"A u-union!?" shrieked Prynth, sounding horrified. "Now, now, let's not get too hasty about things-!"
But no matter what they sputtered and begged, the group of miners was unmoved. Not a single one broke the line, completely and totally united in this cause. Excellent, they had absorbed the hasty lessons I'd given them well, or at least the ones passed down from Lieutenant Nasir.
Said subordinate was at my side right now, looking slightly pleased. I recalled how they definitely weren't very happy about the state of things on Cavia for the people, definitely against the labor camps and horrid treatment; helping to setup my little surprise likely helped discharge some of their feelings on the matter. They certainly executed my task of explaining what a union was very well to the workers.
Yep. Workers union. I was going to go there to bend Prynth Mining Conglomerate over the barrel and make them play nice.
Oh dear, I accidentally must've smirked and given away something because Prynth swapped to me next and spoke in a furious tone. "Commander, did you plan for this all?! You understand that this is absurd and illegal!"
"Really? Unions are illegal?"
They paused, then slightly deflated. "Erm, well. Not exactly, but this is the type of subversion that could be considered corporate sabotage-!"
"Then go ahead. Make the complaint to the planetary administration about it." They froze and I resisted the urge to laugh.
Because it was my administration.
I even threw them a hint about what the official response would be. "Regarding Prynth Mining Conglomerate, we only urge for peaceful and fruitful negotiations-
"Negotiations?!"
"-between the owner of said enterprise and the workers union," I finished with a hum before glancing at an amused Erica. "You said it yourself that Harrison Armory would like to resume shipments as soon as possible. It's even the quickest sort of arrangement."
"That's right," she mentioned with a grin. "So hurry up, owner. Go and negotiate with your employees to end this strike."
"You can't be serious! This is extortion!" the mine owner protested, looking at their supposed ally. "Why are you siding with him and them!? This is clearly harming the interests of Harrison Armory-!"
"It harms the interest of the megacorp, for sure. But at the same time, is it what my soldiers and I are interested in?" Erica said aloud. "We're being paid to protect company property, which the mine definitely is. But publicly, Harrison Armory has engaged and reached agreement with multiple unions across Union. This should be no different."
"The employees are my assets, I paid for them-!"
"Are you confessing to slavery, suer?" I slowly asked, making sure to enunciate the possible confession. "Because you should understand that is a capital offense in Union especially. I'd actually be applauded if I turned you in after such an admittance in front of so many witnesses. Alongside a lengthy paper trail."
Their face paled and they choked before recovering some calm. "...Very well. Then I suppose I have no room but to enter...negotiations." They spat the word like it was poison, which made me want to roll my eyes.
The profits for the mining operation were surely more than enough to pay the workers a fair wage. Just that it was definitely a massive cost-cutting measure to spend less. I'd even argue that if they wanted total profit for little pay, they could have also used robots, only needing to maintain them with a few skilled experts.
But no. They just wanted their numbers to go up, and to do it in the sleaziest way possible because they wanted to be cheap. And even now, they were being an absolute miser.
I already knew what they were going to offer when they spoke to the silent labor union. Basic wages. Basic benefits. Basic breaks.
The bare minimum that legally was required by Union law. And it was telling that was a massive upgrade over prior conditions. "So?" Prynth irately asked after finishing the offer. "Will that do?"
The leader of the mining union shared a look with their people, then delivered their response. "No."
"Fine. Tell me your ideal is, and I suppose we'll haggle-"
"Our bare minimum is you gone. Who the hell would ever work under somebody like you ever again, after the way you treated us?"
I blinked in surprise while the mine owner choked. That...hadn't been part of the script I'd given Nasir. But my subordinate was looking an awful lot like a smug cat eating cream, like they'd planned for it.
Oh dear. I think they might've gone a little overboard.
"Me gone? Are you out of your minds?!" they laughed hysterically before gesturing to the smoking woman. "Right, well. You've heard their demand. I've made my attempt. Negotiations have broken down, so this is now something that Harrison Armory will need to step in for."
Erica's expression darkened and I realized what they were doing. Bastard was escalating, framing it as a worker's rebellion that refused to negotiate. Which meant that very unfortunately, as the workers glanced hopefully at me, I also needed to match.
Fuck me. Here we go.
"An attack on citizens of Cavia to force them to work against their will is a matter that would have my administration step in to defend them," I forcefully told. "Especially when theirs is a legal organization seeking recompense for fair working conditions. I would advise you to strongly reconsider employing striker breakers."
"Are you insane too?" they asked, amused at my warning. "You're going against a megacorp! You'd be crushed!"
"In a prolonged engagement, perhaps. Maybe I'll die," I casually said. "Maybe Harrison Armory would yield. But do you know who won't be around to see it?
"You."
A cold chill ran down their spine at my flat declaration. "A-are you threatening me? If anything were to happen-!"
"I'd already be enemies with Harrison Armory if you decided to order an attack regardless. Might as well get my money's worth. Plus, even if I didn't get you, your own bosses will."
"What…?"
"You'd cost them an asset protection team in a sector not flushed with them. That comes with consequences."
"Oh, so confident that you'll roll over me just like that?" Pride if nothing else compelled Erica to speak, eyes glaring right into me. "So confident you'll win against what I've got?"
"Yes, because I know your numbers. I know your equipment. I know what you have available to you." I matched her stare with one of my own. "The port records don't lie, and neither does your mech."
Veronica had come through with the port records, which showed that the Harrison Armory team had been dropped off barely days before we arrived to invade the system. The ship that brought them here immediately then took back off, likely already on another job. Which meant that Erica's forces were isolated and cut-off from anybody else, with no way to get off planet in case things turned hostile.
No wonder why she and the others had been offered a bonus if they somehow got out of this alive. It was hazard pay.
Of course, the moment she moved against me and I went against her, then all bets were off. But I still called her bluff, holding my gaze with hers. Even as she plucked the cigarette from her lips to exhale a new cloud of smoke I maintained my posture, not backing down.
Then she spoke behind that veil of haze. "You got me. Prynth. Consider either resignation or selling out."
They looked shaken. "You can't be serious-!"
"If you were to order my team to our deaths, we'd do this the dirty way that Harrison Armory would never know about," she casually promised. "What the commander and the union are offering is the moral high ground. You've already become a liability for the company the moment you admitted to having worked closely with House Hessin and treated your workers so poorly that a union formed.
"If the movement here on Cavia catches on and grabs the attention of other mining unions, then they could see an opportunity to strike as well, causing more headaches for the bosses down the line." She gave a flippant gesture. "Meaning that the company's position now is that you are the weak point that won't give."
"But you need me! You need the resources from me-!'
"Wrong. We need the resources from the mines- so long as they continue to flow, anything else doesn't matter. Including the ownership." Erica did look at the union and addressed their leader. "You don't have anything against working for Harrison Armory, right?"
"Not at all," he gruffly told. "If they let us manage ourselves and pay us fairly."
"With how much we were paying Prynth, you should be able to distribute that among yourselves if you become self-owned. Can't say that we'll be providing benefits though, you'd be contractors of a sort."
"That's fine," I interrupted briefly. "Taxes will handle state benefits. So the union can own the mine, work and sell what they make, then pay the administration for whatever else they need or go to the private sector of it."
"Heh." Erica worked a smile around her smoke. "You've got it all figured out, huh?"
Well, mostly. I ad-libbed that escalation, but definitely was glad my NHP had investigated what I asked her to. And honestly, helping to manage the union benefits also gave me a way to control them and ensure they remained an organization strictly focused on what they had been founded to do. So if one of them starts getting a bit uppity to start something a bit more drastic, I had cards to play against them myself.
But otherwise, so long as they maintained that they just wanted fair pay for fair work and paid their taxes? Then no reason to not leave them be.
I'll even consider offering some state grants if it improved their yield. Well, after I found an alternate source of materials, that was.
"What you haven't figured out is me!"
Ah. Right. Guess they still somehow thought that there was a way they could get out of this predicament.
Thankfully, I didn't have to be the one to explain that there was no mystical way for them to win in this somehow. "Prynth. Sell the company to the union," Erica told in a more frustrated and insistent tone. "It's the most you're going to get out of this."
"B-but they don't have the money-!"
"Then we'll loan it to them. It'll be a thing they can pay back."
"My...my family's legacy-"
"Your family's legacy on this world is working with a regime that arrested critics and enslaved artists," I growled loudly, thoroughly fed up with this. I rose up and towered over them, putting every bit of my officer dress-down lessons into the act. The last vestiges of their defiance curled up and shriveled away beneath my glare. "We are offering you one last paycheck, then you can fuck off to the Metropolitans if you want.
"Or we could drag you to them in chains, either Union's or Harrison Armory's. Which one would you prefer?"
Whimpering, there was no further pushback. And so the Prynth Mining Conglomerate died that day, replaced by the Prynth Mining Union.
They kept the fucker's name in 'remembrance of their struggles.' Whatever floats their boat, I guess.
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"Commander, if I might be so blunt, that was a fantastic negotiation!" Nasir gushed once the deal was all signed and done, dropping professional discipline for the moment. "We not only drove out a potential source of trouble, we also managed to give power to the people just a little bit! Did you see how over the moon they were, now joint owners of their own venture!"
"Yes, it was very touching. And perhaps a little inspiring," I admitted with a small quirk of the lips. Especially when the miners went up to me directly and profusely shook my hands, telling me that they wouldn't forget how I helped them finally pin their old boss to the wall. I sincerely hoped that they would carry that enthusiasm over into helping to forge the new government to come, I can't imagine them not sending a representative.
However, just because something ended well didn't meant that there wasn't future trouble ahead of us. I lightly coughed and the lieutenant caught the hint, straightening up and resuming a more appropriate bearing. "That being said, I'll admit I had been caught quite off guard regarding the bid to completely oust the former owner."
"O-oh! That was actually a rather spur of the moment addition that one of them suggested," they sheepishly revealed. "Only minutes before you called us in, while we were hashing out what to lay out, there'd been a question of why they even wanted to keep working under them. After all, it's not like they're forced to anymore."
"No, they aren't, they could chose another profession now. Yet they still committed and doubled down even." I thought for a moment. "I suppose though that since it was what they knew best, it was simply what would pay the best for them."
"That's what they said too; if they were so good, why not just take over the business entirely?" Nasir coughed. "And erm. I'll admit that it snowballed from there and I got caught up in the enthusiasm. I have no other excuses sir."
"It was an unexpected development, but not one that we couldn't handle." Really, if anything, it at least confirmed to me that the people of Cavia still had the spirit for self-determination. Which hopefully meant they'd voice a protest if Union were to take me away in chains for crimes I hadn't committed. "Well done anyway. Though do keep an eye on them, and make sure that they're making those loan repayments to Harrison Armory. We'll waive the taxes until they've made significant progress on that."
"Yes sir. Speaking of which, regarding Harrison Armory…"
I grimaced and nodded. "Right. Erica will likely report to them what's happened and then wash her hands of the matter. Then it'll be up to the higher-ups to take action, if any, and I can't imagine they'd take our action without some mild annoyance."
We just forced one of their subsidiary suppliers to swap from an egomaniac that could just be bribed with a lot of money, to a union who probably wanted to have certain conditions regarding their employment and self-ownership. So long as the necessary materials kept flowing they'd probably hardly care, but if metrics got bad or worse under this new management, then they could easily pin it on this union uprising that didn't feature direct blessing from an executive. And there was no way they'd hold a security team captain accountable when they stuck her in the difficult situation in the first place.
So more than likely, they'd go for the union instead if it was possible. Or me, the one who covertly backed its founding. It wouldn't be overt mind you, as Harrison Armory does play the line of 'wanting to help maintain the peace' that Union touts, but through the back channels, anything was possible. Such as maybe hiring a team of Lancers to hunt me for my actions. Lovely.
Eh, well. Maybe not them, given how Lancers were supposed to be the good guys. And union busting was probably a very weird sort of story to spring on players, unless the group was like that. Then well, I was just screwed either way.
For the moment though, it was a good enough fix that ensured that Cavia wasn't going to end up being burned by a Genghis, so I'll take that victory. Alongside that, there were some other triumphs that helped buoy my mood.
Major Rowles' seizures were completed and she reported having no other issues with those, no other significant resistance or standoffs as she went around nationalizing businesses that had deep ties with House Hessin. The total sum of it came out to be a good chunk of the hydroponics facilities alongside the manufacturing plants- we were now in control of the majority of all workplaces in Cavia.
There still were smaller businesses and the like, and the distribution fronts remained mostly untouched. But otherwise, I guess I now had quite the socialist wet dream where the state owned the means of production. Then they'd probably get their pants in another twist when they learned of the union-owned mines.
But really, I think I wanted to also offload a good portion of these assets to another group, because no way should the government own everything. I could see the argument that it was for the greater good of society, without things like hungry venture capitalists getting involved, but those same capitalists could also be the ones who propelled an entire economy forward at the same time. So a good balance had to be struck.
Hm, let's see. Food was something vital as everybody needed it, so it was probably better in my hands than not. But I didn't have the farmers to tend to the crops, even if they were grown inside artificial settings instead of the real ground. My engineers just didn't have that expertise. They instead could handle manufacturing much easier, which was tempting, but not totally necessary for my forces either what with us having printers. Plus, it was rather pointless when we haven't even the raw resources to feed them all with.
Then Veronica pinged me with a shrill call, informing me of an incoming message. It was from Captain Feng. "Commander. My scans of Cavia II are complete. You might want to see this."