery use a universal black and charcoal gray color scheme, with either crimson or pale yellow markers.
Aircraft
- Union Fighter - Air superiority fighter.
- Union Drone - Versatile, unmanned aerial craft.
- Unnamed heavy transport aircraft - Heavy assault transport normally used to ferry vehicles.
- Unnamed infiltration aircraft - Transports that carry troops and drones to breach enemy installations, latching onto the walls and drilling entrances into them.
Land Vehicles
- Spider Tank - Hexapedal, armored, heavy fire-support mech.
- Holon - Captured gen:LOCK technology.
- Behemoth - Massive, hexapedal mechs that serve as mobile fortresses. Capable of transporting entire armies and dispensing Nanotech onto the battlefield.
- Unnamed turreted six-wheeled APC - Fast armored transport.
Weapons of Mass Destruction
- Nanotech - Minuscule robots deployed to selectively destroy targets and form complex actions such as constituting physical obstructions. Usually utilized in large swarms, though smaller clusters were also known to be used in covert operations and the like, as well as for other specialized tasks.
Known Members
Military
- Rob Sinclair's Impersonator † - Union spy who was assigned to infiltrate the ESU on The Anvil by assuming Rob Sinclair's identity. Died while attempting to undergo gen:LOCK in a failed attempt to steal a Holon.
- Yasamin Madrani (formerly) - Served the Union as a pilot, possibly under a disguised alias. Defected from the Union and sought asylum in the Polity after realizing she had turned her parents over to them. Currently serves as a participant in the gen:LOCK program.
- Nemesis - Ex-Polity Holon that was captured by Union forces during a skirmish in New York, along with the original digitized mind of Julian Chase trapped within. During the original Chase's descent into insanity, the Union promised him that they would find a way to return him to his human body in exchange for continued service in the war. Killed in Chicago by the Gen:LOCK team, however multiple copies are known to exist.
Trivia
- The Union's full name is a reference to the Strauss–Howe generational theory, also known as the Fourth Turning Theory. The theory states that society moves in a repeating "saeculum" or cycle made up of four parts known as "Turnings"; High, Awakening, Unraveling and Crisis. Crisis, the Fourth Turning, is an era of destruction, often involving war or revolution, in which institutional life is destroyed and rebuilt in response to a perceived threat to the nation's survival. After the crisis, civic authority revives, cultural expression redirects towards community purpose and people begin to locate themselves as members of a larger group.
- On the 18th of January, 2019, the Union briefly took control of the official Rooster Teeth twitter account to spread propaganda, some of which is featured in the show itself.