Second Saturn Crisis

The Second Saturn Crisis was a series of small conflicts that occurred around the Saturn system, principally on the moons of Mimas, Titan and Iapetus.

Background

After the ratification of the Treaty of Saturn, the U.N had limited colonization rights to the three Saturn satellites it had already settled. Lacking the shipping and industry to sponsor state colonies in the sector, the U.N was dependent on the British Petroleum megacorporation to maintain the mining outposts. From 2027 to 2030, BP rapidly expanded its operations in the sector, which in turn lead to a massive boom in population - Iapetus alone hosted a population of nearly three hundred thousand BP employees and other UN-affiliated civilians.

However, two key problems quickly emerged as a result of BP's rapid colonial growth. Living conditions were incredibly uncomfortable for the workers of the colony, and the difficulty of exercising U.N oversight (except on Titan) effectively left BP in sole control of the UN Saturnian mines.

Poor Conditions

On November 17th, 2030, after another round of Iapetus expansions, the first grumblings of the workers in the Saturn sector were heard. With the announcement that more workers would be shipped to the cramped Iapetus and Mimas facilities, several small groups of miners gathered together and began to draft a list of complaints to the management of BP. The small movement saw significant growth, when less then twenty days later, BP announced another, even larger expansion of Iapetus, further exacerbating the overpopulation problem.

As a response to criticism of over population, BP announced on December 27th that it would expand living facilities on Mimas. Several labor leaders from the BP colonies made a televised response, pleading for civilian administrators to oversee the BP executives on Mimas and Iapetus. They claimed that the garrison battalions, despite nominally being under the command of UNGF officers, were in the pockets of the BP execs and do little to enforce the human rights of the workers there.[1]

As a response, the U.N decided to sent administrators Jihad Joe and occipitallobe to Mimas and Iapetus to over see the colonies and to try and reassert UN authority over the increasingly renegade BP executives of the Saturn system. Col. SPERMCUBE.ORG was also dispatched to oversee the UN police garrisons of the sector.

Deteriorating Situation

Jihad Joe and occipitallobe arrived on February 23rd 2031. They quickly found that they had their work cut out for them. BP executives had become accustomed to having the Saturn system as their own personal fiefdoms and were reluctant to allow the UN greater authority. Only the main colony on Titan had had a UN overseer since the early days of its colonization, and so was more resistant to the rampant corruption the the Saturn system.

On March 22nd, amid another round of expansion in Iapetus, workers managed to smuggle missives and videos out of the sector. These showcased BP abuses, including private security forces bullying workers and poor living conditions. Worker morale was at an all time low, and rumblings about worker actions against BP began to emerge. BP officials in turn were determined to make sure no worker action occurred, fearing that an organized effort by workers would cut into their bottom line. By the end of the moth, the lines in the sand were drawn, and many were wondering when the powder keg would explode.

The April First Strikes

The situation in the Saturn system came to a head on April first. Following the U.N announcement that it would be annexing Earths moon, the abused workers in the system saw a chance to bring greater attention to their plight. On Mimas and Iapetus, hundreds of thousand of workers stopped working at their mining stations and began a massive sit in. Radical elements among the workers tried to sabotage mining equipment as well, but met with limited success, partially due to worker concerns over harming vital life support equipment.

BP, angered by this strike, called for U.N intervention to put down the strike. In an attempt to coerce the U.N leadership, BP officials shut down the Saturn mass drivers to halt the flow of goods back to Earth. However, this had the opposite effect on U.N leaders. Already frustrated by BP lack of cooperation and rampant abuses of workers, BP's flagrant attempt to try and force the hand of the UN was the last straw. In a unanimous vote, the U.N Executive Council voted to send a judicial force to the Saturn system to investigate BP's activities and to detain the executives an private security forces in the area. On Earth, officials began to comb over BP's financial records, as well as intercepted personal communications to begin gathering evidence against the wayward corporation.

Interestingly enough, Titan was largely unaffected by these series of conflicts, mostly due to the long standing U.N presence on the moon.

First Deaths and Investigations

While the courier boat carrying police forces to the Saturn system made its way across the solar system, the situation on Mimas rapidly deteriorated. On April 8th, 2031, a massive explosion tore through a habitation complex on Mimas. 249 workers were sucked out into the vacuum of space and died instantly and an additional 455 were hospitalized with a variety of injuries, most being either decompression sickness and hypoxia.

Both BP and the striking miners blamed each other for the explosion. BP claimed that radical elements among the workers were beginning an indiscriminate terrorist campaign to bring Mimas and the surrounding Saturn system to its knees. The miners claimed that BP security forces planted several bombs to harm morale and make the miners fear the company. The anger and suspicion both side had for each other intensified.

The next day, April 9th, saw another eruption of violence. The miners, still angered over the death of their colleges and suspicious of BP, attempted to storm the main branch office on Mimas. Arms with simple mining tool, the miners manged to breach the outer perimeter wall of the office and killed fourteen security contractors. However, the guards managed to disperse the miners with large amounts of tear gas and firing above their heads. After several hours of back and forth clashes, the miners were pushed back to the habitation complexes. Amazingly, no one was killed during the back and forth, although several injuries were reported on both sides.

Both sides began to fortify their portions of the Mimas complex and waited for the other to make a move.

On April 14th, 2031, the courier boat arrived on Titan. Some of the investigation group, along with some members of American's SWAT and Germany's GSG 9 boarded several small transports to Mimas and Iapetus, while the remaining group remained on Titan.

At 9:35 UTC (local evening on Titan), a group of Titan garrison MPs burst into the headquarters of BP's Saturn operations and declared that all BP operations were under a temporary injunction and that management from the mid-level up was under house arrest. Computers, documents, and personnel were seized and the investigation began in earnest.

Smaller scale stings took place at the local operations headquarters on Mimas and Iapetus. The welfare of the miners was placed under the temporary jurisdiction of the local UN administrators of each body.

On all three bodies, small pockets of PMCs resisted the cease-and-desist order on their operations, and in at least two cases a skirmish broke out between BP's PMCs and elements of the UN's Mimas garrison. Mimas's PMC commander ordered his subordinates to stand down, but one, a Mr. Lars Proen, refused, and retreated with a small group of soldiers to one of the habitation chambers, effectively taking the miners there hostage. He demanded to speak to the UN's representative, claiming that he had extremely valuable information.