----- 26 Years After Directive 41 Removed Restrictions on Exploitation of the Periphery -----
Date: 2748
Location: Iron Land
Title: Iron Land Wildcatters
Author: Eric Salzman
Type: Sourcebook (BattleCorps Unit Digest)
Synopsis: This Unit Digest profiles an insurgent group on the Rim Worlds Republic world of Iron Land. In the quarter century since Directive 41 removed the restrictions on commercial exploitation of the Periphery by Inner Sphere corporations, Commonwealth Mining has turned the mineral-rich planet into its private corporate fiefdom (starting in 2737). A revolt organized by the Iron Land Miners' Guild in 2743 was crushed by House Amaris' AsRoc, but a second one in 2747 is still going strong.
The digest details the group's armed WorkMechs, scouts, technical support crew, and offworld "technical advisors." As befits scrappy insurgents on a mining colony, they have Dig King MiningMechs and Copper SecurityMechs, along with Buster HaulerMechs, Corx Mobile Tunnel Miners, jeeps, and skimmers. With this equipment, they raid Commonwealth Mining facilities and scout for untapped germanium lodes they can mine and sell to offworld smugglers in exchange for supplies and weapons. The Wildcatters' latest supply of weaponry came with technical advisers of mysterious origin - apparently from the Rasalhagian underground, given their use of Swedenese - who offer training in the use of heavier weaponry soon to come.
While most of the Rimmers are fighting for justice or revenge, the offworld advisers have their own agenda. They're actually an undercover ISF team assigned to covertly assist the Iron Land insurgents with the goal of driving Commonwealth Mining off the planet - not to restore the local mining industry, but to clear the way for the Combine's Metals of the Earth to move in and begin strip mining the whole world.
Notes: I had a number of goals when I composed this Unit Profile. First, I wanted to elaborate on the sort of corporate abuses perpetrated against the Periphery that ultimately led to so many joining the anti-League uprisings. I knew Commonwealth Mining had been a major firm during the Star League era, but went bankrupt during the Succession Wars. It seemed natural to have a Lyran firm (given their reputations for corporate rapaciousness) petition to have the League council to declare that the Iron Land germanium deposits were a "vital League resources" being "inefficiently" exploited by the native miners, and to grant exclusive mineral rights to Commonwealth Mining (which, of course, had dropped substantial bribes on the necessary League officials to ensure such a result). Having a League corporation move in and tell all the native firms they are now squatters on their own lands, and that they must either vacate or pay hefty licensing fees to CM for the privilege of continuing to eke out a marginal living under crushing taxes, would be the sort of thing to trigger uprisings.
I also wanted to tie this into one of the other major events going on at this point - the Third Hidden War, in which League member states equipped/trained bandit forces or used false-flagged elements of their own military (up to and including WarShips) to deniably strike at each other's economic interests. Having the Rimmer insurgency get co-opted into Third Hidden War maneuvering between the Combine and the Commonwealth seemed to me to perfectly fit into such a narrative. Metals of the Earth's involvement also helps explain why Iron Land vanished during the Succession Wars. Metals of the Earth is known for having depleted entire worlds in the Combine through deep core mining, leaving economically ruined husks whose primary use is as training grounds for DCMS troops. With inside knowledge of the insurgents, they could immediately wipe them out and set about reaping the world's riches for the glory of the Coordinator.
A Guide to Covert Ops' writeup on Mimir implied that Rasalhagian underground had continued to exist and to struggle (ineffectually) for Rasalhagian independence since the Combine annexed the Principality of Rasalhague. If they're still active during the Star League, they'd have the skills, experience, and networks to smuggle weapons, and would be a logical buyer for black-market germanium. Thus, they also make a plausible cover for the ISF.
I also wanted to get AsRoc involved to explain how House Amaris had kept their sector quiet while the rest of the Periphery had highly visible anti-League protest and insurgent movements. In my backnotes, I had it down that when AsRoc rounded up the Iron Land Miners' Guild leadership in 2743, they didn't kill or imprison them, but instead incorporated them into whatever form of "secret army" may have existed at the time, being unwilling to let them run loose and draw League attention, but also being unwilling to waste a cadre of citizens with leadership skills and a fighting rage against the League. In my personal "what happened next" narrative, AsRoc swoops in and stops the Wildcatters as they're on the verge of sabotaging seismic stabilizers to drop Commonwealth Mining's headquarters dome into a crater. Like their predecessors in the Mining Guild, the Wildcatters (minus the swiftly spaced ISF team) are inducted into the secret army. To my mind, Amaris keeps his sector quiet during the buildup by having AsRoc sweep up insurgents and giving them a...more productive...outlet for their grievances.
Finally, I wanted to showcase the kind of support vehicles that would be used by insurgents. I incorporated a whole raft of rarely seen designs (many from Technical Readout: Vehicle Annex), but alas, few if any had Catalyst-produced record sheets, so much of that detail was cut. The MechWarrior 1st Edition RPG featured mining robots that had a movement of 5/8 and a bank of ten Small Lasers, which seemed like an appropriate item with which to equip the miners. Likewise, the Corx Mobile Tunnel Miner, MiningMechs (the Dig King mentioned as the Dig Lord's predecessor), and Coppers salvaged from CM security forces. For the scouts, I thought the Skimmer (from MW1E and FASA's Record Sheets Volume 5 - Vehicles) would be perfect - essentially a faster (18/27) Savannah Master that skimps on the armor, but adds a rear-mounted flamer to complement the forward small laser.