Salum Secundus Strike

The Salum Secundus Strike (or SSS for short), also known as the Salum II Massacre, was a 3052 worker's rebellion (defined as a contract-breaching insubordination by the employers) in the Federated Suns. The supression of this rebellion was a milestone in the Unrecognizable Conflict, where the killed workers were remembered as martyrs by the Justice Movement and spurred futher uprisings.

It was also instrumental in kick-starting the development of the Heatclaw after the Industrial Heated Claw proved to be an able improvised weapon against light securitymechs.

Background
After the Battle of Tukayyid effectively stopped the immediate threat of a complete sucess of the Clan invasion against the IS, workers across the Inner Sphere commonly demanded a return to pre-invasion working conditions, hours and salaries. The companies involved were reticent to lose their newfound profits of the war, and argued that the war wasn't even over yet. Very few companies conceded anything at all and usually only the smaller ones. Large companies engaged in supression of complaints and eventually resorted to mass firings of the "troublemakers". At the Salum Secundus moon Janus Metalworks, a whooping 25% of the employees were fired and expected to be transported off world. However, the rest of the employees sided with them and demanded their immediate reincorporation as well as stating they would not go back to work until these and other demands were met (nominally reducing the working hours and equipping all industrialmechs and vehicles in use with enviromental sealing due to the atmosphere outside the installation being incredibly thin, which had costed four lives last year alone).

Open conflict
The local security operatives were powerless to stop the uprising - being outnumbered as they were and caught outside their meager and badly mantained securitymechs, they were easily 'arrested' and surrendered. Those that didn't join the uprising were sent off in a dropship to return to their families in the nearby planet Zignon Primus.

Hearing Janus Metalworks Executive Board unanimous refusal to their demands and threaten retribution with 100% firings made the workers trench up in the factory complex, armoring the doors. The company jammed communications to and from the industrial station, which had equippement only authorized to contact other company communicators. They were alone in hundreds of kilometers of inhospitable radius.

Seeing their forces were only local and insufficient, and not wishing to take direct responsibility for any bloodletting, New Pinkerton Contracts was brought in to put a rapid end to the usurpers. This was against the advice of some of the experts consulted, that said the insubordination could not last long due to the limited food supplies present on-site, which required constant resupplying by company freighters. The Board, however, on the one hand didn't want to lose any more time of "precious production and profit", and on the other wanted to send a message to their employees in other sites that insubordination would not be tolerated - even in time.

''Our employees must know at any time whom is the master and whom the servant. This is a feudal society and we are going to show so it remains, war or not. As far as they concern, we are their Lords and not the Davions. They are not workers, they are our serfs.'' [b]- Melina Salinger, board member and Head of Human Resources[/b], arguing for a fast and decisive intervention.

Pre-combat
Going by the knowledge that the mutinees didn't have armed vehicles or battlemechs on site, New Pinkerton Contracts was certain that the resistance could only be moderate at best, and even hoped that the strikers would surrender when their site was surrounded. They brought in mobile, light SecurityMechs which abided by the SecurityMech Treaty of 2613 as "non-corporate" units. This allowed them to both save face and money, as these light 'mechs costed less to transport.

Ballistic weapons were chosen based on the intimidation factor, as they were also the cheapest and more commonly available. In fact, it was the mercenaries's policy to use almost exclusively ballistic weapons, which -to abide by the treaty- were always quite light, but nontheless lethal enough if so required. As they had to came from outside the installations, ironically there was a premium for the operation because the securitymechs needed to be modified with enviromental sealing.

The contract specified there was to be "minumum but exemplary carnage" if combat was engaged.

Tactical analysis
Almost every decision that the Pinkertons made was wrong. First off, the workers didn't relent against the surrounding enemies, shut in as they were inside the factory (even as they were promised "not to be treated as criminals" if they surrendered). Secondly, some Medium Lasers had been fit from industrial cutting units into emplacements that could point outside, lethally breaching the sealing of some securitymechs when the assault began.

The factory was too well sealed, as being a metal-working plant taken by their employees, they had welded metal plates into every possible entrance. The authorization codes provided to the mercenaries by the company board were useless, even in actionating energency exits, which gave the mutinees plenty of opportunities to fire from some dedicated ports they had concocted. When illegal dropship mounted weapons finally broke the factory seal, the remaining Pinkerton forces faced the operators in their Industrialmechs, including some quite new ABR-022 equipped with Industrial Heated Claws. The fact that these were given full Heavy Industrial armor, even originally, by their manufacturer Kraftwerk Mekatroniks didn't help the assault at all. In fact, this was due to Kraftwerk Mekatroniks buying the armor for their Arbeiter line from its wholly owned subsidiary MetalKraft. The Arbeiters were basically immune to Machinegun fire, but, in turn, had power enough to rip the light SecurityMechs to shreds if they reached them - which wasn't exactly hard in a closed quarters fight. In all, a whooping 11 of the 24 SecurityMechs were destroyed before the day was over, with 9 of their pilots killed. The Pinkerton pilots however refused to stop even as the battle was over, not hearing the calls of surrender because they were frustrated with the outcome and their dead friends and associates. Over 300 company employees were massacred in the ensuing carnage, including many which hadn't participated in combat, and others that were fighting on foot with which non-lethal force could have been applied. The few remaning employees were captured.

The Industrial Heated Claw was specially effective against most Pinkerton Contracts securitymechs since they had overwhelmingly ballistic-based weapons that didn't generate significant heat - as a result, they used ICE engines with a minimum of Heat Sinks, rendering them an easy target for shutdowns. At the same time, they mounted Commercial armor, which was specially vulnerable to a Cutting attack due to having a BAR rating of just 5 compared to the common 10.

Muffling
The company knew the operation was a disaster for the mercenaries, yet it still was a success strategically since they didn't have to cover the Pinkerton's losses. However, they were extremely worried about the PR fallout that would ensue. Knowing the Pinkerton commander, Sean Wallace, was seriously embarrassed by the ordeal and that his reputation and aspirations would be ruined, they struck a "mutually beneficial deal" upon which all of the remaining witnesses would be killed (theogh most of the few wives and children present on-site would be "reallocated" to Pinkerton pilots who would ensure their silence). In this way, word of the massacre didn't have to get out, and also his tactical failure would be a private secret with his fellow pilots. The site being jammed the whole time ensured none of the workers present could have communicated with the outside work. Thus an accidental infamy became a silent crime.

News out
Two of the pilots, however, eventually coudn't sop their consciousness from surfacing and anonymously relayed videotapings of the event in early 3053, which spread throught the HPG network and spurred the full-on beggining of the Unrecognizable Conflict. One of the pilots was Michael Quickmann, who married one of the survivors and adopted their son to save them, and another was Julius Klein. Julius Klein would eventually join the Justice Movement while Michael would align with the Fairness Initiative.

Fallout and consequences
The fallout marked the firing of commander Sean Wallace from the Pinkertons though he was sheltered from harsher criminal repercussions when he was sheltered by the new Silent Pact. He would go on to work in the secret military of the nascent Consortium, the Gray Corps.

Janus Metalworks lost market capitalization rapidly and high level employees deserted it en masse. Ironically enough, seeing the company was on its death throes, workers seized numerous other factories which would lead to the disintegration of the corporation as a whole. Two of the seized sites would be confirmed as worker-ran cooperatives, Vengeance Cutters and Lightsolder Workers. Dark Moon Mining briefly seemed going for this route, but was hostilely taken over by Presbyter Alloys, which was confirmed by Federated Commonwealth authorities. There was a sucessful repression handed by FedCom forces themselves.

The CEO John Carrey was the only corporate executive pressed for criminal charges for the Salum II Massacre, yet he "disappeared" from the radar of the authorities (many believe bribery was involved) and ran for the Periphery. The company board itself wasn't ever prosecuted, since it was determined the initial contract was legal as it "technically" specified there should be the "Minimal" amount of carnage. Melina Salinger was delighted, increased her corporate status employed by other companies despite the public hatred by Justice sympathizers, and would go on to become a key member of the Consortium.