- You are fooling yourself, Captain. Nothing here is what it seems. You are not the plucky hero, the Alliance is not an evil empire, and this is not the grand arena.
- —The Operative, Serenity
Unification: When the Alliance Government of the Fireflyverse defeated the Independents and took control of all the planets in the system, bringing them under one unified rule.
Although Unification was violently opposed by many, including Firefly's Mal Reynolds, it is important to remember, as the Operative says, that the Alliance is not intrinsically evil, and that Unification brought a good many benefits to residents of the outer planets, at least technically. It would probably, however, be a good idea not to voice this opinion around Agent Gypsy...