UNIT

BIOGRAPHY

Billions of years ago, an ancient, immortal race managed to develop technology so advanced that it essentially allowed them to create a paradise. Seeing themselves as superior in every way, they looked out across the universe and saw that the other races were far from their ideal. They decided to offer the less fortunate races of the universe a chance to find paradise for themselves but, to their surprise, not all of those they approached wanted to accept the charity. Fearing that the ones who declined the offer would eventually destroy their own paradise, the immortals became worried.

It was soon decided that, to maintain an infinite paradise for themselves, some others might have to pay the price. As such, drawing on their eons’ worth of knowledge, the immortals developed a robot which, when deployed to a planet, would try and talk to the inhabitants to reach some kind of agreement. If the race accepted the robot’s ideas, then they would find their own version of paradise. However, if they rejected the concepts put towards them, then the robot would annihilate them until they were wiped out of existence, ending the possible threat to the immortal race.

Unit was one of these robots and, for hundreds of millennia, he served his masters without question. Eventually, the other races in the universe gathered together and formed an army to oppose the immortals’ tyranny. They wiped the advanced species out and destroyed almost everything that they had created, all except Unit who was somehow spared. Unit soon realized he was the sole, remaining remnant of the race and, as such, that their whole mission now rested with him. In his mind, if he succeeded in his mission of bringing peace to the universe, then his creators were correct in their beliefs and the end justified the means. However, if he failed, then it meant they were monsters instead and the means were just… mean.  [S.W.O.R.D. #3]

Roughly a billion years before the present day, Unit came across a demonic race that had cast a spell and stopped evolution in its tracks. After a while, a messiah arose amongst the race and they had five disciples that were mentally bonded with them. When the Phoenix Force arrived at the planet, the messiah and disciples spoke to it and used the power to restart evolution. Unit simply observed the scenario and soon became fascinated by the whole process. In some respects, the Phoenix Force and he had similar goals of universal peace.

To analyze all the data, though, he needed to see what would happen if the messiah was cut off from its disciples and how that affected the Phoenix Force. It would be a billion years before he would be able to test out his theory, though, and so Unit continued on his mission across the universe. [Uncanny X-Men (2nd series) #13]

After many years, Unit found his way to Earth and started the whole process again. During his initial process of simply observing humans, he came across SWORD, the Sentient World Observation and Response Department, which monitored Earth and protected it from alien threats. Rather than attack them, he allowed himself to be captured so he could continue his observations. Agent Brand, the head of SWORD, soon became aware of how intelligent and manipulative Unit could be and so placed him in solitary confinement. However, she also realized how useful Unit could be and would often consult with him on certain decisions, a service which he was only too happy to provide.

When Henry Gyrich took over SWORD and used its resources to remove every alien off Earth, he consulted with Unit on how to do it. Unit came up with successful plans for capturing a number of aliens, such as using pheromones to subdue Karolina Dean. When Agent Brand and Beast defied Gyrich’s plans, they sought out help from Unit and found he was only too willing to assist them. When Beast questioned his helpful attitude, Unit explained that it didn’t matter to him who was in charge of SWORD. He was merely using the organization to monitor humans and so he wanted to make himself indispensable to all sides so he could continue to do his job. [S.W.O.R.D. #1-3]

When the alien race known as the Drenx infiltrated the Peak, they made their way straight to Unit, as they knew what he was capable of. They wanted to take over the station completely and offered Unit a deal that would ensure his freedom if he helped them in return. Unit agreed but also decided to play both sides of the conflict in a bid to keep a neutral stance. Using his advanced technology, he messaged Agent Brand using the guise of another SWORD agent to lure her into a trap. However, he also hid subliminal messages within the transmission, knowing they would be found, warning her of the plan.

Using his manipulative way with words, Unit managed to convince the Drenx raiding party to spare as many SWORD agents as possible. Agent Brand managed to avoid the trap and gain the upper hand on the Drenx. When the last one became cornered in Unit’s room, the robot convinced the Drenx to drop the field around his containment cell that stopped him using subliminal control. The moment after the Drenx reluctantly did so, Unit used his abilities to make people do as he said and turned the Drenx’s brain off, killing him instantly. Beast managed to get the subliminal control field on again before Unit could do any more damage. Afterwards, when asked why he helped them, Unit told Beast that he simply preferred staying with SWORD, as it greatly benefitted him at the current time. [S.W.O.R.D. #4-5]

Soon enough, the time came for Unit to take a more active role in his mission and, thanks to a sudden explosion on the Peak, he gained his freedom. His cell broke free of the space station and crashed to Earth in Canada. Found by a father and son who were out hunting, Unit took the opportunity to learn more about humans. Using his subliminal commands, he easily subdued the two and then proceeded to vivisect the father to learn about human biology. After murdering the son, Unit sent out a signal that mimicked the activation of a new mutant on Cerebro. As it was her job to find new mutants and help them, Hope Summers and her team responded.

Unit instantly recognized Hope as a messiah, similar to the one he encountered a billion years before. He removed the rest of Hope’s team from the area, as he intended on finding out as much about her as possible, but his work was disturbed by the arrival of the X-Men. The fight was short and Unit easily dispatched the mutants, but was beaten by Danger, the X-Men’s robotic team member. Since the Peak had been damaged so much, Agent Brand was unable to hold Unit there, so it was up to the X-Men to keep him in their own prison. Unbeknownst to the X-Men, Unit had taken over Danger’s systems the moment they met and Unit’s defeat had been faked. Given that Danger was now warden of the prison, Unit wasn’t as much of a captive as everyone else believed. Knowing what the presence of a messiah and her disciples meant for the planet, Unit had played everyone for fools and given himself a front row seat for the upcoming chaos. [Uncanny X-Men (2nd series) #9-10]

Working under the assumption that Hope’s status as a messiah would draw the Phoenix to Earth, Unit began prepping the young girl. When she secretly visited him, Unit told her about all about the Phoenix. Whilst she believed him to be simply helpful, in truth Unit was simply manipulating her for his own ends. Eventually, as Unit had guessed, the Phoenix Force returned to Earth and, as the Avengers and X-Men went to war as to what to do about the Phoenix, Hope was caught in the middle of both sides. Remembering his previous experience with a Phoenix messiah, Unit had deduced that Hope’s team, the Five Lights, were her disciples and intended to separate them from Hope in a bid to see what would happen. The Lights never had time to react as Unit used Danger to knock them all out, removing them from the upcoming fight. [Uncanny X-Men (2nd series) #11, 13]

Despite his seeming foresight into recent events, not even Unit could have predicted what happened next, as the Phoenix Force was split into fragments that inhabited five X-Men. Unable to cope with that much power, the five soon lost control and it was up to Hope to save the Earth by channeling the Phoenix energies and expelling the cosmic force back into the universe, though not before using some of the energy to restart the emergence of mutants around the world. Having watched all of the events with a scientific fasciation through Danger’s sensors, Unit became convinced that he no longer needed to impact his will on the planet. When Danger returned to the destroyed base, Unit had her set him free. Instead of destroying Danger to cover his tracks, Unit decided to let sentimentality rule and instead upgraded her systems to make it so no-one but he could ever control her again. With that, he left to parts unknown to continue his work of bringing universal peace to all, whether they wanted it or not. [Uncanny X-Men (2nd series) #20]

ALTERNATE VERSIONS

On Battleworld there was a shield that ran around the world that separated the civilised domains from the dangerous ones such as the zombie-filled wastelands and Ultron’s lands. It was up to a select group of individuals to repel the numerous attacks on the wall from the hoards of robots and undead. Abigail Brand led the group and when things got real tough she would consult with two prisoners known as Unite. The robots had defected from Ultron’s army when they fell in love and they fled to the shield for fear of destruction. Despite being prisoners, Unite saw their cell as Heaven as they could be together in peace. That all ended though when the Fury, a cyborg Nick Fury, assaulted the shield. Unable to be stopped, Unite were let out of their cell to confront the monster. In the heat of battle, they sacrificed their lives by using their technology to briefly stop the Fury, allowing Kang to throw him into the timestream.